As per title, my book club has been reading a bunch of theory(which we love!) but have been wanting to learn more about nuts and bolts of revolution. Moving from theoretical lens of communist revolution into how things have looked on the ground, if that makes sense.
We we split about if we ought to start more about the history of the Chinese revolution or start with reading Mao(which is also tough, that mf really wrote a lot!) Any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations, any and all of it, would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks comrades!!
Edit: Thanks so much to everyone for contributing!! There are so many amazing resources in here and I can't begin to thank you all enough for sharing you knowledge and interests!! Just the bell of the small commie book club ball right now, with all these resources!
In terms of popular writing for a Western audience, 'Fanshen' is a great portrait of the revolution through the experience of a single rural village. However it is quite long (but gripping!). This is the best glimpse into 'how things looked on the ground'! 'Red Star Over China' reads like an adventure novel, and recounts one journalist's travel into Red territory and his interview with Mao.
From Victory to Defeat by Pao-Yu Ching is a good critical perspective on the gains of the revolution and the capitalist reforms of Deng.
In terms of reading Mao, 'Oppose Book Worship' and 'On Practice' are the guide to practice for people looking to go from book club (nothing wrong with being here!) to organizing. 'Combat Liberalism' is a good reflective tool once you are used to collective life and organizing. I tried reading it while I was still basically a liberal and got very little from it.