1. Early Life and Education
Maurice Meisner's early life and academic journey were significantly shaped by the tumultuous mid-20th century, from the economic hardships of the Great Depression to the intense political pressures of the Cold War and McCarthyism.
1.1. Childhood and Family Background
Maurice Jerome Meisner was born on November 17, 1931, in Detroit, Michigan. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, and he grew up in Detroit during the challenging years of the Great Depression and World War II. Despite these austere times, Detroit had become a thriving center of culture and the automotive industry by the time he reached adulthood during the post-war economic boom.
1.2. University Education and Early Challenges
Meisner remained in Detroit for his initial higher education, enrolling at Wayne State University. He proved to be an outstanding student, gaining admission to a graduate program after only two years of undergraduate study. However, this period also coincided with the beginning of the Cold War and the fervent Red Scare in the United States, which had severe repercussions on the personal lives of Maurice Meisner and his first wife, Lorraine Faxon Meisner.
As part of the McCarthyism-era investigations, Lorraine was subpoenaed before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1952. This was in connection with her attendance at the World Festival of Youth and Students held in East Berlin the previous year. Like most witnesses called before hearings of HUAC or the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS), Lorraine Meisner refused to testify, asserting her rights under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. While this assertion had no direct legal consequences, David Henry, the president of Wayne State University where she was also a student, decided to expel her from the university. This move was considered unusually harsh even at the time, and other academic institutions were reluctant to admit a student dismissed under such circumstances, creating significant challenges for her continued education.
1.3. Doctoral Studies and Foundations of Chinese History Research
Following these difficulties, the Meisners moved to Chicago, where they were both accepted to study at the University of Chicago, ultimately earning their doctorates there. Maurice Meisner made the pioneering decision to specialize in Chinese history, a choice considered obscure at the time. Yet, he recognized the emerging significance of China in the wake of the 1949 revolution and China's crucial role in the Korean War. His studies involved dedicated efforts, including learning the Chinese language for research and traveling to collaborate with the relatively few China scholars of that era.
Meisner completed his master's thesis, titled The agrarian economy in China in the nineteenth century, in 1955. His 1962 doctoral dissertation, Li Ta-chao and the origins of Chinese Marxism, was prepared under the guidance of Sinologist Earl H. Pritchard and Sovietologist Leopold H. Haimson. After an additional year of research at the East Asian Research Center at Harvard University, his dissertation was published by Harvard University Press in 1967. In this seminal work, Meisner analyzed the original contributions of Li Dazhao, a co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party, to Chinese revolutionary theory. He argued that the fundamental adaptation of Marxism to the Chinese context, often attributed solely to Mao Zedong, had actually been accomplished earlier by Li Dazhao.
Meisner was also an early and active member of the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars (CCAS). Beyond its opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War, the CCAS played a crucial role in demystifying China at a time when "Red China" was frequently portrayed as a grave threat to the United States, often surpassing the Soviet Union as the primary target of anti-communist sentiment by the late 1960s. Meisner contributed articles to the CCAS's publication, the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, and remained on the journal's advisory board until his death in 2012. Throughout his early career, he published articles in leading journals in the field, including The China Quarterly, Asian Survey, Current History, Journal of Asian Studies, and Modern China. Eight of these early articles were later collected in his 1982 book, Marxism, Maoism, and Utopianism: Eight Essays.
2. Academic Career and Major Contributions
Maurice Meisner's academic career was marked by his distinguished scholarship and influential contributions to the understanding of modern Chinese history, particularly his nuanced interpretations of the Chinese Communist Revolution and the complexities of post-Mao China.
2.1. Professorship at University of Wisconsin-Madison
In 1968, Maurice Meisner accepted a professorship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, leaving his initial faculty position at the University of Virginia. He would remain at Wisconsin for the remainder of his career, taking sabbaticals at the Woodrow Wilson Center in 1980 and the London School of Economics in 1999.
His arrival in Madison in 1968 coincided with a period of intense apprehension and unrest across the United States, driven by the ongoing Vietnam War and burgeoning movements for civil rights and minority empowerment. This year was marked by the Tet Offensive, which significantly shifted American public opinion on the Vietnam War, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and its aftermath, and anti-war protests met with police violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, followed by the election of Richard Nixon as president. Protest activity on and off university campuses reached a crescendo, and Madison was notably one of the most affected campuses, bolstered by its large student body drawn from across the country. Highlights of this activism included militant protests against the Dow Chemical Company, which produced napalm used in Vietnam; demonstrations and a student strike demanding a Black Studies department; a campus-wide strike by graduate assistants; the nationwide Student Strike of 1970 following the 1970 U.S. invasion of Cambodia; and the 1970 Sterling Hall bombing in protest of the war. This climate fostered an environment where radical politics, encompassing ideologies from anarchism to various Marxist currents, were widely explored and debated.
Against this backdrop, Meisner began teaching the history of the Chinese Communist Revolution. The specifics of the Chinese Revolution resonated deeply with many radicalizing youth who were disillusioned with the nominally Marxist pro-Soviet Communist Party USA, which often aligned itself with the Democratic Party. In contrast, the Chinese Communist Party had denounced the Marxism of the Soviet Union as "revisionist," and Maoist groups were prominent among the more militant factions involved in protest actions and ideological debate. Meisner's course on Chinese history benefited greatly from this perception of an international revolutionary pole centered in China, combined with his own sympathy for the socialist goals underpinning the revolution. What was once a niche academic field gained a broad, politically motivated audience, requiring a large lecture hall to accommodate the significant student interest.
2.2. Analysis of the Chinese Communist Revolution and Cultural Revolution
The year 1968 also marked the height of the Cultural Revolution in China. While it garnered much fanfare among Western radicals, little was truly known about its internal dynamics. Many Maoists in the West found inspiration in the (perceived) role of the Red Guards, and the English version of Mao's Red Book became widely circulated as a revolutionary handbook. Competing Maoist groups in the U.S. (such as those emerging from the breakup of SDS) and throughout the West aligned themselves with the legacy of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution, fueling interest in China's recent history, the subject of Meisner's ongoing research.
As various absurdities and widespread abuses committed during the Cultural Revolution became known, reactions from Maoist factions ranged from deep introspection to outright denial. Meisner's related research was of obvious interest, despite the difficulty in obtaining objective information at a time when visiting the People's Republic was still impossible (and visits by Chinese individuals to the West were equally restricted). Despite these challenges, his scholarly work on the period was integrated into his classroom teaching and later incorporated into his influential 1977 book, Mao's China: A History of the People's Republic.
2.3. Critical Perspectives on Post-Mao China
By the late 1970s, the earlier wave of campus radicalism had largely subsided, and significant, often troubling, changes were underway in China. These developments were particularly unsettling for the remaining American Maoist currents and the so-called New Communist Movement that had emerged from the remnants of the New Left. The initial fascination with the Cultural Revolution had been sustained by popular perceptions and slogans during a period of sparse direct contact with Chinese communists. However, in the years following Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China, direct engagement began to increase. With the death of Mao and the defeat of the Gang of Four, China's political course rapidly transformed. Many Western observers, across both the political right and left, were often unable or unwilling to fully grasp the enormity of this transformation, even as Meisner's major work Mao's China went to press, documenting the history and dynamics of the Chinese Communist Revolution up to that point.
A subsequent edition of Mao's China, published in 1985 as Mao's China and After, included additional chapters addressing the aftermath of the power struggles. Initially, Meisner viewed the market reforms instituted by Deng Xiaoping as a tactical turn within the development of socialism. However, after several years of China's accelerating economic and political evolution, Meisner's assessment of the entire period became more critical and sober. He meticulously traced the rise of what he termed "bureaucratic capitalism," which developed despite being officially carried out under the banner of building "socialism with Chinese characteristics." Indeed, he saw these profound economic transformations as having paradoxically set the stage for the democracy movement of 1989. The perplexing evolution of socialist China toward capitalism, all while maintaining Communist Party rule, became the central subject of Meisner's influential 1996 work, The Deng Xiaoping Era: An Inquiry into the Fate of Chinese Socialism, 1978-1994.
Notably, Meisner was in Beijing in 1989 up until a week before the crackdown on the democracy movement. His incisive analysis of the protest movement contradicted both the official Chinese characterization of it as a "counterrevolutionary rebellion" and the prevailing Western media's tendency to depict any movement for greater democracy as a simple embrace of capitalism. Instead, Meisner argued that the movement was primarily propelled by a deep-seated disgust with the extensive privilege accumulated by powerful bureaucrats, which was widely perceived as official corruption. He viewed this corruption as a direct consequence of the market reforms themselves, rather than a separate phenomenon. Meisner elaborated, stating:
:[Calls against] "Corruption" now conveyed a moral condemnation of the whole system of bureaucratic privilege and power.... But now that Communist leaders, high and low, were so deeply enmeshed in profiteering in the presumably "free" marketplace, they had gone well beyond the bounds of politico-ethical legitimacy in popular perceptions. The use of political power for private gain was viewed as unfair and unjust, and it inflamed slumbering resentments against bureaucratic privilege.
Meisner's perspective highlighted the internal contradictions of China's economic reforms and provided a more nuanced understanding of the forces driving the 1989 protests.
3. Major Works
Maurice Meisner authored several highly influential books and numerous articles that significantly shaped the academic understanding of modern Chinese history and socialism. His major works include:
- Li Ta-Chao and the Origins of Chinese Marxism. Harvard East Asian Series, 27. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967).
- with Rhoads Murphey, eds. The Mozartian Historian: Essays on the Works of Joseph R. Levenson. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976).
- Mao's China: A History of the People's Republic (New York: Free Press, 1977; revised 2nd ed. 1986).
- Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic. (New York: Free Press, 3rd ed., 1999).
- Marxism, Maoism, and Utopianism: Eight Essays. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982).
- The Deng Xiaoping Era: An Inquiry into the Fate of Chinese Socialism, 1978-1994. (New York: Hill and Wang, 1996).
- Mao Zedong: A Political and Intellectual Portrait. (Cambridge; Malden, MA: Polity, 2007).
4. Personal Life and Relationships
Beyond his scholarly pursuits, Maurice Meisner's personal life included two long marriages and a significant friendship that led to a lasting academic legacy.
4.1. Marriages and Family
Maurice Meisner was married twice, each marriage lasting approximately 30 years. His first wife was Lorraine Faxon Meisner, and his second was Lynn Lubkeman. He had three children from his first marriage and one child from his second, totaling four children.
4.2. Friendship with Harvey Goldberg
Meisner maintained a close personal friendship with fellow historian Professor Harvey Goldberg at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their connection stemmed from shared intellectual interests, as Goldberg's study of social movements in modern Europe mirrored Meisner's similar work on contemporary China. Goldberg was widely known and immensely popular among radical students, who would pack his lecture hall to hear his memorable orations, which often took the form of passionate political statements rather than conventional history lectures.
Their friendship endured well beyond the peak of campus activism. As Goldberg's health declined in the late 1980s, Meisner spent considerable time with him. Struck by Goldberg's death in 1987, Meisner was instrumental in establishing the Harvey Goldberg Center for the Study of Contemporary History to honor and commemorate the beloved professor. In the spirit of Harvey Goldberg's commitment to connecting historical study with social activism, the center went on to sponsor numerous speakers, conferences, and symposia, particularly focusing on issues of social concern. The center also maintains an archive of Goldberg's work. Maurice Meisner himself assumed the title of Harvey Goldberg Professor of History for the remainder of his university career, further solidifying the bond between their legacies.
5. Legacy and Tributes
Maurice Meisner's profound impact on the field of Chinese history and his commitment to linking scholarship with social engagement are enduring aspects of his legacy, recognized through various tributes and commemorations.
5.1. Academic Influence and Recognition
Maurice Meisner's influence in the field of Chinese history studies is enduring. Towards the end of his life, in 2009, a four-day conference was held in his honor, titled "Reflections on History and Contemporary Change in China Before and After Tiananmen." This event, co-sponsored by the Harvey Goldberg Center, brought together many of Meisner's former students, who by then had become notable scholars of Chinese history themselves.
Following this conference, three of Meisner's former students, Catherine Lynch, Robert B. Marks, and Paul G. Pickowicz, undertook the authorship and editing of a commemorative book. This work, titled Radicalism, Revolution, and Reform in Modern China: Essays in Honor of Maurice Meisner, was published in 2011. The authors presented Meisner with an early copy of the book in 2011, the year before his passing, marking a significant tribute to his distinguished career and profound academic impact.
6. Death
Maurice Jerome Meisner died on January 23, 2012, at the age of 80, at his home in Madison, Wisconsin.