gingerreader99's review against another edition
2.0
2.5
Also a very rare DNF(roughly 75% but it just didn't hold me well enough), I was not really a fan of the author for this one. I appreciate the insights in this text related to other movements in different countries but within the first chapter the author tried to draw parallels between Mao and Trump and that really put me off right away and unfortunately did little to win me back. Really lost me with the portrayal of Ho Chi Minh as a Maoist though.
So a nod to the historical insights here but a pass on the author's bias and arguments.
Also a very rare DNF(roughly 75% but it just didn't hold me well enough), I was not really a fan of the author for this one. I appreciate the insights in this text related to other movements in different countries but within the first chapter the author tried to draw parallels between Mao and Trump and that really put me off right away and unfortunately did little to win me back. Really lost me with the portrayal of Ho Chi Minh as a Maoist though.
So a nod to the historical insights here but a pass on the author's bias and arguments.
nghia's review against another edition
3.0
Lovell achieves what she sets as her task:
She is most convincing when showing the (forgotten) impact of Maoism during the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s as a combination of anti-colonialism, civil rights movements, and general anti-establishment meant Mao found a ready audience across Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Europe, the USA, and South America. And not just among passive coffee-shop intellectuals. Lovell shows the links between Mao and the Zanu PF in Zimbabwe, the Black Panthers in America, the Shining Path in Peru, Naxalites in India, the Red Army Faction in Germany, the Red Brigades in Italy.
To a large extent, the picture Lovell paints is about oppressed groups who are desperate for any kind of ideology and Maoism being the only real alternative they can find to the status quo. All in a period when Mao was trying to cement his legacy with muscular foreign policy. It is hard not to feel sympathetic for the disenfranchised peasants living in crushing poverty in Peru or India or Nepal who see Maoism as the only ideology giving them a path forward.
Despite Lovell achieving her stated goal, I still give this just 3-stars and only a very lukewarm & tentative recommendation. There was too much summary and not enough synthesis; which is especially notable in later chapters on Peru, India, and Nepal. What I mean by that is: each chapter has a nice (largely self-contained) history of the hot spot in particular. But it is a pretty straight-forward history of the hot spot and often isn't very well connected to the overall idea of "global Maoism".
To some extent that's because there's not all that much to explain. A bunch of dirt poor villagers, often from an ethnic minority. The prevailing ideologies aren't doing anything for them. And Maosim offered not just an a rhetorical framework (anti-imperialism can also be read as imperialism by the dominant ethnic group) but extremely popular promises (land reform) and a strategic framework to power against a stronger, better-armed opponent (protracted guerrilla warfare).
So we see the same story repeat itself, with only slight variations again and again. A young, impressionable Black Panther/Peruvian/Naxalite is invited to China and given a propaganda tour of how awesome everything is. They swallow it hook, line and sinker. They go back to home and start organizing peasants. The central government dramatically overreacts with universal police & military brutality that radicalizes a new generation of recruits. It seems nobody ever learns and the cycle repeats somewhere else......
In this book, I have argued that Maoism has been underestimated not just as a Chinese but also as a global phenomenon. I have sought to re-centre its ideas and experiences as major forces of the recent past, present and future that have shaped -- and are shaping -- the world, as well as China.
She is most convincing when showing the (forgotten) impact of Maoism during the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s as a combination of anti-colonialism, civil rights movements, and general anti-establishment meant Mao found a ready audience across Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Europe, the USA, and South America. And not just among passive coffee-shop intellectuals. Lovell shows the links between Mao and the Zanu PF in Zimbabwe, the Black Panthers in America, the Shining Path in Peru, Naxalites in India, the Red Army Faction in Germany, the Red Brigades in Italy.
To a large extent, the picture Lovell paints is about oppressed groups who are desperate for any kind of ideology and Maoism being the only real alternative they can find to the status quo. All in a period when Mao was trying to cement his legacy with muscular foreign policy. It is hard not to feel sympathetic for the disenfranchised peasants living in crushing poverty in Peru or India or Nepal who see Maoism as the only ideology giving them a path forward.
Despite Lovell achieving her stated goal, I still give this just 3-stars and only a very lukewarm & tentative recommendation. There was too much summary and not enough synthesis; which is especially notable in later chapters on Peru, India, and Nepal. What I mean by that is: each chapter has a nice (largely self-contained) history of the hot spot in particular. But it is a pretty straight-forward history of the hot spot and often isn't very well connected to the overall idea of "global Maoism".
To some extent that's because there's not all that much to explain. A bunch of dirt poor villagers, often from an ethnic minority. The prevailing ideologies aren't doing anything for them. And Maosim offered not just an a rhetorical framework (anti-imperialism can also be read as imperialism by the dominant ethnic group) but extremely popular promises (land reform) and a strategic framework to power against a stronger, better-armed opponent (protracted guerrilla warfare).
So we see the same story repeat itself, with only slight variations again and again. A young, impressionable Black Panther/Peruvian/Naxalite is invited to China and given a propaganda tour of how awesome everything is. They swallow it hook, line and sinker. They go back to home and start organizing peasants. The central government dramatically overreacts with universal police & military brutality that radicalizes a new generation of recruits. It seems nobody ever learns and the cycle repeats somewhere else......
jasonrcf's review against another edition
5.0
Really great and insightful book about the global impacts of Maoism - most of which I had no idea had happened prior to reading this. Truly learned a lot, especially about the impact of Maoism in revolutions in Africa, Peru, the United States, as well as modern day India and Nepal. Highly recommend this for anyone who wants to learn about the extent of how far Maoist ideology and iconography has taken over the globe over the past century.
Plus points too for how accessibly it was written!
Plus points too for how accessibly it was written!