Underground: The Shanghai Communist Party and the Politics of Survival, 1927-1937

Review A remarkable book... Impressive research, evidence, argumentation, and organization. Her book is the definitive work on Communists in Shanghai during the Nanjing Decade. (Roger B. Jeans Journal Of Asian & African Studies)This work forms an important corrective to rural-centered understandings of the CCP's history. This is an important book that will establish the significance of the urban element of the CCP's rise to power. Stranahan's work shows that much effort was always expanded on this. (Hans Van De Ven The China Quarterly, 157, March 99)A remarkable study and a model of how to research and write history. Stranahan keeps human beings and their actions front and center. . . . I applaud her effort to bring the history of the Shanghai Communist Party out of the shadows and to render a more balanced account of Chinese Communist history. . . . [I]mpressive research, evidence, argumentation, and organization. . . . Her book is the definitive work on Communists in Shanghai during the Nanjing Decade. (Journal Of Asian And African Studies)This remarkable study rescues the history of the Shanghai Communist Party underground from the shadows into which it has been relegated by the orthodox, Mao-centered history of the revolution. Stranahan has mined a wealth of archival and newly published material in demonstrating how the underground survived the 'white terror,D>' even though Communist Party policies often placed members in the gravest danger of exposure and arrest. Stranahan reveals how the small but significant group, even though cut off from the Party Center, re-emerged as a force with the National Salvation Movement of 1935. The work provides an important balance to current scholarship which emphasizes only rural revolution. (Coble, Parks M.)Strananahan's book opens the doors to new insights about the history of the CCP. The resulting work enhances our understanding of the complexity of CCP survival in the 1930's. The work is detailed and specialized. (Norma C. Noonan Heldref Publications)A remarkable study and a model of how to research and write history. Stranahan keeps human beings and their actions front and center. . . . I applaud her effort to bring the history of the Shanghai Communist Party out of the shadows and to render a more balanced account of Chinese Communist history. . . . [I]mpressive research, evidence, argumentation, and organization. . . . Her book is the definitive work on Communists in Shanghai during the Nanjing Decade.... (Journal Of Asian And African Studies)A rare double treat: a superb scholarly work—the first comprehensive history in the English language of a crucial phase in China's communist revolution—that is bound to impress a specialist readership, as well as a true thriller that will engross readers with a weakness for tales of political intrigue, heroism, betrayal, and survival in an extremely hostile environment. (Michael Schoenhals)The greatest impediment to historical research on the Chinese Communist Party is the difficulty of getting one's hands on source materials. Patricia Stranahan has written a painstaking work which overcomes this impediment handily and offers a stimulating analysis of the circumstances surrounding the Shanghai Communist Party during the Nanjing decade. (Yoshihiro Ishikawa The Journal Of Asian Studies)The book is a timely and useful addition to studies of the Party and Shanghai. (China Journal)Stranahan's description of Shanghai Communism during the Nankin decade certainly enriches our knowledge of the history of Chinese Communism. (Journal Of Oriental Studies) Product Description This pathbreaking study offers the first in-depth view of the urban revolution during the pivotal Nanjing Decade, refuting the notion that cities played only a supporting role in Mao Zedong's brilliant conquest of the countryside. Focusing on China's largest and most cosmopolitan city, Stranahan examines how the Party organization in Shanghai_severed from the central