Party, Army and Masses in China

Assessments of the Chinese Cultural Revolution are usually Cold War indictments or glowing portraits of Maoism. Party, Army and Masses in China a classic account of the Chinese Revolution written by eminent Italian political scientist Livio Maitan, seeks by contrast to present an independent Marxist evaluation of the turbulent and contradictory development of China since the Revolution.

Providing a full account of Chinese political developments from the start of the revolution in 1949, to the end of the Cultural Revolution, Maitan offers a perspective that is sympathetic towards the Chinese Revolution, yet critical of the State and Party that presided over it. Maitan's book provided the first coherent narrative account of the sequence of contradictory developments from the unleashing of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 to the disgrace of Lin Piao in 1971, and the re-emergence of such fallen leaders as Teng Hsiao Ping in 1974 - with the accompanying shifts from 'left' to 'right' in Chinese foreign policy.

Balanced and cool in tone, Party, Army and Masses in China is a classic Marxist work now finally back in print for the fiftieth anniversary of the Chinese Revolution.

About the author

Livio Maiman was born in Venice in 1923. He studied classical literature at the University of Padua under Concetto Marchese, a well-known Italian scholar and opponent of Mussolini. During the War, he was active in the Resistance to Fascism, and in 1944 was condemned by a Fascist court in Venice, but escaped to Switzerland. After the War, he was a member of the youth organization of the Italian Socialist Party. In 1948, he joined the Fourth International, in which he played a prominent role.

Product details

• Authors: Livio Maitan, Maitan Livio
• Publisher: Verso
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 28.02.2019
• EAN: 9781786631497
• ISBN: 978-1-78663-149-7
• No. of pages: 374
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political theories and the history of ideas; China, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Asian, HISTORY / Asia / China, Political science & theory, Far-left political ideologies and movements, Asian History, Political science and theory, Socialism & left-of-centre democratic ideologies, Left-of-centre democratic ideologies, Marxism & Communism