Mao’s Great Famine

Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958–62 delves into the harrowing events of the Great Chinese Famine during the years 1958 to 1962 in the People’s Republic of China under Mao Zedong.

The book examines the duration and impact of the famine that persisted for at least four years, contrary to the commonly cited three years. Approximately 45 million premature deaths occurred during this period, surpassing previous estimates of 30 million. Many victims suffered from political repression, torture, or summary execution.

The book also looks at government decisions and responsibility during the time. Beijing officials, including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, exacerbated the crisis by increasing food procurement quotas from the countryside to fund international imports. Dikötter asserts that the party was aware it was starving its own people to death. Mao himself infamously remarked, “When there is not enough to eat, people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill.”

 Dikötter’s meticulous research draws from recently opened Chinese archives. The book received acclaim in the popular press and won the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2011. It provides a detailed account of this tragic chapter in Chinese history. 13

The Tragedy of Liberation

The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945–1957 examines the tumultuous early years of the People’s Republic of China. The book examines the establishment and first decade of the People’s Republic of China. Dikötter challenges the prevailing view that this period was constructive and benign compared to the preceding Chinese Civil War or the subsequent Great Leap Forward. Instead, Dikötter portrays it as an era of “calculated terror and systematic violence.”

Indoctrination, ill-conceived economic policies, and uprooting of traditional social relations characterized this time. Officially mandated “death quotas” contributed to the unnatural deaths of 5 million people within the republic’s first decade.

The book received considerable attention in the popular press. Critics praised its meticulous research and focus on grassroots impact. Dikötter’s work sheds light on the dark realities of early communist China.

The Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History 1962-1976 sheds light on one of the most tumultuous eras in Chinese history. After the economic disaster of the Great Leap Forward (1958–1962), an aging Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution. His goal was to shore up his reputation and eliminate perceived threats to his legacy.

Mao aimed to purge China of bourgeois and capitalist elements that he believed threatened genuine communist ideology. However, the campaign also turned on his colleagues, subjecting them to public humiliation, imprisonment, and torture. Young students formed Red Guards, vowing to defend Mao to the death. Rival factions emerged, leading to street battles with semi-automatic weapons in the name of revolutionary purity.

As the country descended into chaos, the military intervened. China became a garrison state, marked by bloody purges that affected as many as one in fifty people. Ordinary people used the political chaos to resurrect the market and hollow out the party’s ideology. Decollectivization from below emerged as an unintended consequence of a decade of violence and fear. Dikötter’s research, including access to classified party documents, provides a devastating reassessment of the history of the People’s Republic of China during this period 

Sources:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao%27sGreatFamine

[2] http://frankdikotter.com/books/maos-great-famine/

[3] https://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/5585

[4] https://www.amazon.com/Maos-Great-Famine-Devastating-Catastrophe/dp/0802779239

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheTragedyof_Liberation

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Dik%C3%

[7] https://archive.org/details/tragedyofliberat0000diko

[8] https://www.amazon.com/Tragedy-Liberation-History-Revolution-1945-1957/dp/1620403471