On Mon, Jan 22, 2024 at 10:43 PM John Edmundson <[email protected]> wrote:
> Is case anyone is curious I got this less than reassuring response from > the author, Sam Kean: > > "The bit about Mao's regime allowing incest came from a book called > "Hungry Ghost", around page 69. It's a brief reference from a doctor who > worked under the regime. But quite spooky." > > "The Hungry Ghost" gets less than glowing endorsement from a number of > other writers if Wikipedia is to be believed: > The Wikipedia entry , notes as well , more positive reviews , > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_Ghosts:_Mao%27s_Secret_Famine#Reception > . > > A long time editor of The China Quarterly , author of standard works on > the GPCR, recommended Becker in the NYRB , > https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/02/10/worst-man-made-catastrophe-ever/ > , but , asserted it was superceded by Mao's Great Famine: The History of > China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958–1962 > <https://www.bookshop.org/a/312/9780802777683> > by Frank Dikötter . Which I have not dipped into , only having read a > chapter or two of two other books by that conservative author, > https://www.amazon.com/Tragedy-Liberation-History-Revolution-1945-1957/dp/1620403471 > & > https://www.amazon.com/Cultural-Revolution-Peoples-History-1962_1976/dp/1632864231 > . > Some yrs. ago after having read Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great > Leap Forward? > <https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi94trF5fODAxVXiO4BHVw_AgwQFnoECA0QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmronline.org%2F2006%2F09%2F21%2Fdid-mao-really-kill-millions-in-the-great-leap-forward%2F&usg=AOvVaw2l8fCuqIeDomSwHDoWxvYx&opi=89978449>in > Monthly Review , by Joseph Ball , in 2006 , I sent an e-mail link to > Edward Friedman at U. of Wisconsin for his comments. He was one of the > original editors of the Bulletin of Concerned Asia Scholars. He had > recently edited a volume on the Chinese famine, > http://us.macmillan.com/tombstone-1/YangJisheng . He was appalled that MR > would publish the Joseph Ball apologia for Mao. > > On the general question of the evaluation of Maoism, I have found these > useful, Was Mao Really a Monster: The Academic Response to Chang and > Halliday's ''Mao: The Unknown Story'' 2009. Party, army, and masses in > China: A Marxist interpretation of the cultural revolution and its > aftermath 1976. > > When on Leftist Trainspotters on FB a few months ago, Leo Casey was on one > of his rants , after I had recommended reading both Joseph Ball's article > from MR and Dikötter, he , as I expected , asserted that was unneccesary as > the culpability of Mao was not in question. That I was also recommending to > the less dogmatic than he, the author he was reliant on, he paid no heed > to. Others here, from an ideological position 180 degrees opposed to his, > have no intellectual or political need to read either conservative or > liberal anti-communist texts. So much the worse for them too. > _._,_._,_ > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#28599): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/28599 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/103732259/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
