Red Friends

Reviews / Votes

A fascinating read, based on deep knowledge of the "red friends". People of all kinds and various nationalities, mostly Western, Sexton has an obvious sympathy with them, but also the ability to give the unvarnished truth where necessary. Sexton is sensitive, often witty and also innovative, uncovering hitherto unfamiliar material. Not only well written, but really excellent scholarship. -- Colin Mackerras, Professor Emeritus, Griffith University, Australia This book is a comprehensive guide to an intricate history of the Chinese Communist movement seen through the eyes of foreign activists who contributed to its final victory. It is an enthralling collection of human stories well-written and captivating. Marked by abundant historical details and facts, yet elegantly designated for a general reader, it stands out as an extremely useful source of information for everyone who is interested in communist studies. It is an enchanting anthology of tales about foreign participants in the Chinese revolution - Russian, German, Dutch, American, Indian, New Zealand, British, Polish, and Japanese. Some of them are well-known, some others much less so. Some were staunch Stalinists, some others stubborn Trotskyists or Maoists, some were idealists, some others pure pragmatists. But all were inspired by a heroic struggle of the Chinese people for national and social liberation and were dedicated to the Chinese revolutionary course regardless of their political denominations. This book pays homage to every one of them shedding abundant light on their lives and fates. -- Alexander V. Pantsov, professor of history and holds the Edward and Mary Catherine Gerhold Chair in the Humanities at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio Red Friends is a kind of book I've been waiting for a long time. The indispensable international dimension of the otherwise indigenous Chinese revolutions deserves an honest and fully explored history. In particular, the communist revolution in China was profoundly internationalist, in its self-consciousness and engagements as much as its regional and global magnetism. John Sexton most skilfully recounts important personal and collective experiences of 'red' foreign participants in China's protracted liberation struggle. These fascinating stories, involving far reaching and complex contextual narratives across national and partisan boundaries, are told in an elegant prose with great historical sensibility. At a perilous time of capitalist nationalism and imperialism, this book is a powerful and refreshing reminder of a lost world where revolutionary nationalism and internationalism were born twins. -- Lin Chun, Professor in Comparative Politics at the LSE, author of <i>Revolution and Counterrevolution in China</i> (2021).