From Marx And Mao To The Market

"This book is the first effort to analyze the economics and politics of agricultural reforms by comparing the reform processes, their causes and their effects across this vast region. The authors draw on a vast set of studies and new data, which compare reforms and economic impacts in more than 25 countries. A series of conclusions and implications on the role of economic reforms in growth, and the importance of initial conditions and political constraints in explaining the choices that were made and their effects are discussed throughout the book."--BOOK JACKET.

Praise for MAO, MARX & THE MARKET "This is a gripping tale from start to finish, an extraordinary adventure told by a brilliant and idealistic businessman confronted by political disloyalty and chicanery on an epic scale. LeBaron tells his story with a punch, but his basic instincts of morality and decency shine throughout." --Peter L. Bernstein, President, Peter L. Bernstein, Inc., author of The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession "An insight-packed thriller summarizing a brilliant contrarian investor s adventures in the two great dramas of our era Russia and China; chock-full of pithy lessons relevant for investors and observers alike." --Graham Allison, Director, Robert and Renee Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University "Dean LeBaron s book on his adventures in Russia and China is a fun read. I recommend it to anyone taking their first or second or third visit to either country for business or pleasure. LeBaron brings out the personal warmth of these countries in terms of their individuals, as well as the obvious complexities of dealing with them." --David Gill, Board Member of several companies involved with Russia, Retired International Finance Corporation Official "This is the fascinating story of Dean LeBaron in his quest to participate right from the start in the opening of China and Russia following the demise of their socialist/ communist regimes. It is the best account of what happened in the emerging market world in the nineties." --Marc Faber, Editor, The Gloom Boom & Doom Report,Managing Director, Marc Faber Limited "Adventure capitalist Dean LeBaron is the Indiana Jones of finance. Follow his escapades in emerging markets and get an insider s view of the birth of capitalism in Russia and China. You ll be amused, entertained, and instructed. Mao, Marx & the Market provides a fascinating insider s view of the creation of market economies with all their attendant travails. A must read." --Bill Miller, CFA, Chief Executive Officer, Legg Mason Funds Management, Inc.

From the Back Cover: A nonpolemical examination of the three giants of Marxism-a movement that has spread in only sixty years to encompass one-third of the world, yet is little understood by most Americans. Dr. Gurley, former managing editor of the American Economic Review and vice president of the American Economic Association, provides perhaps the clearest summary of dialectical materialism ever published. In a penetrating analysis, he relates Marx the theoretician, Lenin the revolutionary, and Mao the society builder to each other in terms of the development of Marxian thought and the historical forces stemming from it. At a time when millions of Americans are wondering about the long-term future of world capitalism, Dr. Gurley offers his own thoughtful and provocative predictions.

For radicals in Europe and North America, the anti-imperialist—and Chinese—revolutions continued the great task of 1789, 1848, and 1870, the “bourgeois revolution” in Marx’s terms, and the creation of nations that would release the energies and unity of purpose to create new worlds of prosperity and freedom. The nationalist focus led to an emphasis on autarkic development—the nation, it was said, already possessed within its own boundaries all the requirements and resources to match the accomplishments of global civilization. The overthrow of empire in the 1950s and 1960s—of which the coming to power of the Chinese Communist party in 1949 was a important part—seemed to augur a new era in world history, one in which the majority of the world’s population secured liberation. There was perhaps a sense in which this was true, but the reality for the majority was far removed from this giddy hope. And in the case of the ordinary Chinese, the newly “liberated” regime proved far more brutal and exacting than those that it had replaced (which also attained high standards of brutality and injustice). In China the great famine of 1958–62 was only the most spectacularly cruel and gratuitous product of that new order. For the former inhabitants of the old empires, national liberation turned out to be not liberation of all, but the creation of a new national ruling class, as often as not exploiting its position at home to make fortunes then smuggled abroad.

Brilliant and original, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers introduces a remarkable new writer whose breathtaking stories are set in China and among Chinese Americans in the United States. In this rich, astonishing collection, Yiyun Li illuminates how mythology, politics, history, and culture intersect with personality to create fate. From the bustling heart of Beijing, to a fast-food restaurant in Chicago, to the barren expanse of Inner Mongolia, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers reveals worlds both foreign and familiar, with heartbreaking honesty and in beautiful prose. “Immortality,” winner of The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize for new writers, tells the story of a young man who bears a striking resemblance to a dictator and so finds a calling to immortality. In “The Princess of Nebraska,” a man and a woman who were both in love with a young actor in China meet again in America and try to reconcile the lost love with their new lives. “After a Life” illuminates the vagaries of marriage, parenthood, and gender, unfolding the story of a couple who keep a daughter hidden from the world. And in “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers,” in which a man visits America for the first time to see his recently divorced daughter, only to discover that all is not as it seems, Li boldly explores the effects of communism on language, faith, and an entire people, underlining transformation in its many meanings and incarnations. These and other daring stories form a mesmerizing tapestry of revelatory fiction by an unforgettable writer.

How China Became Capitalist details the extraordinary, and often unanticipated, journey that China has taken over the past thirty five years in transforming itself from a closed agrarian socialist economy to an indomitable economic force in the international arena. The authors revitalise the debate around the rise of the Chinese economy through the use of primary sources, persuasively arguing that the reforms implemented by the Chinese leaders did not represent a concerted attempt to create a capitalist economy, and that it was 'marginal revolutions' that introduced the market and entrepreneurship back to China. Lessons from the West were guided by the traditional Chinese principle of 'seeking truth from facts'. By turning to capitalism, China re-embraced her own cultural roots. How China Became Capitalist challenges received wisdom about the future of the Chinese economy, warning that while China has enormous potential for further growth, the future is clouded by the government's monopoly of ideas and power. Coase and Wang argue that the development of a market for ideas which has a long and revered tradition in China would be integral in bringing about the Chinese dream of social harmony.