Abstract

Review Article China: An Ultra-LeItist View Livio Maitan, ParO', Army and Masses hz China: A Marxist Interpretation of the Cultural Revolution and Its Aftermath. (London, New Left Review Editions, 1976) translated from the Italian edition Partito, Esercito e Masse nella Crisi Cinese (Rome, Salnona e Sevelli, 1969); £8.00. No book about the Chinese Cultural Revolution yet gives a flawless account and perfect analysis. "Fhat is not surprising. Tile scale of that event is too vast for sunnuary treatment; some aspects are still obscure and tile verdict of history is still not in. But some books give a fairly accurate chronology of events, add new, useful facts or insights either from first41and experience or research, or suggest analyses that will assist fiiture historians. Despite shortcomings such books are positive contributions to tile literature on the subject. Livio Maitan's Party, Army and Masses in China is not one of them. It is so full of errors of fact and interpretation, miscouceptions, special pleading (even a "revised" and faulty translation of a key quotation from Mao Tse-tung) that its main effect is to obfuscate an intrinsically difficult subject, one that has already been much mistreated by so-called China watchers and hostile propagandists.