June Fourth
The Tiananmen Protests and Beijing Massacre of 1989

A vivid new social history of the Tiananmen protests, Beijing massacre, and nationwide crackdown of 1989.

Jeremy Brown (Author)

9781107042070, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 April 2021

288 pages
15.5 x 23.5 x 2 cm, 0.57 kg

'This lucid, thoughtful, and often riveting account by Jeremy Brown, a leading social historian of the People's Republic of China (PRC), revisits almost every dimension of the dramatic upheaval of 1989 and forces us to examine afresh what we thought we already knew.' Andrew G. Walder, Journal of Cold War Studies

The Tiananmen protests and Beijing massacre of 1989 were a major turning point in recent Chinese history. In this new analysis of 1989, Jeremy Brown tells the vivid stories of participants and victims, exploring the nationwide scope of the democracy movement and the brutal crackdown that crushed it. At each critical juncture in the spring of 1989, demonstrators and decision makers agonized over difficult choices and saw how events could have unfolded differently. The alternative paths that participants imagined confirm that bloodshed was neither inevitable nor necessary. Using a wide range of previously untapped sources and examining how ordinary citizens throughout China experienced the crackdown after the massacre, this ambitious social history sheds fresh light on events that continue to reverberate in China to this day.

Part I. China's 1980s: 1. Happy
2. Angry
3. China's 1980s: Alternative Paths
Part II. The Tiananmen Protests: 4. The Tiananmen Protests as History
5. Demands and Responses
6. Backed into Corners
7. Workers and Citizens
8. Protests: Alternative Paths
Part III. Massacre: 9. The Beijing Massacre as History
10. Authorized Force: Preparing to Clear the Square
11. Permission to Open Fire
12. Where Bullets Flew
13. Inside the Square
14. Victims
15. The Massacre Continues
16. Quiet Reckonings
17. Massacre: Alternative Paths
Part IV. Nationwide: 18. Han versus Non-han
19. Outside In
20. Inside Out
21. Rage
22. Rural Actions and Reactions
23. Alternative Paths Nationwide
Part V. The Aftermath: 24. The Purge as History
25. 'Rioters'
26. Don't call it a Yundong
27. Going through the Motions
28. Falsehoods and Defiance
29. Aftermath: Alternative Paths
30. The Future of June Fourth.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions [HBTV], Social & cultural history [HBTB], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Asian history [HBJF]