Origins of the Cultural Revolution

Roderick MacFarquhar, a former British Member of Parliament, is Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science at Harvard, chairman of its Government Department, and a research associate of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research.

An awe-inspiring work of historical scholarship... MacFarquhar has exposed the inner workings of Mao's China with a depth of detail that raises the standards for Sinological research. -- Lucien W. Pye Harvard Magazine With this volume, Roderick MacFarquhar completes his monumental trilogy on the origins of the Cultural Revolution in China. The volume...surpasses the earlier efforts and marks the probable definitive treatment of Chinese elite political history until CCP archives become fully available. Journal of Asian Studies All in all, readers from several disciplines will welcome the appearance of this volume by one of the most dedicated China watchers. Meanwhile we look forward to the author's collaborative work on the Cultural Revolution itself. -- Dali Yang, University of Chicago China Review International A mighty and eloquent work. -- Jonathan Mirsky New York Review of Books This great intellectual effort, under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, has taken more than 25 years to complete, and has produced the most sparkling gem of modern Sinology... MacFarquhar's careful but devastating prose and his insights make... other books seem shallow by comparison. The Economist

• I: The Third Bitter Year 1. The Central Committe's Ninth Plenum 2. Emergency Measures 3. A New Course in the Countryside 4. A Plethora of Plans 5. Reds and Experts 6. China's Isolation II: False Down 7. The Seven Thousand Cadres Conference 8. Economic Crunch 9. The Dispute over Collectivization 10. Resuscitating the United Front 11. The Curious Case of the 'Three-Family Village' III: Class Struggle 12. Mao Changes the Signals 13. War in the Himalayas, Crisis in the Caribbean 14. Mao in Charge 15. The Socialist Education Movement 16. The Sino-Soviet Rupture and the Vietnam War IV: The End of the Yan'an Round Table 17. Woman Warrior 18. From Grey Eminence to Red Leader 19. Mao Stoops to Conquer 20. The Coming of the Cataclysm