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Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village

$24.61$28.95

Paperback, 672 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1-58367-175-7
Released: April 2008

More than forty years after its initial publication, William Hinton’s Fanshen continues to be the essential volume for those fascinated with China’s revolutionary process of rural reform and social change. A pioneering work, Fanshen is a marvelous and revealing look into life in the Chinese countryside, where tradition and modernity have had both a complimentary and caustic relationship in the years since the Chinese Communist Party first came to power. It is a rare, concrete record of social struggle and transformation, as witnessed by a participant. Fanshen continues to offer profound insight into the lives of peasants and China’s complex social processes. Rediscover this classic volume, which includes a new preface by Fred Magdoff.

One of the most important books about China which has been written since the Revolution. For anyone who wants to understand anything important about the Chinese revolution of our time, the reading of this book is an absolute necessity.

—Joseph Needham, London Tribune

A vivid and compelling ‘grassroots’ account of life in the village precisely during the period in which the new Communist power was establishing itself. A unique contribution to our understanding of life in a northern Chinese village on the eve of the Communist takeover.

—Benjamin Schwartz, New York Times Book Review

Fanshen is an extraordinary book. It will dispose of many myths, both of Left and of the Right.

—C. P. Fitzgerald, The Nation

William Hinton (1919–2004) was a farmer in Vermont and a legendary figure in the U.S. Left. He wrote many books on post-revolutionary China, including Through a Glass Darkly, Iron Oxen, The Great Reversal, Hundred Day War, Shenfan, and Turning Point in China.

SKU: mrp1757 Categories: , ,
Topics: History Places: Asia

Publication Date: April 2008

Number of Pages: 672

Paperback ISBN: 9781583671757

eBook ISBN: 9781583673843