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Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62 Paperback – Illustrated, January 9, 2018
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WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE
'A gripping and masterful portrait of the brutal court of Mao, based on new research but also written with great narrative verve' Simon Sebag Montefiore
'Harrowing and brilliant' Ben Macintyre
'A critical contribution to Chinese history' Wall Street Journal
Between 1958 and 1962, 45 million Chinese people were worked, starved or beaten to death.
Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up with and overtake the West in less than fifteen years. It led to one of the greatest catastrophes the world has ever known.
Dikotter's extraordinary research within Chinese archives brings together for the first time what happened in the corridors of power with the everyday experiences of ordinary people, giving voice to the dead and disenfranchised. This groundbreaking account definitively recasts the history of the People's Republic of China.
- Print length448 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBloomsbury Paperbacks
- Publication dateJanuary 9, 2018
- Dimensions5.1 x 1.15 x 7.8 inches
- ISBN-101408886367
- ISBN-13978-1408886366
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From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
Review
“A masterpiece of historical investigation into one of the world's greatest crimes” ―New Statesman
“It is hard to exaggerate the achievement of this book in proving that Mao caused the famine ... only thanks to brilliant scholarship such as this will the heirs of the vanished millions finally learn what happened to their ancestors” ―Sunday Times
“The most authoritative and comprehensive study of the biggest and most lethal famine in history. A must-read” ―Jung Chang
“Gripping ... Prof Dikötter's painstaking analysis of the archives shows Mao's regime resulted in the greatest "man-made famine" the world has ever seen” ―Daily Express
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Bloomsbury Paperbacks; Reissue edition (January 9, 2018)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 448 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1408886367
- ISBN-13 : 978-1408886366
- Item Weight : 11.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.1 x 1.15 x 7.8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #70,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #39 in Chinese History (Books)
- #40 in Communism & Socialism (Books)
- #47 in Asian Politics
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Frank Dikotter is the author of a dozen books that have changed the way we look at the history of modern China, including Mao's Great Famine, winner of the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction in 2011. His work has been translated into twenty languages, including The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957, which was short-listed for the Orwell Prize in 2014, and The Cultural Revolution: A People's History, 1962-1976, the final volume in his trilogy on the Mao era. He is Chair Professor at the University of Hong Kong and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. More information can be found on his website at www.frankdikotter.com
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Customers find the book readable and well-documented, praising its in-depth research and interesting details. The narrative quality receives mixed reactions - while some customers appreciate how it weaves a story of human suffering, others find it disturbing and filled with unimaginable horrors.
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Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as excellent and interesting, with one customer noting it's a useful addition to their library.
"...The book is a useful addition to my library. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------..." Read more
"...This is the really good part of the book. The reader can see what policy screw-ups by a national dictatorial government do to an entire nation...." Read more
"...Mao’s Great Famine” is an important book, especially at a time when some of our noted pundits are given to praising the efficiency of the Chinese..." Read more
"...The author chose to face the reader with the harsh facts in an undiluted and uncompromising manner...." Read more
Customers praise the book's narrative quality, noting its well-documented and in-depth research approach, with one customer describing it as a must-read for history buffs.
"...While the sources are well documented, the difficulties inherent in a closed society, where information is hidden and distorted for propaganda..." Read more
"...Read the book! Dikotter is an insigthtful and easy read." Read more
"...His narrative is reported to be powerful, but as he is still alive and living quietly outside Beijing, one doubts translations will be published, or..." Read more
"...Dikotter is a modern historian in the sense that he employs 'scientific methods' of statistics and economics in his research and writing...." Read more
Customers have mixed reactions to the pacing of the book, with some praising how it weaves a story of human suffering and reveals unimaginable horrors, while others find it disturbing and grim.
"...by Frank Dikotter This book is an excellent account of the Great Famine of China from 1958-62...." Read more
"A fascinating and detailed description of a tragic era in Chinese History...." Read more
"...This is a disturbing book, and not a comfortable one to read, but critical for understanding the nature of Mao's rule." Read more
"Detailed and harrowing account of one the greatest disasters in human history. A must read for any history buff...." Read more
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Great famine led to great revolution lead to great cultural revolution led to cread snow boarding! Be aware for being deceived!
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2017Mao’s Great Famine
by Frank Dikotter
This book is an excellent account of the Great Famine of China from 1958-62. The causes for the disaster are many, and they primarily come from the top-Chairman Mao, the communist dictator from 1949-76. Dikotter catalogues the natural disasters created by Mao’s dictates, ruinous agricultural practices directed by cadre acting on production quotas from top Communist Party leadership, deadly working conditions both for both rural and urban workers, and the inevitable violence against a people when you take their property, food, clothes, and livestock, leaving them to starve to death.
The book is broken into several sections. The cost of collectivization and forced communal living is covered in the beginning chapters. The peasant’s land was taken, their houses were often torn down and used for fertilizer, and cooking pots and pans confiscated for steel production leaving a homeless and starving people. Even essential farm tools and grain for replanting were taken. Agricultural practices dictated from top Communist leaders and enforced by militia’s or cadres led to disastrous overplanting and overfertilizing, despite the farmer’s warnings. The result was poor crop yields and even top soil destroyed leading to not enough food to eat.
Crops were taken from the rural areas and given to the cities. At a time when millions were starving, grain was being exported to pay for Mao’s military buildup. Livestock was devastated due to stables torn down for fertilizer, neglect, and disease. A culture of waste is well documented, as is an interesting relationship between the communist dictators Stalin, Khrushchev, and Mao.
Along the way there are the manufactured enemies, political prisoners, Communist Party purges, and GULAGS, where the number of imprisoned and murdered were far less than their SOVIET counterparts. However, while the SOVIETS killed roughly 5-7 million in Ukraine famine under Stalin, 30-45 million were killed in Mao’s Great Famine.
The horror of the famine is given over several chapters. From people eating leather, bark, thatch from roofs, cotton seed, and even mud to digging up bodies to eat and cannibalism. The extreme violence by cadres against the people is also covered. Here is the clear danger of a government-controlled economy where insufficient food, shelter, and clothing leads to death, and enforcement of totalitarian policies are accomplished against a mostly unarmed populace.
Where unmet unrealistic quotas from agricultural and industrial goods hold dire consequences to local officials, the result is inflated and inaccurate figures, corruption, stealing, and both natural and economic disasters leading to the deaths of millions and the destruction of morality. Families were likewise destroyed, as millions of men relocated to the cities for work, and women were left to care for the children. Elderly could often no longer be cared for by families now fragmented and in this climate of every person for themselves. Starvation destroyed rural communities. Sexual and physical abuse by cadets occurred often.
Much space is given to the sources and the accompanying problems in determining the exact number of dead due to the famine. While the sources are well documented, the difficulties inherent in a closed society, where information is hidden and distorted for propaganda purposes, are quite apparent. Whether there were 45 million dead due to Mao’s famine, as the author and others propose or not, Dikotter makes a good case for there being more than the 30 million estimated using the Statistical Yearbook. He outlines three other sources not used in the yearbook in which one member places deaths at 43-46 million due to the underreporting of deaths in rural areas and the subsequent 1979 study produced but not published.
Two similarities struck me between the communist dictatorships of the SOVIETS and Communist Chinese. The Russian communists had a common saying: “If you are not stealing from the government, you are stealing from your family.” I saw the humor in it, and now I see the truth in it. Dikotter demonstrates again and again how the same government who took everything from the people now forced them to “steal” from the government for mere survival. Many examples were given: whether through simply eating raw grain that they grew, forging figures of goods produced, robbery, or even saving enough grain to replant next year’s crops.
The responsibility for the deaths caused by the communist dictators—Stalin and here Mao—was excused by the citizens. Granted, there was no free press and little information distributed that was not propaganda. Moreover, blaming either could have meant a membership in GULAGS or their Chinese equivalent. However, there was a widespread, prevalent view that Mao (or Stalin) did not know what was going on in the communities, and presumably if he knew he would not agree or allow it. Yet, these very same totalitarian and draconian policies that led to such disasters came from these same two dictators. While quotas created an environment rife with inflated figures, Mao was warned about this, yet he chose to discard it. After all he was responsible for the policies; he was the dictator in charge of the policies leading to the Great Famine.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2025The adage the 20 deaths are a tragedy and 20 million a statistic is born out in these pages. From a western perspective it is difficult to imagine how so many deaths could be accepted in the name of a particular ideology. Yet, here we have a detailed account of what happened not that long ago.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2011After some books, I have the impression of having fleshed out my understanding with a broader knowledge of a subject
- Cool It expanded my view of climate change
- Mao's Last Revolution expanded my view of the Cultural Revolution
- The Pentagon's New Map expanded my view of grand strategy
Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe by Frank Dikotter is definitely one of these books. A ¡°social history¡± in the best sense of the word, Mao's Great Famine focuses on the leadership, the implementation, and the consequences of the man-made famine that killed at least 45,000,000 Chinese. Dikotter convincingly argues that the Great Leap Forward had a higher death-tool and was more disruptive than the Cultural Revolution, as the Great Leap Forward primarily targeted farmers. The book is a useful addition to my library.
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Unlike most histories of the Chinese Communist Party , Mao's Great Famine is primarily a social history concerned with the experience of common Chinese during the autogenocide that killed approximately one out of every ten Chinese people.
The book begins, and ends, on the top. All the usual suspects are there.
There's Lin Biao, the perpetually ill (But with what? PTSD? acuse anxiety? fibromyagia) marshall, who realized that the secret to success in a system built on lies is to just lie through your teeth:
The thoughts of Chairman Mao are always correct¡ Chairman Mao's superiority has many aspects, not just one, and I know from experience that Chairman Mao's most outstanding quality is realism. What he says is much more realistic than what others say. He is always pretty close to the mark. He is never out of touch with reality¡ I feel very deeply that when in the past our work was done well, it was precisely when we thoroughly implemented and did not interfere with Chairman Mao's thought. Every time Chairman Mao's ideas were not sufficiently respected or suffered interference, there have been problems. That is essentially what the history of our party over the last few decades shows.
And there's Liu Shaoqi, a man whose temperament would have been perfectly fit for the post of, saw the East German Minister of Agriculture
So many people have died of hunger.. History will judge you [Mao Zedong] and me, even cannibalism will go into the books!
And there's Zhou Enlai, Lin's mentor, lying through his teeth
This was my mistake¡ the shortcomings and errors of the last few years occurred precisely when we contravened the general line and Chairman Mao's precious instructions
And there's Mao himself, as profoundly alone as a man can be:
The Three Red Banners have been shot down, now land is being divided up again¡ What have you done to resist this? What's going to happen after I'm dead?
Dikotter does introduce new facts about the high-levels of government during the Great Leap Forard. For instance, Dikotter documents that the massive grain shipments to the Soviet Union during the Great Leap Forward, which are often cited by Chinese as a reason for mass death, but traditionally denied by western historians, actually did happen, Likewise, Dikotter at least implies that Mao's paranoia of Peng Dehui¡®s cooperation with Soeviet authorities wasn't entirely baseless. But Maos Great Famine does not end there. Indeed, it just begins.
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In a recent article on Chinese student applications to American colleges,¡± the New York Times had for a while a multimedia feature, showing full-page scans of ¡°admission brochures¡± prepared by Chinese high school students. A page of one brochure had this sentence:
"My philosophy: The God Helps Those Who Help Themselves"
This sentence, combined with the National Exam mentality and the scholar-bureaucrat tradition, go a great deal of the way to explaining the Great Leap Forward's death toll of 45 million people. In sum:
To obtain a promotion, excel at meeting a simple, well-known metric
To keep your position, simply obey your superior
In the context of the Great Leap Forward, the way for a bureaucrat to be promoted was to report an increase in one of the few metrics that mattered (say, grain produced in the county). The way not to be fired was to simply obey the instruction to collect farm taxes in the form of, say, 30% of the reported harvest. The logical end-point of this is reporting a harvest 300% larger than the actual harvest, and collecting 100% of the actual harvest to pay in taxes.
This is exactly what happened.
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But in another sense, this hides what happened. The story of Mao, Zhou, Liu, and Lin is the story of the leadership. The mundane world of the bureaucrats is the world of the mechanism. The section of the book titled ¡°Ways of Dying¡± is what actually happened.
I won't describe that section, except to say it brought to tears, and it involves a simple formula:
The motivation of a starving worker to work is his fear of torture less his weakness from malnourishment.
That is exactly what happened.
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Mao's Great Famine, especially the ways of dying section, was a hard book to read. It is also a hard book to review. It is written by a European, and thus the style is different from either the nostalgic nature of Chinese histories, or facts-first nature of American histories. This is a good book to read, and it makes a persuasive case for a minimum death toll of 45 million.
Mao's Great Famine is best read along with The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers. One tells how the Party reacts in bad times, and the other in good, but it is the same party, the same mechanism, the same people (or their children or grandchildren) ¡ª only the leadership has changed.
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This is a disturbing book, and not a comfortable one to read, but critical for understanding the nature of Mao's rule.
Top reviews from other countries
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Cliente AmazonReviewed in Spain on March 14, 2025
5.0 out of 5 stars Bueno
Interesante
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in India on July 19, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Very
Very Informative
- Mohammad Ali SanatiReviewed in Germany on May 6, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable book
I was always curious to read about the time of Mao, and the controversial statements about him and his one party system. This book clarifies with precise documents the very dark age of "Great Leap Forward" . I managed to find perfect answers all my question about this period.
This magnificent work of Professor Dikötter is an utterly must to read.
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洋書の友Reviewed in Japan on March 10, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars 世紀の愚策、中国「大躍進運動」の悲惨な全貌
「大躍進運動」1958-62については精神主義に凝り固まった毛沢東が主導し、スズメを一掃して害虫を跋扈させたり、ド素人の国民に鉄鋼生産を強いて、結果、役立たずのくず鉄を大量生産し、国民をいたずらに疲弊させたおバカな政策として、計画経済や個人崇拝特有の「おバカさ」に焦点が当てられてこれまで紹介されてきたように思われる。ところが本書は膨大な労力と執念をもって、この運動がもたらした悲惨な結果、特に飢餓状況を余すところなく明らかにした傑出したドキュメンタリーである。この世紀の愚策は国民を無慈悲に飢餓と死に追いやった。毛沢東の夢想により、周りの追従により進められる集団農場化、嘘ばかりの生産増とスローガン、自然破壊、飢餓輸出、等々、すべて国民を飢餓に至らしめた。著者の執拗な事実の追及には脱帽以外ない。また、この桁外れの人道的犯罪行為である「大躍進運動」が更なる災害である文化大革命を生む経緯も納得させられた。また、読みやすい英語で書かれている。中国人にも一読をお勧めしたいが、本書は中国では禁書?危険か??
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PieroReviewed in Italy on December 10, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Approfondito e interessante
un ottimo libro su uno dei più gravi crimini di Mao Tse-tung: l'aver provocato per motivi di politica interna relativi al suo ruolo all'interno del Partito Comunista Cinese, una delle peggiori carestie della storia cinese. Il folle "Balzo in avanti", provocò nel corso di tre anni tra i venti e i trenta milioni di morte per fame. Estremamente documentato il testo spiega molto bene cosa sia successo in Cina alla fine degli anni '50 dello scorso secolo. Lettura obbligata per tutti coloro interessati alla storia cinese moderna ma, soprattutto, per quanti ancora oggi si ostinano a incensare il "Grande Timoniere".