David R. Contosta, America’s Needless Wars

Using Maoist terminology, Garvin favoured the 'radical, revolutionary line of resistance' in the black freedom struggle over a 'gradualist approach, tactical accommodations, and compromises with the structure of power' (p.174).These black travellers shared a common conviction that 'China's socialist experiment and its brand of Third World Marxism. . .offered them one, though not the only, utopic model of economic democracy, mass political participation, and antiracial global modernity' (p. 6).In addition, Frazier argues, their construction of China was also based upon gendered discourses.They either praised China's progress toward gender equality under Communism, or used gender-specific constructions to promote their international struggle against white supremacy.By imagining China as an alternative model, these black travellers 'challenged the primacy of liberal democracy and free-trade capitalism as dominant ideology and model of modernity and sociopolitical economic development around which to organize U.S. life and the postwar international order' (p.5).Meanwhile, Frazier argues that they were aware of the shortcomings and inconstancies in China's claim of racial equality, but they believed such problems did not outweigh the positive shifts China was engendering in the global struggle against white imperialism.However, as China improved relations with the USA in the 1970s, the Chinese model became less and less attractive as it 'betrayed' the global antiracial struggle by making a deal with the USA.While Frazier's book is based on solid and meticulous research, it does not offer enough analysis of the impact of those radical constructions of China on the actual Civil Rights Movement, and the analysis of the Chinese government's discursive construction of race is sometimes oversimplified.However, The East is Black is overall an insightful book for undergraduate and graduate courses

Ancient history · Archaeology · Economic history · Political science · Vietnam War · History · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies