logo
episode-header-image
May 2024
2h 4m

Modern China Pt. 3: The Great Leap Forwa...

REVOLUTIONARY LEFT RADIO
About this episode

In this episode of Guerrilla History, we get into part 3 of our 4 part miniseries on modern Chinese history featuring Ken Hammond (and guest host Breht O'Shea of Revolutionary Left Radio) with an amazing discussion of The Great Leap Forward and The Cultural Revolution!  If you haven't already listened to part 1 of the series, on the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions, or part 2 on The Chinese Revolution & Civil War, be sure to go back and check those out because we pick up right where we left off last time.  With these final two episodes in the series, we enter the period where various ideological traditions diverge in their analysis of the events, but regardless of what ideological background you come from, we encourage you to listen to these and engage with the information, as we believe the information will help you deepen your own analysis regardless of your ideological position.  

Ken Hammond is Professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University. He has been engaged in radical politics since his involvement in the anti-war movement at Kent State in 1968-70.  Ken is also the author of the book China’s Revolution & the Quest for a Socialist Future.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Support Rev Left Radio

Up next
Jun 25
Anti-Capitalist Parenting: A Dialectical Perspective w/ Breht O'Shea (Upstream Podcast)
One of the most radical things you can do is live your life in direct opposition to the forces that control our society. Not just fighting for policies or organizing your community, although those are certainly important parts of it, but also living with values that oppose the va ... Show More
2h 12m
Jun 21
OTU Under Attack by Landlord Lobby
In this episode, Breht welcomes on Seth from Omaha Tenants United for an in-studio discussion about OTU's slate of recent successes organizing several tenant unions, and a subsequent new legal assault on the organization by the local landlord lobby. The legal implications of this ... Show More
59m 23s
Jun 19
Still Laundering Black Rage: DEI as Counterinsurgency
In this incisive conversation, Breht welcomes poet, scholar, and organizer, filmmaker, and host of the Black Myths Podcast Too Black back to the podcast to critically examine the recent attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Anchored by the penetrating ana ... Show More
2h 18m
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2023
China’s Revolution & the Quest for a Socialist Future w/ Ken Hammond
In this episode of Guerrilla History, we bring on Ken Hammond to talk about his new book China’s Revolution & the Quest for a Socialist Future!  Here, we provide an overview of modern Chinese history, and Ken makes his case that China is still on the path to a socialist future.  ... Show More
1h 41m
May 2024
The Deng Reform Period w/ Ken Hammond (Modern Chinese History Pt. 4)
In this episode of Guerrilla History, we conclude our series on Modern Chinese History with this important, and inevitably controversial discussion of the Deng Reforms and the Reform Period!  Very important that no matter your ideological tendencies, you come into this episode wi ... Show More
1h 47m
May 2016
Brian James DeMare, “Mao’s Cultural Army: Drama Troupes in Chinas Rural Revolution” (Cambridge UP, 2015)
The Chinese Revolution was a profoundly theatrical event. Brian James DeMare’s new book explores the relationship between drama and political action in China, from the earliest era of communist Red Drama to the establishment of Mao’s cultural army and beyond. Mao’s Cultural Army: ... Show More
1h 1m
Mar 2023
The Chinese Cultural Revolution
By the early 1960s, Chairman Mao Zedong's campaign to modernise Communist China had ended in disaster. Known as the Great Leap Forward, it resulted in turmoil on such a scale that many had begun to question Mao's authority. In response, he set out to claim absolute political supr ... Show More
32m 54s
Aug 2022
Revolutionary Leftism with Breht O'Shea
There are many traditions or tendencies among the left. In fact, sometimes just trying to wrap our heads around all of the rich theoretical frameworks and various anti-capitalist thinkers can be dizzying. But it's also exciting — the richness of leftist history and theory is vita ... Show More
1h 49m
Aug 2019
Martin T. Fromm, "Borderland Memories: Searching for Historical Identity in Post-Mao China" (Cambridge UP, 2019)
With China’s northwestern and southern edges justifiably being sources of global attention at present, Martin Fromm’s Borderland Memories: Searching for Historical Identity in Post-Mao China (Cambridge University Press, 2019) has much light to shed on how the country’s ruling Com ... Show More
1h 10m
Dec 2020
The Cultural Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Chairman Mao and the revolt he led within his own party from 1966, setting communists against each other, to renew the revolution that he feared had become too bourgeois and to remove his enemies and rivals. Universities closed and the students for ... Show More
48m 9s
Dec 2020
The Cultural Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Chairman Mao and the revolt he led within his own party from 1966, setting communists against each other, to renew the revolution that he feared had become too bourgeois and to remove his enemies and rivals. Universities closed and the students for ... Show More
48m 9s
Dec 2021
China, and the "Western Left" w/ Immanuel Ness (IB Part 2)
We have another fun Intelligence Briefing this time, with a special guest!  For this conversation that takes a look at China, and once again takes aim at the "Western Left", we bring back our good friend and comrade Professor Immanuel Ness.  Manny is Professor of Political Scienc ... Show More
1h 42m
Jan 2023
There’s Been a Revolution in How China Is Governed
There are few stories that are more crucial to the world’s future than what’s happening in China. Take any of the most important issues of our time — climate change, geopolitics, the global economy, advanced technologies — and China is at the center of them. American politics its ... Show More
1h 19m