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China's Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969: Not a Dinner Party
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Comments/Reviews
Description: Mao Zedong launched the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" thirty years ago. This important new documentary history of that calamitous event presents a selection of key primary documents -- many of which are made available here for the first time -- dealing with the Cultural Revolution's massive and bloody assault on China's political and social systems.
Comprehensive in scope, this detailed work
--covers inter alia the launching of the movement, the Red Guards, the inquisition of party members accused of "taking the capitalist road," and the devastating impact of these events on traditional culture, the economy, and China's national defense;
--offers a section of recollections by victims and perpetrators;
--enhances the documents with detailed commentary, a chronology, biographies, and photographs.
Selected Contents:
INTENTIONS AND MEANS; A: Pronouncements by Members of the CCP Leadership (3 texts); B: Official Policy (15 texts); EFFECTS AND CONSEQUENCES; C: Purging the Party (4 texts), D: Making Rebellion (14 texts); E: Revolutionary Culture (12 texts); F: The Economy (5 texts); G: Mutual Perceptions: Chinese and Western (3 texts); AFTER THE EVENT; H: The Trouble with History: Official Verdicts (7 texts); I: Ordinary People Remember (9 texts)
Comment(s): "A well-written and well-conceived volume far superior to any document book I have ever used. Schoenhals has put together a wide-ranging assortment of articles, memoirs, and policy statements which gives students the tools necessary to understand the manifold complexities of the Cultural Revolution. He has chosen his documents with a careful eye to what is appropriate for undergraduates, and has written his topical introductions with good analyses and great charm. A true must for any class that even touches upon the events of the turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution." -- Patricia Stranahan, University of Pittsburgh
Review(s): A reader consisting of 72 fascinating primary documents drawn primarily from public and classified Chinese sources. Documents are divided into sections representing texts that deal with what Mao Zedong wished would happen; responses in the present tense to what was taking place; and retrospectives and other texts examining past events. Reference & Research Book News
[An] important collection. ... A reader expressly intended to encourage undergraduate students to study and interpret for themselves. .... Like all good collections, it peers into odd corners as well as plotting the main highways and should amply fulfil its purpose. The China Quarterly
In drawing together seventy-two items, most of them contemporary documents but some of them later memoirs, Michael Schoenhals has helped to re-create the sweep of the Cultural Revolution, from the doctrinaire certainties of the early enthusiasts to the bewildered reflections of the survivors. ... Not the least of the editor's contributions has been to bring together in this compact volume materials that are familiar, but not always easy to locate. ... A very useful volume, valuable not only for teaching and reference, but even more for bringing the reader back into direct contact with that cataclysmic search for revolutionary purity. Pacific Affairs
The collection not only provides undergraduates with a wide range of raw material to start to come to grips with the complex events of 1966-69; it also contains much that the expert will find revealing. The book's scope is broad. ... Equally broad is the truly impressive range of materials compiled. ... Rich fare indeed. ... The book provides an excellent sense of the drama affecting the Chinese people both during the Cultural Revolution and in subsequent efforts to come to terms with their experiences. ... This fine collection should be a stimulus to renewed interest in the Cultural Revolution. The China Journal
    
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