How did Mao Zedong use propaganda to launch the Cultural Revolution?

[Stefania]

The question that this Historical Investigation will be examining is “How did Mao use his cult of personality to maintain his position in power?” as it would be appropriate to investigate a topic that was studied the year previously-but assess it with much greater detail. The aim of this essay is to examine what Mao used his cult of personality to maintain his role in power from 1966-1976.

The question that this Historical Investigation will be examining is “How did Mao use his cult of personality to launch the Cultural Revolution?” the significance of this topic is that it’s an important aspect of history for China, and even today the shadow of Mao still hangs over China. The topics that the essay will examine would be the Little Red Book, calling for removal of those who followed the ‘revisionist line’ (those who favoured more bueaucratic “capitilist” approaches)

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Any other suggestions?

[emmiez]

Perhaps you can start by explaining what was the cult of Mao, how did it emerge, and how strong was the cult of Mao by 1966 when Cultural Revolution started.

Also talk about the Red Guards!

[Jakebert]

Hmmm... a "how" question won't give you much to analyze, but a "to what extent" question will?

So "To what extent did Mao use a cult of personality to maintain his power?" (I'm sure there's also some great historiography on this too)

You might want to think about narrowing it down even more, like to propaganda or to demonstrations. "Cult of personality" is a big topic, and you only have 2000 words!

[bohemian03]

Exactly like what Jakebert said, I think narrowing it down to demonstrations will be good because my friend is doing the exact same question but narrowing it down to propaganda during the Cultural Revolution.

[Jakebert]

Think about how the HI is structured: there's section B: Summary of Evidence and section D: Analysis.

Think of Section B as the "stuff" you are going to talk [b]ABOUT[/b].
Think of Section D as the things you are to [b]ARGUE[/b].

Make sure that your topic allows you not only to talk about stuff (that's pretty much just summarizing your sources) but also allows you to analyze that information and come to a conclusion.