Mao's Great Famine

Between 1958 and 1962, China descended into hell. Mao Zedong plunged the country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up with and surpass Great Britain economically in less than fifteen years. The experiment ended in the greatest catastrophe China had ever seen, destroying tens of millions of lives.

With a wealth of detail, Frank Dikötter exposes a period of Chinese history never before fully explored. He shows that, rather than developing the country to match the world's superpowers, thus proving the power of communism—as Mao had imagined—the Great Leap Forward was actually a giant and catastrophic step in the opposite direction. The country became the scene of one of the most brutal mass murders of all time: at least 45 million people died of exhaustion, starvation, or deadly abuse by the authorities. It was also the largest demolition of buildings in human history, with nearly a third of the homes being demolished, the earth being turned over in the relentless search for steel and other industrial resources.

Uncovering the cruel machinations in the corridors of power and the daily lives of ordinary people, Mao's Great Famine gives voice to the dead and forgotten. Meticulously researched and brilliantly written, this unprecedented account fundamentally recasts the history of the People's Republic of China.