This title was first published in 1980. One of the most prevalent and significant issues facing socialist countries is the role of intellectuals. In the poorer countries like China, this has presented itself with particular acuity in the relationship of scientists and technicians to the process of socialist economic modernization. Since the Cultural Revolution has come to a close, its impact on China’s intellectual life― especially on scientists, technicians, and the development of scientific and technical work― has been the subject of lively inquiry in China. In turn, this inquiry has provided a major focus for reevaluating the Cultural Revolution as a political movement and as a way of dealing with the inequalities and bureaucratic inefficiencies that have arisen and will continue to arise in the centrally planned Chinese economy during a period when rapid economic growth and modernization have been given the highest priority. This monograph intends to address some of these issues by presenting a detailed case study of a Chinese technical unit over the period from 1966 to 1974.

About the Author

Marc J. Blecher received his B.S. from Cornell University and an M.A. and Ph.D. (in 1978) from the University of Chicago. He has held research positions at the University of California (Berkeley) Center for Chinese Studies and the University of Chicago Center for Far Eastern Studies and is now an assistant professor of government at Oberlin College. Gordon White received a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Oxford, an M.A. from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. (in 1977) from Stanford University. He has taught at Cornell and Australian National University, and he is now a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.

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