New from Cambridge University Press:
The Cultural Revolution on Trial: Mao and the Gang of Four (November 2016), by Alexander C. Cook (Stanford University). A description from the Press:
The trial of Cultural Revolution leaders, including Mao's widow and her
Gang of Four, was the signal event in China's post-Mao transition. In
its wake, Chinese socialism emerged from the rubble of the Cultural
Revolution to create the China that we know today. This spectacular show
trial was a curious example of transitional justice, marking a break
from the trauma of the past, a shift to the present era of reform, and a
blueprint for building a better future. In this groundbreaking
reconstruction of the most famous trial in Chinese history, Alex Cook
shows how the event laid the cornerstone for a new model of socialist
justice; at the same time, a comparison of official political and legal
sources with works of popular literature reveals the conflicted cultural
dimensions of this justice. The result, Cook argues, saved Chinese
socialism as ruling ideology, but at the cost of its revolutionary soul.
Advance praise:
"This book is an excellent exploration of the cultural politics of
post-Mao China as well as an important contribution to the study of the
global unfolding of legal modernity. Drawing on an exceptionally
wide-ranging archive, Cook analyzes the contradictions between legality
and humanity at a critical point in China's transition." --Teemu Ruskola
More information is available
here.
