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A review by jonfaith
The Cultural Revolution: A People's History, 1962-1976 by Frank Dikötter
4.0
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.