Revolutionary Immortality: Mao Tse-Tung And The Chinese Cultural Revolution
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Jacket: No dust jacket - paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner.
A landmark work of political psychology, Revolutionary Immortality examines the ideological and psychological forces that drove Mao Tse-tung to unleash the Chinese Cultural Revolution upon his nation. Renowned psychiatrist and historian Robert Jay Lifton argues that Mao's revolutionary campaigns were, at their core, a desperate struggle against personal and political mortality — a quest to achieve symbolic immortality through perpetual revolution. Drawing on interviews, first-hand accounts, and deep psychological analysis, Lifton illustrates how the aging leader manipulated an entire generation of Red Guards to re-energise his fading revolutionary legacy. The work presents a chilling portrait of totalitarian charisma, detailing how ideology, death anxiety, and mass mobilisation converged in one of the twentieth century's most turbulent political upheavals. Authoritative, penetrating, and deeply humane, it remains an essential text for understanding the intersection of power, belief, and mortality in modern Chinese history.
Author: Robert Jay Lifton
Format: Paperback
Published: 1970, Pelican Books
Genre: Asian history
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Jacket: No dust jacket - paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner.
A landmark work of political psychology, Revolutionary Immortality examines the ideological and psychological forces that drove Mao Tse-tung to unleash the Chinese Cultural Revolution upon his nation. Renowned psychiatrist and historian Robert Jay Lifton argues that Mao's revolutionary campaigns were, at their core, a desperate struggle against personal and political mortality — a quest to achieve symbolic immortality through perpetual revolution. Drawing on interviews, first-hand accounts, and deep psychological analysis, Lifton illustrates how the aging leader manipulated an entire generation of Red Guards to re-energise his fading revolutionary legacy. The work presents a chilling portrait of totalitarian charisma, detailing how ideology, death anxiety, and mass mobilisation converged in one of the twentieth century's most turbulent political upheavals. Authoritative, penetrating, and deeply humane, it remains an essential text for understanding the intersection of power, belief, and mortality in modern Chinese history.