Reviews
Dikotter has done a service to history and, when they are allowed to read it, to the Chinese themselves., Aided by newly released historical documents detailing the savage infighting and backstabbing of those in power and the extent of the nationwide damage, Dikötter has produced one of the best single-volume resources on the topic., A riveting and heartbreaking and illuminating read by an expert in the field...Mao's madness comes through on every page. A MUST READ., An intensively researched litany of suffering, packed with statistics, grim anecdotes, and self-serving explanations by leaders responsible for the devastation., For those Chinese students who want a reliable and readable account of what really happened, my standard advice has been to read Hungry Ghosts , by the British journalist Jasper Becker.4 But Becker's work has now been largely superseded by the pathbreaking Mao's Great Famine by the social historian Frank Dikötter... This is a first-class piece of research.... [Mao] will be remembered as the ruler who initiated and presided over the worst man-made human catastrophe ever. His place in Chinese history is assured. Dikötter's book will have done much to put him there., This is an important work illustrating the dangers of one individual holding power to force millions to fulfill his personal fantasies., Haunting... Dikötter Succeeds in His Dark Task of Cataloguing the Awesome Scale of [Mao's] Crime., "The most authoritative and comprehensive study of the biggest and most lethal famine in history. A must-read."- Jung Chang, author of Mao: The Unknown Story " Mao's Great Famine is a gripping and masterful portrait of the brutal court of Mao, based on new research but also written with great narrative verve, that tells the gripping story of the manmade famine that killed 45 million people, from the dictator and his henchmen down to the villages of rural China."- Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar "Despite Beijing's new openness over the past few decades, there are still whole parts of contemporary Chinese history that Party officials have managed to keep largely hidden from the scrutiny of the outside world. The 1959-60 Great Great Leap Forward, Mao's epic effort of revolutionary will power to force China's peasantry into socialism through the rapid communization of agriculture, is such a period. However, by managing to gain access to unplumbed regional Chinese archives and other new materials, Frank Dikotter has helped throw back the shroud on this period of monumental, man-made catastrophe. With both narrative vigor and scholarly rigor, Mao''s Great Famine documents how Mao Zedong's impetuosity was not only the demise of many of his far more politically level-headed comrades-in-arms, but also of tens of millions of ordinary Chinese who perished unnecessarily in this spasm of revolutionary extremism."- Orville Schell, Author and Director of the Center on US-China relations at the Asia Society "A direct, hard-hitting study of China's Great Leap Forward in light of newly opened archival material ⊠A horrifically eye-opening work of a dark period of Chinese history that desperately cries out for further examination."- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "An intensively researched litany of suffering, packed with statistics, grim anecdotes, and self-serving explanations by leaders responsible for the devastation."- Publishers Weekly "Dikotter has done a service to history and, when they are allowed to read it, to the Chinese themselves."- Bloomberg "This is an important work illustrating the dangers of one individual holding power to force millions to fulfill his personal fantasies."- Booklist "Uses newly opened archives and original interviews to detail the calamity in calm, if unavoidably grisly, detail."- NewYorker.com "Aided by newly released historical documents detailing the savage infighting and backstabbing of those in power and the extent of the nationwide damage, Dikötter has produced one of the best single-volume resources on the topic."- Library Journal "This emphasis on how party violence exacerbated the death toll sets Dikötter's book apart from other studies of the Great Leap Forward ⊠Books like his may help force the atrocities, and the debate, back to the surface."- Newsweek "Dikötter tells the story with vivid new detailsâŠHis relentlessly clinical, morally intense account of filth, disease, and hunger is both fascinating and numbing."- Foreign Affairs "In Mao's Great Famine , historian Frank Dikötter assembles a treasure chest of these historic facts, but more important, he strokes them together into a masterly and memorable storyâŠranks among the best documentation available on the Great Leap Forward."- Christian Science Monitor "Haunting⊠Dikötter succeeds in his dark task of cataloguing the awesome scale of [Mao's] crime."- New Republic "Groundbreaking⊠Dikötter found new evidence of the massive and spectacular violence." - Minneapolis Star Tribune "Frank Dikötter''s thoroughly researched book will help ensure that the country''s present-day insecurities do not allow this dark past to be forgotten entirely⊠His findings are astoundingâŠ"Mao''s Great Famine" makes for very grim reading in parts. But the sheer volume of previously hidden facts allows a much clearer and more damning picture to emerge, making a critical cont, Mao's Great Famine is a gripping and masterful portrait of the brutal court of Mao, based on new research but also written with great narrative verve, that tells the gripping story of the manmade famine that killed 45 million people, from the dictator and his henchmen down to the villages of rural China., A direct, hard-hitting study of China's Great Leap Forward in light of newly opened archival material ... A horrifically eye-opening work of a dark period of Chinese history that desperately cries out for further examination., [A] tour of the follies, inefficiencies, and deceptions of Mao's commandeered economy...[a] vivid catalogue of horrors...Focussing relentlessly on Mao's character and motivations, Dikötter confirms the man's reputation as sadistic, cowardly, callous, and vindictive....[a] bold portrait., [A] Seminal and Must-Read Book., In Mao's Great Famine , historian Frank Dikötter assembles a treasure chest of these historic facts, but more important, he strokes them together into a masterly and memorable story...ranks among the best documentation available on the Great Leap Forward., Dikötter tells the story with vivid new details...His relentlessly clinical, morally intense account of filth, disease, and hunger is both fascinating and numbing., Groundbreaking... Dikötter Found New Evidence of the Massive and Spectacular Violence., This emphasis on how party violence exacerbated the death toll sets Dikötter's book apart from other studies of the Great Leap Forward ... Books like his may help force the atrocities, and the debate, back to the surface., The most authoritative and comprehensive study of the biggest and most lethal famine in history. A must-read., Uses newly opened archives and original interviews to detail the calamity in calm, if unavoidably grisly, detail., Frank Dikötter's thoroughly researched book will help ensure that the country's present-day insecurities do not allow this dark past to be forgotten entirely... His findings are astounding..."Mao's Great Famine" makes for very grim reading in parts. But the sheer volume of previously hidden facts allows a much clearer and more damning picture to emerge, making a critical contribution to Chinese history., Despite Beijing's new openness over the past few decades, there are still whole parts of contemporary Chinese history that Party officials have managed to keep largely hidden from the scrutiny of the outside world. The 1959-60 Great Great Leap Forward, Mao's epic effort of revolutionary will power to force China's peasantry into socialism through the rapid communization of agriculture, is such a period. However, by managing to gain access to unplumbed regional Chinese archives and other new materials, Frank Dikotter has helped throw back the shroud on this period of monumental, man-made catastrophe. With both narrative vigor and scholarly rigor, Mao's Great Famine documents how Mao Zedong's impetuosity was not only the demise of many of his far more politically level-headed comrades-in-arms, but also of tens of millions of ordinary Chinese who perished unnecessarily in this spasm of revolutionary extremism., In terrifying detail, Dikotter elucidates the cult-like world of Maoism and the sycophancy of the Chairman's inner circle...precise details of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution wouldn't emerge until much later--and in the case of Dikotter's book, which is the most detailed account published in English, a half century later...[a] masterpiece of historical investigation.
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