Mao's Crusade

This fascinating study of China's Great Leap Forward documents how Mao Zedong dominated and manipulated the policy process. Through exhaustive research of newly-available materials, the author discusses how the central ministries and the province of Guangdong implemented radical policies such as the backyard furnace campaign and the establishment of the People's Communes. He also demonstrates how these authorities, hard-pressed by impossible assignments and production targets, were compelled to focus on the fantastic rituals of mass mobilization to keep up appearances.