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Lucien Bianco, Les Origines de la révolution chinoise (Origins of the Chinese Revolution) 1915-1949, 4th edition updated and expanded, Paris, Gallimard (Folio histoire), 2007, 528 pp.
It is rare that a first work of synthesis on a period close to contemporary history survives the test of historical review that comes with the passage of time, the release of archives, and the accounts of witnesses who begin to find voice. The ability of Lucien Bianco's work to stand the test of time is all the more remarkable given that it was initially researched in 1966 and published in 1967 (in English in 1971),((1) when China was in the throes of the Cultural Revolution, and that it was attempting to delineate the "origins" of a revolution that was far from completed. Three previous editions have already shown the historian's clear-sightedness. The latest thoroughly reworked version successfully takes into account the considerable development of historiography on the period while remaining steadfast to its own core interpretative lines. The successive restatements that Bianco tends to offer once a decade, and which are not "pasted up," as it were, allow the reader the pleasure of finding, for instance, the obituary of Mao Zedong as it appeared in Le Monde in September 1976 or the initial lines of the original preface.((2) At the same time, it is equally rare for a historian to undertake such an exhaustive updating, the more remarkable as it has been "filtered" by citing only works that convey truly new elements (the amount of reading this must have required can only be conjectured). The bibliography thus remains a valuable tool, although the disappearance of some of the comments that accompanied the titles in previous editions may be missed (some are retained in the notes).((3) The addition of an index is most welcome, but the work would have further benefited from a detailed chronology as a guide to events for the student or non-specialist.
The study remains faithful to the first edition's aim of being a synthesis that can help a neophyte become familiar with the pivotal people and events of contemporary Chinese history, and at the same time offer an overarching interpretation that, based on precise- even erudite-references, can be grist to specialist mills. As for interpretation,...