Beijing Jeep
The story of how AMC’s 1979 joint venture to produce Jeeps in Beijing ended in tears is perhaps the closest thing to a classic work on doing business in post-Mao China. It’s required reading for anyone venturing to the world’s most populous nation.
— Fortune
The best ‘business’ book previously written about China is probably Jim Mann’s Beijing Jeep, an account of the ill-fated auto joint venture in China’s early days of experimenting with capitalism.
— Bill Powell, Time
“I greatly enjoyed the first edition of Beijing Jeep which I found to be fast-paced, informative, and sadly funny. I am confident this update will tug new readers into the arcane world of doing business in China.”
— Jonathan Spence, Yale University
“Any businessman, government bureaucrat, tourist, or journalist who wants to know how business is actually done in China must read this book. It is honest and accurate, well written and interesting, whether read as history or as a record of current events. So much that has been written about China business is either self-serving or propagandistic—to wit, if you want the deal, you sing our tune. This book, in contrast, tells it as it was and as it is. And could have been written only by a perspective journalist like Jim Mann who was present at the creation.”
— James R. Lilley, Asian Studies, American Enterprise Institute; former U.S. ambassador to China, 1989–1991
“A lively and engaging cautionary tale that should be required reading for anyone thinking of doing business in China. No one understands Chinese business practices or tells the story better than Jim Mann.”
— Warren I. Cohen, Asia Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
“Even today [1994], five years after its first publication, Beijing Jeep remains one of the best—if not the best—book-length account of doing business in China because of its tale of the hidden agendas that underpinned many of the major problems at the first Sino-foreign vehicle joint venture.
At the book’s core are the revelations of the lengths the Chinese government was willing to go to create a large-scale joint venture with a major overseas company that on the surface appeared successful.
A venture that seemed to make money—whatever its actual problems were—would not only attract other business from abroad but convince firms already in China but struggling that success was possible, and thus more likely to blame themselves for failure rather than the environment in which they operated.
“Bejing Jeep should still be part of the basic tool kit of any foreign business person in China—with one caveat: although foreign firms often feel victimised, it would be a mistake to see all attempts at squeezing them dry as part of a straightforward ‘them against us’ battle. As the recent attempt by the National Environmental Protection Agency to introduce regulations that heavily discriminate against foreign firms reveals, the motives can have far more to do with jockeying for power between Chinese government bodies. It can also make the task of locating partners, especially powerful ones or ones in sensitive industries such as telecommunications, doubly problematic. The example of Ji Tong Communications is illustrative.”
— EIU Business China
“A case study of China and the business to be done there…. Smoothly written.”
— The Wall Street Journal
“He has the veteran journalist’s eye for detail and fine ear for anecdote. He has given us a superbly reported, crisply written work.”
— New York Times Book Review
“If you think the Soviet bloc’s upheavals will create instant riches for Western investors, Beijing Jeep will sober you up.”
— Robert J. Samuelson, Newsweek
About Face
"[Mann] has written a cogent and authoritative study. He shows how the exigencies of the Cold War shaped an unlikely partnership–”cozy, secretive, elite-based”–that couldn’t withstand the pressure of American public opinion after Tiananmen. Every president starting with Nixon made diplomatic concessions to the Chinese government that weren’t really necessary, he argues."
— The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Carroll Bogert
“Revealing and lively–eminently readable, often provocative.”
— The Wilson Quarterly
“The best book ever written by an American reporter about the strange relation between China and America.”
— Ross Terrill, author of Mao, China in Our Time and Madame Mao
“Mann takes us through the dizzying diplomacy and strategic U-turns that have characterized our formal relationship.”
— The Wall Street Journal
Rise of the Vulcans
“Lucid, shrewd and after so many high decibel screeds from both the right and the left, blessedly level headed. It is necessary reading for anyone interested in understanding how and why America came to deal with the rest of the world the way it is doing under the Bush administration.”
— The New York Times
“Mr. Mann has pulled back the curtain to expose three decades of political hardball, played to advance theories of the world that are, at best, incorrect. Read it and weep.”
— New York Observer
“At a time when political reporting seems intent on shrinking every story about foreign affairs into a battle of hawks and doves, Rise of the Vulcans is a much needed antidote: a work of serious intellectual history and a nuanced analysis of the debates that will continue to shape American foreign policy long after the Vulcans themselves have left the stage.”
— The Wall Street Journal
“The most detailed and comprehensive account of the Bush foreign policy team to date.”
— Los Angeles Times Book Review
The China Fantasy
“If Americans revered veteran China correspondents the way Chinese communists revere their founding revolutionaries, former Los Angeles Times bureau chief Jim Mann would justly be hailed as an ‘immortal.’”
— Clay Chandler, editor, Fortune Asia
“Mr. Mann has perfectly described the blend of hope and cynicism that currently underpins American policy toward China.”
— Gordon S. Chang, The New York Sun
Related Links:
Read a summary of Mann’s writings and the controversy over The China Fantasy in the China Digital Times
Read a Q&A with Mann about The China Fantasy in the China Digital Times
The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan
Press and Praise for The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan
Broadcast interviews with James Mann:
More reviews:
For a debate and series of reviews about The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan, see
Foreign Policy.
“All of those who have written about Reagan have found their subject elusive. How can the affable, anecdote-telling actor and the principled, thoughtful statesman be the same person? Mann … does a superb job of explaining how Reagan helped change the world.”
— The Dallas Morning News
“Were Ronald Reagan’s efforts to end the Cold War really the result of his handlers? Hardly, as Mann makes a persuasive case for Reagan’s negotiation skills and plans in confronting the Soviet Union.”
— Los Angeles Times
“Depending on your political perspective, Ronald Reagan either had zip to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union or single-handedly tossed it onto history’s ash heap using his unique combination of guile and strength….”
— Columbia Journalism Review
“In the introduction to “The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan” [Mann] writes, “I wanted to examine the hidden aspects of American foreign policy and to explain them in a historical narrative.” Several dozen interviews and examinations of previously inaccessible archives later, he has done just that.”
— Washington Times
“Mann enlivens his account with telling anecdotes…and with a brilliant exposition of the tug of war within the administration over Reagan’s famous Berlin Wall speech.”
— Kirkus (starred review)
“Mann bases his argument upon impressive original research…”
— Library Journal
“Jim Mann has given us a gripping and meticulously documented reconstruction of key events that led to the end of the Cold War. President Reagan is revealed as a canny leader who, by instinct more than analysis, zigzags his way through the arcane politics of the foreign policy elite (Nixon and Kissinger) and bureaucratic in- fighting, to support Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in his effort to end the U.S.-Soviet military confrontation and reform Russian society.”
— Richard H. Solomon, Director of State Department Policy Planning during the Reagan
Administration and President, U.S. Institute of Peace.
“This is history and politics at its best. Jim Mann has scoured the archives and tracked down new sources to write a highly original account of Reagan’s role in ending the Cold War. His compelling and scrupulously fair narrative will upend myths held by both the left and the right.”
— Glenn Kessler, author of The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy
By junking the cliches and stereotypes of conventional Cold War post-mortems James “Mann frustrates ideologues on both extremes of the political spectrum. But the rest of us benefit greatly from this fresh-eyed, probing analysis of one of the most pregnant periods in world history. ‘The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan’ not only provides a clear window on the past but also a valuable template for grappling with the post-George W. Bush future of U.S. dealings with the rest of the planet.”
— Robert Shogan, National Political Correspondent, Los Angeles Times, 1973-1999
“In this masterful study, James Mann convincingly shows how Ronald Reagan overcame his conservative critics to pursue the Cold War endgame. Mann delivers the big picture and some delicious tidbits, bringing new insights to familiar figures as well as new information about less-known characters. His nuanced portrait of Reagan, based on extensive interviews and declassified documents, illuminates the transformative years in the run-up to the fall of the Berlin Wall.”
— James Goldgeier, Professor of Political Science, George Washington University; Senior Fellow,
Council on Foreign Relations; Co-author, America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11
“Amazingly, James Mann has broken new ground and uncovered compelling reasons to reinterpret Ronald Reagan’s central role and the real motivation for his most important initiative-the outreach to Mikhail Gorbachev that led to the end of the cold war. This is a fascinating and brilliantly reported history with relevance for all who love politics and foreign policy.”
— Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent
“In this extraordinarily smart, nuanced, and readable account, James Mann straightens out the many misinterpretations that have bedeviled the legacy left by one of our most complex presidents. This book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand Ronald Reagan and his role in ending the Cold War.”
— Peter Scoblic, editor of The New Republic and the author of U.S. vs. Them
The Obamians
Published: 2012
“James Mann is unique among writers on contemporary American foreign policy. He combines a reporter’s eye for detail and anecdote with a scholar’s grasp of the broad sweep of historical events.”
--Aaron Friedberg, professor of politics and international affairs, Woodrow Wilson University
“James Mann gives us valuable insight into the crafting of American foreign policy in the Obama administration.”
--Nancy Pelosi
“James Mann has pioneered a new and immensely readable genre: an in-depth group portrait of foreign-policy advisors whose backgrounds and interactions help explain the worldview and policies of the president they serve. He did that superbly in Rise of the Vulcans about George W. Bush’s inner circle, and he’s done it again with The Obamians.
--Strobe Talbott, president, The Brookings Institution
In THE OBAMIANS: The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power (Viking; Date: June 14, 2012; ISBN 9780670023769; 400 pages; $26.95), bestselling author and acclaimed reporter James Mann, takes readers inside the back rooms of the White House, Pentagon, State Department and CIA to reveal the interplay of events, ideas, personalities and conflicts that drive America’s foreign policy at the highest levels. Having written the definitive book on Bush’s war cabinet (The New York Times bestseller, The Rise of the Vulcans), and a nuanced exploration of the true nature of Reagan’s role in ending the Cold War (The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan), Mann now provides the definitive book on Barack Obama’s foreign policy team.
At the heart of the foreign policy struggle are the generational conflicts between the Democratic establishment—still influenced by the legacy of Vietnam—and Obama’s inner circle of largely unknown, relatively youthful advisors who came of age after the end of the Cold War. When President Obama took office in 2009, he brought with him a fresh group of advisors intent on carving out a new global role for America in the wake of the Bush Administration’s war in Iraq and the resulting mistrust of the United States throughout the world. Mann has conducted hundreds of interviews with prominent government officials, politicians and those close to Obama.
THE OBAMIANS provides stunning new details as Mann takes readers through the Obama administration’s foreign policy efforts. Exhaustively reported and lucidly argued, THE OBAMIANS is a compelling, even-handed account of the administration’s struggle to enact a coherent and effective set of policies in a time of global turmoil.
THE OBAMIANS is a sequel of sorts to The Rise of the Vulcans, which was described by Michiko Kakutani as “compelling … lucid, shrewd, and … blessedly level-headed.” No other book so far has provided such a global accounting of this historic president and his inner circle, and of how Obama’s policies may or may not continue to shape America and the world. James Mann, admired for his balanced view of politically polarized issues, is uniquely qualified to write this book.
“Journalist Mann, author of The Rise of the Vulcans, offers an insider’s account of Barack Obama’s foreign policy team.”
–Publishers Weekly
“An absorbing narrative as much about the personalities as the policy itself. This book is for serious and thoughtful readers of any political persuasion looking for in-depth information on Obama’s foreign policy thus far.”
–Library Journal
“This book effectively represents a companion volume to Mann’s well-regarded Rise of the Vulcans (2004), which explored the ascendancy of neoconservatives in President George W. Bush’s administration. Taking a similar approach here, Mann proves to be a deft, discerning reporter.”
–Kirkus