Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Author at Pacific Standard

Home Archives for Jeffrey Wasserstrom

News in Brief

From Hu’s the Boss to Xi’s in Charge: A First Season Recap of China’s Still-New Leader

A year after the arrival of China's new president on the world stage, it's time to ask if he's achieving his twin goals of being the new Deng Xiaoping and not the new Mikhail Gorbachev.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom

News in Brief

The Dictator’s Learning Curve: David and Goliath Tales for Our Times

William J. Dobson's The Dictator's Learning Curve is an invaluable look at how strongmen hold onto power, and continue to repress their people—but it's also a primer for how to chuck those dictators out.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom

News in Brief

OWS, Egypt Expose Limits of Town Square Test

Central plazas were key places for political action in 2011, but historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom says the Town Square Test fails as a method for assessing the divide between democracy and authoritarian.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom

News in Brief

Whose Road Led to Hu’s China?

Mao's (red) star is on the rise, Chiang's is being refurbished and Confucius' is in a state of flux as the ever-pragmatic Chinese Communist Party marks its 90th anniversary.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom

News in Brief

Predicting How China Will React To Protests

The author of 'China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know' doffs his oracular hat when asked to predict how China will react tomorrow to a whiff of Jasmine Revolution today.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Economics

Media and Revolution 2.0: Tiananmen to Tahrir

New media inspires new generation to protest? It’s an old trope, argues a China scholar taking a practiced eye at the turmoil in the Arab world.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Three Ways of Looking at the PRC’s Latest Campaigns

The ghost of Mao can certainly be divined in China's current anti-vulgarity campaign, but he may have to take a back seat to capitalist-roaders Chiang Kai-shek and Lee Kuan Yew.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom