Brief Description
At once a history of policing in China, as well as a political history of "the nation" in the 20th century.
Learn More about the Book
Beginning with the bloody communist purges of the Jiangxi era of the late 1920s and early 1930s and moving forward to the wild excesses of the Cultural Revolution, Policing Chinese Politics explores the question of revolutionary violence and the political passion that propels it. Who are our enemies, who are our friends, that is a question germane to the revolution, wrote Mao Zedong in 1926. Michael Dutton shows just how powerful this one line was to become. It would establish the binary division of life in revolutionary China and lead to both passionate commitment and revolutionary excess. The political history of revolutionary China, he argues, is largely framed by the attempts of Mao and the Party to harness these passions.
The economic reform period that followed Mao Zedong s rule contained a hint as to how the magic spell of political faith and commitment could be broken, but the cost of such disenchantment was considerable. This detailed, empirical tale of Chinese socialist policing is, therefore, more than simply a police story. It is a parable that offers a cogent analysis of Chinese politics generally while radically redrafting our understanding of what politics is all about. Breaking away from the traditional elite modes of political analysis that focus on personalities, factions, and betrayals, and from rational accounts of politics and government, Dutton provides a highly original understanding of the far-reaching consequences of acts of faith and commitment in the realm of politics."
On the Back Cover
"Eric Hobsbawm, with some irony and much love for the history profession, once remarked that 'theoreticians of all kinds circle around the peaceful herds of historians as they graze on their rich pastures of primary sources.' He endorsed the encircling of those pastures. Michael Dutton is one of those social science theoreticians who graze on the same rich fields, but at the same time he takes Asian studies and history into new and fascinating areas."--Borge Bakken, author of "The Exemplary Society: Human Improvement, Social Control, and the Dangers of Modernity in China "
Review Quotes
1. "[A] comprehensively-documented book that pushes us to reconsider the basis of politics in twentieth-century China."
--Lisa Fischler, "Canadian Journal of History"
2. "[A]s a history of Chinese policing this book is a remarkable achievement and should be required reading on the subject for many years."
--Gregor Benton, "Pacific Affairs"
3. "This is an excellent and stimulating study that takes a fresh look at the history of Communist politics and offers new illuminating explanations."
--Klaus Muhlhahn, "The China Journal"
4. "The result is a well-written, provocative, and informative history of Chinese communist policing from its roots in 1927 through the 1990s. Dutton does not simply relate the story of policing: he links it to the story of what he calls 'the political.'"
--Harold M. Tanner, "American Historical Review"
5. "The theoretical framework of this story of Chinese Policing is extremely solid. The empirical exploration of the antinomy 'amicus'--'hostis' through the anlaysis of the content provided by the Ministry of Public Security is carefully defined and manageable, and the analytical rigour is remarkable."
--Marizio Marinelli, "History"
6. “Eric Hobsbawm, with some irony and much love for the history profession, once remarked that ‘theoreticians of all kinds circle around the peaceful herds of historians as they graze on their rich pastures of primary sources.’ He endorsed the encircling of those pastures. Michael Dutton is one of those social science theoreticians who graze on the same rich fields, but at the same time he takes Asian studies and history into new and fascinating areas.”—Børge Bakken, author of "The Exemplary Society: Human Improvement, Social Control, and the Dangers of Modernity in China "
7. “Michael Dutton’s "Policing Chinese Politics "is a work of deeply committed political scholarship. It will be of great interest to scholars of Chinese politics and to historians and critics of the socialist movement.”—Piers Beirne, Department of Criminology, University of Southern Maine
8. "Michael Dutton's "Policing Chinese Politics "is a work of deeply committed political scholarship. It will be of great interest to scholars of Chinese politics and to historians and critics of the socialist movement."--Piers Beirne, Department of Criminology, University of Southern Maine
9. Eric Hobsbawm, with some irony and much love for the history profession, once remarked that theoreticians of all kinds circle around the peaceful herds of historians as they graze on their rich pastures of primary sources. He endorsed the encircling of those pastures. Michael Dutton is one of those social science theoreticians who graze on the same rich fields, but at the same time he takes Asian studies and history into new and fascinating areas. Borge Bakken, author of The Exemplary Society: Human Improvement, Social Control, and the Dangers of Modernity in China "
10. Michael Dutton s Policing Chinese Politics is a work of deeply committed political scholarship. It will be of great interest to scholars of Chinese politics and to historians and critics of the socialist movement. Piers Beirne, Department of Criminology, University of Southern Maine"
