This authoritative view of the history and culture of Tibet comes at a time when this ancient land is in danger of losing its identity and culture under Chinese rule. In a compact narrative account, Lee Feigon describes Tibet's long and independent history, which belies Chinese claims to hegemony over the Tibetan people. Beginning in the seventh century with the origins of the Tibetan state, Tibetans have borrowed cultural and political forms from their neighbors, including China and India, but have always developed them in their own distinct manner. Tibet has in fact at times ruled vast...

An authoritative history of the Chinese student movement for democracy which ended in tragedy in Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989. An absorbing and meticulous account. Jonathan Spence, Yale University"

In recent years historians and political observers have vilified Mao Tse-tung and placed him in a class with tyrants like Hitler and Stalin. But, as Lee Feigon points out in his startling revision of Mao, the Chinese leader has been tainted by the actions and policies of the same Soviet-style Communist bureaucrats he came to hate and attempted to eliminate. Mr. Feigon argues that the movements for which Mao is almost universally condemned today--the Great Leap Forward and especially the Cultural Revolution--were in many ways beneficial for the Chinese people. They forced China to break with...