September 1, 2006
IF ONLY IT WERE THAT EASY TO BRING [7]0 MILLION VICTIMS BACK TO LIFE:
Where’s Mao? Chinese Revise History Books (JOSEPH KAHN, 9/01/06, NY Times)
When high school students in Shanghai crack their history textbooks this fall they may be in for a surprise. The new standard world history text drops wars, dynasties and Communist revolutions in favor of colorful tutorials on economics, technology, social customs and globalization.Posted by Orrin Judd at September 1, 2006 4:10 PMSocialism has been reduced to a single, short chapter in the senior high school history course. Chinese Communism before the economic reform that began in 1979 is covered in a sentence. The text mentions Mao only once — in a chapter on etiquette.
Nearly overnight the country’s most prosperous schools have shelved the Marxist template that had dominated standard history texts since the 1950’s. The changes passed high-level scrutiny, the authors say, and are part of a broader effort to promote a more stable, less violent view of Chinese history that serves today’s economic and political goals.
!
Posted by: erp at September 1, 2006 6:33 PMHow's that different from what Brussels is doing?
"The Belgian authorities have destroyed archives and records relating to the persecution and deportation of Jews in Belgium in the 1930s and 1940s. Some of this happened as recently as the late 1990s." http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1287
I guess if you are ashamed of your past, you would like to wipe that out too.
Posted by: ic at September 1, 2006 6:38 PMIncluding the Great Leap Forward and the mass starvations it should be several times higher than 20 million.
Mao was responsible for more deaths than anyone in history.
Posted by: Gideon at September 1, 2006 7:32 PMWinston Smith, editor.
Posted by: Lou Gots at September 1, 2006 7:49 PMGideon:
Look at the site 20th Century Democide which currently estimates total PRC government caused deaths from 1949 to 1987 at 76.7 million. The U.S.S.R. is a close second with 61.9 million, but they were at it for almost twice as long.
Those guys at MiniTruth do earn their pay, don't they?
Not to worry. Barring a major upheaval in the U.S. edbiz, the myth of Communism will be kept alive for generations to come.
Posted by: erp at September 2, 2006 5:38 AMHere's the first sentence from Chang and Halliday's "Mao":
"Mao Tse-tung, who for decades held absolute power over the lives of one-quarter of the world's population, was responsible for well over 70 million deaths in peacetime, more than any other twentieth-century leader."
Their biography is one of the few books I think everyone should read.
Posted by: Jim Miller at September 2, 2006 8:14 AMGideon:
It is hard to say who killed the most people in the 20th century. I've seen estimates that Rachel Carson may be responsible for the death of ~100 million since 1972 due to malaria deaths resulting from the ban of DDT.