Being very impressed with MacFarquhar's 'Origins' trilogy, I simply had to read the book he co-authored about the Cultural Revolution itself. It's widely considered to be *the* one-volume work on the subject, and it's not hard to see why. His mastery over sources is again obvious and it covers the entire decade in appropriate detail.

However, in contrast to his earlier work, 'Mao's Last Revolution' simultaneously manages to be less clear while also making use of a much narrowed vocabulary. It also adopts a tone which is more emotional than dispassionate and analytical, and does not have the same single-minded focus on elite political maneuvering as 'Origins' as it includes various anecdotes about the lives of average people (although this is to be expected when covering an event characterized by the mobilization of the masses). I don't know whether to attribute these changes simply to time or to the influence of his co-author, Michael Schoenhals.

I am also disappointed with some of the claims made about Mao personally; there is much reliance on the unreliable testimony of his doctor (who claims to have perfectly remembered the Chairman's utterances decades afterwards) as well as completely unsubstantiated accusations such as that on Page. 102 where Mao is quoted as praising violence for violence's sake and invoking Hitler which is cited like this: "From a very reliable source seen by one of the authors." One may as well say the quote came to them in a dream. Another patently ridiculous claim is that made on Page. 190 alleging Mao castigated his wife because of his 'patriarchal' attitude.

What the book did reveal quite plainly is the Chairman's Machiavellianism; it lays out in great detail his scheming both at the beginning and end of the Cultural Revolution. The reason presented for why Mao rehabilitated Deng Xiaoping in 1973 was interesting; in the aftermath of his great ideological campaign he wanted to provide the people a material improvement in their standard of living. He wanted Deng and Zhang Chunqiao to reconcile, and when this failed rather than give power directly to the radicals (which he knew would never be acceptable to the old guard) he handed it to a moderate beneficiary of the Cultural Revolution, Hua Guofeng, who was indebted to the campaign and who thus would have a reason to safeguard it's legacy. Yet the radicals continued to attack him and alienated the moderates, and were promptly removed.

It also reveals plainly why the post-Mao government declared the Cultural Revolution to be "responsible for the most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the state and the people since the founding of the People’s Republic." It details how tens of thousands of homes of those with 'bourgeois' backgrounds were looted and goods worth 65 tons of gold were confiscated, how various historic sites were destroyed, how the education system was excessively politicized and how nearly 1/3rd of China's libraries which were open at its beginning were closed by the time it finished. Many thousands lost their lives in futile factional struggles, plan targets were consistently unfulfilled and it resulted in major shortages of consumer goods.

Yet, as Mao once opined, 'Out of bad things can come good things' for as MacFarquhar at the beginning of the book notes, among Sinologists "A common verdict is: no Cultural Revolution, no economic reform."

can be used as a textbook in undergrad courses ... extensive details about chain of events around CR

Focuses on Mao and high-level politics.

I really enjoyed it as a good account of all the intrigues happening at the highest political level of the PRC during the Cultural Revolution. Nonetheless, the omission of anything happening below this level bothers me, as I think it comes from some bias of the authors wanting to reduce the GRCP as palace intrigues.

Additionally, basing the whole psychology and personality of Mao Zedong on only one account who, moreover, as far as I know is a bit polemical, seems far from ideal. Especially considering that the personality of the Chairman is used to push some thesis.

Despite this, it was a really valuable and insightful reading to me.

If it were possible to give a book zero stars, this book would receive it. This is the first book I have started on Goodreads that I have been unable to continue.

There is no pretense of scholarly neutrality, nor even critical academic appraisal within this book. MacFarquhar and Schoenhals switch between degrading the "mob" of the Cultural Revolution whilst claiming the masses were entirely opposed to the effort; the authors proceed from an assumption that all the actors within the GPCR were simply Machiavellian manipulators, there were no external motivating factors like class or material situation, even ideology is assumed to be a fog of war for some kind of Hobbesian struggle for power; sources cited include Li Zhisui, Mao's physician whose accounts have been discredited in the mainland since 1995 (see: "Testimony of the personnel who had worked with Mao Zedong") and in Western scholarship since 1996 (see Frederick Teiwes); the authors frequently mention events, policies, or people without a rundown of who they were, nor the role they played within China or the CR itself.

This poor excuse for academic literature is a tirade against Mao Zedong (which would be acceptable were this a political tract, not an academic work!), supported by yellow peril-like descriptions of Chinese behavior; personal details about Mao Zedong meant to be unsavory or negative are inserted in passages where it has no relevance. There is no historical or academic value in this work aside from surface-level, run-of-the-mill observations of the CR by two Western historians.

It is interesting to parallel this work and its Machiavellian depiction of Mao with a quote from MacFarquhar's early work for the Fabian society: "This is not to say that Mao imposes his will and ideas, Stalin-style, upon his colleagues. There is no evidence of that."

Everything in this book focuses upon the leadership, there is hardly a mention of mass action aside from condemnation of the "mob" in the form of the Red Guards, etc. Mao's motivation was power, he was willing to take out Party members, and that's all one needs to know. There is no mention of the impact upon rural China, upon the impoverished in both the rural and urban areas. People are not motivated by a poster, Mao was not God, he could not telepathically control the Red Guards, the student movement. There were real motivations, real material realities that led to the Cultural Revolution, and the mistakes that occurred during it. But you won't get any of that from this work.

A comprehensive tome that captures the complexity and turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, as told from various perspectives. Keeping in mind a rough timeline of the Cultural Revolution will be helpful.

Excellent historical sources. Great detail in regard to the politics and factionalism at the highest levels of China during the Cultural Revolution

On a subject like the Cultural Reovlution, one doesn't expect to find much decent material. The secrecy of China, their attempts to sweep Mao's evil beneath a rug, and the lack of English sources that covered the events make the subject somewhat bleak for those interested. Roderick MacFarquhar, in this book, has written easily the most in depth, and interesting book on the subject. To immerse yourself in the world of Post Revolution China, for even an avid amateur historian like myself, can be overwhelming. The author explains the events up to, during, and after the cultural revolution with an ease that they impart to the reader. The book is a mix of accounts and actual transcriptions of Communist Party Meetings. It tells the tale of Mao, and how he used the cult of personality he had fostered, to turn it against his detractors in the government. Stalin always threatened to use his cult, but Mao actually did. When they tried to oust him from power, he appealed to the people and they responded in defense of a man, and an idea in a way that is unmatched in history. This book details the process by which Mao sorted out his enemies and sicced his masses on them in a way that could only be decsribed as evil.

Extremely engrossing and meticulously researched. An invaluable resource for those of us fascinated with the Mao era in China.

引用翔实，一个个的“中发”文件令人对其叙述的真实性无从反驳。关于文革，一场今天仍然没有在中国大陆被彻底否定的灾难，就犹如身体上的隐疾，仍然在暗处刺痛着有良知的中国知识分子的内心。而对于某些没有良知的人，正忙着替文革叫魂，怎能不令人担忧中国的前景？

I could not see the forest for the trees. Recommended only for those who already have a good idea of what the forest looks like.

The level of detail (sometimes day-by-day) was excruciating but so was the story of institutionalized madness it told. The people surrounding Mao spoke of "working towards" him--why? Because while everyone wanted to do and say as he wished, they mostly couldn't figure out what that was especially as it regularly changed. Without exaggeration, sometimes black was black and sometimes it was white. You could be imprisoned for saying or doing something that Mao himself had praised you or someone else for not long before. What it came down to was that it didn't matter what you said or did, all that mattered is what Mao thought or said about it. Frightening.

One of the best detailed and easy-to-read book on the Cultural Revolution