Karl Gerth, History, UC San Diego

What forces shaped the twentieth-century world? Capitalism and communism are usually seen as engaged in a fight-to-the-death during the Cold War. With the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party aimed to end capitalism.

Gerth argues that despite the socialist rhetoric of class warfare and egalitarianism, Communist Party policies developed a variety of capitalism and expanded consumerism. This negated the goals of the Communist Revolution across the Mao era (1949-1976) down to the present.

Through topics related to state attempts to manage what people began to desire – wristwatches and bicycles, films and fashion, leisure travel and Mao badges – Gerth challenges fundamental assumptions about capitalism, communism, and countries conventionally labeled as socialist. In so doing, his provocative history of China suggests how larger forces related to the desire for mass-produced consumer goods reshaped the twentieth-century world and remade people’s lives.

As part of the Migrations Summer Institute, join us for a conversation with Moon-Ho Jung (Professor and Harry Bridges Endowed Chair in Labor Studies, Department of History, University of Washington) about his most recent book, Menace to Empire: Anticolonial Solidarities and the Transpacific Origins of the U.S. Security State. The book addresses these questions:

Why was the United States so obsessed with “Asians and radicals” in the early twentieth century?How was the U.S. security state borne out of the threat of transpacific revolutionary movements?How might we research and write multi-sited anti-imperial histories?The conversation will be moderated by Mark John Sanchez (Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Studies, Vanderbilt University).

Register to join us on Zoom.

The annual International Fair showcases Cornell's global opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. Explore the fair and find out about international majors and minors, language study, study abroad, funding opportunities, global internships, Cornell Global Hubs, and more.

The International Fair is sponsored by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and Office of Global Learning (both part of Global Cornell), with Cornell's Language Resource Center.

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