Welcome to another episode of Lit in a Nutshell, the podcast where we break down complex books into sharp, digestible insights.

Today, we’re looking at How China Escaped Shock Therapy by Isabella Weber — a fascinating study of how China took a very different path to economic reform than many other post-socialist countries.

While nations like Russia embraced rapid ‘shock therapy’ privatization in the 1990s, often with devastating consequences, China pursued gradual reforms, blending markets with state control. Weber reveals the debates, policies, and strategies that allowed China to avoid collapse and instead set the stage for its extraordinary growth.

In this episode, we’ll unpack the core lessons of the book — why China chose gradualism over shock, how that decision reshaped its economy, and what it tells us about the relationship between states, markets, and development today.

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