{"product_id":"seeds-of-destruction-9780804741866","title":"Seeds of Destruction","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe question \"Who lost China?\" has provoked political vituperation and academic controversy ever since the  Chinese Communists drove the Nationalist regime of Chiang Kai-shek off the mainland in 1949. In this study based on a wide array of hitherto unused documentary sources, the author delves deeply into the inner workings of the Nationalist regime and concludes that the Nationalists collapsed largely as a result of their own failings. Most strikingly, he uses the records and memoirs of the Nationalists themselves to document the weaknesses of the Nationalist rule. For even Chiang Kai-shek said of the Kuomintang on the eve of its final defeat in 1949, \"This kind of party should long ago have been destroyed and swept away!\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo illuminate the factors that contributed to its ultimate defeat, the author examines the Nationalist government during the period 1937-1949 from several different perspectives. He carefully scrutinizes the relationship between the central and provincial governments, the plight of the tax-burdened peasantry in the Nationalist-held areas, the intraparty politics of the regime as expressed in the Youth Corps and the reformist Ko-hsin Movement, the deficiencies of the army during the wars against Japan and the Communists, the failure of the Gold Yüan currency reform of late 1948, and finally, Chiang Kai-shek's own assessment of his army and the civilian branches of his regime during the final phases of the war.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Lloyd E. Eastman","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48297296298235,"sku":"9780804741866","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/3917\/9771\/files\/9780804741866.jpg?v=1772482450","url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.com\/products\/seeds-of-destruction-9780804741866","provider":"IndiePubs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}