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

Jan 14, 2019 Gwern rated it really liked it

Narrative account of the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution, along with the Great Leap Forward/Great Famine & Third Front, were collectively one of the worst things in human history, and I am embarrassed to be so ignorant of them. Dikötter offers a recent look at the Cultural Revolution and particularly the unusual political tactics & social dynamics which made it so destructive despite not being a (conventional) civil war or invasion.

As Dikötter explains it, the CR was a second rev ...more

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Sep 05, 2017 fourtriplezed rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: asia, history, china

The final in a very good trilogy on the three phases of China under Mao.

I turned 17 when Mao died. After his death I recall the trials of the Gang of Four even receiving coverage on the very limited news services in Brisbane Australia. It was very exotic (for want of a better word) and in a faraway country I had not really given any thought to at the time. It seemed such an odd name. Gang of Four! One had images of four young hoodlums holding up old ladies for the small change in their purses. The final in a very good trilogy on the three phases of China under Mao.

I turned 17 when Mao died. After his death I recall the trials of the Gang of Four even receiving coverage on the very limited news services in Brisbane Australia. It was very exotic (for want of a better word) and in a faraway country I had not really given any thought to at the time. It seemed such an odd name. Gang of Four! One had images of four young hoodlums holding up old ladies for the small change in their purses. It was a name I associated as an insult by the new regime. Nope! On page 306 of this fascinating read it says that it was coined by Mao himself. “Mao was playing one faction off against the other in the hope that none would be strong enough to challenge him” the author write. And that was the politics of The Cultural Revolution. Mao playing one faction off against another. To the detriment of the population at large.

This review hardly needs to explain the Cultural Revolution, there are plenty of resources out there. But books such as this do throw up events and individuals that play minor roles in the narrative but are nonetheless part of the complex history told. Damansky Island incident in March 1969 for example. In chapter 16 Preparing For War the author discusses the usual political machination and propaganda that Mao used in pursuit of his domestic goals. The USSR and China had disputed the island previously but now Chinese troops eventually shot at a border post. Two weeks later the clashes involved thousands of troops. Soon after Mao called a halt. “He had achieved his aim, which was to put the Soviet Union on notice…..” and as soon as the confrontation was over the internal propaganda came to the fore. “Prepare for War” became the new slogan. All this to control the outcome of the Ninth Party Congress that was due two weeks later. The only problem was the USSR took all this very seriously as one would expect and a few months later the USSR actually asked the USA how it would feel if they took out a Chinese nuclear facility. The US ignored the question. Then Pravda began a campaign against the Chinese and appealed to the world to understand the threat the Chinese had become. “The chairman was stunned.” wrote the author. This was after all a border dispute, useful for the Machiavellian politics of Mao, not an all-out war with a vastly superior opponent. China agreed to talk and concessions were made. But Mao, ever the paranoid leader put the country on a war footing nonetheless with both the USSR and the USA at the end of the internal propaganda.

My one fault with the book for me is a big one and marks it down from outstanding. During the narrative the author uses the term Mao’s Great Famine to describe the terrible years of the Great Leap Forward. This is the title of his excellent book of the same name. I had no issue with the use of that in that book but not in this one. It reeks of self-promotion when there was no need. I have also put the term in search engine and each search comes to his book. For the trilogy to be considered a definitive history of China under Mao there was no need for such promotion. A small quibble some may say.

In the end though I have come out of the trilogy repeating what I have said before. Why read fantasy when there is the history of China. To think I know so little and have so much more to read.

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May 20, 2017 David rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-history

This is a great book. It's tremendously readable and astonishingly clear given the complexity of the events described. When you're finished with it (actually even before you're finished with it), you are smarter than when you started. What else can you ask for in a book?

Please don't think I'm saying that just because I won a hardcover copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

I saw a movie once where a character said that he preferred reading book reviews to books themselves because This is a great book. It's tremendously readable and astonishingly clear given the complexity of the events described. When you're finished with it (actually even before you're finished with it), you are smarter than when you started. What else can you ask for in a book?

Please don't think I'm saying that just because I won a hardcover copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

I saw a movie once where a character said that he preferred reading book reviews to books themselves because book reviews not only told you what the book was about, they also told you what to think about them. While not actually believing that book reviews are adequate substitutes for books, I often consult them because the people telling me what to think also ensure I'm not missing something really important. Being of a fundamentally pre-digital state of mind, I believe that the opinions expressed in publications of long standing are more likely to contain worthwhile insights than, say, the random unedited thoughts of somebody on social media, like this one. The writer in an edited publication might be a scholar in the topic, or at least a journalist who has in the past had some connection with the matter at hand, so might have insights not obvious to those newly-arrived at the topic. The two previous sentences seem so obvious that they are almost an embarrassment to type, but they are so at odds with the spirit of the age that I feel they bear repeating.

In a generally positive (“well-researched and readable”) review on the web site of the Guardian, reviewer Julia Lovell seems to think that Dikotter's portrayal of Mao as “a scheming megalomaniac” lacks complexity, because Mao was also an “ideologue”. I wondered: why does it make an difference whether Mao was one or the other? Does it make a difference to the high school teachers who were beaten to death, or the urban teenaged girls raped because they were sent unprotected to country villages? Obviously not, but I guess it makes a difference to some of us, still (as of this writing) comfortable and insulated in prosperous societies.

Can we test, even as a dreaded “thought experiment”, for megalomaniac versus ideologue? As I understand the word, a megalomaniac is interested exclusively in the advancement, or at least maintenance, of his (given the circs., I feel comfortable with the male pronoun) personal power. An ideologue is devoted to an ideology. Ideologues interpret ideologies. Was it ever a possibility that Mao (or any other leader) would step up one day and say “I have thought long and hard about the ideology to which I have professed devotion, and I have concluded that is it best for the advancement of the ideology if I, the leader, step down”? Negative propositions are unprovable, of course, but Mao didn't do that. It seems unlikely he would have even if circumstances had been different. I vote for megalomaniac.

To return to the previous question: does it matter? It seems like it matters to Julia Lovell, the reviewer. Why? Because, I speculate, that if you can portray Mao as an ideologue, you can then portray him as a mistaken ideologue, which means that the appearance of unmistaken ideologues is still possible. The ideology is still correct. It's just that the correct implementation of the ideology hasn't appeared yet.

How many tries does the ideology get? ...more

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Feb 18, 2019 Dmitri rated it really liked it

Shelves: china

The Cultural Revolution failed on an ideological level. The plot to overthrow communism succeeded, and capitalism (with Chinese characteristics) is the economic model of the People's Republic. On a more practical level it secured Mao's unchallenged power so well that his successors are in control a half century later.

The Cultural Revolution ('66-'76) was a mass social upheaval of students and workers unleashed by Mao against his perceived enemies within the party and army. During the The Cultural Revolution failed on an ideological level. The plot to overthrow communism succeeded, and capitalism (with Chinese characteristics) is the economic model of the People's Republic. On a more practical level it secured Mao's unchallenged power so well that his successors are in control a half century later.

The Cultural Revolution ('66-'76) was a mass social upheaval of students and workers unleashed by Mao against his perceived enemies within the party and army. During the Great Leap Forward ('58-'62) command economy and collective farming starved some thirty million people to death. Mao's political capital was nearly expended and comrades were emboldened to criticize his policies. It was at once a brilliant and ruthless gambit to weaponize the people against his political enemies.

When the Cultural Revolution was over the party was purged and the comrades were chastened, notably Mao's Number Two, Liu Shaoqi (who died under Mao's arrest) and future leader Deng Xiaoping (who survived to succeed Mao). The student uprisings nearly led to civil war, until Mao dialed them down and declared the military in charge by late '68. Mao's cult of personality had now been unquestionably established and backed by his junta he was worshipped throughout the land.

In the later phases the people too were excoriated by military-led revolutionary committees. Ordinary citizens were denounced, interrogated, imprisoned or executed for fabricated class crimes. Professionals, teachers, and students were banished from large cities to be re-educated in the countryside. They labored and starved among a peasant population unable to absorb them. The revolution devolved into endless upheaval whose purpose was to intimidate and control the people.

This last volume of a trilogy on post WWII China is told through recently available memoirs, articles and archives. They run from popular accounts to unpublished diaries. Anecdotes are pasted together like snippets in a scrapbook, arranged chronologically to form a narrative. This becomes a formidable wall of information, with an absence of analysis apart from interjected comments. Readers are left to their own conclusions, although the events often speak for themselves.

The book does not take an overtly polemical stance, although some may assert that it does. Is Dikotter a red-baiter or Mao hater? Interviews on National Public Radio and the South China Post note the dilemma he faced was 'the level of horror to present'. The book does have a sensational tenor at times. Perhaps it is the extremity of the era, but it is also the focus of the author. Dikotter reflects 'to be silent risks complicity', a line of thought once expressed by Elie Wiesel.

What is described in this book is so troubling that unless one denies its veracity, one must criticize the regime that made it possible. The hardest lesson may not be what an unchecked leader can do to his people, but rather what an unchecked people can do to each other. It is a disturbing portrait of the events that unfolded. ...more

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Jul 08, 2016 Emmett Hoops rated it really liked it

Dikötter has, with this book, completed his trilogy documenting the horrific and criminal betrayal of China's revolution of 1949. The sheer, unadulterated cynicism employed by Mao is shown to be principally in support of his manipulation of people around him. If you stepped on his toe in 1934, you could be sure that he'd remember -- and that you'd pay for it somehow. What you didn't know is that you might well be branded a "capitalist-roader", a spy, a counter-revolutionary, or just "black." Bla ...more

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Feb 19, 2019 Bryan Alexander rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, china

An excellent history of one of China's political upheavals. Frank Dikötter does an excellent job of combining primary sources and daily life into a clear, dramatic, and very accessible history.

I won't reprise the Cultural Revolution here. The Wikipedia entry is a good starting place. Suffice to say that Mao, fading from power, launched a chaotic series of events upon China which he more or less managed to control. The CR let Mao rebuild his power immensely at the cost of economic, persona An excellent history of one of China's political upheavals. Frank Dikötter does an excellent job of combining primary sources and daily life into a clear, dramatic, and very accessible history.

I won't reprise the Cultural Revolution here. The Wikipedia entry is a good starting place. Suffice to say that Mao, fading from power, launched a chaotic series of events upon China which he more or less managed to control. The CR let Mao rebuild his power immensely at the cost of economic, personal, and cultural devastation.

Several points in particular struck me.

First, the role of the army. Dikötter sees the People's Liberation Army playing a key role in the Revolution, stepping in to manage chaos, while not being ordered into position by Mao. At times the state becomes a military regime. Lin Biao emerges from the narrative as an ambitious yet fragile player, Mao's number two, a potential Caesar undone by a still obscure plot.

Second, the role of war fever. After the revolution thundered for a couple of years, Mao added fears of conflict with both the USSR and USA. Slight yet significant armed clashes triggered a nation-wide panic. Huge amounts of industry were relocated into central China. Extensive underground tunnels were dug, not always well. And, of course, even more power accumulated in Mao's hands.

Third, the 1950s' Great Leap Forward disasters continued into the 60s. Mass starvation, peasant suspicion of the state, economic devastation all persisted. The CR tried to overwrite the GLP, as it were, and didn't always succeed. When the Cultural Revolution ended unresolved Great Leap Forward issues remained.

Fourth, student life was insane to a possibly unique level in world history. Mao kicked off the CR by giving students, including middle schoolers, a revolutionary remit. Students formed into Red Guards who pledged themselves to Mao then terrorized their communities, schools included. Once Mao got what he wanted from this period, he then send millions of those students to work in rural drudgery and suffering. I'm still trying to imagine what kind of adults that combined experience formed.

Fifth, the sheer contrast with what will happen next. After Mao dies and the Gang of Four fall, Deng led China into a strange future, a hybrid of communism and capitalism that became history's greatest upward arc. Never had so many people moved out of poverty, so many factories - entire cities! - built. After the Cultural Revolution's chaos and bitterness comes a golden age, at least in terms of economic growth and political stability.

As a Soviet studies buff, I was also struck by the persistence of Khrushchev as a kind of revisionist character.

Obviously recommended for anyone with interest in China or 20th century history. Also for anyone with an interest in history. ...more

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Jun 17, 2016 Linda rated it really liked it

I am a tutor and am currently working with a Chinese gentleman, who lives in the US, on his English. We talk for 1 1/2 hours per day and even Skype for a short time when he is in China. One day he commented that it was the 50th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution. We discussed it a bit. On the way home, thanks to Terry Gross and Fresh Air, I heard an interview with the author of this book and had to read it.

Part of the importance of this book is that it has new information and is not just a I am a tutor and am currently working with a Chinese gentleman, who lives in the US, on his English. We talk for 1 1/2 hours per day and even Skype for a short time when he is in China. One day he commented that it was the 50th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution. We discussed it a bit. On the way home, thanks to Terry Gross and Fresh Air, I heard an interview with the author of this book and had to read it.

Part of the importance of this book is that it has new information and is not just a rehash of the old. Archives have been opened in China that weren't available previously and people's memoirs, diaries, and sometimes even the people themselves, are available. Dikotter took advantage of all of these to give us a history that shows much about the Chinese people during these times.

A simple explanation of the Chinese Cultural Revolution that many people hear is that the students, called the Red Guard, took after the people they thought of a "capitalist-roaders," who had an incorrect understanding of Mao Zedong thought and no appreciation for the Communist way of life. Eventually they were sent to the countryside for "reeducation." And that's that.

This revolution is more twisted than that and the most twisted that I've ever read about. All revolutions have bad times but this one was one long bad time.

When students began to criticize their teachers for inadequate support of Mao Zedong thought, Mao himself encouraged them saying that criticism was good. Before long, all students of "good" background (higher social classes) were marching through the streets to people's houses, tearing them apart, looking for evidence of "old thinking." It got out of hand. Mao had to rein them in and find a convenient scapegoat. But something else had to be encouraged instead.

Also during this time, collectivisation in the country was being quietly overridden by peasants who were gradually taking land back for private uses. The country had fallen into a famine because of the amount of grain and other resources that were "tribute" to the Party and the cities. China clamped down and demanded collectivisation again. Its city populations had grown during this time because people in the country came to the city due to starvation. So, the Party first deported those who had come from the country back to the country, then sent city residents out to "learn" from the peasant lifestyle. Many students volunteered to move, even though it meant that they could not return to the city. Most found the conditions horrid and, for them, unliveable. Many tried to get back to the cities.

Since the collectivisation didn't work - more famine - the State had to look the other way and allow private property and private businesses again. However, it appeared that there might be war with Russia, so many essential businesses (steel making, etc.) were literally moved to the interior of the country to protect them. Bad soil, not fit for farming, brought more famine to these workers.

Everytime something went wrong, which it did almost daily, Mao had someone else blamed for it. He was the supreme leader and could not be faulted. If he had stated in his speeches that something must be done, it must, and if that something turned out wrong, one of his associates had not done it properly.

The Chinese people during these 10 years were in a revolving door. Many of them simply kept their heads down and tried to sneak through life unnoticed. Every few days, things changed. What you were to believe and profess one day was treason the next. There was no rhyme or reason to who might be taken to jail at any time. Other people took advantage of the changes to get even with anyone who had crossed them at any time in their lives. However, they had to worry that, when the tables turned, they would be the victims.

Dikotter does a wonderful job of making these twists and turns understandable (which is more than the Chinese going through them could). He uses the people's memoirs, interviews, diary excerpts, whenever he can to give a good picture of how the average Chinese lived through the mess. In a way, it's amazing that they could, but when you look at it, it's just about the same today. People can only shrug their shoulders, roll their eyes at the stupidity of the government and hold their tongues.
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May 12, 2016 Austin Barselau rated it really liked it

Frank Dikotter's chronicle of the Chinese Cultural Revolution is splendid. The Cultural Revolution is a popular history, showing how the masses shaped Maoism and eventually forced its destruction. As one observer recorded in the book noted, the "people decided they did not want to go on living the way they were doing, and they were setting up ways to het themselves out of their predicament." This plotting loosened the state's grip on industry, commerce, and agriculture, unspooling the mission of the Cultu ...more

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Oct 31, 2018 Imbunche rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history-and-philosophy, nonfiction

Lektura równie fascynująca co przerażająca.

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May 26, 2016 Brandon Abraham rated it really liked it

Frank Dikötter's The Cultural Revolution: A People's History 1962-1976 completes the trilogy begun with 2010's Mao's Great Famine and continued in 2013 with a prequel volume, The Tragedy of Liberation. While I have not had the opportunity to read these earlier, highly-regarded works, his narrative history of the Cultural Revolution manages to hold up well as an independent volume analyzing the period.

Indeed, most Westerners will have certain images in mind regarding the Cultural Revo Frank Dikötter's The Cultural Revolution: A People's History 1962-1976 completes the trilogy begun with 2010's Mao's Great Famine and continued in 2013 with a prequel volume, The Tragedy of Liberation. While I have not had the opportunity to read these earlier, highly-regarded works, his narrative history of the Cultural Revolution manages to hold up well as an independent volume analyzing the period.

Indeed, most Westerners will have certain images in mind regarding the Cultural Revolution, namely the Little Red Book, Red Guards marching brazenly through the streets, and the systematic destruction of much of China's ancient heritage in an attempt to bring China firmly into line with socialist ideology as espoused by Chairman Mao("Mao Zedong Thought"). While these are all part of what turns out to be a quite disturbing picture, Dikötter goes to great length to emphasize the human scale of the tragedy which, although nowhere near the colossal disaster of the Great Leap Forward in terms of sheer numeric scale, exceeds that tragedy in its current repercussions and ability to undermine the Chinese Communist Party, as much of what Dikötter writes casts the largest political party to have ever existed, aside from India's BJP, in an exceedingly negative light.

In terms of his argument, Dikötter portrays Mao as using the Cultural Revolution as a means to consolidate what had increasingly become a weakening grip on the Party. While many of the author's attempts to create parallels between Stalin's predicament in the 1930's and Mao's in the 1960's seem forced and short on elaboration, he is able to convincingly demonstrate how Mao might have been sidelined during this time. However, Dikötter effectively explains how Mao used the charge of revisionism à la Khrushchev in order to silence opposition and to place potential reformers firmly on the defensive.

Once the Red Years begin(1966-1968), it is challenging indeed to envision any political opposition forming, as what were sporadic and improvised attacks on intellectuals, artists, and "bourgeois elements" turn into a systematic, highly-organized attempt to "destroy all remnants of old society." Again, Dikötter overstrains analogies-this time with the Nazi plunder of Paris-yet his point is solid. He writes, "What the Nazis did not burn, they cherished, but the same could not be said of the Red Guards. The vast majority of the loot was left to rot." No mention is made by the author of the contrast in situation-the Nazis were attempting to pacify a restive enemy while the Red Guards perceived themselves as an elite, purifying force within a larger, depoliticized population-yet, that the Red Guards displayed a contempt for elements of traditional culture cannot be argued.

Much has been made of Dikötter's sources, many of which are used here for the first time. I found them compelling and humanizing, but specialists might find them off-putting. Furthermore, the work's final chapters are its weakest, as Mao recedes from the spotlight, so does the urgency of Dikötter's narrative. Yet still, for a general readership, Dikötter's work will be essential reading for years to come. ...more

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Mar 30, 2017 R. rated it really liked it

I think this is the weakest book in Dikötter's cycle, but I don't necessarily think it's his fault. I had a hard time following all of the events, and I guess that's the tl;dr of the Cultural Revolution. The rules seemingly change every week: say the orthodoxy one day, get in trouble for it the next, recant, get reeducated, rinse, repeat. When the left was ascendent in the US I thought maybe its postmodern wing would eventually be in a position to do these sorts of plays, but that is no longer a ...more

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May 17, 2016 Azabu rated it liked it

The narrative opens after the 1962 great famine at the nadir of Mao’s popularity. The 1960s are divided into the blood-soaked Red Years--when the Red Guard had free reign to slaughter the so-called bourgeois element--and the Black Years, when the purge turned to within the party and ‘millions had their lives destroyed' followed by The Grey Years—or 1970s-- marked by Nixon’s visit.

Graphic descriptions of the brutal Red Guard, an exclusive cadre of youths, evokes the Nazi era, which ex ...more

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Nov 23, 2016 Nikoleta rated it liked it

Shelves: chinese-literature-and-history

Getting through 321 pages of the Cultural Revolution is a true challenge. The author includes lots of numbers and talks about the repetitive and (seemingly) never-ending reality of purges. Even now, I am confused a little bit about when did certain purges take place, who was persecuted and why, but I assume that is exactly the point: Mao's Cultural Revolution was a one big mess. If I were to change anything on this book, then to make it shorter and more concise (in terms of wording), but otherwi ...more

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May 20, 2016 Edward Newman rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Superb-a terrifying history of leaders run amok. Mao's attempt to salve his reputation and retain power after the disastrous Great Leap Forward led to an absurd but tragic series of purges, denunciations and counter purges, destroying the lives of millions. An essential read to understanding modern China-Dikotter's underlying thesis is that as the central government fell apart and retreated from the more isolated areas of countryside, villagers secretly readopted market capitalism as a way of su ...more

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Aug 05, 2018 Frank Stein rated it liked it

Like the other parts of Dikotter's trilogy of Chinese Communist mass murder, this book is too loaded with excessive anecdotes and minor characters. The chronology of events, which is so essential in a complicated and evolving story such as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, is winding and often backslides without explanation. But Dikotter still manages to show that the Cultural Revolution should go down in history as perhaps the greatest outbreak of insanity to ever befall a nation.
Like the other parts of Dikotter's trilogy of Chinese Communist mass murder, this book is too loaded with excessive anecdotes and minor characters. The chronology of events, which is so essential in a complicated and evolving story such as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, is winding and often backslides without explanation. But Dikotter still manages to show that the Cultural Revolution should go down in history as perhaps the greatest outbreak of insanity to ever befall a nation.

The opening of this campaign that ultimately killed millions, and ruined the lives of tens of millions more, was, of all things, a theater review. Since 1962, Chairman Mao Zedong had preached a "Socialist Education Campaign" to eradicate any lingering criticism of his disastrous Great Leap Forward and capitalist culture. But in 1965, a propagandist, with the assistance of Mao, publishes a 10,000 word criticism of a play by Wu Han, a vice mayor of Beijing, accusing the play and its supporters in the party itself being secret counterrevolutionaries. By the following year, many of the major communist figures in Beijing and the Army are removed, and a "May 16th Circular" accuses the party of being infiltrated by the bourgeoisie reactionaries. Mao calls on students in Middle School, High School and University to attack the party itself and root out these cancers, while giving them free transportation to do so. He also tells the rest of society that they can't touch the students. In a fit of power, the students form "Red Guards" as pseudo-military units and begin taking over parts of party committees and municipal governments. At the same time, they hound and denounce millions in "struggle session," many to their deaths. Gradually, the Red Guards fractionalize and warring factions of each ally with warring units of the military to create a genuine civil war, yet all claiming to support Mao himself.

The burning of the British delegation in Beijing in August 1967 brings the most chaotic period of the cultural revolution to an end. Mao tells the Red Guards that they can no longer attack the military. The military, led by Lin Biao, uses the moment to consolidate control over the new revolutionary city and province committees. By December 1968, the People's Daily tells the Red Guards students who had just been rioting to move to the countryside to be educated by the masses. This is not a suggestion. Students are deported in droves to impoverished and unprepared areas to sweat out the years until Lin Biao, in mysterious circumstances, dies in a plane crash in 1971. Gradually the country return to "normal," but everyone knows the chaos and destruction unleashed to no apparent purposes discredits the party in the eyes of the nation. When Mao dies in 1976, most eyes are dry, and most are ready to move to a new way of life.

As this winding chronology should demonstrate, the cultural revolution was really a series of different movements and revolutions and battles, most of them springing seemingly ex nihilo out of the Chairman's head (to be generous) or out of the chaotic flow of events. Dikotter often does a terrible job of keeping to a chronology or explaining the importance of events as he describes them. Yet it is a story like no others, one everyone in and outside China should know. ...more

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Jun 22, 2016 Chris Jaffe rated it liked it

Shelves: 20th-century, asian-history, history

It’s a good book, but one I heard trouble following at times. It finishes up a trilogy Dikotter wrote on China under Mao – a heavily critical trilogy to put it mildly. Then again – it’s hard to be critical of Mao given how badly he bungled China.

Dikotter begins by noting that Mao had two intertwined goals: 1) create his vision o the socialist world free of revision, and 2) revenge on those party leaders who sidelined him after the Great Leap Forward fiasco. Death toll estimates vary wildly, but It’s a good book, but one I heard trouble following at times. It finishes up a trilogy Dikotter wrote on China under Mao – a heavily critical trilogy to put it mildly. Then again – it’s hard to be critical of Mao given how badly he bungled China.

Dikotter begins by noting that Mao had two intertwined goals: 1) create his vision o the socialist world free of revision, and 2) revenge on those party leaders who sidelined him after the Great Leap Forward fiasco. Death toll estimates vary wildly, but usually it’s believed that 1.5 to 2 million died, with many more lives ruined.

Mao never liked reform that wasn’t aggressive, and did the 100 Flowers Campaign as a way to make China go his way – but it backfired. Mao saw his opponents as Chinese Khrushschevs – people he couldn’t trust. In the opening parts of the book, the concern over a Chinese Khrushchev comes up repeatedly. There was a chance to dump Mao after the Great Leap, but it didn’t happen. Mao apologized for his mistakes at a big party meeting, but did so in a way that opened the door for other party leaders to do likewise. There was a punishment campaign on the underground economy – a Socialist Education Campaign – that cost over 700,000 lives. Liu Shaoqi was in charge. Deng ran the post-100 Flowers anti-rightist campaign. Thus when The Cultural Revolution got going, plenty wanted to take aim at them.

Mao began to criticize art. He didn’t believe in “art for art’s sake.” It always had an agenda, and some he didn’t like the message. He also promoted the cult of Lei Feng. This shifted to an attack on the Four Olds: old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. The Red Guards went into action and destroyed much. There was even a massacre of cats. The outburts lasted only a few weeks but left a big mark. The uniformity and plainness became required – clothes, hair, food. Many categories of people became unemployed (like florists). 2-5 billion Mao buttons were made, using up much of the nation’s aluminum. The Red Guards were given free travel for a spell, which had some background class resentments against them. It also caused a meningitis epidemic that killed 160,000.

The rebels began – kids of bad class background (“born black”). The red/black meaning shifts, though, when Mao saw the Red Guards as to feudal in their stressing of their famly backgrounds. Now party leaders became targeted by the new wave. It was rebels versus royalists. Mao tapped into a deep pool of resentment – much aimed at Deng and Liu. These new guards wanted to be seen as true revolutionaries.

Big battles broke out in Shanghai. The economy was badly hurt and fragmented. Mao saw to the smashing of courts, police, and prosecutions. The army took over, and was suspicious of all the guards. The army opposed the Cultural Revolution’s leaders, but Mao got the support of Zhou Enlai and Lin Biao. Mao bullied down the military leaders. By June 1967, the nation’s economy was in chaos. The movement itself was splintering. Rebels assaulted army arsenals and military commands. Armed battles went on, often over personal vendettas. Embassies were attacked and threatened – and that’s when things went too far.

Maso saw the danger and promised to reign it in. The Cultural Revolution’s posters were taken down. A new faction emerged: those disaffected by all the CR. The Cult of Mao was increased, and the CCP’s prestige down. The loyalty dance and Mao statues rose. Zhou Enlai and Lin Biao waged a proxy war. Liu Shaoqi was expelled from the CCP. A campaign went on to ferret out class enemies and clear the ranks. 68,000 enemies were found in Beijing alone in the summer of 1968. Teachers were now harassed by Mao Zedong Thought Propaganda Teams instead o Red Guards. Many died and many committed suicide due to this campaign.

The students were told to go to the countryside to learn. Illusions were shattered. Many lacked food and were destitute. Many died of disease, hunger, and suicide. 18-20 million were banished to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Border battles with the USSR happened, leading the militarization of China. Lin Biao’s power peaked. Tunnels were built for possible war. Almost everyone heleped build shelters. Factories were built deep in the infrastructure. It was called “the Third Front.” A massive investment, it was 2/3 of all of China’s industrial investment from 1964-71. There was a campaign for self-reliance.

Zhou Enlai was protected in a new purge. Liu Shaoqui died. Millions were persecuted – maybe as many as 16 million. It was to create a docile population. Mao became suspicious of Lin Biao, and he fled. They disagreed with Mao’s new line to America, among other things.

After Lin Biao died, Nixon visited and some purged came back. The military’s role declined. The economy was in poor shape with 200,000,00 suffering some degree of malnutrition. Places started taking on elements of the market economy. This was caused by division atop of China. Radial collectivists were ousted. The underground economy and underground movement of people was HUGE. AN underground society also emerged: traditional culture survived. Illicit radio listening went on. The strength of the family and religion survived. Mao pulled back and sorta had an anti-Zhou Enlai campaign. Jing Qing overreached and Deng ended up the most important person under Mao. Then Mao shifted to the left and an anti-Deng movement occurred. Then they all died and Deng came to power.

The author argues that economic change pre-dated Deng. The last part was the weakest, though, as it was all tacked on and given short shrift. The earlier parts were a little confusing, as it wasn’t always clear who was up and down. Then again, the Cultural Revolution itself was confusing. It’s an OK book, but a bit disappointing.
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Sep 16, 2019 Kathy Jo rated it really liked it

This is an informative and useful overview of the impact of the Cultural Revolution in China. It is also an important and cautionary tale about human nature and socio-political idealism. Along with other studies in history, the dangerous myth that people are inherently "good" is busted.

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May 10, 2018 Paul rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, history, audiobooks, asia

This was interesting enough, but I didn't feel like I got the overall sense of exactly what was going on. It might be necessary to first read a more in-depth treatment of post-WWII China to fully understand the context for this book. For example, I had no idea what a "Capitalist roader" was until much later in the book when he mentioned "people taking the capitalist road".

It's interesting and mildly surprising that Mao's strategy of creating a bunch of insane chaos to destroy all pow ...more

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Dec 26, 2016 Jordan Schneider rated it liked it

University of Hong Kong Professor Frank Dikötter has completed his trilogy of Mao’s rule. The prior book in the series, BBC Samuel Johnson award-winning Mao’s Great Famine, was remarkable for its clarity of writing and unflinching exploration of how elite bureaucratic decisions came to starve tens of millions. Dikötter successfully applies the same model to Mao’s surreal and grisly final act in The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History.
Dikötter claims the Cultural Revolution was a direct University of Hong Kong Professor Frank Dikötter has completed his trilogy of Mao’s rule. The prior book in the series, BBC Samuel Johnson award-winning Mao’s Great Famine, was remarkable for its clarity of writing and unflinching exploration of how elite bureaucratic decisions came to starve tens of millions. Dikötter successfully applies the same model to Mao’s surreal and grisly final act in The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History.
Dikötter claims the Cultural Revolution was a direct follow-up to his Great Leap Forward. The radical attempt to remold thought was an “ageing dictator’s determination to shore up his own standing in world history,” a “second attempt to become the historical pivot around which the socialist universe revolved.” Mao desperately feared that a Chinese Khrushchev would denounce him after his death, and was willing to sacrifice another million to revolutionary ardor to bolster his legacy’s insurance policy.
A People’s History makes for more gripping reading than the classic English-language primer on the Cultural Revolution, Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhal’s Mao’s Last Revolution. Employing research from interviews and memoirs as well as new archives, Dikötter gives the reader a sense of both the high politics driving events and how these decisions played out and took a life of their own in cities and villages across China.
One often gets the sense of how China ‘worked towards Mao,’ much how Ian Kershaw explained in his Hitler biography that the Third Reich “worked towards the Führer.” Fearful of persecution and eager to please the Chairman, one offhand comment of his could trigger a Beijing Daily article, sparking a new policy change and violent flare-up. Unlike Nazi Germany, however, the masses, as well as the bureaucracy, took initiative, to such an extent that by the end of the Cultural Revolution, people were seizing arms and fighting with artillery to overthrow the People’s Liberation Army.
Dikötter is particularly strong in the buildup and culmination of the 1966–1968 ‘Red Years.’ His writing gives a sense of the competitive and accelerating radicalization of the Cultural Revolution that by the summer of 1968 had students “forging weapons from high-carbon steel,” committing suicide rather than surrendering to competing Red Guard units, and even, he claims, ritually consuming class enemies.
Unfortunately, like the Cultural Revolution itself Dikötter loses steam after 1969. He ends too abruptly. Dikötter does a decent job explaining how Mao’s decisions undermined radical collectivization. Ill-planned schemes like ‘Learning from Dazhai’ self-reliance initiative and ‘Third Front’ rural industrialization wasted two-thirds of the state’s capital investment. Poverty compelled many to begin following the capitalist road.
However, he fails to adequately develop his thesis that the Cultural Revolution also led to “the destruction of the remnants of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.” A few dozen pages would’ve been appreciated on how Deng Xiaoping adapted to the Revolution’s legacy.
Overall, The People’ History is an accessible and impactful account of one of history’s strangest episodes of mass unrest. Not the usual culprits — race, religion or economics — but one man wielding ideology drove a nation in peacetime to turn on itself. The legacies of the Cultural Revolution still impact China to this day and both students and the reading public would be wise to turn to Dikötter for a gripping narrative introduction.
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May 15, 2016 Murtaza rated it liked it

A very meticulous examination the political intrigues surrounding the Cultural Revolution. It was less a "People's History" in offering a ground-level view (though there was some of that) than a head-spinning accounting of the coups and counter-coups that characterized the era. The thing that I was most looking for - examinations of the transformation in Chinese culture during the period - was in relatively short supply. Dikotter is also clearly a historian and not a writer because this was writ ...more

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Jul 30, 2016 Richard rated it it was amazing

Terrific writing and researching of a tragic history. Recommended.

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Oct 12, 2017 Wilhelm Weber rated it really liked it

Shelves: china-communism-cultural-revolu

Good book, although it's so terrible and uncovers one layer of frightening terror, destruction and deception after the other. If you don't believe in "prime evil" or better "original sin", it's probably almost beyond comprehension, how such evil can be construed and carried out for decades and most fanatically by millions of people, who are going all out to do good and what is best in their eyes and mind. They ignore countless crimes against humanity in general and overlook most hideous violence Good book, although it's so terrible and uncovers one layer of frightening terror, destruction and deception after the other. If you don't believe in "prime evil" or better "original sin", it's probably almost beyond comprehension, how such evil can be construed and carried out for decades and most fanatically by millions of people, who are going all out to do good and what is best in their eyes and mind. They ignore countless crimes against humanity in general and overlook most hideous violence against individuals - the poor, the women, the aged, students, children and almost everybody involved and part of this Chinese story. Everybody seemingly gets his chance at being top and bottom dog, but the ferocity of biting, barking, scratching, ostracising, trespassing, hurting, maiming, killing and moving on to the next victimization goes on and on as if the "Lord of the flies" has been let loose to run wild.
Dikötter goes to great lengths and uses considerable academic skill and acribic diligence to uncover decades of systematic tyranny, organized terror and violence with absolute despotism. The old chairman is the linchpin, but just too many millions are his willing accomplices in this daylight robbery, murder and change of ancient order called revolution so that one can't just blame this or that single perpetrator or isolated group of trespassers as Moa and the party would have liked us make believe, exonerating him/them of blame and going forward with the same blind faith in this godless ideology in favour of the lucky few in the ruling party.
Probably that is the problem, that these millions of Chinese knew but Confucianism and some fragments of this and that religion, but never did they came to know the triune God and saviour IX in any meaningful or crucial number. The most urgent need for this middle kingdom is not democracy, nor even capitalism, but that, which everybody needs to know for salvation in other words the main parts of the Christian faith or put still differently Luther's Small Catechism. I think that is the most urgent issue and most desirable for China and all Chinese today. Otherwise they will continue to stumble from one catastrophe to the next - and not just in this life, but also in eternity. Others are just too willing to follow suit in this Chinese tragedy. Just ask Kim Jong Un from N.Korea, Mugabe from Zimbabwe or Bashir from Sudan.
It has been said more than once before, this surpasses our imagination. History is more vivid and far worse too, than any prophecy described. Still it goes a long way to prove, that man without God is man's worst enemy - one is the other man's wolf! Or would it be more fitting: "One man is the other's communist, cannibals and carnivores!" Think of Otto Dix or Pablo Picasso's war and apocalyptic paintings - it stretches the imagination, but these accounts of Chinese reality accounts surpass that by far.
Just as my father used to read Solshenizyn's Gulag series as the Germans were publishing those in German in the eighties, I can only advise and invite to read these revelations from China before we fall into the same trap and political hole even as we continue to sing and pray with words of the Litany: Lord have mercy + Christ have mercy + Lord have mercy +
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Aug 13, 2019 Aris Catsambas rated it liked it

Frank Dikotter's trilogy is undeniably meticulously researched and supported, but unfortunately I feel he does not do a very good job weaving his facts into a digestible narrative (though in his defence, I do not know to what extent it is possible to do so with his subject matter).

Still, I found it hard to understand how events played out, and why they did so the way they did. For example, Dikötter's entire second volume is on Mao's Great Famine - but then the third volume jumps into ...more

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May 07, 2019 Peter C Lyon rated it really liked it

Dikotter has produced a gripping history of a dark era in human history. In terms of sheer grimness and shocking actions (cannibalism, eating mud, etc) , to me it ranks up there with "Survivors of Stalingrad." The book has elements which I feel every history volume should have: maps, timelines, and actual page numbers (for ebooks).

However, if there's a shortcoming, not really a criticism, to me, the book didn't feel geared to a non-Sinologist. In this respect, I felt sometimes in a fog in in th ...more

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Sep 15, 2017 Reza Amiri Praramadhan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-ebooks, favorites

China's Cultural Revolution represents one of the craziest moments in history of mankind, all caused by one man, namely Mao Zedong. Anxious to shore up his power and authority, he launched catastrophes upon society still reeling after the disasters caused by his earlier experiments the Great Leap Forward, which moved China backwardly. The Cultural Revolution was marked by two things: chaos and confusion. The world was turned upside down, with fanatic Red Guards, armed with Little Red Book filled ...more

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Jul 11, 2019 Ari rated it really liked it

Shelves: cpl

In the mid 1960s, Mao looked like he was on the way out. He was old and tired, his signature project of the Great Leap Forward was understood by the leadership to have been a disaster, and control was gradually sliding into the hands of bureaucrats like Deng Xiaoping and Zhou Enlai. You might have expected something like the Khrushev Thaw to follow.

It didn't. Instead, Mao used his personal prestige and authority to trigger the Cultural Revolution -- a "bottom up" revolt against the party bureau ...more

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May 18, 2018 Gayle Francis Moffet rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018, may-2018, nonfiction

A carefully pieced together look back at the incredibly violent, ever shifting terror that was Mao's Cultural Revolution. Dikotter takes it chronologically by major event, which means that sometimes chapters start back before the Revolution but they end right about where you were at the end of the previous chapter. It's an unsurprisingly brutal read. Dikotter doesn't pull punches where body counts and violence are concerned, nor should he. This is meant to stand as an as honest account of the ev ...more

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Sep 01, 2017 James rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: china, history, politics

The third book in Dikötter's revealing series on Maoist China, following on from the mass starvation and heavy-handed response of the Great Famine and the bloody cost of liberation, this entry focuses on the human tragedy of the Cultural Revolution.

Combining secondary scholarship, selected memoirs and personal responses written both publicly and privately, and unparalleled access to long-sealed archives on the Chinese mainland, Dikötter follows the Cultural Revolution from its genesis in Mao's The third book in Dikötter's revealing series on Maoist China, following on from the mass starvation and heavy-handed response of the Great Famine and the bloody cost of liberation, this entry focuses on the human tragedy of the Cultural Revolution.

Combining secondary scholarship, selected memoirs and personal responses written both publicly and privately, and unparalleled access to long-sealed archives on the Chinese mainland, Dikötter follows the Cultural Revolution from its genesis in Mao's paranoia after being sidelined by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping during the Great Leap Forward to its spiralling out of control as Red Guards took over and brutalised anyone suspected of class treachery. The cost is staggering - countless killed or hounded to suicide, women raped and molested as they were forced down to the countryside, priceless cultural heritage destroyed, an economy ruined. The Cult of Mao was in ascendency, orchestrated by Mao's flawed and feared second in command, Lin Biao.

Dikötter refuses to tread carefully and his research clearly refutes Communist Party denials over Mao's involvement; although Jiang Qing and the Cultural Revolution Group share much blame, they only acted on Mao's orders. Jiang Qing referred to herself as "the Chairman's dog". He clearly lays bare the true destruction China underwent, economically, socially, personally; it almost becomes too much to bear as the litany of human suffering threatens to overwhelm the reader.

It casts a shadow over Chinese contemporary history: in 1989, as the students on Tian'anmen Square called for reform when Deng Xiaoping sent in the tanks to assert as Mao always asserted: the one-party state alone maintains a monopoly on power and alone decides how to wield it.

These three books are sobering and necessary reading - Mao still casts a long shadow over China and the current leadership legitimise themselves through him. Yet, for all the reforms and economic growth, China's recent past is bloody, and with these three books Dikötter erects a tombstone for the countless lives lost. ...more

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Nov 24, 2018 Den_Petrovsky rated it did not like it

Getting through this book is a challenge, not only because of the harrowing events it describes. The author is a world-class specialist in his field, but it feels like he was writing this book for his colleagues, not the readers who not necessarily know the thousands of names filling the pages of the book. To me, it feels like the author assumed that we all have the basics, and took it from there. While the book contains plenty of useful information, it can certainly benefit from more clarity. A ...more

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Apr 20, 2019 Brendan Coke rated it it was ok

Understand the calamity of 'the great leap forward', the 'hundred flowers' state sponsored project, 'Mao Zedong thought' and 'class struggle', (along with internal government power struggles), also the 'Stalinist obsession' (of Mao Zedong) with a 'Khrushchev bourgeois revisionism'. Yet there is a minimal description of the size (and anthropological elements) concerning the continent (and outlying areas) along with a well defined politicised history . Also a slightly orientalist othering of cadre ...more

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May 26, 2018 Landis rated it really liked it

The third in what really should be called Dikötter's "horror" trilogy: in this volume, gruesome tales from the dark cloud of Maoist Gleichschaltung/religious fervor that engulfed all aspects of Chinese society for 10 years. The book might also be titled _The Phenomenology of Political Terror_. Dikötter excels at representing the everyday experiences and emotional and mental states of the common people that experienced what was at its core a politico-theatrical "Maoist Fantasia" with very real co ...more

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Dec 05, 2016 Ernest rated it really liked it

Shelves: history

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', th ...more

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Dec 09, 2016 David Nichols rated it liked it

Shelves: reviewed

Before reading* Frank Dikotter’s book, my knowledge of the Cultural Revolution came mainly from photos and movie scenes of urban workers in matching cotton uniforms, students waving copies of the Little Red Book, and class enemies being marched through the streets in paper dunce caps. The actual Revolution began with such demonstrations but quickly became something much darker: a civil war between rival political militias backed by Mao and his putative successors, fought in cities large and smal ...more

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Apr 29, 2018 Dale rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, history

In case you ever had the idea that the cultural revolution was somehow about eliminating the class enemies of the peasant and proletarian masses, you really ought to read this book. It will give you a clear idea of the cynical political machinations of Mao Zedong and his extraordinary ability to play off factions and strata of society against one another, all to ensure the continuation of the cult of personality that he had cultivated for decades. To call the years of the cultural revolution 'ch ...more

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Sep 27, 2016 Damien Black rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: chinese

Scary to think when citizens turn against each other after doing the impossible of becoming a united nation after many years of European exploitation and division. Surviving Japan and the great Chinese revolution of 1949 is a testament to a great people ( to endure ). Mao Zedong was a romantic revolutionary who should of step down after the creation of the People's Republic of China and enjoyed his twilight years. His ill-fated "The Great Leap Forward" that starved his nation should have been a Scary to think when citizens turn against each other after doing the impossible of becoming a united nation after many years of European exploitation and division. Surviving Japan and the great Chinese revolution of 1949 is a testament to a great people ( to endure ). Mao Zedong was a romantic revolutionary who should of step down after the creation of the People's Republic of China and enjoyed his twilight years. His ill-fated "The Great Leap Forward" that starved his nation should have been a sign that he was no statesman or had any clue how to run a vast country when at any moment foreign powers are waiting for her collapse. Mao believed in permanent revolution, and the Culture Revolution was a nightmare and a breakdown of civilization. Friends became foes; neighbors became your judges and jury, students (middle school ) tortured teachers. Mao had many good ideas pre-revolution, a nation free from European and Japanese enslavement, an experience that many countries can relate even today. He sympathized with the civil rights movement and the plight of many African countries. His quest for a utopian society ended in disaster even Karl Marx dismissed the idea of a utopian society. From afar we sometimes romanticized revolutions of past without thinking about the victims or when we call for revolution without thinking about the most important question "what happens after ?" What happens when you become so feverish, and the mob makes the rules as they go along? It's dangerous when we create a cult of personality, and people are willing to kill, torture, and destroy their civilization because the cult figure can't take being marginalized and worries too much about how history will judge him.

The "culture revolution" doesn't afford too many heroes people like Deng Xiaoping once became the enemy of the Red Guard accused of being anti-revolution and returned to good graces of Mao to just turn around behave the same way (Tiananmen Square). I personal like Zhou Enlai but he too compromised to save his neck, hard to blame him only in hindsight and miles away we dare to judge how anyone should behave or act under madness.

"The Culture Revolution a People's History" perfect for history buffs, admirers of revolution, understanding China, and how humans can endure and build from insanity.

"Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend."
百花齐放，百家争鸣;
bǎihuā qífàng, bǎijiā zhēngmíng
Chairman Mao ...more

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Feb 05, 2017 Flowergarden24 rated it liked it

Fascinating history of constant back and forth power struggles. No trust, no compassion, no vision. I thought it was a great telling of the real life version of Animal Farm including " walking on 2 legs". I can't imagine how anyone can revere that man to this day. I feel it was an informative book. The endless tales of who ousted who got tedious but that's the way it was so I'm glad to have read this.

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Jan 22, 2017 Rich Saskal rated it liked it

'May you live in interesting times'
is widely assumed to be a Western aphorism disguised as a Chinese insult or threat.

But it would certainly apply to the Cultural Revolution.
This book provides a detailed chronology of the Cultural Revolution. It's interesting, though a bit more removed than I would have liked - perhaps the sheer scale of China makes it impossible to avoid turning a million deaths into statistics, to paraphrase Stalin's purported words.
And though individual stories are r ...more

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Apr 02, 2018 Talmadge Walker rated it it was amazing

Very well researched history of the turbulent 60s & early 70s in China. Highly critical of Mao & the various stages of the Cultural Revolution, but very fact-based in it's analysis. I read this book while doing research for a fictional story revolving around Zhou Enlai, but while reading I couldn't help but notice a striking similarity in the governing styles of Mao Zedong and Donald Trump.

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May 14, 2016 Kevin Baird rated it liked it

Flawed but valuable history. I would have liked to see some deeper analysis of the events of the Cultural Revolution, especially concerning the motivations of some of the major actors. Diktotter covers a lot of ground, however, providing the reader with a broad understanding of what happened in China during those tumultuous years.

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Jul 30, 2018 Yeung King Fung rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 10, 2019 R rated it liked it

I walked away from this book with a much better understanding of China's Cultural Revolution. I listened to this book and the narrator didn't have the lovely British accent from Mao's Famine by Frank Dikötter. It was like walking into a University lecture on China but I had missed all the previous lectures. The fault lies with me not the author.

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Jun 25, 2016 Sylvain Galineau rated it liked it

Though the book does include some testimonials of the dystopian madness that was Mao's China, most of it feels like an endless collection of facts and statistics about the Cultural Revolution. A great intro to the period but not quite the "people's history" I was looking for

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May 27, 2017 Wing rated it it was amazing

Using primary sources (provincial and municipal archives) and secondary ones (such as memoirs and interviews), this comprehensive introductory text chronicles the background, origin, mechanics, consequences, and legacies of a period of hell on earth in modern China. Inordinately harrowing, this very complex and convoluted episode is rendered perspicacious and perspicuous skillfully by the author. Some details will remain speculative due to the chaotic nature of the period, but on the whole the a ...more

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Mar 30, 2017 Mary Ann rated it it was amazing

Another interesting and insightful book from Dikotter. This one uncovers, exposes and clarifies the Cultural Revolution--quite possibly one of the most mis-understood periods in history. Understanding the origins of the Cultural Revolution and how it unfolded also provides insights into our current world situation. It's always interesting to see the parallels in history. Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.

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Dec 19, 2016 Mike Kazeef rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Cultural revolution a tragedy viewed from behind the curtain

It is fascinating to see how masses of people reacted with violence to the slogans dreamed up by dogmatic leaders
Might happen in the least expected places like....here

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