Review
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"Alex Cook's collection of essays on Quotations from Chairman Mao explains this global phenomenon of the
1960s and uses it as a window to explore wider issues, from Chinese politics and society, to traveling theory across
Asia, Africa and Europe, to popular appropriation of state ideologies. Contributions by spets in Mao's works,
history, international politics, literary theory, and music reveal the astonishing power of Mao's writings and what that
tells us about ourselves."
Timothy Cheek, University of British Columbia
"If transnational history is the thing these days, this strong collection of essays on the worldly travels of and local
interpretive possibilities opened by Mao's Little Red Book in the 1960s and beyond, is a model of its kind. Topically
coherent, strongly analytical, and surprisingly broad in its coverage, this anthology will undoubtedly become a great
companion for classroom use and scholarly reference. A good read; a great book!"
Rebecca E. Karl, New York University
"The most printed book in its time, Quotations from Chairman Mao is an ideal case study for a global intellectual
history. Showing how its message travelled the world like a laser refracted into a thousand colours, Alexander Cook and
his contributors have offered up a delightful and provocative pattern no one scholar could have assembled. Their
chapters make up an exciting new picture of the global 1960s and their aftermath - and of the political upheaval that a
text's readings can both reflect and abet."
Samuel Moyn, James Bryce Professor, Columbia University, and author of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (2010)
"Its earliest editions may have been blue and green, we now learn, but it is as the Little Red Book that the Quotations
from Chairman Mao became known the world over. Half a century ago, its pithy slogans energized and guided restless
revolutionaries in places as far apart as Oakland, Dar es Salam, Paris and Ayacucho. In this groundbreaking critical
history, the authors weave sympathetic understanding and perceptive analyses into a fascinating account of the book and
its global influence."
Michael Schoenhals, Lund University, editor of China's Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969: Not a Dinner Party (1996) and
co-author of Mao's Last Revolution (2006)
"This compilation of fifteen essays, each by a different author, on the impact of the book worldwide marks a fascinating
attempt to understand why it reached such a wide audience ..."
Ben Chacko, Morning Star
"Published on the fiftieth anniversary of the earliest printing of Mao's Little Red Book, Cook's edited volume explores
the local and global impacts and gripping narratives of the pocket-size text. ... a trove of fascinating articles by
leading scholars of several fields. ... A collection of interesting and well-researched articles on an understudied
topic, this edited volume is an exemplary transnational and multidisciplinary project. It should be of interest to
readers from diverse backgrounds. Summing up: highly recommended."
P. B. Guingona, Choice
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Book Description
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On the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Quotations from Chairman Mao, this edited volume is the
first to examine the Little Red Book as a global historical phenomenon, challenging established ideas about the book and
re-examining the history of the twentieth-century world.
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