Village China at War: The Impact of Resistance to Japan, 1937–1945

Dagfinn Gatu

2007, 480 pp., illus.

• Groundbreaking study on the forging of Chinese communism in the furnace of the anti-Japanese war.
• Focuses on North China, where the CCP took root and later expanded to conquer China.
• Brings to the analysis a wealth of empirical detail.

Whilst the explosive growth of the Chinese Communist movement during the war years of the 1930s and 1940s is a fact, the nature of this expansion remains disputed. Here the author examines a set of interrelated issues that have so far not received comprehensive treatment with regard to the main Communist base areas in North China—regions where the party secured most of its recruits and where its policy programmes were most severely tested by Japanese military campaigns.

“Gatu’s competent approach, convincing analysis and interpretation will make a significant and much needed contribution to the literature on the Chinese Communist Revolution.” “A very strong and deeply researched manuscript on an important topic.” (External reviewers)