Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 2 days 4 hours
Explaining how the strategic thinking of the Communist International developed, as background to the key role the ComIntern played in facilitating the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.
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In this episode we continue our examination of Mao Zedong’s ideological development by discussing his anarchist period.
Further reading:
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 1: The Pre-Marxist Period, 1912-1920 is the indispensable source here...
In this episode we explore the move from liberalism toward Marxism among progressive intellectuals in the 1915-1919 period, and how those ideas began to be brought to the working class in China’s cities. This includes the New Culture Movement, the May 4th Movement, and the June 5th Movement...
In this episode we look at Mao Zedong’s childhood, family background, and see what he was thinking in 1912.
Further reading:
Edgar Snow, Red Star Over China
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol...
The overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, followed by the first years of the Republic of China.
Further reading on the 1911 Revolution:
Joseph Esherick and C.X...
In this episode, we explore some of the major voices of revolution from the decade preceding the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1912: Zou Rong, Qiu Jin and Sun Yat-sen [Sun Zhongshan]...
In the face of foreign aggression and natural disaster, masses of Chinese people turn to traditional folk religion and martial arts to attempt to throw out the imperialists...
In the wake of the Sino-Japanese War, Kang Youwei works with the Guangxu Emperor to try to replicate Japan's Meiji reforms, before being crushed by Cixi and other Manchu conservatives.
At the beginning of the episode, I talk some about how westerners have written about Chinese history. A good book that goes really deep into this is Paul Cohen's Discovering History in China...
In this episode we do some Q&A and then cover the Sino-French War of 1884-1885 and the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895.
A couple names from this episode:
Emperor Qianlong: ruled China from 1735 to 1799
Li Hongzhang: high level Chinese statesman and advocate of self-strengthening
A review of the new book about the civil war in Peru, The Shining Path: Love, Madness, and Revolution in the Andes, by Orin Starn and Miguel La Serna. This book is the first history of the Shining Path aimed at the general reading public to come out in a long time. Next episode, we'll return to our series on the historical background to the Chinese Revolution.
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