Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography, & More
Episode: The Great Leap Forward
Description: In 1958, the People’s Republic of China instituted its second five-year plan since the revolution.Â
Its goal was to rapidly industrialize China and boost agriculture to levels on par with the advanced economies of the Western world. China was going to become a modern country, not through the widespread adoption of machinery, but through the mass mobilization of labor.
It didn’t work.
Not only didn’t it work, but it was one of the greatest failures in world history.Â
Learn more about the Great Leap Forward, what it was, and why it f...