In 1949 Mao Zedong hoisted the red flag over Beijing`s Forbidden City. Instead of liberating the country, the communists destroyed the old order & replaced it with a repressive system that would dominate every aspect of Chinese life. In an epic of revolution & violence which draws on newly opened party archives, interviews & memoirs, Frank Dikotter interweaves the stories of millions of ordinary people with the brutal politics of Mao`s court. A gripping account of how people from all walks of life were caught up in a tragedy that sent at least five million civilians to their deaths.