Red Star over China (Paperback)
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Some history books are important because there are simply no other firsthand accounts to compare them with. Regardless of how well the author did their job, these books remain in print primarily because they contain first-person...
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Some history books are important because there are simply no other firsthand accounts to compare them with. Regardless of how well the author did their job, these books remain in print primarily because they contain first-person information unavailable elsewhere. By being first, they end up as the landmark determining the boundaries of all subsequent historical debate. Red Star over China is such a book. Long before Mao became a household name, Edgar Snow, a young American journalist, traveled by train to northwest China to meet and interview the leaders who were the head and spine of Chinese communism. Red Star over China chronicles this journey, while also describing much of the turbulent history of China during a period of revolution and turmoil. By telling this story before everyone else, and after lengthy interviews with Mao, Chou En Lai, and the like, Snow put himself in the front rank of modern Chinese historians. Much of the book is great; Snow shows how conditions in China's countryside (high rents absentee landlords, etc.) contributed to China's turmoil, and he effectively describes how Red China's armies won friends among the populace by, for instance, teaching the illiterate to read using books that were the communist propaganda equivalent of "See Spot Run." Snow also describes scenes well when it suits him; for instance, in an early vignette about a political conversation he had on the train, Snow deftly shows the divisions and factionalism that had permeated Chinese Society. What's missing, then? For one, Snow often seems to be merely regurgitating his interviewees' propaganda. To hear him describe it, the soldiers of the Red Army are, to a man, reliable soldiers and good people, brave lads who slogged through miles of countryside during the Long March without needing so much as a smoke or drink to cheer them up. And there's a reason for such glowing descriptions--in the book's notes one can see that Snow committed the cardinal sin of journalism and let his sources review the stories he'd written about them. It's no wonder Mao, Chao En-Lai and the like appear so noble in this book--they got to give it the once-over before Snow submitted it for publication. And considering Mao's later track record, that's shocking--it's as if you're reading a hagiography of Hitler. Aside from the narrative, there are other things that dampen the reader's enthusiasm for this book. For one, Snow's introductions of characters require the reader to frequently flip back to the biographical notes at the end of the book. Also (and more annoyingly,) this book has no maps. Snow throws a lot of location names at the reader, but unless the reader's traveled very extensively, or unless they have some extra maps of 1930s-China lying around the house, Snow's details will be useless. All in all, it's worth reading--but this reviewer, for one, will be looking to supplant it by reading Philip Short's "Mao: A Life," or by reading any other history of China written with the benefit of distance, hindsight and perspective. Comment | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)
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