Mao: A Very Short Introduction

Mao: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Delia Davin
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191654035
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 144

Get Book

Book Description
As a giant of 20th century history, Mao Zedong played many roles: peasant revolutionary, patriotic leader against the Japanese occupation, Marxist theoretician, modernizer, and visionary despot. This Very Short Introduction chronicles Mao's journey from peasant child to ruler of the most populous nation on Earth. He was a founder of both the Chinese Communist Party and the Red Army, and for many years he fought on two fronts, for control of the Party and in an armed struggle for the Party's control of the country. His revolution unified China and began its rise to world power status. He was the architect of the Great Leap Forward that he hoped would make China both prosperous and egalitarian, but instead ended in economic disaster resulting in millions of deaths. It was Mao's growing suspicion of his fellow leaders that led him to launch the Cultural Revolution, and his last years were dogged by ill-health and his despairing attempts to find a successor whom he trusted. Delia Davin provides an invaluable introduction to Mao, showing him in all his complexity; ruthless, brutal, and ambitious, a man of enormous talent and perception, yet a leader who is still detested by some and venerated by others. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Mao: A Very Short Introduction

Mao: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Delia Davin
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191654035
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 144

Get Book

Book Description
As a giant of 20th century history, Mao Zedong played many roles: peasant revolutionary, patriotic leader against the Japanese occupation, Marxist theoretician, modernizer, and visionary despot. This Very Short Introduction chronicles Mao's journey from peasant child to ruler of the most populous nation on Earth. He was a founder of both the Chinese Communist Party and the Red Army, and for many years he fought on two fronts, for control of the Party and in an armed struggle for the Party's control of the country. His revolution unified China and began its rise to world power status. He was the architect of the Great Leap Forward that he hoped would make China both prosperous and egalitarian, but instead ended in economic disaster resulting in millions of deaths. It was Mao's growing suspicion of his fellow leaders that led him to launch the Cultural Revolution, and his last years were dogged by ill-health and his despairing attempts to find a successor whom he trusted. Delia Davin provides an invaluable introduction to Mao, showing him in all his complexity; ruthless, brutal, and ambitious, a man of enormous talent and perception, yet a leader who is still detested by some and venerated by others. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution PDF Author: Richard Curt Kraus
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199740550
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 153

Get Book

Book Description
Examines the radical Chinese Communist movement called the Cultural Revolution, a period of suppression so controversial in China, that the Chinese government forbids a full investigation into it even 50 years later. Original.

Modern China: A Very Short Introduction

Modern China: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Rana Mitter
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191578797
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Get Book

Book Description
China today is never out of the news: from human rights controversies and the continued legacy of Tiananmen Square, to global coverage of the Beijing Olympics, and the Chinese 'economic miracle'. It seems a country of contradictions: a peasant society with some of the world's most futuristic cities, heir to an ancient civilization that is still trying to find a modern identity. This Very Short Introduction offers the reader with no previous knowledge of China a variety of ways to understand the world's most populous nation, giving a short, integrated picture of modern Chinese society, culture, economy, politics and art. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Modern China

Modern China PDF Author: Rana Mitter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198753705
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Get Book

Book Description
"Rana Mitter's updated guide describes with flair and authority China's often tortuous, sometimes triumphant pursuit of "modernity", what it has meant for the Chinese people, and what we can expect it to mean in future - for all of us." Graham Hutchings, Oxford Analytica. "Now updated to bring the story of modern China up into the era of Xi Jinping, this slim, accessible, and lively volume offers an appealing mix of information and argument. The first edition proved popular with students as a classroom text, so I look forward to putting this 2.0 version to use in future courses." Jeff Wasserstrom, author of China in the 21st Century : What Everyone Needs to Know.

Communism: A Very Short Introduction

Communism: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Leslie Holmes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199551545
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Get Book

Book Description
The collapse of communism was one of the most defining moments of the twentieth century. This Very Short Introduction examines the history behind the political, economic, and social structures of communism as an ideology.

Mao's China and After

Mao's China and After PDF Author: Maurice Meisner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0684856352
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 614

Get Book

Book Description
Presents a revised account of the revolution of 1966-1969 - Examines the social and political consequences of the upheaval - Deng Xiaoping - Democracy movement - Tienamnen Incident - Mao Zedong - The hundred flowers - Great Leap Forward.

Mao's Little Red Book

Mao's Little Red Book PDF Author: Alexander C. Cook
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107057221
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book

Book Description
On the fiftieth anniversary of Quotations from Chairman Mao, this pioneering volume examines the book as a global historical phenomenon.

Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction

Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Nigel Warburton
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191622788
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Get Book

Book Description
'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it' This slogan, attributed to Voltaire, is frequently quoted by defenders of free speech. Yet it is rare to find anyone prepared to defend all expression in every circumstance, especially if the views expressed incite violence. So where do the limits lie? What is the real value of free speech? Here, Nigel Warburton offers a concise guide to important questions facing modern society about the value and limits of free speech: Where should a civilized society draw the line? Should we be free to offend other people's religion? Are there good grounds for censoring pornography? Has the Internet changed everything? This Very Short Introduction is a thought-provoking, accessible, and up-to-date examination of the liberal assumption that free speech is worth preserving at any cost. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Mao For Beginners

Mao For Beginners PDF Author:
Publisher: Orient Blackswan
ISBN: 9788125022350
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Get Book

Book Description
The documentary comic books of the For Beginners series deal with complex and serious subjects. They attempt to untimidate and uncomplicate the great ideas and work of great thinkers. The movements and concepts dealt with are placed in their historical, political and intellectual contexts. The books are painstakingly researched, humourouly written and enlivened with classic comic-strip illustrations, photographs, paintings, etc. The range of subjects covered is truly vast and varied Malcom X and the New Age guru Castenanda, Shakespeare and Foucault, Jewish Holocaust and Arab and Israel, Structuralism and Biology.

Wild Swans

Wild Swans PDF Author: Jung Chang
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439106495
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 592

Get Book

Book Description
The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history—a bestselling classic in thirty languages with more than ten million copies sold around the world, now with a new introduction from the author. An engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,” a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving—and ultimately uplifting—detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.