Lucien Bianco's Books

Stalin and Mao

A Comparison of the Russian and Chinese Revolutions

By: Lucien Bianco

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Stalin and Mao

A Comparison of the Russian and Chinese Revolutions

By: Lucien Bianco

China's ascent to the ranks of the world's second largest economic power has given its revolution a better image than that of its Russian counterpart. Yet the two have a great deal in common. Indeed, the Chinese revolution was a carbon copy of its predecessor, until Mao became aware, not so much of the failures of the Russian model, but of its inability to adapt to an overcrowded third-world country. Yet, instead of correcting that model, Mao decided to go further and faster in the same direction. The aftershock of an earthquake may be weaker, but the Great Leap Forward of 1958 in China was far more destructive than the Great Turn of 1929 in the Soviet Union. It was conceived with an idealistic end but failed to take all the possibilities into account. China's development only took off after--and thanks to--Mao's death, once the country turned its back on the revolution. Lucien Bianco's original comparative study highlights the similarities: the all-powerful bureaucracy; the over-exploitation of the peasantry, which triggered two of the worst famines of the 20th century; control over writers and artists; repression and labor camps. The comparison of Stalin and Mao that completes the picture, leads the author straight back to Lenin and he quotes the observation by a Chinese historian that, "If at all possible, it is best to avoid revolutions altogether.

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Page Count

476

Publisher

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

9882370659

ISBN 13

9789882370654

Peasants without the Party

Grassroots Movements in Twentieth Century China

By: Lucien Bianco

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Peasants without the Party

Grassroots Movements in Twentieth Century China

By: Lucien Bianco

Exploring one of the most dynamic and contested regions of the world, this series includes works on political, economic, cultural, and social changes in modern and contemporary Asia and the Pacific. The leading specialist on China's twentieth century peasant resistance reexamines, in bold and original ways, the question: Was the Chinese peasantry a revolutionary force? Where most scholarly attention has focused on Communist-led peasant movements, Bianco's story is one of peasant thought and action largely unmediated by modern political parties. This volume pays particular attention to the first half of the twentieth century when peasant-based conflict, ranging from tax and food protests to secret society conflicts, opium struggles, inter-communal conflicts, and tenant protests over rent, was central to nationwide revolutionary processes.

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Page Count

340

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317463102

ISBN 13

9781317463108

Wretched Rebels

Rural Disturbances on the Eve of the Chinese Revolution

By: Lucien Bianco

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Wretched Rebels

Rural Disturbances on the Eve of the Chinese Revolution

By: Lucien Bianco

This book, a condensed translation of the prize-winning Jacqueries et révolution dans la Chine du XXe siècle, focuses on “spontaneous” rural unrest, uninfluenced by revolutionary intellectuals. Yet it raises issues inspired by the perennial concerns of revolutionary leaders, such as peasant “class consciousness” and China’s modernization. The author shows that the predominant forms of protest were directed not against the landowning class but against agents of the state. Foremost among them, resistance to taxation had little to do with class struggle. By contrast, protest by poor agricultural laborers and heavily indebted households was extremely rare. Other forms of social protest were reactions less to social exploitation than to oppression by local powerholders. Peasant resistance to the late Qing “new policy” reforms did indeed impede China’s modernization. Decades later, peasant efforts to evade conscription, while motivated by abuses and inequities, weakened the anti-Japanese resistance. The concluding chapter stresses persistent features of rural protest. It suggests that twentieth-century Chinese peasants were less different from seventeenth- or eighteenth-century French peasants than might be imagined and points to continuities between pre- and post-1949 rural protest.

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Page Count

302

Publisher

BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

1684174961

ISBN 13

9781684174966

Murder in the Vatican

The CIA and the Bolshevik Pontiff

By: Lucien Gregoire

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Murder in the Vatican

The CIA and the Bolshevik Pontiff

By: Lucien Gregoire

A monumental work of twentieth century capitalism as it was jointly embraced by the Vatican and the United States and those caught up in it. Top-shelf CIA-Vatican intrigue." T. Francis Elliott, London Times._____ Driven by Paul VI's edicts 'Populorum Progressio' and 'Liberation Theology,' there were two fronts on which the CIA was confronted by communism as a democratic society-Italy and Central America. If Italy fell to communism, all of Europe would surely follow. If Central America fell to communism, all of Latin America would surely follow. It was in these parts of the world communism was raising its head as the will of the people that was so dangerous to the United States and its capitalistic allies. Henry Kissinger sounded the alarm, "Domination by Moscow is not the issue. Communist control of Italy and Central America is the issue. It would have terrible consequences for the United States and it is the number one threat to its national security." On the afternoon of March 13, 1978, fifteen men sat around a table in a sidewalk cafeacute; in a remote mountain village in northern Italy. In casual clothes, they went unnoticed, though one was the reigning Pontiff, and another Aldo Moro, and the others ranking cardinals of poverty stricken countries who comprised the leadership of the Marxist movement in the Church and the western world. They left at four o'clock. Aldo reserved the table "for this time next year." On March 13, 1979, Cardinals Benelli and Felici decided not to travel to Vittorio Veneto that day. After all, all the others were dead. They, themselves, unaware of their impending doom, were, too, as good as dead. _____ "One beautiful life...explodes into a trail of death and destruction in the Roman Catholic Church." Howard Jason Smith, Boston Globe.

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