Audiobook14 hours
The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957
Written by Frank Dikötter
Narrated by Bruce Mann
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Following the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, after a bloody civil war, Mao hoisted the red flag over Beijing's Forbidden City, and the world watched as the Communist revolution began to wash away the old order. Due to the secrecy surrounding the country's records, little has been known before now about the eight years that followed, preceding the massive famine and Great Leap Forward.
Drawing on hundreds of previously classified documents, secret police reports, unexpurgated versions of leadership speeches, eyewitness accounts of those who survived, and more, The Tragedy of Liberation bears witness to a shocking, largely untold history. Interweaving stories of ordinary citizens with tales of the brutal politics of Mao's court, Frank Dikötter illuminates those who shaped the "liberation" and the horrific policies they implemented in the name of progress. People of all walks of life were caught up in the tragedy that unfolded, and whether or not they supported the revolution, all of them were asked to write confessions, denounce their friends, and answer queries about their political reliability. One victim of thought reform called it a "carefully cultivated Auschwitz of the mind." Told with great narrative sweep, The Tragedy of Liberation is a powerful and important document giving voice at last to the millions who were lost, and casting new light on the foundations of one of the most powerful regimes of the twenty-first century.
Drawing on hundreds of previously classified documents, secret police reports, unexpurgated versions of leadership speeches, eyewitness accounts of those who survived, and more, The Tragedy of Liberation bears witness to a shocking, largely untold history. Interweaving stories of ordinary citizens with tales of the brutal politics of Mao's court, Frank Dikötter illuminates those who shaped the "liberation" and the horrific policies they implemented in the name of progress. People of all walks of life were caught up in the tragedy that unfolded, and whether or not they supported the revolution, all of them were asked to write confessions, denounce their friends, and answer queries about their political reliability. One victim of thought reform called it a "carefully cultivated Auschwitz of the mind." Told with great narrative sweep, The Tragedy of Liberation is a powerful and important document giving voice at last to the millions who were lost, and casting new light on the foundations of one of the most powerful regimes of the twenty-first century.
Author
Frank Dikötter
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.
Related to The Tragedy of Liberation
Related audiobooks
Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The World Turned Upside Down: A History of the Chinese Cultural Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From October to Brest-Litovsk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great Society: A New History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Age of Anger: A History of the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Empire of Democracy: The Remaking of the West Since the Cold War, 1971–2017 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bullets and Opium: Real-Life Stories of China After the Tiananmen Square Massacre Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Days that Shook the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stalin and the Scientists: A History of Triumph and Tragedy, 1905-1953 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Renegade History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Long March: The True History of Communist China's Founding Myth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stalin, Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Russian Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man on Mao's Right: From Harvard Yard to Tiananmen Square, My Life Inside China's Foreign Ministry Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Pursuit of Power: Europe: 1815-1914 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Vietnam: A New History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of Tsarist Russia: The March to World War I and Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5China: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Wall Too High: One Man's Daring Escape from Mao's Darkest Prison Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Wars & Military For You
Kill Anything That Moves Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Five Rings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine: From Zionism to Intifadas and the Struggle for Peace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Korean War: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Strategy Masters: The Prince, The Art of War, and The Gallic Wars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unbroken Bonds of Battle: A Modern Warriors Book of Heroism, Patriotism, and Friendship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Left of Bang: How the Marine Corps' Combat Hunter Program Can Save Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin - Book Summary: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead And Win Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Palestine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Watchmaker's Daughter: The True Story of World War II Heroine Corrie ten Boom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Saved: A War Reporter's Mission to Make It Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Agincourt 1415: Field of Blood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Tragedy of Liberation
Rating: 4.523809523809524 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
21 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good overview of Chinese history from Communist takeover to Great Leap. Good use of original source material.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing book. Markets are the best resource allocation mechanism and are superior to state quotas for production.