Two Kinds of Time

Graham Peck
Introduction by Robert A. Kapp

• $28.95 paperback (9780295988528) Add to Cart
• hardcover not available

• Published: 2008
• Subject Listing: Memoir, Asian Studies, World War II
• Bibliographic information: Orig. pub. 1950. 734 pp., illus., 5.5 x 8 in.
• Contents

Graham Peck (1914-1968) made his first trip to China in 1935 and served with the U.S. Office of War Information in China throughout the 1940s. His memoir, Two Kinds of Time, first published in 1950, is witty and eloquent in both its words and the drawings with which it is lovingly illustrated. Long out of print in its unabridged version, this engagingly written eye-witness narrative of China on the eve of revolution remains an important source of historical and political information. Robert A. Kapp's new Introduction analyzes the book's original contribution and highlights its relevance to issues in the twenty-first century world.

"It gives me great joy to celebrate the reappearance of the best book on China that I have ever read, Graham Peck's Two Kinds of Time, nearly six decades after its original publication. This book is at once hilarious and horrifying, heart-warming and heart-breaking, educational and entertaining." - From the Introduction

"What is missing in the most recent assessments of China's tectonic changes over the past half century is a baseline against which to measure the grand scale of its development. Two Kinds of Time by Graham Peck, written in lucid, descriptive prose by someone who has based his reportage on 'being there,' provides just such a baseline. In the most vivid way, Peck takes us back to Chiang Kai-shek's China during WWII, and by doing so, reminds us of the amazingly transformative odyssey this so-called 'sick man of Asia's' has been on since." - Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director, The Center on US-China Relations, Asia Society

"This unique and fascinating book tells how Graham Peck looked into the hearts of the Chinese of his day, from peasant to coolie to clerk, and understood what he saw as few Americans ever have. Today, rising China is immersed in a new kind of revolution. Understanding China is critical for our future - this book is a unique treasure-house of background for that understanding." - Sidney Rittenberg, longtime resident in the People's Republic of China, now professor of China Studies at Pacific Lutheran University

Introduction to the 2008 Edition by Robert A. Kapp

Part I: The Problem Proposed
1. Double Exposure
2. Uneasy Weather
3. The Threatening Sky
4. Around and Around
5. That Secret Smile
6. Some Compartments

Part II: The Edge of the Shadow
7. Road to the North
8. Good Intentions
9. The Sealed Cave
10. A City Falling Apart
11. Aftermath
12. Town and Country
13. Ebb-Tide

Part III: Americans and the Old Problem
14. Different Dreams in the Same Bed
15. The Sounding Board
16. Who Does What to Whom, and Who Pays?
17. The Pillar of Weakness

Part IV: An Experiment with Air
18. Bird's Eye
19. People in Trees
20. "Truth is Our Weapon"
21. The Enormous Day
22. Fields for the Harvest

Part V: The Time for Decision
23. An Incident
24. Some People
25. The Mechanized Dragon
26. Don't Ever Look Behind You

Part VI: The Period of Results
27. A Disaster
28. Out of the Frying Pan