| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Stephen C. Averill. Revolution in the Highlands: China's Jinggangshan Base Area. Foreword by Joseph W. Esherick and Elizabeth J. Perry. (State and Society in East Asia Series.) Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. 2006. Pp. xxxi, 451. $69.00.

It took Stephen C. Averill decades to complete this book before his untimely death. But this long-awaited monograph is immensely gratifying. It represents one of the best scholarly works localizing the Chinese Communist Revolution. The study focuses on the revolution in the Jinggangshan highlands, a central base area where Mao Zedong and his associates acquired their early revolutionary experiences. Full of rich details and nuances, the book draws on new information from internal party documents and personal accounts by participants in the revolution. Revising the hagiographic image of Mao depicted in the standard party literature, Averill presents us with a very different perspective: that the Communist revolution was a complex process of policy contests, conflict resolutions, and negotiated compromises. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Jinggangshan was highly accommodative and adaptive, constantly reorienting its revolutionary policies according to shifting political and military circumstances. It is a joy to follow Averill's sophisticated analysis of the CCP debates in various phases of the revolution.

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