Abstract

When the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966, China scholars the world over were amazed and bewildered. Most of the general theories of Chinese politics were instantly scrapped. How was one to assess the willful destruction of the “historical arm of the proletariat” by its leader? These and numerous other questions plagued the China field (in no way inhibiting the virtual tsunami of writing on the GPCR), and as many explanations resulted as there were investigators. Frederic Wakeman, Jr. was one of those observers, and his book, History and Will: Philosophical Perspectives of Mao Tse-tung's Thought, represents the most comprehensive explication of Mao to date.