Book · 1996 · Biography & Autobiography
Hungry Ghosts
Mao's Secret Famine
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So uh as you will remember from part one, one of my sources for these episodes was the wonderful book Hungry Ghosts written by Jasper Becker.
Why people recommend it
Hungry Ghosts by Jasper Becker is a harrowing historical account of the man-made famines that devastated China under Mao Zedong. On Behind the Bastards, Robert Evans brought up the book across multiple episodes as a primary source for his deep dive into the Soviet scientist Trofim Lysenko and the agricultural policies that caused widespread starvation. Evans praised it as a wonderful work on famine, utilizing its detailed documentation to illustrate the harsh realities of the period. Specifically, he quoted passages describing how urban residents dumped household rubbish on city outskirts to be prepared for agricultural use, and how authorities ruthlessly seized entire harvests. The book provided vivid evidence of how officials stripped farming communities of all available food, livestock, vegetables, and cash crops while aggressively searching homes for hidden provisions. Furthermore, Evans drew upon Becker's text to highlight specific figures within the Lysenkoist movement, demonstrating how ideological zealotry and flawed scientific theories cascaded into catastrophic human suffering. By weaving these stark examples into his narrative, Evans demonstrated why Becker's research remains an essential chronicle of totalitarian agricultural disaster.
Every mention
Robert Evans So uh as you will remember from part one, one of my sources for these episodes was the wonderful book Hungr… 5
“So uh as you will remember from part one, one of my sources for these episodes was the wonderful book Hungry Ghosts written by Jasper Becker.”
“Here's a quote from Hungry Ghosts. People in Guangghao took their household rubbish to the outskirts of the city where it was buried for several weeks before being put out on the fields.”
“I'm going to read another quote from Hungry Ghosts here. In many places, the entire harvest was seized. Sometimes officials reported a harvest so big that even after taking away everything they could, including all livestock, vegetables, and cash crops, they still continued to search from house to house.”
“I'm going to quote from a book called Hungry Ghosts which is a a book about famine. Not about Pac-Man. Not about Pac-Man. Although that would be the Pac-Man book title.”
“I'm going to read one more quote from Hungry Ghost about one of these men. Another hero of the Lenko school was the son of an American engineer, Facili Williams, who became a professor at the Moscow Agricultural Academy.”
