Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) is described in the foreword as resembling a "free-for-all" that ultimately harmed or destroyed one-eighth of the country's population. In what is surely one of history's most regressive movements, Mao Zedong engineered the upheaval of landlords, rich peasants, counterrevolutionaries, "bad elements," Rightists, and others by their natural or concocted enemies. The authors, each of whom "lived through the Cultural Revolution," describe the 10-year class struggle as having caused "unprecedented damage to traditional culture and to the nation's economy" and as being largely responsible for the speed and scale of pragmatic economic reforms in post-Mao China.

The main sections of the book are a chronology, an introduction, the dictionary, a glossary, and a bibliography. The 22-page chronology includes, in entries of one to several sentences, major events from November 1965 to October 1976. The 19-page introductory essay analyzes highlights of the chronology, also peeking at the years and events leading up to the Cultural Revolution. The volume's heart is the 362-page dictionary section, with hundreds of entries for events, people, publications, slogans, and terms. Among the entries are Big-character posters, Bystanders (those not belonging to any faction), July 21 University (a type of university established to train young factory workers to be engineers), Red Guards, United States-China relations, and Work groups . Many terms are given in Pinyin romanization as well as English. The 11-page glossary is organized by Pinyin spelling of a personal name or term, followed by the English equivalent for terms and Chinese characters for both names and terms. An extensive bibliography of works in English is subdivided by topics. A not-very-detailed map and 15 black-and-white photographs supplement the text.