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Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 unknown Edition

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Frank Dikötter (Author)
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Frank Dikötter (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 93 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0802779236
ISBN-10: 0802779239
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  • Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Walker Books; unknown edition (October 11, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0802779239
  • ISBN-13: 978-0802779236
  • Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 1.3 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #58,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsImportant and Horrifying; 4.5 Stars
By R. Albin TOP 1000 REVIEWER on October 23, 2010
Format: Hardcover
This important and very revealing book is a serious effort to enhance understanding of the horrendous famine resulting from the Great Leap Forward of the last 1950s and early 1960s. In reading this book, its important to understand DiKotter's method with its strengths and limitations. A complete and systematic narrative and analysis of the Great Leap Forward is not possible at this time. Much of the key documentation is hidden in closed archives in China and will probably remain inaccessible until the Communist Party loses its political monopoly. DiKotter pursued documents related to the Great Leap Forward in a number of less tightly guarded provinical archives. This effort produced a number of revealing documents generated by provincial party and government (often the same thing) officials, and copies of important documents from the central party-government apparatus. Supplemented by prior secondary sources and some other archival research, DiKotter was able to assemble a great deal of revealing information about the Great Leap Forward. Since DiKotter's approach is driven heavily by his archival research, this book often has an anecdotal quality, though DiKotter supplements his vignettes with some background narrative and analysis.

The cumulative effect of DiKotter's reliance on his primary sources is, however, a powerful and devastating exposure of the dimensions of this tragedy and the culpability of the Chinese Communist Party. DiKotter takes pains to rebut the common impression that the famine of the Great Leap Forward was the inadvertant consequence of a terribly mistaken policy exacerbated by bad weather. DiKotter shows very well that the famine and its accompanying events go well beyond simple criminal negligence.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsA shocking tale of the Chinese draconian hell
By Paul Gelman on September 28, 2010
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Frank Dikotter has written a masterpiece about history's greatest monster amd mass murderer ever to have lived. To be precise,he describes the massed and forcible collectivization of the Chinese peasants who paid a horrible price in the process: over 45 million of them died in addition to the many more tens of millions who perished as well because of one man's mad scheme to bring change to his country,no matter what the price ought to be. This was the so-called Great Leap Forward and it happened during 4 years,between 1958-1962. To quote Dikotter: "China descended into hell. Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy...(which was)an attempt to catch up with and overtake Britain in less than fifteen years. In pursuit of a utopian paradise,everything was collectivized and people in the countryside were robbed of their work,their homes,their land,their belongings and their livelihood."(See Introduction)
To write this book,thousands of new documents hitherto classified were used. These came from many sources,mainly from the Office of Foreign Affairs and other provincial archives. These brutal acts caused the greatest demolition of real estate in history and one third of all housing was turned into rubble. "Homes were pulled down to make fertilizers,to build canteens,to relocate villagers,to straighten roads,to make place for a better future beckoning ahead or simply to punish thier owners".
But not all the people died of hunger. Many would suffer from common illnesses such as diarrhoea,dysentery and typhus. "Suicide reached epidemic proportions and in Puning,Guangdong,suicides were described as 'ceaseless' ;some people ended their lives out of shame for having stolen from fellow villagers."(p.304) What's more,"human flesh was traded on the black market.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsGreat Book Everyone Needs to Read If You Want to Know History of China under Mao
By N. Hua on April 14, 2011
Format: Hardcover
I am from China. There are plenty of sources nowdays that prove some 20-50 million people died in starvation during this famine, even the latest history book published from government agency confessed this fact even though they agreed to a smaller number (about 20 million).

I know many of the facts this book presents from history books published in Chinese. This is the first English book I read about this topic written by a foreigner. I must say this author did plenty of research, not only from Chinese sources, but from sources of other countries. So I did learned something which I did not know before. One example, the book told us Mao pressured to export more meat and other goods, but "When the pressure to deliver increased", the quality goes down. "The Soviet Union lodged repeated complaints of the quality of meat, which was often contaminated by bacteria, 1/3 of pork tins were rusty, ... paper exported to HongKong was unusable, ... West Germany discovered salmonella in 500 tonnes of eggs, Swiss found a fifth of shipped coal consisted of stones..."
8 Comments 23 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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4.0 out of 5 starsThe horror called "The Great Leap Forward"
By Tektrader on November 23, 2010
Format: Hardcover
This book carefully documents what may have been the greatest mass killing of the 20th century. The author uses primary sources to piece together the story of the events in China from 1958 to 1962. The forced collectivization of rural China destroyed the productive capacity of Chinese farmers. Mao Zedong and his henchmen (Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping) put in place a plan to accelerate the industrialization of China by extracting the "rural surplus" food production. Increasingly unrealistic goals were set for agricultural production. When the results predictably did not measure up to these outlandish goals, the people who paid the price were the farmers who had to yield up increasing amounts of "surplus" food grains. Leaving them with nothing to eat. The horrors inflicted by the Communist party gangsters are gruesome. But each Chapter in the book documents a new atrocity that tops the previous one.

The author estimates Mao's experiment to have caused 45 million deaths. People who enamored of collectivist schemes should read this book carefully.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

Not as well written as his first book.

Published 23 days ago by Rob
5.0 out of 5 starsOne of the greatest and saddest stories in human history

One of the greatest and saddest stories in human history. Professor Dikotter shows how sheer ignorance of the basic laws of economics, ignored out of sensationalist and absurd... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Maimon
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent introduction to the topic

Excellent starting point for understanding a key influence in the lives of many millions of Chinese still alive today, which has impacted on their many millions of descendants. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Patrick Dessi
4.0 out of 5 starsbut not an easy read.

Very interesting, but not an easy read.

Published 5 months ago by Robert Mielbrecht
1.0 out of 5 starsThis book is a terrible read unless you want to know the basics

This book is a terrible read unless you want to know the basics. The author gives you no back story or details about how the communists came to power or anything like this. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Bobby Van Cleve
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

A little technically written with a great number of statistics. Very thorough

Published 8 months ago by Danoh
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Very well written, this is the second book I can not wait for the next.

Published 8 months ago by Lawrence Ohlfs
5.0 out of 5 starsDikotter focuses on Mao's Great Leap Forward

Dikotter focuses on Mao's Great Leap Forward, his war against the peasantry, and the unprecedented famine that followed. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Graeme P. Auton
5.0 out of 5 starsIt is impossible to grasp China without putting the tragedies caused...

Having just returned from mainland China, this book if fascinating. It is impossible to grasp China without putting the tragedies caused by Mao through the Great Leap Forward and... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Raymond M. Pride
5.0 out of 5 starsDarkness Revealed

A must read for anyone interested in Modern Chinese History.

Published 13 months ago by Smithy

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