Aux origines du Grand bond en avant

Henan, a province situated in central China, went through a violent political, social and économie crisis in 1956 and 1957 brought about by one of the wildest undertakings of the 20th century : the Great Leap Forward. Jean-Luc Domenach's work sheds light on the events and their causes through a detailed study of the local press, illustrating the political life in a Chinese province and its growth at variance with the Central Power. The wealth of the sources enables the author to describe the popular reactions and their effects to the authorities' initiatives and provides unpublished data on the internai functioning of the Chinese communist régime at the provincial and local levels.