Red Star over China: The Classic Account of the Birth of Chinese Communism [Paperback]

Edgar Snow (Author), Dr. John K. Fairbank (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0802150934 | ISBN-13: 978-0802150936 | Edition: Revised

The first Westerner to meet Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communist leaders in 1936, Edgar Snow came away with the first authorized account of Mao’s life, as well as a history of the famous Long March and the men and women who were responsible for the Chinese revolution. Out of that experience came Red Star Over China, a classic work that remains one of the most important books ever written about the birth of the Communist movement in China. This edition includes extensive notes on military and political developments in China, further interviews with Mao Tse-tung, a chronology covering 125 years of Chinese revolution, and nearly a hundred detailed biographies of the men and women who were instrumental in making China what it is today.

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; Revised edition (February 16, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802150934
• ISBN-13: 978-0802150936
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.5 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #311,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 50 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting for its weaknesses as well as its strenghts May 11, 2005

By Jonny Harman

Format:Paperback

Written before the Communist Revolution ['49] but after the Long March, this book offers a first-hand biography on Mao Zedong, and tells an engaging story of the Communist advance. Edgar Snow got in behind Communist lines to interview Mao Zedong himself, and so he is as much part of the history as he is a witness to it. His opinions of Mao Zedong are positive and his hopes for the Communist Party are optimistic. I found it a compulsive read until I got perhaps 3/4 the way through, at which point it became a kind of chore to complete. Snow is famous for often being completely wrong about China - travelling through China during the abortive 'Great Leap Forward', where between 30 and 60 million people starved to death, Snow never caught on to a thing - but still this book makes for utterly fascinating reading, if only for its personal insights into Mao Zedong. Still a good read, but not a useful historical source unless one has an understanding of how things eventually progressed. Put simply, it's a marvellous perspective of China at this time, but it's neither a retrospect nor a history.

46 of 58 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Acquire a better understanding of the Chinese revolution February 8, 2000

By Nick Zarter

Format:Paperback

With most Americans sadly ignorant of China and its past, this book provides an incredible inside look at the Chinese revolution and the beginning of communism. Snow's trip through rural provinces and villages during the country's civil war is an adventure in itself. The interviews he does with China's up and coming rulers are purely fasinating, allowing the western public its first chance to get to know such giants as Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai on a more personal level.

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Snow's writing is truly captivating. November 12, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Snow truly did Sinology a tremendous favor when he ventured into the soviet area years ago. Red Star Over China stands as an archetypical example of "pre-TV" journalism at its finest. Snow's captivating writing style allows the reader to truly feel as if they are riding along with the "red bandits" as they move through the hills of China conducting guerilla warfare. What Snow has to tell us about Mao, is as fascinating as anything that has been brought up about him in the post-Mao era. I would recommend this book to anyone, it is not just a history book, it, in itself is a part of history, truly a classic.

46 of 62 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A few good morsels in a bland Maoist broth February 19, 2005

By G. D. Brennan III VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Some history books are important because there are simply no other firsthand accounts to compare them with. Regardless of how well the author did their job, these books remain in print primarily because they contain first-person information unavailable elsewhere. By being first, they end up as the landmark determining the boundaries of all subsequent historical debate.

Red Star over China is such a book.

Long before Mao became a household name, Edgar Snow, a young American journalist, traveled by train to northwest China to meet and interview the leaders who were the head and spine of Chinese communism. Red Star over China chronicles this journey, while also describing much of the turbulent history of China during a period of revolution and turmoil. By telling this story before everyone else, and after lengthy interviews with Mao, Chou En Lai, and the like, Snow put himself in the front rank of modern Chinese historians.

Much of the book is great; Snow shows how conditions in China's countryside (high rents absentee landlords, etc.) contributed to China's turmoil, and he effectively describes how Red China's armies won friends among the populace by, for instance, teaching the illiterate to read using books that were the communist propaganda equivalent of "See Spot Run." Snow also describes scenes well when it suits him; for instance, in an early vignette about a political conversation he had on the train, Snow deftly shows the divisions and factionalism that had permeated Chinese Society.

What's missing, then? For one, Snow often seems to be merely regurgitating his interviewees' propaganda.... To hear him describe it, the soldiers of the Red Army are, to a man, reliable soldiers and good people, brave lads who slogged through miles of countryside during the Long March without needing so much as a smoke or drink to cheer them up. And there's a reason for such glowing descriptions--in the book's notes one can see that Snow committed the cardinal sin of journalism and let his sources review the stories he'd written about them. It's no wonder Mao, Chao En-Lai and the like appear so noble in this book--they got to give it the once-over before Snow submitted it for publication. And considering Mao's later track record, that's shocking--it's as if you're reading a hagiography of Hitler.

Aside from the narrative, there are other things that dampen the reader's enthusiasm for this book. For one, Snow's introductions of characters require the reader to frequently flip back to the biographical notes at the end of the book. Also (and more annoyingly,) this book has no maps. Snow throws a lot of location names at the reader, but unless the reader's traveled very extensively, or unless they have some extra maps of 1930s-China lying around the house, Snow's details will be useless.

All in all, it's worth reading--but this reviewer, for one, will be looking to supplant it by reading Philip Short's "Mao: A Life," or by reading any other history of China written with the benefit of distance, hindsight and perspective. Read more ›

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An Interseting Look at What China Would Become August 25, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have been dabbling in Chinese history over the past few years and was intrigued by many of the topics in this book.

Understand before you read this book that the author is an unabashed fan of Communist movement in China--all good things come from the Red Army and all bad things come from the KMT and Chiang Kai-shek. I was reading this book to get a closer look at the men who would lead China in years to come, so Snow's cheerleading was only a minor distraction. The book was published in the late 1930s, long before the war was won. I found it very interesting to read about Peng Dehuai's background and his stature in the Red Army knowing the fate that would meet him years later during the Great Leap Forward.

He sets the stage nicely with the conditions that made successful revolution and civil war possible. He does a pretty good job in describing the main players, although I would have liked much more on Zhou Enlai.

In some passages, the book moves along nicely, especially around the Long March. In other sections, he can get a little bogged down in details that don't seem to add up to much.

Also note that the book uses the Yale system of transliteration, not Pinyin. "Zhu De" will appear as "Chu Teh", for instance.

I learned quite a few things, and got a new perspective on one of the most important events in the 20th Century -- the establishment of the People's Republic of China.