In 1976, China's "education revolution" was being hailed by foreign observers as an inspiration for all low-income countries. By 1980, the Chinese themselves had disavowed the experience, declaring it devoid of even a single redeeming virtue. This is the first comprehensive book to cover the whole sweep of twentieth-century Chinese education, and in particular to provide a detailed study of what occurred in the countryside under the radical Maoist education experiments of the Cultural Revolution.