Nigel Harris

 

The Mandate of Heaven

Marx and Mao in Modern China

(1978)


First published by Quartet Books Limited 1978.
Copyright © 1978 by Nigel Harris.
Posted here with the permission of the author.

Transcribed and marked up Einde O’Callaghan for REDS – Die Roten.


The original blurb for this book read as follows:

China’s transformation from a poor country devastated by war into a major world power is a modern legend. But how did this change come about? What are the real living conditions of teh peasants and workers? Why, when apparently united in their beliefs, are Russia and China enemies? And why, if Mao is right, must Marx be wrong?

Using publications from the People’s Republic and his own extensive research, Nigel Harris has written a serious critique of the history, aims and actions of the communist Party in China.

Obviously much has changed in the almost quarter century since the book was written, but it is still a valuable, even indispensible, guide to the background to current developments in China.

 

 

Part I – The Long March to Victory

 

Part II – The People’s Republic

 

Part III – Workers and Peasants in the People’s Republic

 

Part IV – Equality, Democracy and National Independence

 

Part V – Proletarian Internationalism

 

Part VI – The Chinese Communist Party and Marxism

 


Last updated on 27.1.2002