MATTHEW HAWKINS rakes through un-fancy words and flair-free summaries to find who and what might be flamboyant
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Maoism: A Global History by Julia Lovell
Wide-ranging account of the movement which changed the course of China's history
Widespread: A Maoist settlement in Nepal
[Pavel Novak/Creative Commons]
PETER MASON is exhilarated by an exciting, well-considered and historically minded tribute to the great Trinidadian instrument
Reducing historical lives to ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles, we lose the nuance of those lives and a clearer understanding of past societies, suggests CLAIRE ISABELLA GILMOUR
CHRIS SEARLE relishes the genius of pianist Alexander Hawkins, his many ensembles, and his new album
New releases from The Mountains Goats, Ed O’Brien, and YHWH Nailgun
ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
MAOISM is broadly defined as a variant of Marxism that places greater emphasis on the peasantry and, while “orthodox” Marxist-Leninists see this group as equal to the industrial working class, with its specific emphasis on anti-imperialism, Maoism can be dismissive of workers’ movements in the developed world.
It contains a cult-like veneration of the leader which puts the Soviet Union under Stalin to shame, although that’s possibly been recently exceeded in North Korea.
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