Frank Dikötter

Historian Frank Dikötter is the author of a trilogy on the history of communism in China. This is the second volume and covers the years 1958-1962, the years of the Great Leap Forward and a devastating famine in which 45 million Chinese lost their lives. It is exceedingly well-researched and -documented, with a heavy reliance on provincial archives which were only recently opened at the time of his writing. It provides a very thorough and scholarly assessment and is a nice counterbalance to the journalistic history, Hungry Ghosts by Jasper Becker. Although the two books have few discrepancies, they approach the topic differently.

The first half of the book is a chronological step-by-step analysis of the Great Leap Forward and how it caused the massive famine. The second half of the book is organized by topic: agriculture, industry, housing, children, women, the elderly, accidents, disease, gulags, violence, etc. The last chapter discusses how the total number of deaths has been calculated and by whom. The epilogue discusses the author's sources, an important addition for those interested in the methodology. There is a 13 page bibliography and extensive endnote citations. The book won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction.

Despite it's scholarly nature, I found Mao's Great Famine compelling reading. Only twice did I find myself skimming due to dense statistical analysis. I would recommend it not only for it's authority on the subject, but for its readability. I intend to purchase the other two volumes of Dikötter's trilogy: Volume 1 on the Chinese Revolution and Volume 3 on the Cultural Revolution… (altro)

Een grondig onderzoek in veel archieven naar de 'Grote sprong voorwaarts'. Vanwege de stompzinnige communistische ideologie van machtsgeile klungelaars werden miljoenen mensen op beestachtige wijze de dood ingejaagd.

Naïef kinderachtige plannen van Mao en zijn kliek zorgden voor een ramp die het leven kostte aan naar schatting 45 miljoen mensen. De bevolking werd bovendien bewust uitgehongerd en onderworpen aan martelingen allerhande.

Erg is dat de verantwoordelijken en hun opvolgers nog altijd de teugels in handen hebben. Dit boek is alleszins een grote en terechte aanklacht tegen een van de grootste zo niet de grootste misdaad tegen de mensheid.

Het boek geeft eveneens een uitstekende bibliografie.… (altro)

Alas, the book is not a how-to manual. Rather, it's a set of profiles of 8 dictators, examining the cult of personality. Dikötter is a respected historian of China and an effective writer, but the book is not as effective as it could be. It's short--the body of the book comprises only just over 200 pages--and its organization works against it. Since it's organized into discrete chapters on each figure, the segments follow a predictable pattern. They're a sketchy history of the dictator in question, emphasizing their personality and propaganda. The length makes it impossible to get any real detail about the person, and the separation de-emphasizes connection. There are recurring themes between the chapters, but explicit thematic parallels are not drawn. It could have been a much more fascinating book if it had not been arranged chronologically and instead had focused on common threads such as the use of media, the purging of rivals, and so on. In addition, while the public reaction to personality cults is briefly mentioned, there's no real discussion of it or what we know about how people really felt.

That said, it's not a useless book and it was good to get past the usual Hitler and Mao, with profiles of Duvalier and Mengistu included. (The full set is Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Kim Il-Sung, Duvalier, Ceausescu, and Mengistu.)… (altro)

I don't think that this is a book on how to be a dictator. What Frank Dikotter has done, is to profile 8 dictators, and he has done an excellent job in this.

What you gain from this, if you highlight/underline key sections, and make notes, is a kind of dictator's play book.

You do get an understanding of how the various dictators have positioned themselves.

What you don't get, and this is a pity, is an analysis of the conditions that allow dictators to grow.

All in all, an enlightening book.… (altro)