About this book:

*Revolution and Remaking* provides a comprehensive history of the People’s Republic of China under Mao Zedong, balancing a top-down political narrative of state-building with a bottom-up social history of everyday life. The book traces the evolution of the party-state from its 1949 founding through the implementation of transformative policies such as land reform, the First Five-Year Plan, and the institutionalization of the work unit and *hukou* systems. It examines how the CCP utilized mass mobilization campaigns as a "governing technology" to reshape property, labor, and social hierarchies, while also exploring how ordinary citizens negotiated these state-driven changes in their kitchens, schools, and workplaces.

The narrative details the radical shifts in Maoist governance, moving from the state-building and collectivization of the 1950s to the utopian ambitions and catastrophic famine of the Great Leap Forward. Following a brief period of pragmatic readjustment in the early 1960s, the book analyzes the Cultural Revolution's assault on authority, the rise of Red Guard factionalism, and the subsequent restoration of order through military-led Revolutionary Committees. Throughout these upheavals, the text highlights the persistent structures of the Maoist era, including the "Down to the Countryside" movement, the creation of barefoot doctors, and the rigid control of culture through model operas and thought reform.

In its final sections, the book explores the complexities of Mao’s last years, characterized by intense factional infighting between pragmatists and the "Gang of Four" alongside a surprising diplomatic rapprochement with the United States. It concludes by assessing the profound legacies of Maoism—a system that achieved significant national integration and industrial expansion but at a staggering human cost involving pervasive surveillance, scarcity, and political violence. By the time of Mao’s death in 1976, China remained a society deeply transformed by decades of continuous revolution, poised between his radical ideological vision and a growing popular desire for stability and reform.