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Mao's Great Famine

The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62

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Mao's Great Famine

By: Frank Dikötter
Narrated by: Daniel York Loh
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Bloomsbury presents Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikötter, read by Daniel York Loh.

WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE

‘A gripping and masterful portrait of the brutal court of Mao, based on new research but also written with great narrative verve' Simon Sebag Montefiore

'Harrowing and brilliant' Ben Macintyre

‘A critical contribution to Chinese history' Wall Street Journal

Between 1958 and 1962, 45 million Chinese people were worked, starved or beaten to death.
Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up with and overtake the West in less than fifteen years. It led to one of the greatest catastrophes the world has ever known.

Dikotter's extraordinary research within Chinese archives brings together for the first time what happened in the corridors of power with the everyday experiences of ordinary people, giving voice to the dead and disenfranchised. This groundbreaking account definitively recasts the history of the People's Republic of China. Asia China Politics & Government Wall Street Socialism Imperial Japan
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Critic Reviews

'A masterpiece of historical investigation into one of the world's greatest crimes'
‘It is hard to exaggerate the achievement of this book in proving that Mao caused the famine ... only thanks to brilliant scholarship such as this will the heirs of the vanished millions finally learn what happened to their ancestors'
‘The most authoritative and comprehensive study of the biggest and most lethal famine in history. A must-read'
‘Gripping ... Prof Dikötter's painstaking analysis of the archives shows Mao's regime resulted in the greatest "man-made famine" the world has ever seen'
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Communists love gigantic projects that require huge tributes to the State from the people. In the cases of the Great Leap Forward, it meant complete servitude and loss of all valuable personal possessions, as collectivisation turned once productive farmers into slaves that were worked to death.

Mao's great dream of turning the countryside into an agrarian paradise run by communes, and his obsession with overtaking the West in industrial productivity, all led to a complete corruption and breakdown of society, leading to a minimum 45 million deaths.

This book delves into available archives and details the accounts of survivors to present the horrors of the Great Leap Forward.

The Great Leap Forward is the worst human made disaster in history. This book intricately showcases the immense delusions of Leftist ideology, and how it always leads to impoverishment.

horrors of socialist utopian gigantism

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The second novel by Dikkoter on the modern Chinese state is definitely enthralling. At times it feels a bit repetitive but it is documenting death on a large scale. definitely worth your time following the first book.

Smashed through it

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