China's Intellectuals: Advise and Dissent

Fascinating...Goldman does a superb job of unraveling the tangled skein of political intrigue to show how ostensibly academic discussions among writers, philosophers, and his-torians actually have been political debates on the question, Whither China?...Goldman's book will undoubtedly find the wide audience it deserves as a first-class treatment of a complex and important subject. (New Republic)

An engrossing and powerfully documented analysis of the difficulties and dangers that Chinese writers experienced when they attempted to challenge Communist party orthodoxies. (New York Review of Books)

As tightly organized, as clearly presented and as carefully documented a history of the country's slide into the Cultural Revolution as we are likely ever to read. (Asian Wall Street Journal)

A highly valuable book...Her book touches issues of general and even universal concern. It deserves to be read by a wide audience. (American Historical Review)

About the Author

Merle Goldman is Professor of History, Emerita, at Boston University and Associate of the John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University.