Frank Dikotter discusses his book, "Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 19581962," presented by Harvard Book Store. "Between 1958 and 1962, China descended into hell. Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up to and overtake Britain in less than fifteen years. The experiment ended in the greatest catastrophe the country had ever known, destroying tens of millions of lives." So opens Frank Dikotter's chronicle of an era in Chinese history much speculated about but never before fully documented because access to Communist Party archives had long been restricted. More lectures at http://forumnetwork.org

This talk took place on October 8, 2010.