The Great Transformation: China's Road from Revolution to Reform -- Odd Arne Westad, Paperback

The first thorough account of a formative and little understood chapter in Chinese history

"A superb history of China's transition into and out of the Cultural Revolution. . . . Chen and Westad--two of the best archival historians of Communist China writing today--coolly but vividly recount the extraordinary drama of this metamorphosis."--Julia Lovell, Financial Times

Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian chronicle how an impoverished and terrorized China experienced radical political changes in the long 1970s and how ordinary people broke free from the beliefs that had shaped their lives during Mao's Cultural Revolution. These changes, and the unprecedented and sustained economic growth that followed, transformed China and the world.

In this rigorous account, Westad and Chen construct a panorama of catastrophe and progress in China. They chronicle China's gradual opening to the world--the interplay of power in an era of aged and ailing leadership, the people's rebellion against the earlier government system, and the roles of unlikely characters: overseas Chinese capitalists, American engineers, Japanese professors, and German designers. This is a story of revolutionary change that neither foreigners nor the Chinese themselves could have predicted.

Author: Odd Arne Westad, Chen Jian
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 10/28/2025
Pages: 424
Binding Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9780300285604

About the Author
Odd Arne Westad is the Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University. His books include The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times, winner of the Bancroft Prize, and Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750. He lives in New Haven, CT. Chen Jian is Distinguished Global Network Professor of History at NYU and NYU Shanghai and Hu Shih Professor of History Emeritus at Cornell University. His books include China's Road to the Korean War, Mao's China and the Cold War, and Zhou Enlai: A Life. He lives in Ithaca, NY.