Perhaps no one in the twentieth century had a greater long-term impact on world history than Deng Xiaoping. And no scholar of contemporary East Asian history and culture is better qualified than Ezra Vogel to disentangle the many contradictions embodied in the life and legacy of China"s boldest strategist. Once described by Mao Zedong as a "needle inside a ball of cotton", Deng was the pragmatic yet disciplined driving force behind China"s radical transformation in the late twentieth century. He confronted the damage wrought by the Cultural Revolution, dissolved Mao"s cult of personality, and loosened the economic and social policies that had stunted China"s growth. Obsessed with modernization and technology, Deng opened trade relations with the West that lifted hundreds of millions of his countrymen out of poverty. Yet at the same time he answered to his authoritarian roots, most notably when he ordered the crackdown in June 1989 at Tiananmen Square. Deng"s youthful...