Mao's Little red book: a global history

306 Pages·2014·4.009 MB·English

by  Mao, Zedong

Mao’s Little Red Book
Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book (Quotations from Chairman Mao) –
acompilationoftheChineseleader’sspeechesandwritings–isoneof
themostvisibleandubiquitoussymbolsoftwentieth-centuryradicalism.
Published for the first time in 1964, it rapidly became the must-have
accessoryforRedGuardsandrevolutionariesfromBerkeleytoBamako.
Yet,despiteitsworldwidecirculationandenduringpresencetherehas,
until now, been no serious scholarly effort to understand this seminal
text as a global historical phenomenon. Mao’s Little Red Book brings
togetherarangeofinnovativescholarsfromaroundtheworldtoexplore
the fascinating variety of uses and forms that Mao’s Quotations has
taken, from rhetoric, art, and song, to talisman, badge, and weapon.
The authors of this pioneering volume use Mao’s Quotations as a
medium through which to re-examine the history of the twentieth-
century world, challenging established ideas about the book to reveal
itsremarkableglobalimpact.
alexander c. cook isAssistantProfessorofHistoryattheUniver-
sityofCalifornia,Berkeley,whereheteachesmodernChinesehistory.
His research examines Maoism in its domestic and global contexts.
His publications include the chapter on “Third World Maoism” in
Critical Introduction to Mao (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and a
forthcomingbookontheGangofFourtrialinChina.

’
Mao s Little Red Book
A Global History
Edited by
Alexander C. Cook
UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,
NewYork
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
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©CambridgeUniversityPress2014
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Firstpublished2014
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LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Mao’sLittleRedBook:aglobalhistory/editedbyAlexanderC.Cook.
pages cm
ISBN978-1-107-05722-7(Hardback)–ISBN978-1-107-66564-4(Paperback)
1. Mao,Zedong,1893–1976.Maozhuxiyulu. 2. Mao,Zedong,
1893–1976–Quotations. I. Cook,AlexanderC.,editor.
DS778.M3C682013
951.05092–dc23 2013034816
ISBN978-1-107-05722-7Hardback
ISBN978-1-107-66564-4Paperback
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Contents
List of illustrations page vii
List of contributors viii
Preface xiii
1 Introduction: the spiritual atom bomb and its global fallout 1
alexander c. cook
2 Asingle spark: originsand spread ofthe LittleRed Book
in China 23
daniel leese
3 Quotation songs:portablemedia and the Maoist pop song 43
andrew f. jones
4 Mao quotations in factional battlesand their afterlives:
episodesfrom Chongqing 61
guobin yang
5 Translation and internationalism 76
lanjun xu
6 Maoismin Tanzania: material connections and shared
imaginaries 96
priya lal
7 Emptysymbol:the Little Red Book in India 117
sreemati chakrabarti
8 The influence ofMaoismin Peru 130
david scott palmer
9 The book that bombed: Mao’s Little Red Thing in the
SovietUnion 147
elizabeth mcguire
v
vi Contents
10 Mao and the Albanians 165
elidor me¨hilli
11 Partisan legacies and anti-imperialist ambitions: the
Little RedBook in Italy and Yugoslavia 185
dominique kirchner reill
12 Badge books and brand books:the Mao Bible in East and
West Germany 206
quinn slobodian
13 Principally contradiction: the flourishing of French Maoism 225
julian bourg
14 By the book: Quotations from Chairman Maoand the making
ofAfro-Asian radicalism, 1966–1975 245
bill v. mullen
15 Conclusion: Inthe beginning is the word: popular
democracy and Mao’sLittleRed Book 266
ban wang
Index 278
Illustrations
Fig. 1 Arming the people with Mao Zedong Thought. page 14
Fig. 2 Lin Biao’s calligraphic dedication to first edition. 31
Fig. 3 Aclosed circuit:reciting Maoquotations. 53
Fig. 4 Factionalalignmentin Chongqing. 63
Fig. 5 Order form for Swahili edition ofthe LittleRed Book. 89
Fig. 6 Chinese dancers welcomeNyerere to Beijing. 102
Fig. 7 Album cover for Bruno Lauzi’s“Arrivano icinesi.” 195
Fig. 8 Slovenian YoungPioneerin loyaltyoath ceremony,
receiving alittle red Pioneerbook. 201
Fig. 9 West German “brandbook” edition ofMao’s
quotations byFischer Verlag. 208
vii
Contributors
julian bourg is Associate Professor of History at Boston College
where he teaches European Intellectual History. He is the author of
From Revolution toEthics:May 1968 and Contemporary French Thought
(2007),translatorofClaudeLefort,Complications:Communismandthe
Dilemmas of Democracy (2007), and editor of After the Deluge: New
Perspectives on the Intellectual and Cultural History of Postwar France
(2004).Heiscurrentlywritingabookonthehistoryoftherelationship
between terror and democracy since the eighteenth century.
sreemati chakrabarti is Professor of Chinese Studies at the
DepartmentofEastAsianStudies,UniversityofDelhi,andHonorary
FellowoftheInstituteofChineseStudies,Delhi.SheholdsaPh.D.in
PoliticalSciencefromColumbiaUniversityandMaster’sdegreesfrom
DelhiUniversity(PoliticalScience)andHarvardUniversity(Regional
Studies – East Asia). She has done post-doctoral research at Beijing
Normal University. Currently, she is the Book Review Editor of the
Sage journal China Report. Her publications include China and the
Naxalites (1990), Mao, China’s Intellectuals and the Cultural Revolution
(1998),andChina(2007).Onacademic assignmentsshe hastraveled
to Russia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the United
States, and several times to China. She is on various China-related
panelsinIndianuniversitiesandgovernment-runresearchandeduca-
tional organizations. Several television and radio news channels,
including the BBC, invite her to comment on China-related issues.
Intheyear2010,ChinesePremierWenJiabaofelicitatedherwiththe
China–India Friendship Award.
alexander c. cook is Assistant Professor of Chinese History at the
University ofCalifornia, Berkeley.He is agraduate ofBrownUniver-
sity (AB East Asian Studies) and Columbia University (MA Asian
Languages,Ph.D.History)andformerlyaMellonHumanitiesFellow
atStanfordUniversity.HisresearchfocusesonMaoisminitsChinese
domesticand global contexts.
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