Michael Dutton most recently taught at Beijing Capital Normal University and Goldsmiths, University of London, and is the author of Policing Chinese Politics: A History, also published by Duke University Press, and coauthor of Beijing Time.

• List of Illustrations  xiForeword  xvAcknowledgments  xixContext  1Part 1. Beginnings 191. Almost Aphoristic  212. Numismatics  573. Callings  73Part 2. Contagions  854. 911  875. Heroics?  1106. Monumental Hiccup in GÖttingen: From Living Dangerously to a Barer Life  116Part 3. Reconstructions  1337. Channeling Intensity: A Design Process  1378. Anren: Friend and Enemy in Peace and Benevolence?  1539. From Hiccup to Habit: From Cultural Revolution to Culture Industry  166Part 4. Becoming Modern  17710. From the Crystal Palace to the Eiffel Tower  17911. Eiffel Tower-Ante: The Ferris Wheel  20212. Eiffel Tower-Anti: Tatlin’s Tower  222Part 5. Becoming Political  23313. Becoming Maoist  23514. Becoming Maoist II: Language, Economy, Security  261Part 6. Strokes, Not Words  29115. Calligraphy  29316. Spilling Off the Page  306Afterwords  315Glossary A. Terms and Concepts  337Glossary B. Chinese Terms, Names, Titles, Words, and Phrases  347Bibliography  365Index

“Reading The Book of Politics is an adventure. Michael Dutton’s intellectual omnivorousness is exuberantly and unapologetically on display here. I cannot think of another author who is equally at home explicating Schmitt, Mao, and Zhuangzi and rounding up many such unusual suspects into a wildly inventive and deeply penetrating meditation on the modern condition.” - Haiyan Lee, author of (A Certain Justice: Toward an Ecology of the Chinese Legal Imagination) “We are all on the planet experiencing the closing of Westernization and the opening of ‘dewesternization’ and decoloniality demanding a radical departure from Western disciplinary regulation and management of intersubjective relations. Michael Dutton’s The Book of Politics assertively takes up the challenge. Dutton takes China as a method, reverting Orientalism and its continuity in area studies. He finds in art and literature the vital affective energy that allows him to depart from the measurement of reality demanded by the myth of (social) sciences. The arguments may, in his own words, be 'hard to swallow’ which is a defiant invitation to engage with this splendid book.” - Walter Mignolo, author of (The Politics of Decolonial Investigations)

Michael Dutton most recently taught at Beijing Capital Normal University and Goldsmiths, University of London, and is the author of Policing Chinese Politics: A History, also published by Duke University Press, and coauthor of Beijing Time.

• List of Illustrations  xiForeword  xvAcknowledgments  xixContext  1Part 1. Beginnings 191. Almost Aphoristic  212. Numismatics  573. Callings  73Part 2. Contagions  854. 911  875. Heroics?  1106. Monumental Hiccup in GÖttingen: From Living Dangerously to a Barer Life  116Part 3. Reconstructions  1337. Channeling Intensity: A Design Process  1378. Anren: Friend and Enemy in Peace and Benevolence?  1539. From Hiccup to Habit: From Cultural Revolution to Culture Industry  166Part 4. Becoming Modern  17710. From the Crystal Palace to the Eiffel Tower  17911. Eiffel Tower-Ante: The Ferris Wheel  20212. Eiffel Tower-Anti: Tatlin’s Tower  222Part 5. Becoming Political  23313. Becoming Maoist  23514. Becoming Maoist II: Language, Economy, Security  261Part 6. Strokes, Not Words  29115. Calligraphy  29316. Spilling Off the Page  306Afterwords  315Glossary A. Terms and Concepts  337Glossary B. Chinese Terms, Names, Titles, Words, and Phrases  347Bibliography  365Index

“Reading The Book of Politics is an adventure. Michael Dutton’s intellectual omnivorousness is exuberantly and unapologetically on display here. I cannot think of another author who is equally at home explicating Schmitt, Mao, and Zhuangzi and rounding up many such unusual suspects into a wildly inventive and deeply penetrating meditation on the modern condition.” - Haiyan Lee, author of (A Certain Justice: Toward an Ecology of the Chinese Legal Imagination) “We are all on the planet experiencing the closing of Westernization and the opening of ‘dewesternization’ and decoloniality demanding a radical departure from Western disciplinary regulation and management of intersubjective relations. Michael Dutton’s The Book of Politics assertively takes up the challenge. Dutton takes China as a method, reverting Orientalism and its continuity in area studies. He finds in art and literature the vital affective energy that allows him to depart from the measurement of reality demanded by the myth of (social) sciences. The arguments may, in his own words, be 'hard to swallow’ which is a defiant invitation to engage with this splendid book.” - Walter Mignolo, author of (The Politics of Decolonial Investigations)

Michael Dutton most recently taught at Beijing Capital Normal University and Goldsmiths, University of London, and is the author of Policing Chinese Politics: A History, also published by Duke University Press, and coauthor of Beijing Time.

• List of Illustrations  xiForeword  xvAcknowledgments  xixContext  1Part 1. Beginnings 191. Almost Aphoristic  212. Numismatics  573. Callings  73Part 2. Contagions  854. 911  875. Heroics?  1106. Monumental Hiccup in GÖttingen: From Living Dangerously to a Barer Life  116Part 3. Reconstructions  1337. Channeling Intensity: A Design Process  1378. Anren: Friend and Enemy in Peace and Benevolence?  1539. From Hiccup to Habit: From Cultural Revolution to Culture Industry  166Part 4. Becoming Modern  17710. From the Crystal Palace to the Eiffel Tower  17911. Eiffel Tower-Ante: The Ferris Wheel  20212. Eiffel Tower-Anti: Tatlin’s Tower  222Part 5. Becoming Political  23313. Becoming Maoist  23514. Becoming Maoist II: Language, Economy, Security  261Part 6. Strokes, Not Words  29115. Calligraphy  29316. Spilling Off the Page  306Afterwords  315Glossary A. Terms and Concepts  337Glossary B. Chinese Terms, Names, Titles, Words, and Phrases  347Bibliography  365Index

“Reading The Book of Politics is an adventure. Michael Dutton’s intellectual omnivorousness is exuberantly and unapologetically on display here. I cannot think of another author who is equally at home explicating Schmitt, Mao, and Zhuangzi and rounding up many such unusual suspects into a wildly inventive and deeply penetrating meditation on the modern condition.” - Haiyan Lee, author of (A Certain Justice: Toward an Ecology of the Chinese Legal Imagination) “We are all on the planet experiencing the closing of Westernization and the opening of ‘dewesternization’ and decoloniality demanding a radical departure from Western disciplinary regulation and management of intersubjective relations. Michael Dutton’s The Book of Politics assertively takes up the challenge. Dutton takes China as a method, reverting Orientalism and its continuity in area studies. He finds in art and literature the vital affective energy that allows him to depart from the measurement of reality demanded by the myth of (social) sciences. The arguments may, in his own words, be 'hard to swallow’ which is a defiant invitation to engage with this splendid book.” - Walter Mignolo, author of (The Politics of Decolonial Investigations)