Stephen Averill’s monograph on this subject has been long awaited, and the wait has been worthwhile. The depth and sharpness of the scholarship, and the highly complex social ecologies and turbulent histories it documents, make Revolution in the Highlands a study for all scholars who work in the fields of modern and contemporary Chinese studies.
Pauline Keating, Victoria University ... Read moreof Wellington Stephen Averill made himself master of the details of the Communist experience in Jinggangshan. This rich, dense study critically examines how the environmental and social context of the Jinggangshan region shaped the politics and strategy of Mao and other local leaders. . . . Highly recommended.
CHOICE
an important work, one of the best available on the early history of the communist revolution in rural China....we may be grateful to Joseph Esherick and Elizabeth Perry for undertaking to edit the book for publication posthumously, as well as the splendid introduction they have provided to go with it.
China Information, April 2008
this rich and insightful study has...set a new standard for analyzing the Chinese Communist Revolution.
American Historical Review, March 2008
This is the most sophisticated analysis yet written on the early rural revolution and base-area building, and the book stands as a major contribution to the understanding of Chinese Communism....Stephen Averill lifts the Communist revolution into a new, exciting dimension.
The China Journal, Spring 2008
This is one of the best books yet on Chinese Communism in its early rural period, written from a wealth of sources by a master of historical exposition. So familiar is the author with the political anthropology and physical features of the highlands in which Mao Zedong and his comrades hatched their revolution that he writes about it almost as an insider, restoring depth and complexity to events reduced to parody by party drillmasters and hagiographers. He analyzes the particular issues of the party’s sojourn in the Jinggang Mountains in the late 1920s and early 1930s against the background of the broad sweep of the Chinese revolution, which he illuminates with insights into the moment of birth of its unique style.
Gregor Benton, University of Wales, Cardiff Anyone interested in the formative years of the Chinese Communist Party will be richly rewarded by this lengthy, well-argued and nuanced study of the Jinggangshan base area in the late 1920's: this is a work that will be cited for years to come as well as a fitting legacy for a superb scholar.
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China Quarterly, March 2008
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