Sunday, December 5, 2010

Prof. Kondapalli reviews Frank Dikötter's "Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962"

Prof. Kondapalli reviews Frank Dikötter's "Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962" in Hindustan Times. He points out that this book is a useful correction to our understanding of this period, which was devastated by famine and hunger that devoured an estimated 30-40 million Chinese. With the aid of several archival sources and interviews, Dikötter deconstructs the period and, in the process, throws light on the political aspirations and intrigues, plans and changes on the bucolic people as well as in urban areas of China. At its centre lies the theme of policies that led to the worst famine that China witnessed in the late 1950s.

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