The Tragedy of Liberation

In 1949 Mao Zedong hoisted the red flag over Beijing's Forbidden City. Instead of liberating the country, the communists destroyed the old order and replaced it with a repressive system that would dominate every aspect of Chinese life. In an epic of revolution and violence which draws on newly opened party archives, interviews and memoirs, Frank Dikotter interweaves the stories of millions of ordinary people with the brutal politics of Mao's court. A gripping account of how people from all walks of life were caught up in a tragedy that sent at least five million civilians to their deaths. The most authoritative and comprehensive study of the biggest and most lethal famine in history. A must-read Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans on Mao's Great Famine A masterpiece of historical investigation into one of the world's greatest crimes New Statesman A masterly book that should be read not just by anybody interested in modern Chinese history but also by anybody concerned with the way in which a simple idea propagated by an autocratic national leader can lead a country to disaster, in this case to a degree that beggars imagination Observer A gripping and masterful portrait of the brutal court of Mao, based on new research but written with great narrative verve ... Gripping Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar