As I continue to wade through the insane (no other word for them) details of Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore, it occurs to me to wonder whether anyone has yet produced a similar account of Mao’s Cultural Revolution? Is the information even available? I’m not sure even the Chinese know how many millions of poor souls Mao did away with, except that he more than likely out-scored old Uncle Joe (the two of them making Hitler look like a lightweight.)
It strikes me also that such an examination would be extremely important and here’s why: Aside from a few die-hard fellow travelers and idiot college kids, most people today understand that the Soviets were a mad, bad lot and that Stalin was pure evil. On the other hand, there remains a curious benignity in the West toward the ChiComs, with Mao perceived not as an even more psychotic villain than Stalin, but somehow as almost cute. (Seriously. Walk down the street with a Hitler tee-shirt and you’ll be arrested for hate crimes. Walk down the street in a Mao shirt and you’ll be thought hip.) Progressivism, with which we seem to be flirting once again, is totalitarianism’s little brother. (Or, as Peej O’Rourke says, Communists worship Satan, Socialists believe perdition is a good system run by bad people and Liberals think we should all go to hell because it’s warm there in the winter.) Given that, and to avoid slippery slopes, it seems to me that we should know the truth of the matter about what happens when somebody sets out to perfect Mankind.
Oh, almost forgot to ask: If you could recommend any such book, I’d appreciate it.
The Port Stands At Your Elbow 
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June 30, 2011 at 2:23 pm
jen
And there’s the Japanese of the 1920-1940s. I’m listening to Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (very good, btw) and I’m dumbfounded by the lack of history in my education about the fact that the Japanese basically went through China, Korea, and Burma raping and pillaging in the lead up to WWII. Nevermind what they actually did during the war, too. Not on par with Stalin and Mao, but surely close to Hitler.
June 30, 2011 at 3:21 pm
Robbo
Very true. Lots of folks don’t know anything about that particular example of barbarism either.
June 30, 2011 at 5:34 pm
nightfly
Apparently, John Lennon was in error. You can make it with plenty of people carrying Mao’s picture.
July 2, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Old School Lady
The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression edited by Mark Kramer covers all Communist regimes across Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America and has the fellow-travellers in a snit. Originally compiled and edited in France and based on newly available Soviet archives.
Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 by Frank Dikotter will be published in September of this year. It has been making headlines since 2010 when the author’s conclusions of 80 million dead under Mao’s total reign were released. The author researched newly available archives in China. It’s on my must-read list.
In re the Japanese, The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang is very good.
July 6, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Robbo
Thankee, OSL! I have heard of The Rape of Nanking (in fact, I believe my parents owned a copy). The other titles look very cringe-worthy indeed.
July 17, 2011 at 1:00 am
JTS
Re. Mao Tse Dung, may I suggest Mao by Jung Chang? Very well written and painstakingly researched. For a broader background that starts actually in the Qing Dynasy, “The Search for Modern China” by Jonathan Spence is worth a read. In fact, anything by Spence is worth reading.
To understand how the Commies got ahold of China, and the vast corruption that led to the downfall of the Kuo Min Tang, I’d suggest “The Soong Dynasty” by Sterling Seagrave. Seagrave is a bit spotty as a historian, but that one’s well researched, and details the corruption at the heart of the Blue Party very well. My wife is the daughter of a KMT soldier who fought both the Japanese and the Communists, so I have more than a little interest in the topic.
If you are into hard core (very hard core) military history, I recommend “Nomonhan” by Coox. The Kwantung Army tangled with the Russkies in 1939, and got their rear end hadned to them due to superior Russian armor and close air support coordinated by none other than Martial Zhukov himself, indeed it was this action that got Zhukov promoted by Stalin to lead the Red Army in the West. Japan’s over-reliance on elan and bayonet charges and under-development of armor and artillery (sound like the French in another war?) got them trounced on open ground. The loss in Manchuria sent them looking for resources southward, and on a collision course with us. Hiding in terrain such as the South Pacific (where their superior Naval Forces could lend a hand) could and did cover up their tactical deficiences, but they still didn’t give up the Banzai charges until late in the war. WWII wold have been quite different if Japan had beaten the Russians in ’39.
Finally, I really liked Montefiore’s book, as well.