All Episodes
People's History of Ideas Podcast — 137 episodes
Urban Revolution in Beijing during the Great Leap Forward: An Interview with leading China scholar Fabio Lanza
Winning Over Enemy Troops: Mao’s Leninist Approach to Fomenting Mutiny in the Guomindang (January 1930)
A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire (January 1930) (Part Two)
A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire (January 1930) (Part One)
How Brainwashing was Good and Maoist Propaganda was True: An Interview with leading China scholar Aminda Smith
Chen Duxiu Update (or, the Devil Makes Work for Idle Hands) (1929)
Did the German Communists Really Say “After Hitler, Our Turn?” Exploring the Historical Evidence
Revolution in the ‘20s, Go For It: The ‘Third Period’ Comes to China
The Chinese Communist Party Interventions in the 1929 Sino-Soviet War
The 1929 Sino-Soviet War Concludes
The 1929 Sino-Soviet War Begins
The Chinese Eastern Railway: Background to the 1929 Sino-Soviet War
“On the Problem of Party Organization” (The Gutian Resolution—Part Three)
“The Problem of Correcting Erroneous and Nonproletarian Ideological Tendencies in the Party” (The Gutian Resolution—Part Two)
The Gutian Resolution (End of 1929) (Part One)
Two Letters and “On Correcting Mistaken Ideas in the Party” (November to December 1929)
The Battle for Shanghang (mid-September 1929)
The Politburo in Shanghai Discusses the Line Struggle in the Red Army and Issues the September Instruction
Mao gets Kicked from Party Leadership, and Organizes a Land Reform in Western Fujian
Mao’s 14 June 1929 Letter to Lin Biao
The Line Struggle Between Mao Zedong and Zhu De (May to June 1929)
The Red Army Victorious: The Conquest of Several Counties in Jiangxi and Fujian in the Spring of 1929
Mao Tells Zhou Enlai about Guerrilla Warfare
The Party Center Attempts to Assert Control over the Red Army and Orders Mao and Zhu to Report to Shanghai
Mao’s March 20 Letter to the Central Committee, and the 5th Red Army’s Retreat from the Jinggangshan (January to April 1929)
On the Experience of the National Bourgeoisie in the New Democratic Revolution
A New Communist Order in Changting (March 1929)
Leaving Donggu, Taking Changting (February to March 1929)
From Dabodi to Donggu: The Retreat from the Jinggangshan Continues (February 1929)
Running for Their Lives: The Retreat from the Jinggangshan (January to February 1929)
Frameworks for Thinking about Tragic Historical Shortcomings of the Socialist Experience
The End of the Sixth Congress
Clashing Communists and Comintern Guidance: The 6th Congress Gets off to a Rocky Start
Bukharin on the Nature of the Chinese Revolution in 1928
Bukharin on the Theory of the Productive Forces (and Mao’s counterpoint on New Democratic Revolution)
The ‘Third Period’ of the World Revolution: Bukharin’s Speech at the Sixth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (June 1928)
Preparations for the Sixth Party Congress (April to May 1928)
The Bailu Conference: Suppressing Orders from the Party Congress and Preparing to Leave the Jinggangshan (January 1929)
The Base Area under Economic Blockade and Unification with the Fifth Red Army (End of 1928)
Vagrants, Mercenaries, and Rich Peasants (November 1928)
Transforming, Building, and Purging the Party (September to November 1928)
Opportunism and Self-Criticism: The Jinggangshan Party Congress Resolution of October 1928
“Why Is It that Red Political Power Can Exist in China?” (October 1928)
The August Defeat (Part 2): The Communists Strike Back (August to November 1928)
The August Defeat (Part 1)
The Yongxin Joint Conference and Mao’s July 4, 1928 Report to the Hunan Provincial Committee
Clandestine Transcripts of Revolutionary Globalization: The Shining Paths of Late Cultural Revolution Maoism
Nuclear War and Communist Revolution
The Beginning of the Midyear Crisis (June 1928)
Land Revolution and Communist Party Growth: The High Tide of the Jinggangshan Base Area (Summer 1928)
Beating Back Suppression Campaigns and Expanding the Jinggangshan Base Area (May to June 1928)
The Jinggangshan Junction of Forces: Mao Zedong and Zhu De Unite (April to May 1928)
The Wages of Revolution: Life Underground in Shanghai in the Late 1920s (Part 3)
Friendship, Compartmentalization, and Assassination Squads: Life Underground in Shanghai in the Late 1920s (Part 2)
Life Underground in Shanghai in the Late 1920s (Part 1)
Mao’s (Temporary) Expulsion from the Communist Party and the Collapse of the South Hunan Uprising (March and April 1928)
The Southern Hunan Uprising (Early 1928)
Studying Marxism and Getting Thrown in Jail: Zhu De in Germany (1922-1926)
Zhu De and The Army for the Defense of the Republic in Sichuan and Yunnan (1916-1922)
From Gym Teacher to General: Zhu De in Revolution and Rebellion (1907-1916)
From Poor Peasant to Gym Teacher: The Early Life of Zhu De
Engels on Insurrection
The Guangzhou Commune (December 11-13, 1927)
Red Canton: Background to the Guangzhou Uprising of December 1927
‘Blind Actionism’ in Action: Understanding the Hundreds of Small Revolts Led by Communists at the End of the 1920s in China
Summing Up Failures, or Playing the Blame Game? The November 1927 Politburo Meeting in Shanghai
Sedan Chairs, Tired Intellectuals, and Indifferent Masses: The Denouement of the Nanchang Uprising/Southern Expedition (August to October 1927)
Hearts, Minds, and a Head on a Spike: The Unification of People and Forces in the Jinggangshan
Secret Agent for International Maoism: José Venturelli, Chinese Informal Diplomacy and Latin American Maoism
Two Incursions, One Betrayal, and Six Points for Attention: The Red Army in Chaling and Suichuan (October 1927 to January 1928)
Alliances, Discipline, and an Army to Serve the People: The Beginning of the Jinggangshan Base Area (October 1927)
The Early Jinggangshan Revolutionary Movement
Mao’s Bandit Comrades: Wang Zuo and Yuan Wencai
Bandits of the Jinggangshan
Background on Society and Economy in the Jinggang Mountains
Entering the Jinggangshan: The Sanwan Reorganization of the People’s Army
The Autumn Harvest Uprising in Hunan
Planning the Autumn Harvest Uprising in Hunan
The Autumn Harvest Uprising in Hubei
The “Tender-Hearted Communist:” Qu Qiubai
Army or Militia? Mao and the Politburo Diverge on Military Policy for the Autumn Harvest Uprising
The Decisive Turn to Overthrowing the Guomindang: The 7 August 1927 Emergency Conference
The Nanchang Uprising (August 1, 1927)
The End of the United Front (June to July 1927)
“Like Taking a Bath in a Toilet” (May and June 1927)
“An Example of the Chinese Tenant-Peasant’s Life”
Mao Tries to Legislate a Peasant Revolution: The Wuhan Land Commission (April to May 1927)
The Fifth Party Congress and the ‘Better Fewer but Better’ Approach to Summing up a Massacre
Rivers of Blood in the Streets of Shanghai: The Massacre of the Communists by the Guomindang Right
The Third Armed Uprising in Shanghai
The Split in the Guomindang: The Left Government in Wuhan and the Military Headquarters in Nanchang Develop Irreconcilable Differences (January to March 1927)
Summation, Red Terror, and Frustration: The Aftermath of the Second Armed Uprising in Shanghai (February and March 1927)
The Second Armed Uprising in Shanghai (February 1927)
From Dog-Beating Squads to the First Armed Uprising: The Shanghai Communists’ Steep Learning Curve in Developing Armed Struggle (1922 to 1926)
When Peasant Revolution Meets the Theory of the Productive Forces: The Communist Debate on Unity with the Nationalist Left
More Mass Movements, More Problems: The Aggressive Line of the Guangdong Comrades
Revolution in the Countryside: The Peasant Movement in Hunan in the Wake of the Northern Expedition
The Northern Expedition Begins: Attempts at Merging the Mass Movement with Regular Warfare
Mao in 1926: War in Hunan, Coup in Guangzhou, Polemicizing for the Peasant Movement
Spreading Peasant Revolution Across Guangdong, and Beyond: The Guangzhou Peasant Movement Training Institute
The Beginning of the Peasant Movement in Guangdong Province: How the Communist Party Got a Mass Base of Peasant Support in Spite of Itself
The March 1926 Zhongshan Gunboat Incident: Coup and Countercoup in the Pearl River Delta
From Quaker Peace Activist to Maoist Revolutionary: An Oral History of Personal Transformation from a 1971 American Delegation to China
Bonus: New China Song by Prairie Fire
The Beginning of Maoism: Mao Zedong’s “Analysis of All the Classes in Chinese Society”
Propaganda, Criticism and Corruption: Mao as Propagandist and Disciplinarian (October 1925 to early 1926)
Strike, Assassination and War: The Revolution/Counter-Revolution Dialectic in Guangdong in the Second Half of 1925
Guangdong Spring 1925: Revolutionary Warfare Erupts and Workers Shut Down Hong Kong
The Soviet Military Alliance with the Guomindang, and the Creation of the National Revolutionary Army
Peasant Revolution?: An Exhausted Mao Rediscovers His Roots
Gonzalo in the Middle Kingdom: What Abimael Guzmán Tells Us in His Three Discussions of His Two Trips to China
The May 30 Movement: The Chinese People’s Uprising Against the British and Japanese in 1925
Lenin’s Ideas on Revolutionary Situations and the Situation in the United States Today
Back to the Labor Front!: The Japanese Mills Strike of 1925
The Proletarian Nation vs. The Theory of the Productive Forces
Friends Close, Enemies Closer: The United Front in Action
The Road Is Tortuous: The Chinese Revolution and the End of the Global Sixties
The Loneliest United Front: The Chinese Communist Party in 1923
Communist Unionizing and the Genesis of the United Front with the Guomindang
Workers' Revolution or Nationalist United Front? Early Strategic Decisions of the Chinese Communist Party
Demarcation and Organization: The Chinese Communist Party is Founded
From Russia with Organizational Expertise: The Comintern Comes to China
The Communist International
Mao's Anarchist Years (The Young Mao Zedong Part Two)
Liberals Becoming Marxists: The New Culture and May 4th Movements (1915-1919)
The Young Mao Zedong
The 1911 Revolution
Revolutionary Voices from the End of the Qing Dynasty
The Boxer Uprising of 1900
Kang Youwei and the Hundred Days Reform
Losing the Tributaries: The Sino-French and Sino-Japanese Wars in Vietnam and Korea
Book Review of The Shining Path: Love, Madness, and Revolution in the Andes
The Self-Strengthening Movement: Too Little Too Late?
The Second Opium War and the End of the Taiping Civil War
The Taiping Revolution
The Opium War and the Beginning of China's Century of Humiliation
Introducing the People's History of Ideas Podcast