People's History of Ideas Podcast

The first days of Mao Zedong’s long career of armed struggle. Further reading: Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928 Roy Hofheinz, “The Autumn Harvest Insurrection” Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography , vol. 1: 1893-1949 C. Martin Wilbur, The Nationalist Revolution in China, 1923-1928 Elizabeth Perry, Anyuan: Mining China’s Revo...

Mao doesn’t budge on his military line in the face of pressure from the Party Center, and then gets arrested. 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 Roy Hofheinz, “The Autumn Harvest Insurrection” Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography , vol. 1: 1893-1949...

The planning and execution of the Autumn Harvest Uprising in southern Hubei province. 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 Roy Hofheinz, “The Autumn Harvest Insurrection” Timothy Cheek’s Introduction to Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, eds., Mao Zedong : A Biography , vol...

Background on Qu Qiubai before he became Communist leader in 1927. Further reading: Tsi-an Hsia, The Gate of Darkness: Studies on the Leftist Literary Movement Jonathan Spence, The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution Paul Pickowicz, Marxist Literary Thought in China: The Influence of Ch'u Ch'iu-pai Steve Smith, A Road Is Made: Communism in Shanghai, 1920-1927 Some na...

Mao takes a critical position on the military line pursued by the Comintern and the Politburo. Also, the issue of scapegoating individuals as a way of dealing with repudiated party policies. Further reading: Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928 C. Martin Wilbur, The Nationalist Revolution in China, 1923-1928 Tony Saich, The Rise to Power of the...

The new policy of mass uprisings against the Guomindang is decided upon, and Mao’s comments at the meeting stand out for their epistemology. Further reading: Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928 C. Martin Wilbur, The Nationalist Revolution in China, 1923-1928 Tony Saich, The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s...

The mutiny that founded the Chinese Red Army. Further reading: Tony Saich, The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power , vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930 Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928 Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and T...

As the Wuhan regime collapses, so does the united front. Soviet advisors leave China, Chinese Communists go underground. The purge strikes Wuhan. Further reading: C. Martin Wilbur, The Nationalist Revolution in China, 1923-1928 Anna Louise Strong, China’s Millions Vera Vladimirovna Vishnyakova-Akimova, Two Years in Revolutionary China, 1925-1927 C. Martin Wilbur and Julie Lien-ying How, Missionari...

The Comintern’s guidance falls short in response to the ongoing massacre of peasants. Further reading: C. Martin Wilbur, The Nationalist Revolution in China, 1923-1928 Donald Jordan, The Northern Expedition: China’s National Revolution of 1926-1928 Alexander Pantsov, The Bolsheviks and the Chinese Revolution, 1919-1927   Some names from this episode: Tang Shengzhi, Hunan warlord who sided with the...

Mao’s experience on the Wuhan Guomindang Left government’s Land Commission, with some comparative remarks on land reform in Communist thought. Further reading: Tony Saich, The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power , vol. 2: National Revolution and Social Revolution, December 1920-June 1927 C. Martin Wilbur, The Nationalist Revolution in China, 1923-19...

This episode is an appendix to episode 51, and consists of a booklet written by Mao Zedong describing the life of a tenant-peasant in Hunan. This episode should help you to concretely picture peasant life in Hunan during the period we have been discussing in the podcast, while also giving a short example of Mao Zedong’s practice of social investigation. Most of this is Mao running down the income...

The Fifth Party Congress of the Communist Party (April 29 to May 9, 1927) decides that the united front is better without Chiang Kai-shek. Further reading: Steve Smith, A Road Is Made: Communism in Shanghai, 1920-1927 Tony Saich, The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power , vol. 2: National Revolution and Social Revolution, December 1920-June 1927 C. M...

Chiang Kai-shek’s April 12, 1927 coup against the Communists. Further reading: Steve Smith, A Road Is Made: Communism in Shanghai, 1920-1927 Elizabeth Perry, Shanghai on Strike: The Politics of Chinese Labor Maurice Meisner, Li Ta-chao and the Origins of Chinese Marxism Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power , vol. 3:  From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-D...

On March 21-22, 1927, Shanghai fell to a combination of general strike, armed uprising, and the advance of the National Revolutionary Army. Further reading: Steve Smith, A Road Is Made: Communism in Shanghai, 1920-1927 Some names from this episode: Chen Duxiu, General Secretary of the Communist Party Li Qiushi, Delegate to the Fifth Communist Party Congress known for being very handsome Mikhail Bo...

The question of what sort of revolution the Nationalist revolution will be creates a fundamental division within the Guomindang. Further reading: C. Martin Wilbur and Julie Lien-ying How, Missionaries of Revolution: Soviet Advisers and Nationalist China, 1920-1927 C. Martin Wilbur, The Nationalist Revolution in China, 1923-1928 Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power , vol. 2: National Revolution...

Summations of the Second Uprising on several different levels; the continuing inability of the Shanghai Regional Committee of the Communist Party to control the ‘dog-beating’ squads; and some thoughts on the problem of the inevitability of errors being made in revolutionary armed struggle and Mao’s thinking on that problem. Further reading: Steve Smith, A Road Is Made: Communism in Shanghai, 1920-...

Where we continue to follow the insurrectionary journey of the Shanghai Communists. Further reading: Steve Smith, A Road Is Made: Communism in Shanghai, 1920-1927 C. Martin Wilbur and Julie Lien-ying How, Missionaries of Revolution: Soviet Advisers and Nationalist China, 1920-1927 Some names from this episode: Chen Duxiu, General Secretary of the Communist Party Sun Chuanfang, Leader of warlord co...

The bumpy road that the Communist Party took in Shanghai as it developed its capacity to deploy organized violence as a political tactic. Further reading: Steve Smith, A Road Is Made: Communism in Shanghai, 1920-1927 Some names from this episode: Wang Shouhua, Leading Communist labor organizer in Shanghai Yu Xiaqing, Leader of a nationalist faction of Shanghai’s merchant class Niu Yongjian, Vetera...

The tension between maintaining the united front and mobilizing the peasants for revolution finds expression in a crucial debate over strategy at the end of 1926. Further reading: C. Martin Wilbur and Julie Lien-ying How, Missionaries of Revolution: Soviet Advisers and Nationalist China, 1920-1927 Tony Saich, The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power...

Debate breaks out within the Communist Party and the Comintern over how to assess the balance of forces and relate to the developing revolutionary situation engendered by the mass movements in Hunan and Hubei in late 1926. Further reading: C. Martin Wilbur and Julie Lien-ying How, Missionaries of Revolution: Soviet Advisers and Nationalist China, 1920-1927 Tony Saich, The Rise to Power of the Chin...

Mass upheaval in Hunan and elsewhere after people are liberated from warlord rule. Further reading: C. Martin Wilbur and Julie Lien-ying How, Missionaries of Revolution: Soviet Advisers and Nationalist China, 1920-1927 Yokoyama Suguru, “The Peasant Movement in Hunan” Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power , vol. 2: National Revolution and Social Revolution, December 1920-June 1927 A name from thi...

Examining the role of both organized and unorganized mass support for the Northern Expedition in its first phase, the offensive from Guangdong to Wuhan from May to October 1926.   Further reading: Donald Jordan, The Northern Expedition: China's National Revolution of 1926-1928 C. Martin Wilbur and Julie Lien-ying How, Missionaries of Revolution: Soviet Advisers and Nationalist China, 1920-192...

Mao's political activity and intellectual development during the first nine months of 1926. Further Reading: Gerald Berkley, “The Canton Peasant Movement Training Institute” Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power , vol. 2: National Revolution and Social Revolution, December 1920-June 1927 Yokoyama Suguru, “The Peasant Movement in Hunan” Philip C. C. Huang, “Mao Tse-Tung and the Middle Peasan...

How the Communist Party took the formula of "Haifeng + armed self-defense" and set out to organize the peasants of Guangdong, and beyond. Further Reading: Pang Yong-pil, “Peng Pai: From Landlord to Revolutionary” Yuan Gao, “Revolutionary Rural Politics: The Peasant Movement in Guangdong and Its Social-Historical Background, 1922–1926” Robert Marks, Rural Revolution in South China: Peasan...

Peng Pai and the beginning of the peasant movement in Guangdong Province. Further Reading: Pang Yong-pil, “Peng Pai: From Landlord to Revolutionary” Yuan Gao, “Revolutionary Rural Politics: The Peasant Movement in Guangdong and Its Social-Historical Background, 1922–1926” Robert Marks, Rural Revolution in South China: Peasants and the Making of History in Haifeng County, 1570-1930 Roy Hofheinz, Th...