Maoism

Since the 1980s, China seems to have abandoned the utopian turmoil of Mao`s revolution in favour of authoritarian capitalism. But Mao and his ideas remain central to the People`s Republic. With disagreements between China and the West on the rise, the need to understand the political legacy of Mao is urgent and growing. A crucial motor of the Cold War: Maoism shaped the course of the Vietnam War and brought to power the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia; it aided anti-colonial resistance movements in Africa; it inspired terrorism in Germany and Italy, and wars and insurgencies in Peru, India and Nepal, some of which are still with us today. Starting with the birth of Mao`s revolution in northwest China in the 1930s and concluding with its violent afterlives in South Asia and resurgence in the People`s Republic today, Julia Lovell re-evaluates Maoism as both a Chinese and an international force, linking its evolution in China with its global legacy.