{"product_id":"the-cultural-revolution-9781408856529","title":"The Cultural Revolution","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003eAcclaimed by the \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail \u003c\/i\u003eas ''definitive and harrowing'', this is the final volume of The People's Trilogy'', begun by the Samuel Johnson prize-winning \u003ci\u003eMao''s Great Famine.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e''The seminal English language work on the subject' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eA major contribution to scholarship on modern China, one that is unequalled, certainly in the English language  both revealing and rewarding reading  for specialists and non-specialists alike'' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/i\u003eAfter the economic disaster of the Great Leap Forward that claimed tens of millions of lives between 1958 and 1962, an ageing Mao launched an ambitious scheme to shore up his reputation and eliminate those he viewed as a threat to his legacy. The stated goal of the Cultural Revolution was to purge the country of bourgeois, capitalist elements he claimed were threatening genuine communist ideology. But the Chairman also used the Cultural Revolution to turn on his colleagues, some of them long\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDefinitive and harrowing -- Book of the Week * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDikötter never allows his intense account to degenerate into melodrama.\u003c\/b\u003e Networks of power and information are carefully traced, revealing a movement that spiralled into general score-settling on such a scale that Mao and his allies had only intermittent control … \u003cb\u003eA fascinating account of how people twisted or resisted the aims of Mao’s movement\u003c\/b\u003e * Daily Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDefinitive and harrowing\u003c\/b\u003e -- Roger Lewis, Book of the Week * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMagnificent\u003c\/b\u003e ... The author gives full acknowledgement to memoirs and scholarly works but it is his own archival research, allied to \u003cb\u003ea piercing critique\u003c\/b\u003e, that lifts the book to a higher level. He has mastered the details so well that with the most sparing use of description he weaves a vivid tapestry of China at the time … This \u003cb\u003ebrilliant\u003c\/b\u003e book leaves no doubt that Mao almost ruined China and left a legacy of paranoia that still grips its modern dictatorship under the latest autocrat, Xi Jinping -- Michael Sheridan * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eThe murderous frenzy of the times, which tore apart friends and families, not to speak of the Communist party itself, is powerfully conveyed -- Book of the Week * The Times *\u003cbr\u003eGiven the tortuous nature of the event, what contribution does Frank Dikötter’s new book make to our understanding of the Cultural Revolution? The answer is an immense one. He sheds important new light on what has long been a dark (in several respects) period in Chinese history ... \u003ci\u003eThe Cultural Revolution \u003c\/i\u003eexposes, in measured prose and well-documented analysis, the impact of communist rule in a period of extraordinary stress, tension and violence, most of it unleashed by the Party itself. Together, these three books, which Dikötter calls the ‘People’s Trilogy’, constitute \u003cb\u003ea major contribution to scholarship on modern China, one that is unequalled\u003c\/b\u003e, certainly in the English language … There is something simply unanswerable about many of his judgments on the effects of almost seventy years of communism in China. Much of this has to do with his use of documents from official archives in China, to which access is difficult … his patience and endurance must be considerable and his Chinese-language skills formidable …. \u003cb\u003eboth revealing and rewarding\u003c\/b\u003e reading – for specialists and non-specialists alike * Literary Review *\u003cbr\u003eGripping, horrific …\u003cb\u003e A significant event in our understanding of modern China\u003c\/b\u003e * International New York Times *\u003cbr\u003eA fine, sharp study of [a] tumultuous, elusive era … Excellent follow-up to his groundbreaking previous work … Dikötter tells a harrowing tale of unbelievable suffering.\u003cb\u003e A potent combination of precise history and moving examples\u003c\/b\u003e * Kirkus *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eOutstanding\u003c\/b\u003e * The Week *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSearing\u003c\/b\u003e * Irish Times *\u003cbr\u003eDuring ten years of insanity, between 1.5m and 2million people lost their lives. It is all chillingly documented in Frank Dikötter’s \u003cb\u003ebrilliant\u003c\/b\u003e new book. -- Niall Ferguson * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMagisterial\u003c\/b\u003e * New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003eHis “people’s trilogy” … has been hailed as the seminal English language work on the subject. The trilogy’s enduring value lies in its unstinting description of the horrors of life under Mao … Dikötter has done much to ensure that we see the full horror of what happened under Mao * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eA significant event in our understanding of modern China * Scotland on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003eIt includes colourful sketches of famous individuals, a fast-paced account of key political events, and some interesting discussions of how ordinary people experienced and contributed to specific Cultural Revolution episodes … \u003cb\u003eImpressive \u003c\/b\u003echapters on the early 1970s that explore and celebrate grassroots developments * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003eA\u003cb\u003e detailed, sober, bleak\u003c\/b\u003e reminder of the horror and chaos unleashed by Mao Zedong * Tablet *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSuperb\u003c\/b\u003e * Tribune *\u003cbr\u003eWhat sets Dikötter apart from many other historians of this period is his obsession with detail and insistence on bringing the story back to the individual account … \u003cb\u003eThe level of research in Dikötter’s book is astonishing ... \u003c\/b\u003ebut the book wears this research lightly, with \u003cb\u003ethe human story coming through strongly\u003c\/b\u003e * Irish Times *\u003cbr\u003eDikötter’s well-researched and readable new book on the Cultural Revolution’s causes and consequences is a crucial reminder of the tragedies, miscalculations and human costs of Mao’s last experiment * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eA tragic and salutary history * Catholic Herald *\u003cbr\u003eThe concluding volume of Dikotter’s \u003cb\u003esuperb \u003c\/b\u003etrilogy on Mao Tse-tung’s China is deeply disturbing * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003e‘\u003cb\u003eAn eye-opener and a page-turner\u003c\/b\u003e’ * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003erevelatory \u003c\/b\u003elook at a seismic upheaval that has left an indelible imprint on the country * The Sunday Times *","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48866820129111,"sku":"9781408856529","price":13.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781408856529.jpg?v=1722280147","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-cultural-revolution-9781408856529","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}