A devastating account of China's 'Great Leap Forward' 1958-62, which resulted in one of the world's greatest catastrophes, with at least 45 million people worked, starved or beaten to death and much of the land left ruined and despoiled. Frank Dikotter is the only historian to have studied the Chinese archives since they were re-opened, and reveals exclusive new detail of this shocking period, providing a fresh historical perspective. Paperback edition.