#4696
Mentioned in 6 episodes
Mao's Great Famine
The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe
Book • 2011
This book by Frank Dikötter provides an unprecedented account of China's Great Famine, which resulted from Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward.
The Great Leap Forward was an attempt to rapidly industrialize and modernize China, but it ended in one of the deadliest mass killings in human history, with estimates suggesting between 30 to 45 million deaths.
Dikötter's research, based on newly opened Communist Party archives, reveals the direct responsibility of top Chinese government officials, including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, for the famine.
The book details the devastating impact on rural areas, the forced collectivization, and the extreme violence and starvation that ensued.
It also challenges the myth that the central leadership was unaware of the famine, showing instead that they made deliberate choices that exacerbated the crisis.
The Great Leap Forward was an attempt to rapidly industrialize and modernize China, but it ended in one of the deadliest mass killings in human history, with estimates suggesting between 30 to 45 million deaths.
Dikötter's research, based on newly opened Communist Party archives, reveals the direct responsibility of top Chinese government officials, including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, for the famine.
The book details the devastating impact on rural areas, the forced collectivization, and the extreme violence and starvation that ensued.
It also challenges the myth that the central leadership was unaware of the famine, showing instead that they made deliberate choices that exacerbated the crisis.
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