Mao’s Last Revolution

Roderick MacFarquhar, Michael Schoenhals

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English

Harvard Uni.Press Academi
15 March 2008

History; Asian history; Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000; Geography

The Cultural Revolution was a watershed event in the history of the People's Republic of China, the defining decade of half a century of communist rule. Before 1966, China was a typical communist state, with a command economy and a powerful party able to keep the population under control. But during the Cultural Revolution, in a move unprecedented in any communist country, Mao unleashed the Red Guards against the party. Tens of thousands of officials were humiliated, tortured, and even killed. Order had to be restored by the military, whose methods were often equally brutal.

In a masterly book, Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals explain why Mao launched the Cultural Revolution, and show his Machiavellian role in masterminding it (which Chinese publications conceal). In often horrifying detail, they document the Hobbesian state that ensued. The movement veered out of control and terror paralyzed the country. Power struggles raged among Lin Biao, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Qing-Mao's wife and leader of the Gang of Four-while Mao often played one against the other.

After Mao's death, in reaction to the killing and the chaos, Deng Xiaoping led China into a reform era in which capitalism flourishes and the party has lost its former authority. In its invaluable critical analysis of Chairman Mao and its brilliant portrait of a culture in turmoil, Mao's Last Revolution offers the most authoritative and compelling account to date of this seminal event in the history of China.

By: Roderick MacFarquhar, Michael Schoenhals
Imprint: Harvard Uni.Press Academi
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 162mm, Spine: 36mm
Weight: 994g
ISBN: 9780674027480
ISBN 10: 0674027485
Pages: 752
Publication Date: 15 March 2008
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

"Preface Abbreviations Introduction 1. The First Salvos 2. The Siege of Beijing 3. Confusion on Campuses 4. The Fifty Days 5. Mao's New Successor 6. The Red Guards 7. Red Terror 8. Confusion Nationwide 9. Shanghai's ""January Storm"" 10. Seizing Power 11. The Last Stand of the Old Guard 12. The Wuhan Incident 13. The May 16 Conspiracy 14. The End of the Red Guards 15. Cleansing the Class Ranks 16. Dispatching Liu Shaoqi 17. The Congress of Victors 18. War Scares 19. The Defection and Death of Lin Biao 20. Mao Becalmed 21. Zhou under Pressure 22. Deng Xiaoping Takes Over 23. The Gang of Four Emerges 24. The Tiananmen Incident of 1976 25. The Last Days of Chairman Mao Conclusion Glossary of Names and Identities A Note on Sources Notes Bibliography Illustration Credits Index"

Roderick MacFarquhar is Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science, and Professor of Government, Harvard University. Michael Schoenhals is Senior Lecturer in Modern Chinese Society at Lund University, Sweden.

Reviews for Mao’s Last Revolution

Supple prose, impeccable scholarship, and a Great Wall of bibliography... MacFarquhar and Schoenhals confirm our suspicions that without the disaster of the Cultural Revolution, China would not have been so eager to motor down the 'capitalist road,' and that Mao himself, purging comrades with 'deliberate opaqueness,' called every bloody shot. - John Leonard, Harper's [A] sweeping panorama of the Cultural Revolution... MacFarquhar and Schoenhals are both leading authorities on Chinese Communist Party history... The story they do tell is absorbing. - Jonathan Spence, New York Review of Books