Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

If your book club looks for titles that stretch thinking, deepen global awareness, and question easy narratives of modernization, Poverty and Pacification is a compelling addition.

Behind China’s celebrated economic transformation lies a quieter, overlooked reality. As reforms accelerated and WTO membership marked global triumph, millions of lifelong state workers found themselves suddenly unemployed and largely invisible.

The book poses a profound question:

What happens to people when the system that once guaranteed them security decides they are expendable?

Why This Book Will Energize Discussion
1️⃣ Economics Made Personal

Through dozens of interviews, Solinger replaces policy jargon with lived experience — turning abstract reform into human stories.

2️⃣ Rethinking the “China Miracle”

It shifts the lens from triumph to consequence, opening debate about growth, fairness, and social cohesion.

3️⃣ The Complexity of Dibao

The Minimum Livelihood Guarantee functioned as both assistance and a stabilizing mechanism. This sparks key questions:

Is welfare about compassion or control?

How should reform and stability coexist?

Where do we see similar policies elsewhere?

4️⃣ Deeply Contemporary

In an era of automation and restructuring:

Job displacement

Economic precarity

Political management of poverty

Aging workforces

all feel strikingly familiar.

Discussion Prompts

Can modernization justify generational sacrifice?

Does minimal welfare solve poverty or contain unrest?

How should governments navigate mass layoffs?

What moral duties remain after promises of lifelong work?

Best Suited For

Global politics enthusiasts

Readers of inequality and labor history

Policy-minded groups

Social justice circles

Selecting this book shows your club’s dedication to serious, globally relevant conversation.
Poverty and Pacification: The Chinese State Abandons the Old Working Class
Dorothy J. Solinger