Roderick MacFarquhar
Roderick MacFarquhar (1930 – 2019) was Harvard University’s Leroy B Williams Professor of History and Political Science. From 1986-1992, he was the director of Harvard University’s Fairbank Centre for China Studies. He was the leading western scholar of the Cultural Revolution, the decade of turmoil that terrorized China beginning in 1966, and his three-volume work, The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, is a classic in the field. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, when it was still a part of British India, MacFarquhar was a British politician in his pre-academic life, first as a member of the Labour Party and then for the newly-formed SDP.
Books by Roderick MacFarquhar
“What I find particularly convincing about this book is its wide-ranging quest for blame in the Cultural Revolution, which is one of the most puzzling and unprecedented events in the history of global Communism. Technically, the book is a tour-de-force. It offers a survey of Cultural Revolutionaries at every level of Chinese society; it makes use of a fascinating range of primary sources including interviews, memoirs, pamphlets, posters and diaries.” Read more...
Julia Lovell, Historian
Interviews with Roderick MacFarquhar
The best books on The Cultural Revolution, recommended by Roderick MacFarquhar
Countries do have to come to terms with their own history, and it’s unhealthy that China has not yet come to terms with the Cultural Revolution, argues the West’s leading scholar of the period, Roderick MacFarquhar. He chooses the best five books on the Cultural Revolution.
Interviews where books by Roderick MacFarquhar were recommended
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1
Mao’s Last Revolution
by Michael Schoenhals & Roderick MacFarquhar -
2
Maoism at the Grassroots
edited by Jeremy Brown and Matthew D. Johnson -
3
Red Star over China
by Edgar Snow -
4
The Bullet and the Ballot Box: The Story of Nepal's Maoist Revolution
by Aditya Adhikari -
5
A Critical Introduction to Mao
by Timothy Creek
The best books on Maoism, recommended by Julia Lovell
The best books on Maoism, recommended by Julia Lovell
While researching Maoism, China expert Julia Lovell battled against two incorrect assumptions: “firstly that Maoism is a story of China; and secondly that Maoism is a story of the past.” Here she recommends five books for coming to grips with the global, still-relevant impact of Maoism.
