China After Mao

PRAISE FOR THE PEOPLE’S TRILOGY: Together, these three books constitute a major contribution to scholarship on modern China, one that is unequalled, certainly in the English language * Literary Review *Harrowing and brilliant … This is the book that changes your life – Ben Macintyre * The Times *Dikötter’s achievement in this book is remarkable * Sunday Times *A brilliant and powerful account …This excellent book is horrific but essential reading for all who want to understand the darkness that lies at the heart of one of the world’s most important revolutions * Guardian *Powerful … Bold and startling … Dikötter must be admired for the manner in which he puts a human scale on the enormous barbarities of the communist takeover of China. We cannot begin to understand modern China without being aware of the blood-drenched tale Dikötter so ably relates – Kwasi Kwarteng * Evening Standard *A mesmerizing account of the communist revolution in China, and the subsequent transformation of hundreds of millions of lives through violence, coercion and broken promises. The Chinese themselves suppress this history, but for anyone who wants to understand the current Beijing regime, this is essential background reading – Anne ApplebaumDikötter performs here a tremendous service by making legible the hugely controversial origins of the present Chinese political order – Tim Snyder A remarkable work of archival research. Dikötter rarely, if ever, allows the story of central government to dominate by merely reporting a top-down directive. Instead, he tracks down the grassroots impact of Communist policies … In so doing, he uncovers astonishing stories of party-led inhumanity and also popular resistance … Dikötter sustains a strong human dimension to the story by skillfully weaving individual voices through the length of the book * Financial Times *Startling … Dikötter’s work has aimed to demolish almost every claim to truth or virtue the Chinese Communist party ever made. He combines a vivid eye for detail with a historian’s diligence in the archives. Powerful … Dikötter is unsparing in his account of the effects of the communist rule * Observer *Magnificent … This brilliant book leaves no doubt that Mao almost ruined China and left a legacy of paranoia that still grips its modern dictatorship under the latest autocrat, Xi Jinping – Michael Sheridan * Sunday Times *Presents a very different take on the Chinese economic miracle than the conventional wisdom … Convincingly shows how foreign capital pouring into China … became a key ingredient of economic growth at a time of intensifying repression following the Tiananmen Square massacre. It also shatters the myth of competent technocratic policymaking under leaders such as Deng Xiaoping … Most radically, the book makes the case that, rather than being a sharp break with the recent past, President Xi Jinping’s more nakedly authoritarian rule is in many ways a continuation of trends that started long ago – Daron Acemoglu, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics

Frank Dikötter is Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. His books have changed the way historians view China, from the classic The Discourse of Race in Modern China to his award-winning People’s Trilogy documenting the lives of ordinary people under Mao. He is married and lives in Hong Kong.