A review by jchilds05
The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957 by Frank Dikotter

4.0

This is a solid history book on all fronts: it is written in a way that's easy to understand, with fairly good structure, and is a great overview for someone who doesn't know a lot about the subject. Most notable, however, is the author's absolutely fantastic use of research. Dikötter uses an immense breadth of sources, in particular a variety of first hand accounts and actual records of the CCP. Within this, he presents a broad range of voices and perspectives, including people of all backgrounds, ideologies, and experiences; however, he doesn't rely solely on eyewitness accounts. He is up front about the credibility of his sources, while also backing them up with hard evidence and brilliantly illustrating his point. Dikötter's pursuit and presentation of the truth, especially about a regime so obsessed with lies and false realities, is incredibly important and should be something authors of all historical subjects look to.