Creating the 'New Man' : From Enlightenment ideals to Socialist Realities

摘要

Certain path-breaking history books draw upon hitherto unavailable sources to reveal previously unknown truths about a particular time and place. Other good books come to original conclusions by putting together old sources in interesting ways. Yinghong Cheng's Creating the "New Man": From Enlightenment Ideals to Socialist Realities, belongs in the latter category. Cheng's book is a comparative history of social engineering in the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, Mao-era China and Castro's Cuba.