China Under Mao - Andrew G. Walder

China's Communist Party seized power in 1949 after a long period of
guerrilla insurgency followed by full-scale war, but the Chinese
revolution was just beginning. China Under Mao narrates the rise
and fall of the Maoist revolutionary state from 1949 to 1976-an epoch of
startling accomplishments and disastrous failures, steered by many
forces but dominated above all by Mao Zedong.

"Walder
convincingly shows that the effect of Maoist inequalities still distorts
China today[It] will be a mind-opening book for many (and is a
depressing reminder for others)."
-Jonathan Mirsky, The Spectator

"Andrew
Walder's account of Mao's time in power is detailed, sophisticated and
powerfulWalder takes on many pieces of conventional wisdom about Mao's
China and pulls them apartWhat was it that led so much of China's
population to follow Mao's orders, in effect to launch a civil war
against his own party? There is still much more to understand about the
bond between Mao and the wider population. As we try to understand that
bond, there will be few better guides than Andrew Walder's book. Sober,
measured, meticulous in every deadly detail, it is an essential
assessment of one of the world's most important revolutions."
-Rana Mitter, Times Literary Supplement