《守卫底线：转型社会生活的基础秩序》讲述为了重建改革的共识与动力，应当对改革特别是20世纪90年代中期以来的改革进程进行建设性的反思，但这种反思不应当在过强的意识形态化氛围中进行，而应当将这种反思建立在建设性、负责任和理性的基础上。因为意识形态的僵硬对立，会妨碍我们对一些要害问题的准确判断，并缩小选择的弹性空间。而守护甚至重建社会生活的底线，无疑是改革的题中应有之义。

When Peter Hessler went to China in the late 1990s, he expected to spend a couple of peaceful years teaching English in the town of Fuling on the Yangtze River. But what he experienced - the natural beauty, cultural tension, and complex process of understanding that takes place when one is thrust into a radically different society - surpassed anything he could have imagined. Hessler observes firsthand how major events such as the death of Deng Xiaoping, the return of Hong Kong to the mainland, and the controversial consturction of the Three Gorges Dam have affected even the people of a remote town like Fuling. Poignant, thoughtful and utterly compelling, "River Town" is an unforgettable portrait of a place caught mid-river in time, much like China itself - a country seeking to understand both what it was and what it will one day become.