RED EARTH: REVOLUTION IN A SICHUAN VILLAGE Stephen Endicott Toronto, NC Press, 1989. 261pp, paper, $18.95 ISBN 1-55021-049-1. CIP Post-secondary/Adult Reviewed by Elinor Kelly. Volume 17 Number 4 1989 July The Endicott name is well known to Canadians. Stephen was born in China, son and grandson of missionaries, and now teaches history at York University. Red Earth is a case study of a village in Sichuan province occupying half a square mile and with a population of 1,336. Thirty years ago the land was distributed to the poor peasants. Since then the population has nearly doubled, raising the spectre of overpopulation, food shortages and unemployment. With only one sixth of an acre per person in the province, there is not enough work on the land to occupy the time of the inhabitants. The book covers change in the village in three parts—social and economic, ideological and political and cultural. By means of interviews and the study of what must be amazingly well kept statistics, the writer takes us through the land reforms, the formation of co-ops, the cost of foreign pressure, the Great Leap Forward, the starvation, and the communes. Endicott writes in a very readable style, in which interviews, personal accounts and figures arc smoothly blended. The book is illustrated with drawings and photographs and contains maps and statistical tables. It is highly recommended to the academic audience and deserves and, one hopes, will reach a wider one with the general reader. Elinor Kelly, Port Hope, Ont.