I'm not sure how to rate this. I think Dikotter's biases were more obvious here than in his boo on the Great Leap Forward, which I read a few years ago, but I'm not sure if it matters. I don't know if there is a way to tell the story of the Cultural Revolution without condemning the people who planned it. Because friends, it was some bad news. Fortunately I have a whole collection of unread books on Chinese history and maybe one day I'll be able to judge this book a little better.