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Barry York's avatar

Mobo Gao's 'Battle for China's Past' is also worth reading, as is William Hinton's 'The great reversal'.

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David McMullen's avatar

I've just read *The Battle for China's Past*. It puts a torch to *Wild Swans* and *Mao, the Unknown Story*; raises a range of doubts about the standard narrative on the Great Leap Forward; and points to the various material achievements of the Mao period in terms of economic performance, health care and education. A recommended read.

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David McMullen's avatar

Indeed, and they are also available at Anna's Archive. :)

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Bill Kerr's avatar

Mobo Gao still teaches at Adelaide Uni

https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/mobo.gao

I visited him years ago, chatted and gave him some books I had about China

"The Battle for China's Past" is excellent IMO

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Barry York's avatar

I highly recommend Dongping Han's book 'The unknown cultural revolution'. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23732125

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5161640-the-unknown-cultural-revolution

This is also worth reading - three essays. https://oldsite.rupe-india.org/59/introduction.html

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David McMullen's avatar

Thanks for the links Barry, The Han book is availabe as a PDF at Anna's Archive. I'll start reading it shortly.

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