Description: Why did the Chinese Communist Party state collapse so rapidly during the Cultural Revolution? Consulting over 2,000 local annals chronicling some 34,000 revolutionary episodes across China, Andrew Walder offers a new answer, showing how the army, brought in to quiet brewing rebellions, escalated the violence that took nearly 1.6 million lives.
Brief description: Andrew G. Walder is Denise O'Leary and Kent Thiry Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. His previous books include Fractured Rebellion, which won the Barrington Moore Book Award, and China Under Mao (both from Harvard). A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Guggenheim fellow, Walder has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Science, and the Ford Foundation.
Review Quotes: Written with theoretical clarity, methodological rigor, and narrative elegance, this magisterial book has refreshed our understanding of the Cultural Revolution and has made important contributions to political and historical sociology...The best analytic work about the Cultural Revolution and hence a must read for anyone who is interested in this movement as well as Chinese politics.--Yang Zhang "American Journal of Sociology" (1/1/2021 12:00:00 AM)