The Columbia History of the Twentieth Century by Richard W. BullietReview by: Daniel BrowerThe American Historical Review, Vol. 104, No. 2 (Apr., 1999), pp. 546-547Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2650399 .

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546 Reviews of Books

Chinese leadership placed tremendous emphasis on maintaining comradely relations with, and receiving the goodwill of, Stalin and the Soviet Union.

One final note on this provocative book: Sheng advances an explanation for why Mao and other CCP leaders were wedded to an inflexible version of Marx- ist-Leninist ideology that, in Sheng's view, repeatedly divorced them from reality. The author uses the ideas of the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson to explain what appears to be this persistent irrationality. Marxism- Leninism was more than a political theory for Mao and his comrades; once they were converted through "so- ciogenetic evolution," communist ideology became essential to their individual and group "ego identifica- tion" (p. 10). They enjoyed "gratification" when they had tactical success; while setbacks caused an "identity crisis" for some, Mao and his comrades "toughened their ideological commitment." Therefore, in victory or defeat, the CCP leadership's dedication to Marx- ism-Leninism was reinforced.

Sheng criticizes the neo-realists in political science for advancing explanations based on a "totalizing ahistorical structure" (p. 3) that negates human agency in making history. One wonders whether "psychologiz- ing" the Chinese Communist leadership winds up doing something very similar.

GORDON H. CHANG Stanford University

RICHARD W. BULLIET, editor. The Colulmbia Histoiy of the Twentieth Centtliy. New York: Columbia University Press. 1998. Pp. xiii, 651. $49.95.

On the eve of the twenty-first century, historians searching for thematic coherence to the century soon to end seem of two minds. Some prefer to frame it within the great conflicts that have deeply scarred the past hundred years. The outbreak of World War I marks its bloody beginning; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union bring the story to a (chronologically) premature but dramatic conclu- sion. In Eric Hobsbawm's succinct labeling, that period represents the "short twentieth century."

A second school of thought, of which the volume under review is an exemplary case, looks to the formative processes that have shaped human relations in the midst of this century's tumult of wars, revolu- tions, and international confrontation. It searches through all aspects of human endeavor, asking, in the words of editor Richard W. Bulliet, "in what areas of life have developments been so remarkable as to distinguish this century from any preceding era?". It does not offer the reader a narrative account of major events of the century, for its objective is to uncover "the broad currents of change" that reveal "how our lives got to be the way they are today" (pp. 3-4).

The potential scope of such a search is encyclopedic in its dimensions. The paths taken here in pursuit of the most noteworthy developments follow a topical approach to historical change. They cover all major

areas of historical inquiry. The topics include the customary subjects of war, imperialism, nationalism, socialism, and internationalism, but also introduce important economic issues in essays on agriculture, industry, international finance, and transportation, and even extend into more exotic fields such as ecology, scientific discovery, athletics, and popular culture. Each topic (of which there are twenty-three in all) is the domain of a different author who brings to the subject a specialist's knowledge. Their opportunity to spell out their views of significant trends in their particular field is limited, for the chapters are typically between twenty and thirty pages in length. Most include, in addition to footnotes, a brief bibliography. Of particular use to the general reader is the detailed comprehensive index, more than eighty pages (double columned) in length. Attempting to sum up the impor- tance of an entire century of world history is a daunting undertaking. Individual topics are likely to prove enlightening to some readers, less interesting to others, in what amounts to a treasure hunt for insight and information. This volume's success can be mea- sured by the amount of pertinent information and views made available in each essay, and also by the general picture of the century that emerges from the chapters taken together.

Several of the essays stand out by the quality of their analysis and the thoughtfulness of their judgment. I was particularly impressed by James Mayall's search- ing probe of the role of nationalism in this century. Mayall recognizes the pervasiveness of national iden- tity throughout the world, yet he insists that "these identities are not primordial" (p. 174). The task of the historian must be to uncover the manner in which nations have been constructed out of the events and trends of recent times. He locates these forces in four domains: colonialism, the impact of wars, revolutions, and (somewhat ironically) internationalism. In May- all's telling, the story is global in its impact yet directly linked to the European empires whose collapse opened the era of nations. But the better life promised by nationalists was void of specific ideals or practices by which to build that life for the peoples of these states. Wilsonian internationalism judged national self-determination the stable basis for postcolonial state formation, but, unfortunately, "the number of nationalists always exceeded the supply of nations" (p. 195).

In this perspective, the reader may well conclude that Akira Iriye's short essay (lacking, footnotes and bibliography) on "the international order" indulges in wishful thinking. He asserts that internationalism (which he presents in opposition to nationalism) is one of the "legacies of achievement" to be passed on by this century to the next. One may agree that the array of attempts to construct viable forms of international cooperation is impressive. Modified versions of Wilso- nian internationalism (which he barely mentions) have had a remarkable resurgence in recent decades, and non-governmental organizations (not discussed at all)

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Asia 547

have moved into the most remote regions of the globe in defense of international peace, human rights, and the well-being of humanity. Yet in what one might call the everyday realities of global relations, economic forces, not internationalist institutions, have proven the most potent elements of transnational integration.

In this light, the presence in this volume of several thoughtful essays on economic aspects of the century's history greatly enhances its overall contribution to our understanding of "the greatest one-century period of change in human history" (p. 1). In one sense, eco- nomic history must still address issues of survival as old as humanity. The story of agriculture, told in a vivid, perceptive manner by B. F. Stanton, is summed up in his observation that the world's farming sector has succeeded in feeding a global population that is nearly four times as large now as in 1900. Crucial to this achievement were the creation and diffusion of new, high-yield crops by research institutes like those run by Norman Borlaug, whose discoveries earned him the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Environmental concerns and the search for sustainable agricultural systems have pointed toward a very different path for global agri- culture. Still, in the short term the so-called "green revolution" was in countries such as India the only defense against mass famine.

In an equally substantial essay on "money and economic change," William C. McNeill brings to light the vital role of money in twentieth-century history. He makes clear how indispensable the monetary system based on the gold standard was to the integration of the "commercial-industrial economy" of the early cen- tury. Its collapse in the early 1930s insured that the depression would be both longer and more widespread than any previous international economic crisis. The last half of the essay spells out the remarkable achieve- ments, and the shortcomings, of the Bretton-Woods system launched at the end of World War II. Its limited success (minus a fixed exchange-rate system) insured, in his terms, both "systemic order and disor- der" in what has come to be known as the global economy. These excellent essays, and many others, bring to this volume a wealth of information and insight, making it an invaluable guide to the past 100 years of tumultuous change.

Yet something important has been left out, in my opinion. Having chosen to exclude any "master narra- tive" in favor of topical "currents of change," Bulliet has gathered a set of essays that, taken as a whole, create the impression of a rather bloodless century. One might have expected that the subject of this era's extraordinary mayhem and destruction would receive from some authors ample historical reflection and judgment. Yet the subject is discussed, if at all, sotto voce. War, the subject of one chapter, seems more an affair of policy and institutions than mass killings; the essay on ethnicity and racism subsumes the Holocaust under "festering ethnic tensions across the globe"; another chapter conflates communism and socialism to "describe the variety of meanings" of "socialist prac-

tice" (p. 203), relegating Stalinism and Maoism to phases of socialism. The tragic story of mass repression and violence, neglected here to highlight "remarkable developments," stands out vividly when the century is contained within a narrative history of the period 1914 to 1991. In these terms, our century's most meaningful tales are told within the short twentieth century.

DANIEL BROWER University of California, Davis

ASIA DON J. WYATT. The Reclutse of Loyang: Sliao Ylung and the Moral Evolultion of Early Sulng Thoulght. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. 1996. Pp. xii, 340. $42.00.

Shao Yung has fascinated generations of the Chinese people, but few have actually studied him. It is thus an irony that he should receive two book-length studies in English within the last decade. Although the books offer different interpretations of his thought, he is now definitely better understood in this part of the world than in China. This says also how interesting Shao is for modern students. It is not that traditional Chinese interpreters did not appreciate his importance, but they have not quite been able to make him out in terms of his relations with his intellectual contemporaries. One of the objectives of this book is to demonstrate why interpreters in China have unduly neglected Shao.

Don J. Wyatt argues that the best approach to depict Shao as a man and thinker is to return to the original sources, and he uses them with competence. His reading of temporal dimension into ching-shih is a good example. Readers of Chinese now need to keep in mind that "ordering the world" means for Shao comprehending the cosmic process in a temporal sense.

The strength of this book is the careful reconstruc- tion of Shao's life. Wyatt's study of Shao's intellectual lineage is imaginative; the discussion on Shao's rela- tions with the two Ch'eng brothers, however, is less convincing. More could have been said about their different intellectual outlooks and the reason for their different relationships with Shao. Ch'eng I, in contrast to Ch'eng Hao, had been occasionally but coherently critical of Shao. His criticism offers a good lead as to how Shao did and did not quite embrace the political agenda for which Ssu-ma Kuang was pressing. The truth is that Ch'eng I was not very close to Ssu-ma Kuang. What were the dynamics behind the differ- ences between the anti-reformers, with their political aspirations, and those who were more concerned with creating the new intellectual outlook that eventually grew to become Neo-Confucianism?

Could Shao's lack of sensitivity to politics and aversion to political life have anything to do with his continued and somewhat solitary interest in the "im- age-number" way of approaching the Book of Changes? Wyatt challenges the traditional belief that

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