Paul Kenyon's Reviews > The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957

A great introduction to the early years of the Chinese Revolution. Grippingly written. Minimum of fussy analysis and needless hair-splitting. Confident and colourful prose that is, perhaps, unexpected from such a celebrated academic. It's a real lesson in how to transform tonnes of original research into powerful and detailed personal stories. The numbers of dead are, of course, unimaginable, and Dikotter does well to avoid any examination in that direction, instead concentrating on the lives of the perpetrators and the testimonies of a handful of Everyman victims.