trepidation." He suggests the Chinese form of government may be more adaptive than democracy because it is not encumbered by the special interest power blocs found in the United States, and can sometimes be able to act more decisively to deal with the complexities of the world of today, although it can also more quickly implement poor decisions. But, he emphasized that he personally preferred living in an open society. After Xi Jinping's ascension to power in 2013, Schell has become increasingly critical of China's authoritarian model of governance, and in 2020 wrote an essay about the "death of engagement" between the US and China. Publications The China Reader (with Franz Schurmann) (1967). Starting Over: A College Reader (1970) (with Frederick Crews). Modern China: The Story of a Revolution (with Joseph W. Esherick) (1972) Modern China: The Making of a New Society from 1839 to the Present (with Joseph W. Esherick) (1972) The Town That Fought to Save Itself (1976) In the People's Republic: An American's First-Hand View of Living and Working in China (1977) Brown (1978) (biography of California governor Jerry Brown) Modern Meat: Antibiotics, Hormones, and the Pharmaceutical Farm (1984) To Get Rich Is Glorious: China in the Eighties (1984) Discos and Democracy: China in the Throes of Reform (1988) Mandate of Heaven: A New Generation of Entrepreneurs, Dissidents, Bohemians, and Technocrats Lays Claim to China's Future (1994) Mandate of Heaven: The Legacy of Tiananmen Square and the Next Generation of China's Leaders (1995) Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La from the Himalayas to Hollywood (2000) The China Reader: The Reform Years (co-edited with David Shambaugh) (1999) Empire: Impressions of China (2004) Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-First Century (2013) References External links China Thinks Long-term, But Can It Relearn to Act Long-term? - Summary of talk, mp3, and video, at the Long Now Foundation, September 2006 About the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations Schell archive from The New York Review of Books Homepage of the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations World Economic Forum Global Agenda 2009 Orville Schell's Curriculum Vitae American journalism academics American sinologists American non-fiction writers News agency founders American tax resisters University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni Harvard University alumni 1940 births Living people Pomfret School alumni Weatherhead East Asian Institute faculty