Mao and the Chinese Revolution

by Yves Chevrier, David Stryker (Illustrator)

Overview

An illustrated exploration of one of China's most controversial, influential, and polarizing figures in modern history.

It has been more than a century since the birth of Mao Zedong. From the collapse of the old Chinese Empire in 1912 to the foundation of the People’s Republic in 1949, his history is linked with that of contemporary China, and beyond national borders, with the history of communism as well. His version of guerilla warfare and revolution resulted in the construction of a socialist society that became a model of socialism throughout the world.

Both a tyrant and rebel, Mao wanted to rule through revolution. Yet the Big Leap Forward (1958) and the Cultural Revolution (1966) each plunged China into chaos without saving it from totalitarianism. After 1978, de-Maoization and economic reforms by Deng Xiaoping helped heal the country’s wounds, but the future yet remains uncertain. Whether to be an empire united or broken, serenely "open" or in conflict, democratic or authoritarian, egalitarian or prosperous—so many lingering questions remain of those that Mao and his generation began asking nearly a century ago. Was the Maoist Revolution futile? Would China have been better off without Mao—and is such a thing imaginable?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623717155
Publisher:	Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/26/2023
Series:	Interlink Illustrated Histories
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	1,078,794
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Yves Chevrier is a professor of modern and contemporary Chinese studies at the School of Eastern Languages (INALCO) and at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. He is the author of numerous books about 20th-century China.

Table of Contents

	Introduction: Mao's Revolutions	8
Chapter 1	China Between Two Worlds	18
	An Evolving Empire	19
	Rebellion and Military Buildup	25
	The Two Sources of Maoism	26
	Adapt to Survive	28
	The Short Spring of the Republic (1912)	32
	Pre-modern Growth: China Opens Up (map)	23
	The Great Massacre of the Hungry	24
	The Long March of the Taiping (map)	27
	The Rebel Hero	29
	The Reformists and the Hundred Days	34
	Sun Yat-sen and the Anti-Manchu Revolutionaries	37
Chapter 2	A Country Boy Between Two Chinas (1893-1920)	38
	Apprenticeship	40
	Toward Another Revolution	42
	The Student	48
	"Marx's Party"	52
	The Universe of Mao (map)	42
	The Movement of May 4th 1919	47
	Lenin Seen from China	49
	The Great Union of Popular Masses	52
Chapter 3	The Politics of Others (1921-1927)	54
	Hunanese Communism	56
	The First United Front and Mao's Rise to Power	58
	The Peasant's Path	62
	The Disintegration of the United Front	64
	A Difficult Spring: 1927	67
	The Mines of Jiangxi (map)	57
	The Canton Base	60
	The Class Front	65
	The Warlords and The Northern Expedition (map)	66
Chapter 4	The Rebel (1928-1935)	72
	Maoism's Debut	74
	The "Frog at the Bottom of the Well"	78
	The Wanderer	83
	The Jinggang Mountains (map)	76
	The Village Power Structure	77
	The Soviets of Jiangxi (map)	80
	The Long March and Its Legends	84
	The Long March (map)	85
Chapter 5	Empire Assumed (1936-1954)	88
	Resistance, the Cradle of Maoism	89
	The Tools of Maoism	95
	The Contradictions of President Mao	99
	The Yanan Coalition	102
	Military Conquest	105
	Political Conquest	109
	Xi'an and Wang Ming's Challenge	91
	The Sino-Japanese War (map)	93
	The ABC's of Maoism: The Right Line and Rectification	96
	Contradictions	101
	The Agrarian Reform (1946-1950)	107
	Conquest (map)	110
Chapter 6	Empire in Dispute (1955-1965)	114
	The High Tide of Socialism (1955-1956)	117
	One Hundred Flowers (1957)	119
	From the Great Leap Forward (1958) to the "Dark Years"	123
	Despot in Danger (1962-65)	128
	New Elites, New Inequalities	117
	The People's Communes (1958)	124
	Peng Dehuai's Challenge	127
Chapter 7	The Shattered Empire (1966-1976)	134
	The Return of the Rebel (1966)	136
	The Emperor Strikes Back (1967-68)	140
	The Rupture (1969-76)	145
	China After Mao	151
	The Red Guards	137
	Mao Zedong: A Post-modern Faust?	145
	Chronology	155
	Brief Biographies	156
	Biographical Index	157
	The Chinese Transcription	159