People's History of Ideas Podcast

The unification of Mao Zedong’s and Zhu De’s forces. Some discussion of the problems involved in unifying the Communist armed forces. Further reading: Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De] Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography , vol. 1: 1893-1949 Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Ro...

Discussing pay for professional revolutionaries, the role of servants in the lives of Communist leaders, and the Comintern in Shanghai. Further reading: Patricia Stranahan, Underground: The Shanghai Communist Party and the Politics of Survival, 1927-1937 Elizabeth Perry, Shanghai on Strike: The Politics of Chinese Labor Wang Fan-hsi [Wang Fanxi], Memoirs of a Chinese Revolutionary Gavin McCrea, Mr...

How did the Communist Party try to protect itself in Shanghai? We discuss the compartmentalized party organization and the creation of the Special Services Division. Further reading: Patricia Stranahan, Underground: The Shanghai Communist Party and the Politics of Survival, 1927-1937 Timothy Cheek, “Making Maoism: Ideology and Organization in the Yan’an Rectification Movement, 1942-1944” Mao Zedon...

The Communist Party Center remained underground in the dangerous city of Shanghai during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Further reading/watching: Patricia Stranahan, Underground: The Shanghai Communist Party and the Politics of Survival, 1927-1937 China: A Century of Revolution documentary Josephine Fowler, Japanese and Chinese Immigrant Activists: Organizing in American and International Communi...

The Party Center puts the South Hunan Special Committee in charge of the Jinggangshan, and the contrast between the strategies advocated by Mao and the Party Center are put on vivid display. Further reading: Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De] Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928 Stephen Averill, Revolution in t...

We look at the successful conquest of three cities (and one heart) by Zhu De during the course of the uprising he led in south Hunan at the beginning of 1928. The link for my new course on academia.edu mentioned at the end of the episode: www.academia.edu/learn/MatthewRothwell Further reading: Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De] Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Rev...

Following Zhu De in Shanghai and Germany, finishing up our four-part detour through the early life of Zhu De. Further reading: Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De] Some names from this episode: Chen Duxiu, first general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Zhou Enlai, organized branches of the Chinese Communist Party in Europe when he was a student there in the...

As the Army for the Defense of the Republic faces defections from the revolutionary nationalist cause as well as powerful warlord enemies, Zhu De rethinks the military vocation. Further reading: Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De] Some names from this episode: Cai E, Republican general and governor of Yunnan after the 1911-12 revolution Yuan Shikai, leader of the...

Following Zhu De from his time as a teacher of physical training at a modern school, through his time at the Yunnan Military Academy, the Revolution of 1911 and the rebellion against Yuan Shikai. Further reading: Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De] Some names from this episode: Cai E, Republican general and governor of Yunnan after the 1911-12 revolution Yuan Shik...

Taking a look back at the early life of Zhu De, the man who would later be Mao’s main partner in revolution. Further reading: Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De] Some names from this episode: Zhang Tailei, leader of the Guangzhou Uprising of December 1927 Wang Zuo, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong Shi Dakai, Taiping general who fought a campaign in Sichuan...

The story behind how guidance on communist armed struggle got into a major American newspaper in 1852. Listener requested background on the text used by Lenin and which was so influential in the Guangzhou Commune. Further reading: Frederick Engels, Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany Lenin, “ Advice of an Onlooker ” Some names from this episode: Zhang Tailei, leader of the Guangzhou Upris...

The last major armed uprising of 1927, in which the Communists temporarily took over Guangzhou. Further reading: Arif Dirlik, “ Narrativizing Revolution: The Guangzhou Uprising (11-13 December 1927) in Workers’ Perspective ” Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928 Hsiao Tso-Liang, “ Chinese Communism and the Canton Soviet of 1927 ” Lenin, “ Advice...

Some background on the situation in Guangzhou leading up to the uprising. Further reading: Arif Dirlik, “ Narrativizing Revolution: The Guangzhou Uprising (11-13 December 1927) in Workers’ Perspective ” Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928 Hsiao Tso-Liang, “ Chinese Communism and the Canton Soviet of 1927 ” Manuel Gomez, “ Organize for Liberatio...

Using the early November 1927 peasant revolt in Jiangsu province to illustrate features common to the many small Communist-led uprisings at the end of the 1920s. Further reading: Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928 Chang Liu, “ Making Revolution in Jiangnan: Communists and the Yangzi Delta Countryside, 1927-1945 ” Some names from this episode:...

The Politburo meets to decide whether the leadership’s overall policy was wrong, or whether all the cadres carrying out the policy are just bad. Further reading: Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928 Tony Saich, The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party Chang Kuo-t’ao [Zhang Guotao], The Rise of the Chinese Communist Party (2 volumes) Some...

We follow the Southern Expeditionary force from Ruijin in Jiangxi province to Shantou in Guangdong. Further reading: Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928 Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh  [Zhu De] Chang Kuo-t’ao [Zhang Guotao], The Rise of the Chinese Communist Party  (2 volumes) C. Martin Wilbur, “The Ashes of Defeat...

How Wang Zuo and Yuan Wencai’s forces were brought into the Red Army, and Mao cemented the loyalty of the locals by marrying the Two-Gunned Girl General. Further reading: Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography , vol. 1: 1893-1949 Christina Gilmartin, Engendering the Chinese Revolution: Radical Women, Commun...

A podcast version of an article published a few years back. The Chilean artist José Venturelli was a supporter of Maoist China. This article, a brief political biography of Venturelli, shows how he acted on behalf of the People's Republic of China's informal diplomacy among Latin Americans and worked to promote Maoist politics among Latin American revolutionaries. The article can be read...

The early progress of the Red Army in expanding Soviet power in the Jinggangshan region. Further reading: Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography , vol. 1: 1893-1949 C. Martin Wilbur, The Nationalist Revolution in China, 1923-1928 Some names from this episode: Yuan Wencai, bandit leader who joined with Mao Z...

Mao forges an alliance with Yuan Wencai and Wang Zuo, and the Revolutionary Army builds its capacity as a political force. Further reading: Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography , vol. 1: 1893-1949 Some names from this episode: Long Chaoqing, secretary of the Ninggang County Committee of the Communist Part...

How the Chinese revolution came to the Jinggangshan, and how the revolution and counter-revolution developed up until Mao’s arrival in October 1927. Further reading: Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area Some names from this episode: Long Chaoqing, important early Communist in Jinggangshan area Xiao Guohua, Communist women’s movement activist in Nanchang Yuan...

The stories of Wang Zuo and Yuan Wencai before they joined up with Mao Zedong. Further reading: Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area Some names from this episode: Wang Zuo, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong Yuan Wencai, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong Zhu Kongyang, Warlord army officer turned bandit Xie Guannan, Patriarch of the local tyrant...

A closer look at the phenomenon of banditry in the Jinggang Mountains, because of the importance that banditry and other forms of collective violence had on how the revolutionary movement developed. Further reading: Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area Names from this episode: Qu Qiubai, Named head of new provisional politburo at August 7, 1927 Emergency Con...

With particular emphasis on the geographical divisions between valleys and mountainsides, and ethnic divisions between Han and Hakka. Further reading: Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power , vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930 Name from this episode: Zhu Bei...

As Mao’s troops arrive in the Jinggangshan region, a revolutionary reorganization of the people’s army is begun. Also, a tangent on Mao’s leadership style and nuclear war with a jump 30 years into the future. Further reading: Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography , vol. 1: 1893-1949 Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area Mao Zedong, “Speech at...