China 1949: Year of Revolution

The events of 1949 reverberated across the world and throughout the rest of the 20th-century. That monumental year saw the dramatic collapse of Chiang Kai-sheks pro-Western Nationalist government, overthrown by Mao Zedong and his newly-founded, Communist-controlled, Peoples Republic of China. China 1949 follows the huge armies that swarmed over the country, the exile of once-powerful leaders and the alarm of foreign nations watching on. It introduces well-known figures of the Revolution, and a host of ordinary Chinese citizens and foreigners caught in the maelstrom; from a US Ambassador, to a much-loved Chinese writer, and a schoolboy from Nanyang. Shadowing both the leaders and the people of China in 1949, Hutchings reveals the lived experiences, aftermath and consequences of this pivotal year. The legacy of 1949 still resonates today in the politics, foundations and identity of modern China. With China 1949 Graham Hutchings has written a vivid, gripping account of the year in which China abruptly changed course, and pulled the rest of world history along with it.