Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962

Format: Paperback Language: English ISBN: 0374533997 ISBN13: 9780374533991 Release Date: November 2013 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Length: 656 Pages Weight: 1.53 lbs. Dimensions: 1.8" x 5.5" x 8.3" The much-anticipated definitive account of China's Great Famine An estimated thirty-six million Chinese men, women, and children starved to death during China's Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s and early '60s. One of the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century, the famine is poorly understood, and in China is still euphemistically referred to as "the three years of natural disaster." As a journalist with privileged access to official and unofficial sources, Yang Jisheng spent twenty years piecing together the events that led to mass nationwide starvation, including the death of his own father. Finding no natural causes, Yang attributes responsibility for the deaths to China's totalitarian system and the refusal of officials at every level to value human