| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 104.3

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 104.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Glen Peterson. The Power of Words: Literacy and Revolution in South China, 1949–95. (Contemporary Chinese Studies.) Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. 1997. Pp. x, 250. $75.00.

This book by Glen Peterson is a detailed political history of the efforts of the Chinese Communist government to promote mass education in rural south China. From the outset, the author makes it clear that he avoids the technical debates about literacy rates, because both definitions and measurements of literacy in China are problematic. Moreover, statistics that reach government offices are often grossly distorted. 1

Instead, the author uses major ideological landmarks since 1949 to frame the analysis of literacy programs for school-age children and adults: the political and practical motives behind state initiatives, the means employed, the reactions of regional authorities, and the perceptions of local populations targeted. Behind these research issues are important questions: have the post-revolutionary efforts provided unprecedented mobility opportunities for the villagers, or have the programs contributed to the formation and reproduction of social differences between country and city? To what extent have the practical strategies of state building compromised the regime's revolutionary goals in local voluntarism? When bureaucratic agendas intertwined with personal and ideological interests at every level of government, were Chinese peasants subjects or citizens? . . .

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