Why read The World Turned Upside Down?

Book cover of The World Turned Upside Down: A History of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

Book description

As a major political event and a crucial turning point in the history of the People's Republic of China, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) marked the zenith as well as the nadir of Mao Zedong's ultra-leftist politics. Reacting in part to the Soviet Union's "revisionism," which he regarded as…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The World Turned Upside Down as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Kerry Brown

Author

Perspectives on one of the most bewildering and turbulent periods in modern Chinese history – the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, in the decade from 1966, by one of contemporary China’s foremost historians. Yang, who has worked on the era of the great famines in China prior to this, is well served by two excellent translators. A book that brings the vastness of this revolution down to the stories of specific people and places, including those who were most involved in creating and directing this seminal event.

From Kerry's list on modern Chinese history.