In 1949 Mao Zedong hoisted the red flag over Beijing’s Forbidden City. Instead of liberating the country, the communists destroyed the old order and replaced it with a repressive system that would dominate every aspect of Chinese life. In an epic of revolution and violence which draws on newly opened party archives, interviews and memoirs, Frank Dikötter interweaves the stories of millions of ordinary people with the brutal politics of Mao’s court. A gripping account of how people from all walks of life were caught up in a tragedy that sent at least five million civilians to their deaths.
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Frank Dikötter, now well into his stride as a meticulous chronicler of China’s greatest miseries ... The Tragedy of Liberation is a tightly-written narrative of the twelve most pivotal years in modern Chinese history ... The book is also a dispassionate study of the way nations can pervert optimism and descend into lunacy by steady increments ... The Tragedy of Liberation is more unsettling. For what it tells us about the foundations of the modern Communist Party, and the backstory to so many decisions and statements made in Beijing today, it is essential reading (The Times)
A mesmerizing account of the communist revolution in China, and the subsequent transformation of hundreds of millions of lives through violence, coercion and broken promises. The Chinese themselves suppress this history, but for anyone who wants to understand the current Beijing regime, this is essential background reading (Anne Applebaum)
One-party states take control of the past as they take control of societies. Usually they must end for serious historical discussion to begin. A great intellectual challenge of our century is to historicize the People’s Republic even as it continues to exist. Dikötter performs here a tremendous service by making legible the hugely controversial origins of the present Chinese political order (Tim Snyder)
The most authoritative and comprehensive study of the biggest and most lethal famine in history. A must-read (Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans on Mao's Great Famine)
A mesmerizing account of the communist revolution in China, and the subsequent transformation of hundreds of millions of lives through violence, coercion and broken promises. The Chinese themselves suppress this history, but for anyone who wants to understand the current Beijing regime, this is essential background reading (Anne Applebaum)
One-party states take control of the past as they take control of societies. Usually they must end for serious historical discussion to begin. A great intellectual challenge of our century is to historicize the People’s Republic even as it continues to exist. Dikötter performs here a tremendous service by making legible the hugely controversial origins of the present Chinese political order (Tim Snyder)
The most authoritative and comprehensive study of the biggest and most lethal famine in history. A must-read (Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans on Mao's Great Famine)
Book Description
The second installment in 'The People's Trilogy', the groundbreaking series from Samuel Johnson Prize-winning author Frank Dikötter
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Dr B Clayton
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Kindle Edition
Frank Dikotter, a historian at Hong Kong University, is writing a trilogy about China under Mao. This book is volume two. His final book will cover the Cultural Revolution.
Volume two deals with the period 1945 to 1957.
Volume 1 was entitled 'Mao's Great Famine',a superb account of Mao's deliberate starvation of millions of his people. Yang Jisheng's brilliant book 'Tombstone' published in 2012 matches it.
Dikotter's chapters cover: Mao's victory in the period 1945-49; his takeover between 1949-52, the period 1952-56 that included the purge of the intelligentsia plus anyone else who was labelled an 'enemy of the state', and the period 1956-57 which he calls the 'Backlash'.
Ironically, the Communist victory in 1949 is referred to by the Party as a 'liberation' when in fact it placed a monstrous and tyrannical yoke around the people. What followed was terror, murder, and systematic violence against every sector of society. The period 1945-49 claimed hundreds of thousands of life. It was a civil war without pity. It makes the one in Syria today look like a picnic party. City after city was literally starved into surrender by Mao's forces. Changchun was blockaded for 5 months in 1948. The communist commander ordered it to be turned into a 'city of death'. The inhabitants resorted to cannibalism in a desperate attempt to survive. Some 160,000 died of hunger and disease.
After the communist victory, over 2 million landlords (so-called)were liquidated. Death resulted from shooting, burial alive, burning at the stake or dismemberment. Even children aged 8 were murdered because they were 'little landlords'. Then came the Great Terror (note as does the author Mao's copying of the evils of Stalin).This was aimed at eliminating 'all the enemies of the Party'. Read more ›
Volume two deals with the period 1945 to 1957.
Volume 1 was entitled 'Mao's Great Famine',a superb account of Mao's deliberate starvation of millions of his people. Yang Jisheng's brilliant book 'Tombstone' published in 2012 matches it.
Dikotter's chapters cover: Mao's victory in the period 1945-49; his takeover between 1949-52, the period 1952-56 that included the purge of the intelligentsia plus anyone else who was labelled an 'enemy of the state', and the period 1956-57 which he calls the 'Backlash'.
Ironically, the Communist victory in 1949 is referred to by the Party as a 'liberation' when in fact it placed a monstrous and tyrannical yoke around the people. What followed was terror, murder, and systematic violence against every sector of society. The period 1945-49 claimed hundreds of thousands of life. It was a civil war without pity. It makes the one in Syria today look like a picnic party. City after city was literally starved into surrender by Mao's forces. Changchun was blockaded for 5 months in 1948. The communist commander ordered it to be turned into a 'city of death'. The inhabitants resorted to cannibalism in a desperate attempt to survive. Some 160,000 died of hunger and disease.
After the communist victory, over 2 million landlords (so-called)were liquidated. Death resulted from shooting, burial alive, burning at the stake or dismemberment. Even children aged 8 were murdered because they were 'little landlords'. Then came the Great Terror (note as does the author Mao's copying of the evils of Stalin).This was aimed at eliminating 'all the enemies of the Party'. Read more ›
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Dikotter's survey of the first years of Communist rule in China is as explosive as his earlier book exposing the grim realities of Mao's famine. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, it shatters what was left of the myth of the 'golden age' of Communist rule in China, spelling out the gruesome costs in terms of lives lost, families destroyed and morals and manner corrupted thanks to 'Liberation', as the Party still insists on calling it. It is an immensely sad story -- a genuine 'tragedy' - but one that needed to be told to the world. It now has been in a way that, hopefully, enlightens us about the past and makes us think in a new way about China's current rulers.
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