HIST 2435 Global Maoism: History and Present (also CAPS 2435) (GB) (HA-AS, ALC-AS, HST-AS) (HAN)
Tuesday and Thursday: 2:55-4:10 plus Independent Research
Professor Peidong Sun
Maoism and Chinese Communism are not history after Mao's death in 1976. In China, Maoism holds the key to the enduring success of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), one of the most remarkable organizations of the 20th and 21st centuries that has survived the collapse of communism in Europe and the USSR. With the beneficial transformation brought by capitalism and globalization in China, the end of the Cold War and the narrative of the "end of history" cannot explain the resurgence of Maoism. In the 1940s, Maoism's global impact began in Asia and beyond following the spread of its anti-imperial, guerrilla warfare, class struggle, party-building, and radical collectivization theories. Having mobilized its own grassroots population and mass-adapted to local and national conditions, the global allure of disobedience and insubordination of an impoverished nation or state compared with an advantaged nation or state has survived in Asia, North America, South America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, etc. In retelling Maoism as one of the critical stories of the 20th and 21st centuries, let's unshadow Mao and his ideas.
