The Architect of Modern China (TRIH ep 366)
1978 · Resource
Hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook interview historian Rana Mitter about Deng Xiaoping and China’s “opening up” after Mao. Mitter outlines Deng’s background—his Sichuan origins, time in France and Moscow, participation in the Long March and the civil war—and his political resurrection after Mao’s death. The conversation traces the late-1970s factional struggle (including Hua Guofeng and the Gang of Four), Deng’s pragmatic turn away from ideological “book worship,” and the economic experi...
On these timelines: The Rest Is History (podcast), Resources: Combined
Around 1978
- The Troubles (1968)
- Apollo 11 moon landing (1969)
- Prague Spring (1968)
- Yom Kippur War (1973)
- Watergate scandal (1972)
- Iranian Revolution (1978)
- Chernobyl disaster (1986)
- Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)
- Night Fever (Bee Gees) (1978)
- Another Brick in the Wall (Part II) (Pink Floyd) (1979)