Mao's War Against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China

by Judith Shapiro

Book Overview

In clear and compelling prose, Judith Shapiro relates the great, untold story of the devastating impact of Chinese politics on China's environment during the Mao years. Maoist China provides an example of extreme human interference in the natural world in an era in which human relationships were also unusually distorted. Under Mao, the traditional Chinese ideal of harmony between heaven and humans was abrogated in favor of Mao's insistence that Man...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521786800
• ISBN13: 9780521786805
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 332 Pages
• Weight: 1.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Mao's War Against Nature

Book was much appreciated. Useful for a specific research project; well written but could have had more detail, which would be difficult given the enormity of the subject. Appears to be the only reference on this issue. Would recommend it to anyone interested in one of the more insidious sides of Mao's campaigns.

The death of an ethos

Even the most casual look at Chinese panoramic art over the centuries reveals an emphasis on nature. Every scene is embedded in nature, whether it be white-capped mountains, forests of tall trees, bubbling rivers that criss cross green plains, etc... Whether it is scenes of chinese royalty parading through villages, or chinese philosophers reclining in the countryside, the coexistence of man in nature is a central theme in Chinese history, art, and culture. Then came the 2oth century and the Communist Revolution in the 1940s. With Mao came a new modus operandi between man and nature, one that threw out balance and replaced it with one of exploitation. It is this exploitation that is the focus of this book. The book was written by an American who has lived and studied in China for decades. The author has apparantly interviewed hundreds, if not thousands of Chinese citizens with bittersweet memories since the 1950s. These memories portray a society built from the top down, that is out of touch with its own geography and natural environment. The chapters of the book chronologically explore various episodes of Communist China's exploitation of the environment. Each one focuses on several individuals who tried to stop a specific government policy, but who were repressed and rebuffed. These policies include building of certain dams, cutting down of forests, and a policy of encouraging large families in the 1950s that presaged China's overpopulation in the latter half of the 20th century. Each time, Mao and his successors in the Communist Party encouraged policies inspired by nationalism and economic growth, but ignored common sense. Many of these policies were also driven by fear of the USSR and US. The author writes the book in quite an objective tone, allowing her interviewee's comments to drive the book's opinion. The textual level is easy to understand, and appropriate reading for any college student. The book also comes with several dozen photographs taken of life in Communist China during Mao's time. The list of references is also quite impressive. All in all, this is a great book about China's modern history.

Descriptive, But Analysis Found Wanting

In terms of the historiography of China's environmental policies during the Mao era this book is certainly an important work. Shapiro does a great job of laying out the general trends of the policies concerning the environment during the Mao years, and this general framework is nicely complemented by anecdotal evidence. The thesis of this work is that governments and policies that victimize people also tend to victimize the environment. That thesis is convincingly supported by Shapiro as the book documents how environmental destruction was particularly pronounced during the political reform movements that have become so notorious (the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, etc.). Unfortunately, this otherwise superb book has a major flaw for which I feel compelled to dock one star in my rating. Shapiro's final analysis concerning the changes needed in the future is simply weak. Throughout the book Shapiro criticized ideologies/philosophies that considered nature as something to be conquered. She also touches on how those ideologies/philosophies are often related to the modern world view of progress and materialism. I think she is absolutely correct in this part of her diagnosis. Oddly, when it comes to her prescription Shapiro suggests what is essentially more of the same. She, of course, wouldn't see it that way, but she fails to refute the modern world view of progress and materialism. The answer, according to Shapiro, isn't a break from the ideology of progress but rather a progress that is tempered by the implementation of new technology and a sense of "humility". Well, humility would certainly help, but even a humility that at the end of the day still is primarily interested in material progress will end in the same types of environmental abuses that Shapiro is so sincerely concerned with. The problem that Shapiro misses is that the modern world view is one which in which societies are driven by the notion that history is (or at least can) progress toward some sort form of utopian reality. In the case of China the utopian reality is socialism/communism, but I would argue the nonconservative vision of capitalism's role in enriching the world is basically of the same essence. The point here is that this view of history and reality is especially pronounced in modernity. The predominant world view before modern times in Western Civilization, for example, was the Augustinian world view that considered this world as simply "growing old" and "passing away". According to this view, the world has no directional history; eschatological fulfillment is only found in transcendent history (aka, salvation by God). For more on this, see Eric Voegelin, Modernity Without Restraint: The Political Religions, The New Science of Politics, and Science, Politics, and Gnosticism (Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, Volume 5). In any case, this was a valuable read that should be seriously considered as an addition to any modern Chinese history

Worth Every Penny

As a foreigner living in China, I found Shapiro's book extremely helpful in understanding the culture of one-fifth of the world's population. Shapiro did an excellent job of choosing several major examples of Mao's destructive impact on the country of China and her people. One is unable to help but to be enthralled in her book. She is thorough in her treatment of the examples she chose and is able to record the information in an easy-to-read manner. I recommend this book to anyone who is at all interested in history, even if one is just a beginner. Your eyes will be opened to realize how destructive an individual can be when their one major concern is their own pride.

Fascinating

This is an interesting book, and it is one that explores a theme that many ecologists and students of Asian anthropology have missed - namely the ecological destruction of Mao's China and the far reaching social consequences of this destruction. Judith Shapiro does an excellent job of documenting and exploring those aspects of government policy that wreaked absolute havoc on the environment in China under Mao's rule. This book is well written and well organized. What Judith Shapiro did not explore, and what I hoped she would - are the historical foundations of Mao's anthropocentric worldview - which are firmly rooted in Marxist ideology. In fact, ecological destruction in communist countries is commonplace - it stems from the inability of Marxist ideology to interpret the environment in anything other than purely exploitative, economic terms. Within this context, Mao's policies were not an aberration. I would have liked to see Judith Shapiro dig deeper into this realm.