Bombard the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China

by Linda Jaivin

Bombard the Headquarters! by Linda Jaivin is a brilliant short book on China’s devastating Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). You can read this book in three hours and know all the main features of a complex event that tore China apart and left between 500,000 and 2 million people dead. Despite its brevity, the book is very rounded and also has really good photos. Reading it today, one can’t help but reflect on what it tells us about populism and politics in 2025.