The reference shelf

Reprints thirty articles, book excerpts, speeches, and studies that examine issues related to life in modern-day China, discussing prospects for the liberalization of China's political system, domestic issues, human rights, the state of U.S.-China relations, and China's dealings with other countries.

Presents twenty-four periodical articles on religion's relationship to culture, political violence, ecology, and gender, as well as new religions and religious conversion.

Reprints twenty-four articles, book excerpts, speeches, and studies that examine issues related to life in modern-day Cuba, providing an overview of the state of the revolution, and discussing the development of the economy through the 1990s, U.S.-Cuba relations, and Cuban intellectual, cultural, and social life.

A collection of essays about China in the 1990s, surveying the country's history; considering issues of the economy, demography, and environment; analyzing U.S. relations with China; examining human rights; and looking at cultural trends.