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Maoism by Julia Lovell

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Maoism by Julia Lovell

*** WINNER OF THE 2019 CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NAYEF AL-RODHAN PRIZE FOR GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING
SHORTLISTED FOR DEUTSCHER PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING***

'Revelatory and instructive... [a] beautifully written and accessible book'
The Times

For decades, the West has dismissed Maoism as an outdated historical and political phenomenon. Since the 1980s, China seems to have abandoned the utopian turmoil of Mao's revolution in favour of authoritarian capitalism. But Mao and his ideas remain central to the People's Republic and the legitimacy of its Communist government. With disagreements and conflicts between China and the West on the rise, the need to understand the political legacy of Mao is urgent and growing.

The power and appeal of Maoism have extended far beyond China. Maoism was a crucial motor of the Cold War: it shaped the course of the Vietnam War (and the international youth rebellions that conflict triggered) and brought to power the murderous Khmer Rouge in Cambodia; it aided, and sometimes handed victory to, anti-colonial resistance movements in Africa; it inspired terrorism in Germany and Italy, and wars and insurgencies in Peru, India and Nepal, some of which are still with us today - more than forty years after the death of Mao.

In this new history, Julia Lovell re-evaluates Maoism as both a Chinese and an international force, linking its evolution in China with its global legacy. It is a story that takes us from the tea plantations of north India to the sierras of the Andes, from Paris's fifth arrondissement to the fields of Tanzania, from the rice paddies of Cambodia to the terraces of Brixton.

Starting with the birth of Mao's revolution in northwest China in the 1930s and concluding with its violent afterlives in South Asia and resurgence in the People's Republic today, this is a landmark history of global Maoism.

Julia Lovell is a writer, a translator, and a professor. She is the author of The Great Wall: China Versus the World 1000 BC-AD 2000, which has been translated into eighteen languages. She has translated numerous important Chinese works into English, including Eileen Chang's Lust, Caution, Lu Xun's Complete Fiction, and Yan Lianke's Serve the People. She is a lecturer at the University of London in modern Chinese history and literature, and she contributes to the Guardian, The Times, The Economist, and the Times Literary Supplement. She spends the most of the year with her family in China.

SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780525565901
ISBN 10 0525565906
Title Maoism
Author Julia Lovell
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Random House USA Inc
Year published 2020-08-25
Number of pages 656
Prizes Winner of Cundill History Prize 2019, Short-listed for The Baillie Gifford Prize 2019, Long-listed for Orwell Prize 2020
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.