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Mao Zedong's Little Red Book - a compilation of Chairman Mao's statements and political pamphlets - is one of the most visible and ubiquitous symbols of twentieth-century radicalism. Published for the first time in 1964, it rapidly became the must-have accessory for red guards and revolutionaries from Berkeley to Bamako. Yet, despite its worldwide circulation and enduring presence there has, until now, been no serious scholarly effort to understand this seminal text as a global historical phenomenon. Mao's Little Red Book brings together a range of innovative scholars from around the world to explore the fascinating variety of uses and forms that Mao's Quotations has taken, from rhetoric, art and song, to accessory, symbol, badge and weapon. The authors of this pioneering volume use Mao's Quotations as a medium through which to re-examine the history of the twentieth-century world, challenging established ideas about the book to reveal its remarkable global impact.
List of contents
Preface; 1. Introduction: the spiritual atom bomb and its global fallout Alexander C. Cook; 2. A single spark: origins and spread of the Little Red Book in China Daniel Leese; 3. Quotations songs: portable media and the Maoist pop song Andrew F. Jones; 4. Mao quotations in factional battles and their afterlives: episodes from Chongqing Guobin Yang; 5. Translation and internationalism Lanjun Xu; 6. Maoism in Tanzania: material connections and shared imaginaries Priya Lal; 7. Empty symbol: the Little Red Book in India Sreemati Chakrbarti; 8. The influence of Maoism in Peru David Scott Palmer; 9. The book that bombed: Mao's Little Red Thing in the Soviet Union Elizabeth McGuire; 10. Mao and the Albanians Elidor Mëhilli; 11. Partisan legacies and anti-imperialist ambitions: the Little Red Book in Italy and Yugoslavia Dominique Kirchner Reill; 12. Badge books and brand books: the Mao bible in East and West Germany Quinn Slobodian; 13. Principally contradiction: the flourishing of French Maoism Julian Bourg; 14. By the book: Quotations from Chairman Mao and the making of Afro-Asian Radicalism, 1966-75 Bill V. Mullen; 15. Conclusion: in the beginning is the word - popular democracy and Mao's Little Red Book Ban Wang; Index.
Summary
On the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Quotations from Chairman Mao, this edited volume is the first to examine the Little Red Book as a global historical phenomenon, challenging established ideas about the book and re-examining the history of the twentieth-century world.
Report
'Alex Cook's collection of essays on Quotations from Chairman Mao explains this global phenomenon of the 1960s and uses it as a window to explore wider issues, from Chinese politics and society, to traveling theory across Asia, Africa and Europe, to popular appropriation of state ideologies. Contributions by specialists in Mao's works, history, international politics, literary theory, and music reveal the astonishing power of Mao's writings and what that tells us about ourselves.' Timothy Cheek, University of British Columbia
