i’ve tried a bunch of times to grasp the cultural revolution but i haven’t really been able to wrap my head around the dynamics. any good recs of like, i dunno a holistic overview of how and why it happened, what it meant, and its long term legacy?

@Sarah_pdx Alessandro Russo's book Cultural Revolution and Revolutionary Culture is good, though probably suffers from the problem you describe in the second tweet. I think the history is contested enough that its necessary to be a bit of a partisan.

@Sarah_pdx his essay "The Sixties and Us", which you can find in "the idea of communism 3" is short on the history but does an excellent job of globally and politically contextualizing the political results of the movement.

@Sarah_pdx oh I just remembered the rebecca karl history of china through the lens of Mao, have seen many comrades vouch for it, chapters 8/9 here: ouleft.org/wp-content/upl…