Journey to the Beginning

by Edgar Snow

Genres: Nonfiction

434 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Edgar P. Snow was an American journalist known for his books and articles on Communism in China and the Chinese Communist revolution. He is believed to be the first Western journalist to interview Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong, and is best known for Red Star Over China (1937) an account of the Chinese Communist movement from its foundation until the late 1930s.

Reviews

[D.L. Kung · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has sadly fallen out of print, but should be read by any young person setting off to work in modern China. The American Snow was in his mid-twenties when he arried in the warlord-torn China of the late 1920's and was within a couple of years, one of the first Westerners to walk from China to Burma, to interview the Communist "bandits" in their caves in Yenan, to know the widow of the revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, Soong Ching-ling, as well as to report on her sister's husband, the Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's failed regime leading up to the Communist victory in 1949. He's best known for his work in China, but this book sees him interviewing Gandhi and other Indian leaders as well as covering the Soviet Union.

His writing remains vivid and all the more valuable today for newer generations who can hardly credit or condemn or measure the very mixed blessings of the modern CCP regime without knowing what came before. Snow's historical perspective remains useful for someone landing in today's modern Shanghai in particular. The Shanghai Snow arrived in was ruled by the colonials of "The Settlement" quarters, his job as a foreign correspondent was to not only report on the volatile mix of political and criminal elements controlling a city riddled with vice, death, slavery, wealth and sophisticated cruelty but to venture further and discover that Shanghai had little to do with the vast primitive mainland, to cross the country through famine, war and appalling poverty to understand the coming anger and turbulence.

Many armchair Sinologists now fault Snow for having trusted his old Communist interviewees too much, (he himself was falsely accused during the McCarthy purges in the US of being a Communist whereas he was merely "left" in his political liberalism) not only during his scoop in being the first to interview Mao and his fellow rebels in exile, but on his return to China in later decades when the disaster of the famine from the Great Leap Forward and the viciousness of the Cultural Revolution was carefully hidden away from his attempts to get at the story beyond. His anger at being "used" as a propaganda figurehead in later years comes through in his final writings.

He was nonetheless a great journalist, and it's ridiculous to fault him now with the benefit of academic 20-20 hindsight and the disclosure of then-unavailable archival material for not having found "second sources" to corroborate what was in any case, the "first draft of history."

[Curry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant autobiography, one of Snow's best books; I reckon it's as impactful as Red Star over China. Journey to the Beginning is a necessary read for those curious about Snow's life and his perspectives on the world.

This book illustrates how beautiful the world is, and the different lives that people have lived because of their environment. Snow notes many personal anecdotes of the people he met in each country he went to, including Siam, French Indochina, India, Russia, and of course China. By doing this, he retains his connection with the working class and doesn't seem out of touch from reality.

Many people accuse Snow of being a mouthpiece for the USSR, and that couldn't be further from the truth: he criticizes their policies many times in this book, and clearly was beholden to nobody. He told everything as it is, how he saw it, and admits his mistakes (for example: he used to think Gandhi's methods of nonviolence were ineffective before he met him and Nehru during his trip to India.)

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can learn something about China from this book. It won't be everything, it won't be much or enough - but it will be a fair deal, given the fact it's only one book. Edgar Snow is a good storyteller and lets you immerse in China's universe in the 1930s.

I found it in an outdoor public library next to my house. Everyone can take or leave books there, so there are many older issues. After searching information about Snow's book, I have the impression it's not being published anymore. Why? Is it because Snow shows Mao Zedong in a (somewhat) positive light? I find it a real pity because the author reasons very fairly and has arguments in different directions. A worthy experience for any critical reader! And anyone interested in China's way into communism - or just history ;)

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interessante descrizione della Cina degli anni 30-40 e una carrellata sugli uomini che hanno fatto la storia nel periodo bellico e post bellico
Il ricordo e il messaggio di Gandhi in primo piano!