Mr. Science and Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution

Chunjuan Nancy Wei is associate professor and chair of the International Political Economy & Diplomacy program at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, with a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University, and her work appears in New Dynamics in East Asian Politics (2012).Darryl E. Brockis a Ph.D. candidate in modern history at Fordham University in New York City, with an M.A. in history from Claremont Graduate University, and is author of the book China and Darwinian Evolution: Influence on Intellectual and Social Development (2010).

• Foreword by Joseph W. Dauben AcknowledgmentsPART I. INTRODUCTIONChapter 1. Introduction: Reassessing the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, by Darryl E. Brock and Chunjuan Nancy Wei Chapter 2. The People’s Landscape: Mr. Science and the Mass Line, by Darryl E. Brock PART II. SCIENCE, SOCIETY AND THE CULTURAL REVOLUTIONChapter 3. Science Imperiled: Intellectuals and the Cultural Revolution, by Cong CaoChapter 4. Screening the Maoist Mr. Science: Breaking with Old Ideas and Constructing the Post-Capitalist University, by Michael A. MikitaPART III. SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES AND THE CULTURAL REVOLUTIONChapter 5. Dialectics of Numbers: Marxism, Maoism, and the Calculus of Infinitesimals, by Yibao XuChapter 6. Ideology and Cosmology: Maoist Discussion on Physics and the Cultural Revolution, by Yinghong ChengChapter 7. Space for the People: China’s Aerospace Industry and the Cultural Revolution, by Stacey SolomoneChapter 8. Barefoot Doctors: The Legacy of Chairman Mao’s Healthcare, by Chunjuan Nancy WeiChapter 9. Rural Agriculture: Scientific and Technological Development during the Cultural Revolution, by Dongping HanPART IV. THE POST-MAO SPRINGTIME FOR SCIENCEChapter 10. Missile Science, Population Science: The Origins of China’s One-Child Policy, by Susan GreenhalghChapter 11. Worker Innovation: Did Maoist Promotion Contribute to China’s Present Technological and Economic Success?, by Rudi VoltiChapter 12. On the Appropriate Use of Rose-Colored Glasses: Reflections on Science in Socialist China, by Sigrid SchmalzerSelected BibliographyIndexContributors

This volume corrals the efforts of 12 scholars in the history of science to challenge the narrative of intellectual stagnation during the Cultural Revolution. Contributors use case studies to reveal that scientists who could apply their work to the needs of the common people aligned their intellectual endeavors with communist ideology and secured state funding. Chapters explore the intricacies of work in fields as diverse as calculus, physics, aerospace engineering, health care, agricultural engineering, demography, and social science to illustrate significant advances despite political setbacks. Scholars featured here acknowledge that bending academic pursuits to the desires of the state restricted intellectual life, but move beyond this assessment to explore the areas in which notable strides occurred. Moreover, contributors note that certain projects, including the creation of China's first satellite in 1970, the barefoot doctor movement of 1968 to 1981, and the nationwide implementation of the one-child policy were communist initiatives. This book puts to rest any claim that the communist state was anything but thoroughly committed to the promotion of science and technology, and continues the assessment of this work on its own terms without reference to foreign standards. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers/faculty, and professionals.