Bill Brugger Collection

Bill Brugger (1941- 1999) was a leading authority on revolutionary China, as well as publishing in social and political theory. He was a Professor of Politics at Flinders University and was considered a leader in his field.

His interest in China dated from his undergraduate studies at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) where he completed a BA degree in Modern Chinese followed by two years spent in China teaching at the Beijing Second Foreign Languages Institute. He returned to SOAS to complete a Masters and a PhD in Politics before commencing his work at Flinders University.

Professor Bill Brugger was appointed to Flinders University as a Lecturer in Politics in 1972, then as Professor of Politics in 1980. He remained in this position until his death in August 1999. He taught a wide range of subjects in the Politics school and supervised fourteen completed PhD dissertations.

Bill Brugger also held office in professional bodies, contributed to public discussion in newspapers and radio, presented numerous extramural lectures and served on the editorial board of several scholarly journals.

The first of Brugger’s books was Democracy and Organisation in the Chinese Industrial Enterprise 1948–53, published in 1975. His modern Chinese political history was published as Contemporary China in 1977, then revised and expanded into the two volumes, China: Liberation and Transformation 1942–62 and China: Radicalism to Revisionism 1962–79, both published in 1981. He published several other books, individually and collaboratively, as well as numerous chapters and journal articles.

The collection contains periodicals and monographs in Mandarin and English.
The collection represents a unique research collection and contributes to the coverage of contemporary Chinese history within the Flinders University Library.