Martin Powers

Martin Powers has written three books examining the theory and practice of administration in China. Two of these won the Levenson Prize for best book in pre-1900 Chinese Studies. Formerly Sally Michelson Davidson Professor and Director of the Center for Chinese Studies, he is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. His most recent book is China and England: the preindustrial struggle for justice in word and image, Routledge, 2019.

China

The Real Danger behind Trump’s “China Virus” Mantra

Martin Powers

Ann Arbor (Special to Informed Comment) – The “China-Virus” mantra illustrates well this administration’s habit of responding to challenges by branding people as ethnic, religious, or political types ranked good or bad, us or them. Not a few have dismissed this practice, rightly, as racist, scapegoating, or just off the point, but the administration’s groupthink […]

Constitution

How to Prevent Trump’s Masked Monarchy

Martin Powers

By Martin Powers | – Ann Arbor (Special to Informed Comment) – Even before impeachment proceedings began, online bloggers recognized a penchant for monarchical or autocratic pretensions in the Trump Whitehouse. Thomas Jefferson foresaw such dangers and had a word for it: “masked monarchy.” While Jefferson believed that our “government (is) better calculated than others […]