Commune to Capitalism - Decollectivization of Agriculture in China w/ Zhun Xu

Guerrilla History

In this episode of Guerrilla History, we once again have our great friend and comrade Zhun Xu, whom you should remember from two previous episodes of the show, North Korea & Industrial Agriculture as well as Sanctions Against China & Their Political Economy. Here, we discuss Zhun fantastic book From Commune to Capitalism: How China’s Peasants Lost Collective Farming and Gained Urban Poverty! Unsurprisingly, this was a fabulous discussion, and is a really important conversation when added to the two conversations on this period of history that we had in our Modern Chinese History miniseries with Ken Hammond - The Great Leap Forward & Cultural Revolution and the Deng Reform Period. It might be helpful to listen to those two episodes first, but regardless, we are sure that you will find great use in this conversation!

Zhun Xu is Associate Professor of Economics at John Jay College, City University of New York. He is on the editorial boards of Science and Society and the Journal of Labor and Society. His recent book is From Commune to Capitalism: How China’s Peasants Lost Collective Farming and Gained Urban Poverty.

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