It is not surprising that private education is gaining importance in China, given the overall context of huge national efforts toward building up a "socialist market economy." However, the fast growth rate in both quantity and quality of profitable private schools in a socialist society has exceeded expectations. This paper examines the…

China's official history maintains that the radical egalitarianism of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) led to economic disaster. This book challenges that view. Drawing on local interviews and records in rural Jimo County, Shandong Province, this study contends that the Cultural Revolution's political convulsions democratized village political…