Richard McGregor’s The Party Wins Asia Society’s 2011 Bernard Schwartz Book Award
(New York, October 17, 2011) The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers (HarperCollins Publishers) by Richard McGregor has been chosen as the winner of Asia Society’s third annual Bernard Schwartz Book Award. Mr. McGregor will be honored and presented with a $20,000 prize at Asia Society in New York on December 1, 2011.
The Bernard Schwartz Book Award is the only award that recognizes nonfiction books for their outstanding contributions to the understanding of contemporary Asia or U.S.-Asia relations. The Party was selected from more than 100 nominations submitted by U.S. and Asia-based publishers for books published in 2010.
A jury co-chaired by Carol Gluck, George Sansom Professor of History at Columbia University, and Tommy T. B. Koh, Singapore’s Ambassador-at-Large, and composed of leading experts and figures in policy, academia, and publishing from India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States selected the winner and honorable mentions.
“This masterful study of the Chinese Communist Party shows just how it runs the country and also makes clear that the ‘China’ we speak so much about may be different and more complicated than we often think,” saidco-chair Carol Gluck. “This is an important book because it sheds new light on the role of the CCP in recruiting, training, promoting, and deploying personnel in the public sector, which holds major implications for China’s current and future policy choices,” added co-chair Tommy Koh.
Two honorable mentions were also selected: Mao’s Great Famine: A History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 by Frank Dikötter (Walker & Company); and Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia by Tuong Vu (Cambridge University Press). Each will each receive a $2,000 prize.
For more information, please see the attached press release.