Well-researched, amazingly detailed account and analysis of the Cultural Revolution.

Super informative and well researched, but the writing was seriously dry. I realize this is a scholarly work but, like, spice it up a little

Want to learn about one of the most complicated political structures in recent memory? Read this book. You will learn how power struggles can cause millions to be injured or die, based on misconceptions of power structures and how the public of any nation can be swept up into a furor over any issue or any time.

"monsters and freaks"

-Tragicomedia de horror naif, y además real.-

Género. Historia.

Lo que nos cuenta. Narración de los hechos conocidos como La Revolución Cultural que, durante una época, supusieron un latigazo al devenir de la China de Mao pero que marcaron su futuro hasta el país que conocemos en la actualidad.

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This book is well-documented and well-reasoned. Where sources conflict, the authors reason to the best explanation and usually share that reasoning for the reader him or herself to evaluate. The story told is comprehensive without being boring. It sometimes reads with all the drama of a movie, as in the account of the Gang of Four being arrested (spoiler alert--they are picked off one by one, each with a different reaction, as they show up for a special Politburo Standing Committee meeting). The book is a political rather than a social history of the Cultural Revolution. This is a strength rather than a weakness--it stakes its domain and explores it thoroughly. For those looking for how the Cultural Revolution affected everyday life, Dikötter's _The Cultural Revolution: A People's History_ is recommended.

A very detailed account of the Cultural Revolution. Impressively so, but you only ought to read this book if you are really interested in the minutia of the Cultural Revolution, more so than me anyway. A lot of these details are truly academic rather than practical, because whether someone was in or out of favor with Mao (and much of the book covers Mao's opinion of people) shifted multiple times. I found myself doing a bit of skimming and skipping. But I can't hold that against the book, its well written and well researched.

Excellent on the detail but a firm sense of the larger context is lacking. It reads like a series of rolling local crises within the Chinese Communist Party. This is it's strength - the structural political detail. But there is very little relation to the extremely important Russian and broader geopolitical context.
If you want to know what was happening within the party and the country this is the book, but if you want to understand the Cultural Revolution as a part of the politics of the time then you won't learn a thing.
I found it excellent within it's limited remit.

recommened by Ying Xiao_Quora

Damned interesting, but way too detailed for my level of understanding. LOTS of sociopolitical dynamics in play. You need to be an avid scholar to contextualize this stuff. The chronology jumps around like a Quentin Tarantino plotline. I did learn one thing, however: Communism sucks.

The best complete history of cultural revolution I ever read. Detailed investigations on every perspective——from power struggle within the party to normal people’s life in the revolution——provide those who had ambiguous impression of cultural revolution a comprehensive description of this ten-year event. Compared with some other emotional and agitative works that emphasis the anti-CCP ideology(like Dikotter’s series), Mao’s last revolution is more professional and rigorous but also readable. Highly commended for everyone curious about Maoism, Cultural Revolution, CCP and today’s China

Excellent work

I am actually reviewing my markings in this book. It is a daunting project to start reading,but SO GOOD. The authors are highly respected historians who thought they could produce a book on the cultural revolution in 2 years or so. Ten years later this volume came out. In part the delay was that when it was known they were writing, more and more material was given to them. This book truly changes, deepens, informs one's understanding of the development of the cultural revolution, the influence of international events, the incredible sophistication of Mao in his moves, the duplicity of all involved, the scope of what went on. If readers have read accounts of individuals and are interested in this period and in current China, I strongly recommend getting started with a book that will alter, expand and deepen perspectives.