January 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – A new book by Illinois Wesleyan University Associate Professor of History Thomas D. Lutze explores how American anti-Communism in China after World War II helped tip the middle classes to the side of the Communists, unintentionally aiding their victory.

In Lutze’s book, China’s Inevitable Revolution: Rethinking America’s Loss to the Communists, published by Palgrave-Macmillan, he argues that American support for Nationalist Party leader Chiang Kai-shek convinced the democratically-minded Chinese middle classes to align with the Communists in the late 1940s.

“Americans were taught during the Cold War that anti-Communism and pro-democracy were flip-sides of the same coin. The great irony is that in China the American effort to contain Communism actually constrained democracy,” maintained Lutze, who said the middle class saw Chiang Kai-shek as a dictator. The United States policy was to support Chiang as an anti-Communist and a friend of American interests in China; at the same time, Washington hoped to win over the liberals to bring about reform of Chiang’s one-party rule. But the two policies were contradictory. “True democrats in China abandoned the American side and threw their support to the Communists.”

The book is part of Lutze’s ongoing study of the middle class and the Chinese Communist Revolution that dates back to his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 1973 and 1989. He spent time studying East Asian history and the history of U.S. foreign relations at Cornell University and at Peking University before earning his doctorate in modern Chinese history at the University of Wisconsin in 1996. His ties with Peking University (PKU) aided him in writing the book. “Thanks to colleagues at PKU, I had access to photos, archives, and interviews with middle-class liberals and leaders of China’s democratic parties who were active during the Revolution,” said Lutze.

According to Lutze, scholars have generally ignored the middle class when examining the history of the Chinese Communist Revolution. “The middle class democrats have been dismissed in retrospect,” said Lutze, “but they should be identified as a crucial political force that both Chiang Kai-shek and the Communist Party (CCP) needed.” It was the middle class who would solidify either the Nationalists or Communists in the cities of China, he said.

This liberal middle class of urban doctors, lawyers, educators, and businessmen held political ideals similar to that of America, and many of them were educated in America, said Lutze. “But they took democracy seriously and recognized that the Communists legitimately represented important sectors of the population. Chiang Kai-shek made it clear that the Communists, and other opposition voices, would be suppressed—and that he would enforce that decision militarily.” American support for Chiang thus translated into the curtailing of democracy and the expansion of a very unpopular civil war.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Illinois Wesleyan University will host the 18th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Holiday Gospel Festival Celebration on Monday, Jan. 21, from 3-9 p.m. in Westbrook Auditorium of Presser Hall (1210 Park St., Bloomington).

Free and open to the public, the gospel festival honors the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Also honoring King is the Fellowship Dinner on Saturday, Jan. 19. See all MLK events at IWU.

Founded by the United Community Gospel Singers of Bloomington and Normal, a not-for-profit organization, and cosponsored by Illinois Wesleyan, the gospel festival was launched in 1991 by Corine G. Sims, executive director of the United Community Gospel Singers as a way to continue King’s legacy. This year numerous choirs, soloists, singers and dancers such as Malcolm Williams and the Voices of Great Faith, Gayles Memorial Mass Choir and the Fantastic Jones Family will pay tribute to Sims, who passed away on Aug. 3, 2007.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— The Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) has awarded a Nurse Educator Fellowship to Illinois Wesleyan University Professor of Nursing Connie Dennis. The competitive Fellowship is a $10,000 award recognizing those who make significant contributions to nursing education.

“It is an honor to receive the Fellowship, and signifies the importance of rewarding faculty development in the field of nursing,” said Dennis, a member of the IWU faculty since 1973. “I hope to be a strong advocate for nursing professors and undergraduate programs in nursing.”

The Fellowship is one of 15 awarded across the state, meant to supplement full-time nursing faculty salaries and to assist with professional development and continuing education expenses. Dennis plans to continue developing curriculum for nursing students in caring for people of other cultures. “I’m looking to further develop teaching strategies to promote transcultural competency in nursing,” said Dennis, who has consulted with nursing colleges in Mexico and has taught a transcultural course focusing on health care for Asian-Pacific Islanders and the use of complementary/integrative medicine.

This is the second Nurse Educator Fellowship the IBHE has granted Illinois Wesleyan in the first two years of the fellowship initiative. In 2006, Associate Professor of Nursing Sharie Metcalfe received a Fellowship. “It says a lot about Illinois Wesleyan that we are recognized for our good faculty, and our efforts to promote teaching,” said Dennis.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— Capitalism produces a lot of wealth, but also a significant amount of poverty, writes Illinois Wesleyan University Associate Professor of Political Science Greg Shaw in his new book, The Welfare Debate. The controversy over how to help poor people has lingered in the United States for centuries. In his book, Shaw examines the history and rhetoric that have led a stalemate in the discussion of welfare in America.

“Much of the debate over public assistance boils down to the tension between the rhetoric of the ‘good Samaritan’ – helping out one’s brothers and sisters – and that of creating dependency and being a corrupting influence on society, ” said Shaw.

An instructor with IWU since 1998, Shaw has been examining the welfare system in American since his graduate days at Columbia University, where he earned his master’s degree and doctorate in political science in 1993 and 1998, respectively. He notes that while the sides of the welfare debate are marked by some enduring continuities, some important issues have evolved over time.

In The Welfare Debate, Shaw looks at several issues, including contention over the source of relief for the poor. “There’s always been the belief that poor people should be offered help,” said Shaw, “but one of the debated questions is whether the source of that relief should come from public or private means.” Shaw points out that throughout its history, the United States has journeyed from private funding of welfare to public, back to private and to public again. “The debate has not progressed in a linear fashion,” he said.

Race is another evolving issue affecting the welfare debate, according to Shaw. “You cannot ignore the inequality of wealth along race lines,” he said, noting in 2000, the U. S. Census Bureau reported the median household net worth for non-Hispanic white families was $75,000, while for black families it was approximately $7,500. “It’s a 10-to-1 difference. Race and racism are very much with us in the way that Americans think and act about issues, including public assistance,” he said. In the book, Shaw also tackles the changing ideologies of the government’s role in the marketplace and attitudes toward motherhood.

In researching The Welfare Debate, Shaw said he enjoyed gathering the different perspectives on the debate. “To really tap into the rhetoric of the debate was intriguing – pulling from government publications, elite media such as the New Republic, mass media and historical perspectives of people living in poverty from social work interviews,” said Shaw.

Though the book offers no solutions for welfare, Shaw said he hopes to bring the debate to a wider audience. “It would be helpful for people to see the similarities of the arguments we’ve had, whether it was the early 1800s, the early 1900s or a year ago,” he said, “and how we still seem to be banging our heads against the rhetoric that is hundreds of years old.”

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