Tragedy of Liberation
The second installment in 'The People's Trilogy', the groundbreaking series from Samuel Johnson Prize-winning author Frank Dikötter
‘For anyone who wants to understand the current Beijing regime, this is essential background reading’ Anne Applebaum
‘Essential reading for all who want to understand the darkness that lies at the heart of one of the world's most important revolutions’ Guardian
‘Dikötter performs here a tremendous service by making legible the hugely controversial origins of the present Chinese political order’ Timothy Snyder
In 1949 Mao Zedong hoisted the red flag over Beijing’s Forbidden City. Instead of liberating the country, the communists destroyed the old order and replaced it with a repressive system that would dominate every aspect of Chinese life.
In an epic of revolution and violence which draws on newly opened party archives, interviews and memoirs, Frank Dikötter interweaves the stories of millions of ordinary people with the brutal politics of Mao’s court. A gripping account of how people from all walks of life were caught up in a tragedy that sent at least five million civilians to their deaths.
Frank Dikötter is Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong. Before moving to Asia in 2006, he was Professor of the Modern History of China at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has published nine books about the history of China, including Mao’s Great Famine, which won the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction in 2011.
http://www.frankdikotter.com/