Synopses & Reviews
Review
andldquo;Upending familiar assumptions about the origins and consequences of the global Green Revolution, Schmalzer breaks important new ground in our understanding of modern Chinese history and the role of science in industrial agriculture. Rather than relying on misleading distinctions between modern and traditional, laboratory and field, politics and science, or even between the capitalist West and socialist East, Schmalzer convincingly draws our attention to the diversity of approaches taken in the effort to revolutionize Chinese agriculture in the 1960s and 1970s. This is a sophisticated political history from the ground up.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Writing with both elegance and precision, Schmalzer unveils the continuing imbrication of science and politics, not simply in the obviously hyperpolitical Maoist period, but also in the supposedly technologically driven Dengist era. She produces a nuanced, sophisticated description of agricultural scientific practices in the Peopleandrsquo;s Republic of China, one that challenges our assumptions about both Maoist agriculture and the Maoist period in general.andnbsp;Red Revolution, Green Revolutionandnbsp;is a must-read for historians of modern China and historians of socialism, as well as historians of science and agriculture.andrdquo;
Synopsis
In 1968, the director of USAID coined the term andquot;green revolutionandquot; to celebrate the new technological solutions that promised to ease hunger and so forestall the spread of more andquot;red revolutionsandquot; around the globe. Yet in China green and red revolutions proceeded side by side. In this book Sigrid Schmalzer explores Chinaand#39;s unique intersection of red and green revolutions through the experiences of scientists, peasants, state agents, and andquot;educated youth.andquot; The history of what in China was called andquot;scientific farmingandquot; offers a unique opportunity not only to explore the environmental and social consequences of modern agricultural technologies but also to develop a critique of the fundamental assumptions about science and society that undergirded the green revolution. Because its environmental and human costs have been felt as strongly in China as anywhere on the planet, Red Revolution, Green Revolution is a book with clear significance for pressing political and environmental issues China, the United States, and other nations now face
Synopsis
In 1968, the director of USAID coined the term "green revolution" to celebrate the new technological solutions that promised to ease hunger around the world--and forestall the spread of more "red," or socialist, revolutions. Yet in China, where modernization and scientific progress could not be divorced from politics, green and red revolutions proceeded side by side.
In Red Revolution, Green Revolution, Sigrid Schmalzer explores the intersection of politics and agriculture in socialist China through the diverse experiences of scientists, peasants, state agents, and "educated youth." The environmental costs of chemical-intensive agriculture and the human costs of emphasizing increasing production over equitable distribution of food and labor have been felt as strongly in China as anywhere--and yet, as Schmalzer shows, Mao-era challenges to technocracy laid important groundwork for today's sustainability and food justice movements. This history of "scientific farming" in China offers us a unique opportunity not only to explore the consequences of modern agricultural technologies but also to engage in a necessary rethinking of fundamental assumptions about science and society.
About the Author
Sigrid Schmalzer is associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the author of The Peopleandrsquo;s Peking Man, also published by the University of Chicago Press, and coeditor of Visualizing Modern China.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction
1and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Agricultural Science and the Socialist State
2and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Pu Zhelong: Making Socialist Science Work
3and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Yuan Longping: andldquo;Intellectual Peasantandrdquo;
4and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Chinese Peasants: andldquo;Experienceandrdquo; and andldquo;Backwardnessandrdquo;
5and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Seeing Like a State Agent
6and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Lei Feng Paradox
7and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Opportunity and Failure
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Sources
Index