The Little Red Book

No Woman, No Revolution, Part 7a

The Little Red Book

This is about the little book with the red plastic cover, which is not central to this course. But it is part of the history of ideas. According to Wikipedia, it was published in a total printing of 1,055,498,000 copies, in many different languages.

That’s more than a billion.

Chapter 31 is on Women. Among other things it says:

“Unite and take part in production and political activity to improve the economic and political status of women.”

None of Mao’s statements are “gendered”.

Mao correctly places the question of male authority within a class and economic (political economy) context.

Mao’s form of propaganda is reminiscent of the kind that Clara Zetkin advocated: Well-produced, but short, and capable of being read by everybody.

• The above is to introduce the original reading-text: The Little Red Book, Chapter 31 on Women, Mao, 1966.