The Origins Of The Cultural Revolution, Volume 2 [Paperback]

Roderick MacFarquhar, a former British Member of Parliament, is Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science at Harvard, chairman of its Government Department, and a research associate of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research.The second volume in a trilogy which examines the politics, economics, culture and international relations of Chines from the mid-1950s to he mid-1960s, this volume tells the story of the Great Leap Forward—Mao's utopian attempt to propel China economically and socially into the twenty-fist century by mobilizing his nation's greatest asset: its disciplined, manpower. The effort produced economic disaster and political dissension, and helped to precipitate the Sino-Soviet split. Today's leaders point to it as the beginning of two decades of national trauma, which ended only after the death of Mao and the purge of the Gang of Four. Those leaders have recently authorized the release of a mass of new documentation in the form of political reminiscences, economic statistics, and leaders' speeches. This volume is the first scholarly work to use the new material comprehensively, weaving it into the narrative along with the contemporary record and the revelations published in Red Guard newspapers during the cultural revolution. The result is the most detailed account and analysis to date of what went wrong and why.I: Change
1. Mao in Moscow
2. The Politburo Tours China
3. The Chengtu Conference
4. The Leap is Launched
5. The Coming of the Communes
6. High Tide
II: Retreat
7. Withdrawal at Wuhan
8. Mao Veers Right
9. Chairman Liu
III: Clash
10. High Noon at Lushan
IV: Defeat
11. The Sino-Soviet Split Emerges
12. The End of the Ll3