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The Preface of the book starts with the sentence: "This book is based on extensive notes gathered in the village of Long Bow, Lucheng County, Shansi Province, China, during the spring and summer of 1948." The village had been occupied the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was was part of the communist-led Base Areas of North China from 1945-1949. The book was first published in 1966 after a long struggle with the United States authorities, who impounded William Hinton's notes that he brought back from China. A current edition of the book can be bought from the publishers of the book, The Monthly Review, an independent socialist magazine. The publishers say: "More than forty years after its initial publication, William Hinton’s Fanshen continues to be the essential volume for those fascinated with China’s revolutionary process of rural reform and social change. A pioneering work, Fanshen is a marvelous and revealing look into life in the Chinese countryside, where tradition and modernity have had both a complimentary and caustic relationship in the years since the Chinese Communist Party first came to power. It is a rare, concrete record of social struggle and transformation, as witnessed by a participant. Fanshen continues to offer profound insight into the lives of peasants and China’s complex social processes. Rediscover this classic volume, which includes a new preface by Fred Magdoff." They have also quoted some reviews: "One of the most important books about China which has been written since the Revolution. For anyone who wants to understand anything important about the Chinese revolution of our time, the reading of this book is an absolute necessity." - Joseph Needham, London Tribune "A vivid and compelling ‘grassroots’ account of life in the village precisely during the period in which the new Communist power was establishing itself. A unique contribution to our understanding of life in a northern Chinese village on the eve of the Communist takeover." - Benjamin Schwartz, New York Times Book Review "Fanshen is an extraordinary book. It will dispose of many myths, both of Left and of the Right." - C. P. Fitzgerald, The Nation