Jeremy Brown is Associate Professor of History at Simon Fraser University. Matthew D. Johnson is Assistant Professor of History and Chair of East Asian Studies at Grinnell College. Jacob Eyferth is Associate Professor of Modern Chinese History in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, the Department of History, and the College, University of Chicago. Michael Schoenhals is Professor of Chinese at Chinese Lund University, Sweden.
As a work of cultural history, Maoism at the Grassroots seeks to
complicate interpretations of China’s Mao era (1949–1976) through
an examination of diverse and shared experiences of everyday life…
As in the best edited volumes, each section of this book is nicely
linked to the others and the authors make connections across the
chapters rather than writing in isolation… This book is a must-read
for scholars who work on the People’s Republic of China and will
prove rewarding as well to anyone curious about ordinary life under
Communist Party rule. Maoism at the Grassroots also makes an
important intervention in the larger project of writing modern
Chinese history. Until recently, Western books on China were
primarily written by white men and the occasional white woman. This
volume features scholarship from an impressive array of both
Western and Chinese academics, many of the latter being translated
into English for the first time. This marks a turning point in the
production of historical scholarship on the Mao era, and hopefully
is an indication of growing collaboration among scholars in
different parts of the West and in China.
*Los Angeles Review of Books*
A new generation of Chinese and Western scholars is enriching the
history of Mao Zedong’s China with material from discarded
personnel files, diaries, and unpublished manuscripts purchased
from paper recyclers, as well as from recently opened local
archives. Their view from below challenges the clichéd images of
regimented masses fanatically loyal to the revolution.
*Foreign Affairs*
For years, Maoist China was opaque from the outside—interpretable
only by what a trickle of refugees said or by inference from
government references to ‘the masses.’ That bland term is now
passé, but the Western tendency to homogenize the common folk of
China persists, especially in fields related to international
relations, where scholars and journalists casually refer to ‘the
Chinese’ as if government rhetoric described everyone. Maoism at
the Grassroots is a magnificent antidote to this bad habit.
*Perry Link, author of An Anatomy of Chinese: Rhythm, Metaphor,
Politics*
Maoism at the Grassroots showcases the exciting new scholarship
being produced by the rising generation of historians of the
People’s Republic of China. These chapters portray Mao-era society
and politics with startling intimacy and humanity, drawing on a
range of new sources that bring everyday experiences at the
grassroots into sharp focus.
*Andrew G. Walder, author of China Under Mao: A Revolution
Derailed*
One of the many laudable features of the book is that it combines
the work of Western and Chinese scholars…This volume shows what can
be accomplished when both sides are represented. It is filled with
memorable essays.
*New York Review of Books*
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