Revealing insights into the current Chinese state, suggesting that it’s less juggernaut than paper tiger.
A somber story of the quashing of nascent Chinese democracy by the neo-Stalinism of Xi Jinping.
Political scientist Pei opens at the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in October 2022, when Xi Jinping’s predecessor as the party’s general secretary, Hu Jintao, was forced from the stage. The moment was emblematic of Xi’s revival of “the central elements of totalitarianism: personalistic rule, a cult of personality, permanent purges, stifling social control, ideological indoctrination, and an aggressive foreign policy.” This restoration also undid decades of reform begun in the late 1970s following the death of Mao Zedong, remaking the Chinese economy through relatively free enterprise and foreign investment. This in turn stimulated the global trade that in time built a thriving economy. It also sparked what was called “culture fever,” which allowed a liberalization of the press, literature, film and television, and other media. The Tiananmen Square demonstrations of May-June 1989 closed this window, and Deng Xiaoping, the leader who had been so enthusiastic to see these reforms through, instead allowed the conservatives within the faction-riven party greater power. Even so, as Pei notes, globalization continued, with China offering itself up as a source of “ultra-cheap labor.” Xi’s reversals came about under several guises, including a so-called anticorruption campaign aimed at liberalizing elements in the government and other means to “almost single-handedly dismantle the post-Tiananmen order.” The author predicts that the outcome will not be positive: China is increasingly isolated on the world stage, the economy is stagnating, entrepreneurship is in sharp decline, and Xi’s concentration of power almost guarantees a power struggle after he is gone. Moreover, Pei adds, Xi’s new cold war means that “an economically prosperous and politically liberal and open China” will elude the Chinese people for years to come.
Revealing insights into the current Chinese state, suggesting that it’s less juggernaut than paper tiger.Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9780691223339
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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