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Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Civil War

Second Edition

Christopher R. Lew and Edwin Pak-wah Leung

The Chinese Civil War, which lasted several years or several decades, depending on how you define it, was one of the most momentous wars of the 20^th century for it determined the fate of the world’s most populous country, and was bitterly fought with millions of combatants involved and hundreds of millions of civilians affected. More to the point, it was won by the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong, who imposed Communist rule, while the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan. It also heated up the Cold War for quite some time, as the Communists were supported by the Soviet Union and the Nationalists by the United States.

This second edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Civil War studies the longer, broader war and its chronology carefully tracks the major events. The introduction then provides a broad overview, describing the contending forces, and showing how the Communists come out on top. The details, and these are crucial, are laid out in over 200 cross-referenced dictionary entries dealing with the opposing forces and parties, the major campaigns and battles, the Long March, and of course the leadership on both sides. This book, one of few such in English, provides a very solid basis for study, but that can be accomplished more effectively by consulting the titles listed in an extensive bibliography.

Scarecrow Press

Pages: 336 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-0-8108-7873-0 • Hardback • July 2013 • $166.00 • (£129.00)

978-0-8108-7874-7 • eBook • July 2013 • $157.50 • (£121.00)

Series: Historical Dictionaries of War, Revolution, and Civil Unrest

Subjects: History / Asia / China

Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Civil War

Second Edition

Hardback

eBook

Summary

The Chinese Civil War, which lasted several years or several decades, depending on how you define it, was one of the most momentous wars of the 20^th century for it determined the fate of the world’s most populous country, and was bitterly fought with millions of combatants involved and hundreds of millions of civilians affected. More to the point, it was won by the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong, who imposed Communist rule, while the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan. It also heated up the Cold War for quite some time, as the Communists were supported by the Soviet Union and the Nationalists by the United States.

This second edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Civil War studies the longer, broader war and its chronology carefully tracks the major events. The introduction then provides a broad overview, describing the contending forces, and showing how the Communists come out on top. The details, and these are crucial, are laid out in over 200 cross-referenced dictionary entries dealing with the opposing forces and parties, the major campaigns and battles, the Long March, and of course the leadership on both sides. This book, one of few such in English, provides a very solid basis for study, but that can be accomplished more effectively by consulting the titles listed in an extensive bibliography.

Details

Scarecrow Press

Pages: 336 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-0-8108-7873-0 • Hardback • July 2013 • $166.00 • (£129.00)

978-0-8108-7874-7 • eBook • July 2013 • $157.50 • (£121.00)

Series: Historical Dictionaries of War, Revolution, and Civil Unrest

Subjects: History / Asia / China

Author

Christopher R. Lew was recently a senior analyst on China for the Department of Defense and is presently the Principal Threat Intelligence Officer for Mandiant. He knows the country and the language, and has been studying and writing on the Chinese Civil War for many years, including recently The Third Chinese Revolutionary Civil War.

Edwin Pak-Wah Leung, who wrote the first edition, is one of the leading scholars on Modern China more generally and the Chinese Civil War in particular. He has taught at the University of Hong Kong, Peking University, and Columbia University among others. He has also published numerous articles and books, the most recent being Managing China’s Modernization.

Reviews

First published in 2002, and later reprinted as The A-to-Z of the Chinese Civil War (2010), this 2d edition has over 100 more pages of text. Lew, a U.S. Army veteran, has substantially revised and expanded the contents of 1st edition. The 12-page introduction provides the necessary background overview that one needs to understand this conflict, which is also a part of the Second World War and the Cold War. There are over 200 entries describing critical events, important personages, troop movements, proclamations, organizational structure, and foreign involvement. There are plentiful see and see also references, and highlighted words in the text indicate the cross-referencing to other entries, where one can look for more information. . . .This sturdily bound work is the main English-language reference tool for this event, and is available online as well through EBRARY and EBSCO e-book collections. It complements Lawrence R. Sullivan’s Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Communist Party (see ARBA 2013, entry 638). It is suitable for the reference collections of all academic and large public libraries, especially those lacking the 1st edition.
— American Reference Books Annual

Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Civil War

Second Edition

Christopher R. Lew and Edwin Pak-wah Leung

Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Civil War

Second Edition

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