Famine Politics in Maoist China and the Soviet Union Contributor(s): Wemheuer, Felix (Author) |
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ISBN: 0300195818 ISBN-13: 9780300195811 Publisher: Yale University Press OUR PRICE: $73.26 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: August 2014 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Agriculture & Food - History | Modern - 20th Century - History | Asia - China |
Dewey: 363.809 |
LCCN: 2014001973 |
Series: Yale Agrarian Studies |
Physical Information: 0.86" H x 6.3" W x 9.39" (1.33 lbs) 344 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century - Cultural Region - Chinese - Cultural Region - Russia |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: An authoritative study of food politics in the socialist regimes of China and the Soviet Union During the twentieth century, 80 percent of all famine victims worldwide died in China and the Soviet Union. In this rigorous and thoughtful study, Felix Wemheuer analyzes the historical and political roots of these socialist-era famines, in which overambitious industrial programs endorsed by Stalin and Mao Zedong created greater disasters than those suffered under prerevolutionary regimes. Focusing on famine as a political tool, Wemheuer systematically exposes how conflicts about food among peasants, urban populations, and the socialist state resulted in the starvation death of millions. A major contribution to Chinese and Soviet history, this provocative analysis examines the long-term effects of the great famines on the relationship between the state and its citizens and argues that the lessons governments learned from the catastrophes enabled them to overcome famine in their later decades of rule. |