Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
The Cultural Revolution was Mao’s second attempt to become the historical pivot around which the socialist universe revolved.
This is a reasonable attempt to survey an event or period which by most metrics would be regarded as irrational. There wasn't a singular, contained Cultural Revolution, it was a series of practices and developments which occurred over a period of time across the vast expanses of the PRC. One can suggest that while Stalin's Great Terror was completely calculated, the Cultural Revolution was an improvisation in the name of cynicism. I would assert there wouldn't have been a Cultural revolution if not for the Secret Speech of Khruschev. Chairman Mao was very conscious of the criticism circulating in the wake of his own Great leap Forward which starved millions due to its idiocy. He wasn't about to welcome a successor blaming him, well, not without an experiment first in provocation. He began stating that progress was being halted by counter-revolutionary spirit. He thoughts such was being maintained by dubious intellectuals and educators. Later Chairman Mao would assert that the medical field was a repository of decadent capitalists and that in fact anyone could provide medical care: hence the barefoot doctor program where barely literate farmers were given ten days of training and sent on their way.
In this new world steeped in red, all the senses were bombarded.
It is safe to say that while the Cultural Revolution was myriad, it can be divided between soft and hard applications. Most people are familiar with the soft applications: students denouncing teachers and, neighbor against neighbor where the hounding and bullying became standard practice. The hard application was actual warfare between factions utilizing all weapons from tanks and artillery down to small arms and improvised spears. It was a civil war in all but name and the author credits it with being the conditions which ultimately destroyed Chinese collectivization. Needless to say there isn't comprehensive documentation for the numbers involved but the estimates are staggering. Dikötter doesn't give us polished prose but does offer grisly anecdotes.
Likely closer to three stars rounded up.
This is a reasonable attempt to survey an event or period which by most metrics would be regarded as irrational. There wasn't a singular, contained Cultural Revolution, it was a series of practices and developments which occurred over a period of time across the vast expanses of the PRC. One can suggest that while Stalin's Great Terror was completely calculated, the Cultural Revolution was an improvisation in the name of cynicism. I would assert there wouldn't have been a Cultural revolution if not for the Secret Speech of Khruschev. Chairman Mao was very conscious of the criticism circulating in the wake of his own Great leap Forward which starved millions due to its idiocy. He wasn't about to welcome a successor blaming him, well, not without an experiment first in provocation. He began stating that progress was being halted by counter-revolutionary spirit. He thoughts such was being maintained by dubious intellectuals and educators. Later Chairman Mao would assert that the medical field was a repository of decadent capitalists and that in fact anyone could provide medical care: hence the barefoot doctor program where barely literate farmers were given ten days of training and sent on their way.
In this new world steeped in red, all the senses were bombarded.
It is safe to say that while the Cultural Revolution was myriad, it can be divided between soft and hard applications. Most people are familiar with the soft applications: students denouncing teachers and, neighbor against neighbor where the hounding and bullying became standard practice. The hard application was actual warfare between factions utilizing all weapons from tanks and artillery down to small arms and improvised spears. It was a civil war in all but name and the author credits it with being the conditions which ultimately destroyed Chinese collectivization. Needless to say there isn't comprehensive documentation for the numbers involved but the estimates are staggering. Dikötter doesn't give us polished prose but does offer grisly anecdotes.
Likely closer to three stars rounded up.
This third and final volume suffers the same flaws as the other two: scattered, repetitive, and like reading an Excel spreadsheet. But this book does have some better chapters at the end.
Overall, the research and content manage to communicate much of what took place in the time of Mao. But in a way that made it an utter slog.
Again, the parallels to dangers close to home are seriously scary. Dictator brains are pretty much all the same. Maybe it can’t happen here, but let’s not take any chances, ok?
I’ve been scared shitless too much lately.
Overall, the research and content manage to communicate much of what took place in the time of Mao. But in a way that made it an utter slog.
Again, the parallels to dangers close to home are seriously scary. Dictator brains are pretty much all the same. Maybe it can’t happen here, but let’s not take any chances, ok?
I’ve been scared shitless too much lately.
A rather typical Frank Dikotter book: with strong narrative voice and anecdotes, he illustrates a chapter of Chinese history deftly. Few complaints about such a text: a great introduction to the period that is engaging to read.
The broad strokes he takes in painting pictures means that one would be served better by more specialized texts if looking at specific, say, interactions between key figures or the economy. I don't think his book pretends to be anything other than 'A People's History', though, so this isn't a particular criticism.
The broad strokes he takes in painting pictures means that one would be served better by more specialized texts if looking at specific, say, interactions between key figures or the economy. I don't think his book pretends to be anything other than 'A People's History', though, so this isn't a particular criticism.
dark
informative
slow-paced
What happened in china in cultural revolution. All the history of tragedy with facts and figures
This is an engaging and informative book about the Cultural Revolution, Mao's devastating policy that destroyed Chinese government and society. (Mao was the mass killer of more Chinese people than anyone in history; if you add up the deaths from his other disastrous policy Great Leap Forward (1958-1962), it comes out to 45-70 million Chinese people killed.)
Economy and education were crushed by political dogma. The Red Guards purged anyone deemed party unfaithful. Millions were sent from the city to die of starvation in the countryside. Millions suffered under persecution by ideologues and opportunists. The author documents this suffering using evidence from China's own archives of this era, uncovered by historians Chinese and non-Chinese. Most of the stories are sad and depressing, but there are some bright moments where individuals resisted in their own way. Also documented are the severe socioeconomic consequences of the Cultural Revolution.
This is essential reading, especially for young far leftists who think the Cultural Revolution was an exercise in mass democracy and who are too young to remember the miscalculations and human costs of Mao's policies. Well written and engaging.
Economy and education were crushed by political dogma. The Red Guards purged anyone deemed party unfaithful. Millions were sent from the city to die of starvation in the countryside. Millions suffered under persecution by ideologues and opportunists. The author documents this suffering using evidence from China's own archives of this era, uncovered by historians Chinese and non-Chinese. Most of the stories are sad and depressing, but there are some bright moments where individuals resisted in their own way. Also documented are the severe socioeconomic consequences of the Cultural Revolution.
This is essential reading, especially for young far leftists who think the Cultural Revolution was an exercise in mass democracy and who are too young to remember the miscalculations and human costs of Mao's policies. Well written and engaging.
Zaczęłam trylogię od ostatniego tomu, ale wszystkie można czytać tak naprawdę osobno. Świetna książka, bardzo przesiąknięta polityką i osobistymi relacjami Mao z poszczególnymi politykami. Dogłębna analiza Rewolucji Kulturalnej, chociaż większy nacisk został położny na przedstawienie zmian zachodzących w partii, przez co widzimy rewolucję przede wszystkim oczami polityków.
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
dark
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Part III of a trilogy on the Mao Zedong era, of which I have read only this and Volume II (which concerned the Great Leap Forward). In any case, the historical record is damning. Murderous and power-hungry as he was, Mao unquestionably belongs on the pantheon of the great tyrants of the twentieth century alongside Stalin and Hitler. Tens of millions dead, some through pure incompetence and neglect, some through deliberately directed violence, some through out and out murder. One can only imagine being an ordinary Chinese citizen at this time, unsure of whether tomorrow will make see you branded a class enemy or a class hero (only to be subsequently denounced as a class enemy). The only criterion to determine who the enemies were seems to have been whoever was needed to ensure the entire country was in a state of constant disorder, with Mao's place at the top of the hierarchy always secure. If Dikotter sometimes jumps around in the chronology, making the narrative a bit hard to follow at times, he has a great eye for the revealing anecdote. Though often uncomfortable reading, Dikotter's trilogy is highly recommended reading.
4/5
4/5