This was my first time reading about this period of China's history so I can't say how good this book is when compared to others that cover the same topic. However, I can say that this book truly changed the way I view the world and China. It also made me very aware of how much censorship there still exists about the period. I did not realize how much information was still clutched in secrecy, despite knowing that there was a huge taboo on discussing the famine when it was happening, until I got to the chapter that covered cannibalism during the famine. This was the shortest chapter in the book, only four pages long and consisted mostly of a select few cases and a long paragraph of the distinction in the soviet union between those who ate the already dead and those who killed others. In any other chapter of the book, this bit of information would have faded into the rest of the narrative but in this particular chapter, it only highlighted how much is still kept hidden. Upon finishing the book, although it was all filled with horrors I could not have imagined, that was the chapter that stuck with me and it had nothing to do with the cannibalism but rather the shadowy government that forced its own people to that extreme and covered it up. To me, this was more of a warning against a forceful and over-reaching government than it was against communism. Grande salto in avanti. Un quinquennio di allucinata politica economica voluto e perseverato da Mao Tse Tung che produsse povertà, carestia, distruzione di risorse naturali e, soprattutto, reclamò la vita di decine di milioni di persone (il dibattito sull'esatta cifra delle vittime è irrilevante). Testo documentato minuziosamente anche grazie alla disponibilità di archivi sino a ora inaccessibili.
What do You think about Mao's Massamoord (2010)?
Mandatory reading to understand modern chinese history and the worst man-made human tragedy.
—rhiannon
Wild Swans made me curious. This book made me furious.
—Ben
Fascinating topic, read like an academic paper.
—13mb12by
