China's Great Leap Forward
This is a long essay on the Great Leap Forward, Mao Ze Dong's attempt to overtake capitalist countries and leapfrog into " communism'. By all reports it was an unmitigated disaster, but eh scale of the disaster is only now becoming apparent as archives are being opened and survivors are opening up to scholars and journalists. This essay originally started as a review of Dikotter's 2010 book, but I thought it would be useful to record what actually happened. I lay no claim to original research, the essay is based mainly on Dikotter's book. However, I have consulted other sources and have referenced them. The material which is between quotes is all directly quoted from Dikotter. The book I am referring to is Frank Dikotter: Mao’s Great Famine: The history of China’s most devastating catastrophe, 1958-62, Bloomsbury, London, 2010. The illustrations are from Brown, Clayton: China’s Great Leap Forward, Education About Asia, 17:3, 2012. China's Great Lea