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Stanley Rosen, Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals. Mao's Last Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 2006. Pp. xiii, 693. $35.00, The American Historical Review, Volume 112, Issue 3, June 2007, Pages 804–806, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.112.3.804
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The Chinese Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966–1976 in most accounts, including the one under review) was “a watershed, the defining decade of half a century of Communist rule in China,” to quote the opening sentence of this volume. Roderick MacFarquhar has devoted most of his academic career to understanding the origins of this political movement, and has previously published three authoritative volumes covering the 1956–1966 period. In collaboration with Swedish scholar Michael Schoenhals, widely known in the China field for his dedication in ferreting out primary source materials from public flea markets and private sources within China, the two self-confessed “perfectionists” have produced their long-anticipated, much-delayed account, which will serve as a benchmark for future researchers on this subject. Given the complexity and ambiguities of the Cultural Revolution there can be no “definitive” account, and there are important areas that this volume does not cover, as well as some interpretations open to debate. However, the authors have clearly achieved their admirable goal of producing a single-volume history that simultaneously serves scholars, students, and the general public. Were one to read just one book on the subject, this is unquestionably the first choice.
