JSnufkin

I will start by saying that as a primer history to the CPC (and to the PRC, actually) it's a 5/5. If someone asked me for a single book to get a sense of the history of either of them this would definitely be my choice. It's short and not difficult to read (as in, it does not really assume any prerequisite knowledge, not written having specialists in mind).

On the other hand, for me it would be a 4/5 because I found it to be lacking on details. The chapters on the earliest history of the CPC (pre-Long March) and the latest (post Jiang Zemin) were very enlightening, as I knew almost nothing about that period. But it taught me nothing new for the periods I knew something about.

I was not expecting extra insights on periods where I read the nowadays considered the “core” (e.g. “Mao's Last Revolution” for elite politics the Cultural Revolution), taking into account that this book has to be more limited in scope for each specific topic. But even for affairs where I knew nothing about (e.g. Gao Gan's affair) this book was not particularly helpful in throwing more light into it.

To sum up, read it if you know nothing about the CPC, the PRC or nothing about a specific period of those. If for a certain period you have engaged with the existing literature and you are not looking for a good summary, then you could safely skip the related chapter in this book.

Some parts, especially the first chapter on the Korean War and the chapter on Kim Il Sung's origins were interesting. Overall, not a very enlightening read.

I don't think it's bad, I am just not the target audience. Reading some of the other low-score reviews from this site makes me believe that this book may be relevant for most of people though.

Very enlightening. Makes me excited to delve into the Xi Jinping era to see how accurate some of the conclusions of the author were.

Remarkable for giving voice on the West to people's struggle. Apart from that, I didn't find it particularly enlightening, would have benefitted from a little bit more of analysis about Nepal's situation and the Party. I particularly enjoyed the most the chapters about Prachanda.

I felt at some points it was too sympathetic towards Chiang and very biased against the communist or “anti-Chiang” characters. Despite this, enjoyable to read. I feel the part after he goes to Taiwan is weaker. If Goodreads allowed scores over 10 it would be a 7 (or 3.5 stars).

Interesting and easy to read. Obviously it does not get into too much detail (especially after Stalin's period) so it mainly serves as a light introduction to the topic. Nove's engagement with soviet authors is cool.

Very informative and enlightening.

Weak.

Very well researched and enlightening in some regards. I think some topics could have been detailed further (Shanghai Commune).

Very interesting and informative book with a good bibliography and that uses oral interviews that the author made during his visits to the area. Some of the contents are repeated many times (in my case, it helps as I have bad memory, but I guess for other people it may be a bit annoying). A bit humbled by the book as I would have needed more background to fully grasp all the text.

The author tries to make a point on the accidental character of the revolution. I was not very interested in that.

Very interesting book that, through a well researched and argued case, challenges the (mis)conceptions around Lenin's thought common in academia and political organizations. In addition, it could be interesting if the reader is concerned about the history of russian socialdemocracy at the beginning of the XXth century and the polemics that took place there.

I am happy with this book. Great account of the political life and measures taken by Deng Xiaoping and their associates after the 70s and, although I am not trained to assess that, I believe it is made in a really scholarly made. The academic consensus seems to agree with this.

My concern, and the reason why it has 4 stars, is that some of the claims regarding the popular support of the reforms are, from my point of view, not justified. I understand that it is beyond the scope of the book, but I don't think all of them were supported by any sources.

I liked it but I don't think a thematic division works better than a chronological one (for me). I would expect the book to be a bit dated. The author seems to be at least a bit familiar with marxist theory, which is nice.

I really enjoyed it as a good account of all the intrigues happening at the highest political level of the PRC during the Cultural Revolution. Nonetheless, the omission of anything happening below this level bothers me, as I think it comes from some bias of the authors wanting to reduce the GRCP as palace intrigues.

Additionally, basing the whole psychology and personality of Mao Zedong on only one account who, moreover, as far as I know is a bit polemical, seems far from ideal. Especially considering that the personality of the Chairman is used to push some thesis.

Despite this, it was a really valuable and insightful reading to me.

Muy interesante.

Infumable. Estoy seguro de que el autor ha tenido pensamientos impuros con Hoxha. Bastante mal rollo cuando empieza a hablar de los bikinis de las mujeres albanesas.