States and Nations, Power and Civility: Hallsian Perspectives by Francesco Duina, ed.
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702020912489 |
| Author | Krishan Kumar |
| Date | 01 March 2020 |
| Published date | 01 March 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
weapons is in coercion rather than in military operations. China’s nuclear strategy,
as a component of active defence, is thus intended to prevent the country’s coer-
cion by others. As the CCP has always been in a weaker position of strength vis-a
`-
vis its principal adversaries—whether the United States, the Soviet Union, or the
Nationalists—active defence is, in Fravel’s view, a strategy to compensate for its
military weakness.
Fravel devotes a chapter to the CCP’s revolutionary wars for national power
before 1949. Although the CCP party-state has always been a revisionist one,
Fravel does not explain the intrinsic aggressiveness within its active defence. Nor
does he mention that China hinted in 2004 that it might use nuclear weapons
against Taiwan. Therefore, he leaves an important point untouched: the aggres-
siveness in China’s military strategy. In addition, Fravel takes the PLA as a normal
national army, even though he notes its “mountain-stronghold mentality” (p. 199).
He mentions that Lin Biao conducted a campaign of studying Mao’s works among
PLA soldiers in 1960, but he does not give any explanations. Nor does he link it to
Mao’s strategy in 1964. In short, he introduces an essential subject, but does not
address it in a meaningful way. The PLA is actually a coalition of forces of varied
histories and cultures. How to keep them together has always been a challenge for
CCP leaders, including Mao himself. Li Zuopeng (1914–2009), an ex-commander
of the PLA Navy, and Qiu Huizuo (1914–2002), an ex-director of the General
Department of Logistics, both of whom were imprisoned for over a decade after
Lin Biao’s mysterious death in 1971, well addressed this subject in their memoirs
published in Hong Kong. Fravel’s neglect of the PLA’s internal rivalries underlines
the value of Chinese-language publications released outside of the PRC, which
Fravel barely consulted. Although the PRC’s publications have abundant infor-
mation on the CCP leaders’ decision-making processes, this information needs
extraordinarily intensive investigation. Fravel did so on some issues, but he over-
looked Lin Biao’s important campaign of ideological indoctrination in 1960.
Francesco Duina, ed.
States and Nations, Power and Civility: Hallsian Perspectives
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019. 335pp. US$80.00 (cloth)
ISBN: 978-1-4875-0237-9
Reviewed by: Krishan Kumar (kk2d@virginia.edu), University of Virginia, USA
John A. Hall—the James McGill Professor of Comparative Historical Sociology at
McGill University—has been a pervasive and powerful presence in the sub-fields of
historical, cultural, and theoretical sociology for over four decades. His strength
has been in his diversity—the sheer range of topics he has covered. There are
indeed some recurring themes and topics: the undoubted fact of the rise of the
West, and the reasons for it; the varieties of nationalism in different historical and
geographical contexts; the importance not just of civil society but of its essence,
civility; and the neglected role of war in shaping and re-shaping societies. But what
is refreshing about Hall, and what explains his appeal to so many scholars, is his
116 International Journal 75(1)
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