BANNEDTHOUGHT
Radical or Revolutionary Journalists and Other Writers
Banned or Difficult to Find Books and Articles
This page is devoted to making available the banned or very difficult to find books, articles and other works by a number of important international journalists. These journalists often reported from different countries at different times, and for that reason it seems better to make their work available here. (There are often links to their works within the individual country sections of bannedthought.org as well, when those works relate to that country specifically.)
This section of bannedthought.org is just getting started, and we hope to greatly expand it in the future.
If you know of other books, articles or other items by radical or revolutionary journalists, which are suppressed or at least very difficult to find, and which should therefore be posted here, please contact us at: freespeech@bannedthought.org
Burchett, Wilfred G. (1911-1983)
[Australian journalist sympathetic to radical and communist revolutions, who especially focused on the Vietnamese Revolution.]
- 1940s-1950s:
- [Book:] Democracy With a Tommygun, (Melbourne/London: 1946), 300 pages. With reports on events, struggles and revolutions at the end of World War II in China, India, Burma, Australia, the Philippines and Japan. PDF format [15,028 KB]
- [Book:] China’s Feet Unbound, (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1952), 196 pages. Searchable PDF format [29,748 KB]
- Works About Wilfred Burchett:
- [Book:] Rebel Journalism — The Writings of Wilfred Burchett, edited by his son George Burchett and Nick Shimmin, (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2008), 337 pages. Thirty journalistic reports from 1941-1981.
Hinton, Joan (1921-2010)
[American physicist who later lived in and wrote about revolutionary China, along with her husband Erwin (Sid) Engst.]
- Writings by Joan Hinton and/or Erwin (Sid) Engst:
- “The Second Superpower”, by Joan Hinton, 2005, about 2 pages. Online on the website of the Bejing International Peace Vigil at: http://peace.blogsport.eu/issues/the-second-superpower/
- [Book:] “寒春 阳早画传” (Life and Times of Two American “Reds” Joan Hinton and Erwin (Sid) Engst in China) 阳和平(编著), 李维民(编著), 2018, 288 pages. Chinese: PDF format [Very large file: 73,402 KB]
- Writings about Joan Hinton and Erwin (Sid) Engst:
- [Book:] Silage Choppers and Snake Spirits: The Lives and Struggles of Two Americans in Modern China, (Paris: Foreign Languages Press, 2019), 400 pages. Searchable PDF format [2,000 KB]
Hinton, William (1919-2004)
[American Marxist writer whose work focused on the Chinese Revolution.]
- 1970s:
- [Book:] Hundred Day War: The Cultural Revolution at Tsinghua University, by William Hinton, (NY: MR Press, 1972), 288 pages. Searchable PDF format [4,077 KB]
- [Book:] Turning Point in China: An Essay on the Cultural Revolution, by William Hinton, (NY: MR Press, 1972), 116 pages. Searchable PDF format [3,901 KB]
- 1980s:
- [Book:] Shenfan, by William Hinton, (NY: Random House, 1983), 860 pages. This is the sequel to his famous book Fanshen, and is more somber in tone. (Better scan, by the Internet Archive (2011), than before.) Searchable PDF format [Huge file: 83,763 KB]
- 1990s:
- [Book:] The Great Reversal: The Privatization of China, 1978-1989, by William Hinton, (NY: Monthly Review, 1990), Marx2Mao version, 191 pages (151 sheets). Searchable PDF format [880 KB]
Myrdal, Jan (1927-2020)
- 1970s:
- “A New Look Into Mao’s China”, by Jan Myrdal, Look magazine, February 10, 1970, 8 pages. PDF format [5,826 KB]
- [Book:] Albania Defiant, by Jan Myrdal and Gun Kessle, (NY: Monthly Review, 1976), 250 pages. Searchable PDF format [7,467 KB]
- [Book:] The Silk Road: A Journey From the High Pamirs and Ili Through Sinkiang and Kansu, by Jan Myrdal, with photographs by Gun Kessle, (NY: Pantheon, 1979), 260 pages. Searchable PDF format [20,254 KB]
- 2010s:
- “In Conversation with Ganapathy, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist)”, by Jan Myrdal with Gautam Navlakha, February 12, 2010, 13 pages. From Sanhati.com/articles/2138/. Searchable PDF format [249 KB]
- “What Does It Mean to Be a Marxist? Hari Sharma and the Marxist Tradition”, by Jan Myrdal, Critical Asian Sudies magazine, vol. 45, #1 (2013), 14 pages. PDF format [687 KB]
Smedley, Agnes (1892-1950)
- 1930s:
- [Book:] “The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh”, (NY: MR Press, 1956), 484 pages. Although largely based on a draft and notes mostly made in the late 1930s, this book was never formally finished by Smedley. The fact that it is nevertheless such an impressive work shows how good her draft was! Searchable PDF format [35,701 KB]
- 1940s:
- [Book:] “Portraits of Chinese Women in Revolution”, by Agnes Smedley, (The Feminist Press [reprint], 1976), 244 pages. (Some underlining.) English: Searchable PDF format [24,433 KB]
Chinese translation: “中国革命中的妇女” [“Women in the Chinese Revolution”], 解放军出版社 [“Issued by the People's Liberation Army Press”], “[美]艾格妮丝‧史沫特莱, Agnes Smedley, 万高潮(译)”, 1985, 169 pages. Chinese: PDF format [5,360 KB]- 1950:
- “Terror Bombing in China” — Agnes Smedley’s last article, along with a short tribute to her by James Aldridge, Labour Monthly [Britain], vol. 32, #7, July 1950, 4 pages. PDF format [381 KB]
- Works About Agnes Smedley:
- [Book:] “Agnes Smedley”, by Janice & Stephen MacKinnon, (1988), 476 pages. Searchable PDF format [35,642 KB]
- [Book:] “The Lives of Agnes Smedley”, by Ruth Price, (Oxford: 2005), 513 pages. Searchable PDF format [28,813 KB]
Snow, Edgar (1905-1972)
- 1940s:
- [Book:] “The Battle for Asia”, by Edgar Snow. (NY: 1941), 460 pages (missing pages 411-412). The special focus is on the war against Japan in China, and includes a lot information about the Communist forces and their actions and views. Searchable PDF format [16,074 KB]
- [Book:] “Glory and Bondage”, by Edgar Snow, written in 1944 with interesting reportage of events during World War II, focusing on Russia, Stalingrad and the Eastern Front, but also with material on India, China and Burma. (London: 1945), 272 pages. PDF format [17,252 KB]
- [Book:] “The Pattern of Soviet Power”, by Edgar Snow, Long out of print, mostly on the Soviet Union in World War II, but includes material on Eastern Europe, China, and other topics. (NY: Random House, 1945), 254 pages. Searchable PDF format [16,338 KB]
- 1970s-1980s:
- “A Conversation with Mao Tse-tung”, by Edgar Snow, Life magazine, April 30, 1971, 3 pages. PDF format [1,953 KB]
- “What China Wants from Nixon’s Visit: China will talk from a position of strength”, by Edgar Snow, Life magazine, July 30, 1971, 9 pages (including introduction, photos and magazine cover page photo of Chou En-lai). PDF format [5,576 KB]
- [Book:] “Edgar Snow’s China: A Personal Account of the Chinese Revolution Compiled from the Writings of Edgar Snow”, by Lois Wheeler Snow. (NY: 1981), 304 pages. This important volume, unfortunately long out of print, includes a great number of rare photographs and is as much a photo history of the Chinese Revolution as it is a written history in the words of Edgar Snow. Searchable PDF format [Very large file: 63,929 KB]
Strong, Anna Louise (1885-1970)
- 1920s:
- [Book:] “China’s Millions: Revolution in Central China, 1927”, by Anna Louise Strong, (Peking: New World Press, 1965), 206 pages. This is a re-issue of the 1927 volume which was the first of a projected six volume set of her Selected Works on China’s Revolution. [We do not know if the other projected volumes were published later.] PDF format [12,061 KB]
- 1930s:
- “Modern Farming — Soviet Style”, by Anna Louise Strong, (NY: International Pamphlets #1, 2nd ed., 1930), 32 pages. Searchable PDF format [2,729 KB]
- “Dictatorship and Democracy in the Soviet Union”, by Anna Louise Strong, (NY: International Pamphlets #40, 1934), 24 pages. Searchable PDF format [1,644 KB]
- 1940s:
- “The New Lithuania”, by Anna Louise Strong, (NY: Workers Library Publishers, January 1941), 66 pages. Searchable PDF format [4,271 KB]
- [Book:] “Tomorrow’s China”, by Anna Louise Strong, (NY: Committee for a Democratic Far Eastern Policy, 1948), 133 pages. PDF format [10,824 KB]
- 1950s:
- [Book:] “The Stalin Era”, by Anna Louise Strong, (NY: Mainstream Publishers, 1956), 132 pages. [Much better Scan than before.] Searchable PDF format [5,252 KB]
- [Book:] “When Serfs Stood Up In Tibet”, by Anna Louise Strong, (San Francisco: Red Sun Publishers, 1976), 370 pages. [Originally published by New World Press, Peking, in 1959.] Searchable PDF format [17,513 KB] Also available in HTML format in separate chapters on the Marxist Internet Archive at: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/strong-anna-louise/1959/tibet/index.htm
- 1960s:
- [Book:] “Cash and Violence in Laos and Viet Nam”, by Anna Louise Strong, (NY: Mainstream Publishers, March 1962), 128 pages. Searchable PDF format [5,835 KB]
- “China’s Fight for Grain”, by Anna Louise Strong, (Peking: New World Press, 1963), 59 pages. PDF format [2,810 KB]
- “Letters From China: Numbers 1-10”, by Anna Louise Strong, (Peking: New World Press, 1963). Available in HTML format in separate letters on the Marxist Internet Archive at: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/strong-anna-louise/1963/letters_china/index.htm
- [Book:] “The Rise of the Chinese People’s Communes—And Six Years After”, by Anna Louise Strong, (Peking: New World Press, 1964), 258 pages. Searchable PDF format [12,200 KB] [Better scan than before]
- [Book:] “Letters From China: Numbers 11-20”, by Anna Louise Strong, (Peking: New World Press, 1964), 186 pages. (Missing interior title page; otherwise complete.) PDF format [9,152 KB]
— NOTICE —
Due to the repressive legislation and judicial decisions in the United States, we at bannedthought.org want to make it completely clear that the ideas and opinions expressed in the works by the journalists available above are their own. We present these works here because we support the right of free speech and the right of the people everywhere to have access to these works, whether the government authorities in their country approve or not.