Review of 'Dictionary of the Politics of the People's Republic of China'. Edited by Colin Mackerras, with Donald H. McMillen and Andrew Watson. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. Pp.xii, 267, with map. ISBN 0-415-15450-2. R.R.P. £60. or $AU 178.92.

At the beginning of World War II Penguin Books produced a political dictionary that was, in effect, a handbook to: the then recent troubles in Spain; the rise of Nazism; the political organisation of the U.S.S.R.; numerous brief biographies; and the various racist and repressive theories which were gaining ever greater support on the mainland of Europe. Illustrated by various maps, it was quickly reprinted and its contents expanded. It was, in many ways, the first highly relevant 'subject dictionary' for all social classes in Great Britain and the world beyond. Perhaps with some justification one might claim that the present volume will serve a like enlightening function - in a peaceful way - as an interpretation of another twentieth century fact, the recent politics and the like history and economy of the People's Republic of China.