
Maoism: not just China's past but a global force that shaped revolutions across continents. Julia Lovell's award-nominated history reveals how this ideology influenced African dictators, sparked insurgencies, and continues to echo in Xi Jinping's China - a geopolitical ghost still haunting modern politics.
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When Edgar Snow interviewed an obscure guerrilla leader named Mao Zedong in a remote Chinese cave in 1936, he couldn't have imagined how this encounter would reshape world history. Snow's resulting bestseller, "Red Star Over China," transformed Mao from a local insurgent into an international revolutionary icon whose ideas would inspire rebellions across five continents. What made Maoism so contagious? Unlike orthodox Marxism with its focus on industrial workers, Mao's revolution centered on peasants and glorified political violence. "Political power grows from the barrel of a gun," he famously declared-a message that resonated with oppressed peoples worldwide who saw armed struggle as their only path to liberation. This distinctly Chinese ideology became a global force that continues to shape our world today, from the jungles of Peru to the forests of central India, revealing how revolutionary ideas can leap across borders, languages, and cultures with devastating consequences.
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