| This dissertation analyzes the evolution of modern Chinese nationalism as championed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) from 1927 to 1937. The Kuomintang began their reign by recruiting the common people as agents for radical national change, but ended by seeking to protect the revolution from the people. Newly available archival documents are used to assess this change, and the Kuomintang is dissected along institutional, policy, and thematic lines. I conclude the study with the first in-depth analysis of the consequences of the party's push for radical universal vocational education. Therefore, this study fills a significant gap in existing scholarship on modern Chinese history, and carries implications for the study of nationalism, modernization, revolutionary political parties, and education. Ultimately it argues that a study of nationalism must consider the interactions between ideological principles, political institutions, and historical contingencies. The nationalist agendas of the Kuomintang leaders faltered because they failed to anticipate contradictions in their policies, they demoralized rank-and-file party members, and they discounted the importance of stable political institutions. |
