Macfarquhar: the Origins of the Cultural Revolution Vol 1 (Cloth) (Studies of the East Asian Institute) [Hardcover]

MACFARQUHAR (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1974 | ISBN-10: 0231038410 | ISBN-13: 978-0231038416

This is the final volume in a trilogy which examines the politics, personalities, economics, culture, and international relations of China from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. Roderick MacFarquhar is the first to use a multitude of new Chinese sources to answer the question: Why did Chairman Mao Zedong launch the Cultural Revolution which plunged China into chaos and almost destroyed its Communist Party? Volume 3 begins with the great famine of the early 1960s which resulted in tens of millions of deaths, setting in train a series of emergency measures which increasingly divided Mao from his comrades-in-arms. The Chairman's anger that they were prepared to adopt 'capitalist' methods to rescue the country was sharpened by his belief that Moscow was denouncing his revolutionary diplomacy because the Soviet leadership had gone capitalist and sold out to the 'imperialist' West. From 1961 to 1966, the increasingly urgent question for Mao was how to prevent a similar revolutionary deterioration in China. The Cultural Revolution, in which tens of thousands of loyal party veterans were publicly disgraced to make way for a supposedly more leftist generation of Red Guards, was his answer. Ironically, after it all ended with Mao's death, one survivor, Deng Xiaoping, was so appalled at the destructiveness of the Chairman's final cataclysm that he actually did turn to capitalism to revive the country. This volume is the first scholarly work for twenty years to focus on the whole gamut of events - political, economic, intellectual, military, and international - in the years leading up to the Cultural Revolution and makes use of a multitude of Chinese documentary, biographical, and historical works that have only appeared in the last decade.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Professor MacFarquhar's account throughout is necessarily very detailed and his analysis is consistently thorough. It is extremely well written, with a lively style befitting the unpredictability and excitement of the events described ... it deserves to be read not only by specialists but also by students and others with a more general interest in modern China. Kenneth C. Walker, Asian Affairs

`This third massive volume completes what is perhaps the most ambitious effort yet undertaken to unravel why and how this great and confusing event came about. Despite the enormous amount of information MAcFarquhar has unearthed, much of it new, he is unable to shed light on the psychology of the leaders. As MacFarquhar makes clear, many terrible things which came to the attention of the world during the Cultural Revolution had started long before.' Jasper Becker - London Review of Books

`MacFarquhar's narrative is unflaggingly exciting... His character-drawing is convincing; dramatic turning-points are made the most of; the material factors are firmly grasped... the concluding volume of a trilogy designed to chart the background of the Cultural Revolution. It has had the great advantage... of being able to make use of a flood of new or newly accessible informaqtion from Chinese sources.' Ethical Imperialism 65 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This is a distinguished book. Finding his way beneath the protective formulas PRC bureaucrats used to say things, MacFarquhar places back into historical context what was taken out of context and criticized in the Cultural Revolution. Together, the three volumes are the most detailed, reliable, astute history [of this period] available of Chinese elite politics...in any language." -- Andrew J. Nathan, author of China's Transition

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 439 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (May 1, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231038410
• ISBN-13: 978-0231038416
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,187,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Authoritative Sourcebook, March 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, Volume 2 (Paperback)

Professor MacFarquhar presents an extremely thorough and readable account of elite politics in China from 1958-1960. While writing this book nearly two decades ago, he had access to hitherto unavailable memoirs and other personal accounts of the events surrounding the Great Leap Forward. He gives the reader a very balanced picture of Chairman Mao - an extremely complex leader who (I disagree with the previous reviewer on this) cannot be called "evil." Mao was no Stalin. Mao was no Hitler. The book reveals that the decision to launch the Great Leap Forward, while ultimately Mao's responsibility, was pushed along by external events and ambitious cadres. My only criticism of the book is that it focuses too much on elite politics. I would love to know more about what was going on in the countryside. All in all, however, THE ORIGINS OF THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION, VOL.2 is an excellent read. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in modern Chinese politics.

11 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Biased research, September 29, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, Volume 3 (Hardcover)

I find this book as well as most of MacFarquhar's books (I have read several) to be fairly biased, though well-written. Here is MacFarquhar's strength and weakness. He is a good story-teller yet I find the work, from an academic standpoint, to be shoddy. He makes claims that are unsubstantiated as to what political elites in China were thinking. Basing his research on accounts written by others in a political system that is notorious for back-biting leaves me a bit concerned as to the veracity of his conclusions sine they are founded on perhaps erroneous information.

I would have liked to have seen him conduct more interviews with the actual people he is writing on -- the ones that are still alive at least -- or with relatives of the people he is writing on. Then, he could triangulate these interviews with is sources to determine as close to the truth as possible. Unfortunatley, his work is way too dependent on one or two sources.

Alas, MacFarquhar's books are the best on elite Chinese politics of the 60s and 70s -- only because no one else has really written on it. I would read the book for some fo the info but I would be wary of the conclusions and veracity of some ofthe arguments.

15 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars misleading book, December 30, 1998

By 

BP (Herndon, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, Volume 2 (Paperback)

Anyone hoping to gain an objective insight into the complex tragedy of the GLF should avoid this book at all costs. Despite the author's reputation as a noted scholar in the field, he makes sweeping, generalized claims that are simply not documented. In discussing the negative aspects of the GLF, for example, all efforts are made to present Mao as not responsible--somehow separated from the policy-making process and therefore not responsible for the terrible consequences. The millions of deaths that resulted are acknowledged, but the author quickly points out that Mao did inspire millions of workers in China to work for the common good, as if this somehow compensated for the maniacal toll on the country. I don't know why Mr. Macfarquhar is such an apologist for Mao, but it clearly interferes with the balance of his analysis and would outrage any sensible student of Chinese history.