Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012. xxvi, 629 pages, map; 24 cm. Translated from the Chinese by Stacy Mosher and Guo Jian; edited by Edward Friedman, Guo Jian, and Stacy Mosher. Tight, clean copy. Stated First American edition. Dust jacket protected in a mylar cover. A fine copy of the first printing. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by arrangement. "An account of the famine that killed roughly thirty-six million Chinese during the Great Leap Forward examines how the communist ideologies and collectivization campaigns perpetuated by the country's leaders caused the catastrophe." - Publisher. CONTENTS: Introduction, by Edward Friedman and Roderick MacFarquhar; Translators' note; A chronology of the great famine; An everlasting tombstone; The epicenter of the disaster; The three red banners : source of the famine; Hard times in Gansu; The people's commune : foundation of the totalitarian system; The communal kitchens; Hungry ghosts in heaven's pantry; The ravages of the five winds; Anxious in Anhui; The food crisis; Turnaround in Lushan; China's population loss in the great leap forward; The official response to the crisis; Social stability during the great famine; The systemic causes of the great famine; The great famine's impact on Chinese politics; Notes; Bibliography; Index.. 1st. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 8vo. Collectible.