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Yan'an, known as China's "revolutionary holy land," was the former capital of the Shaanxi–Gansu–Ningxia Border Region governed by the Chinese Communist Party. From 1935 to 1947, the CCP implemented policies and practices here that established the framework for the entire Mao era, making Shaanbei the "cradle" of the Chinese revolution. The creation of this revolutionary holy land was a long and complex process. Joseph W. Esherick, renowned American historian, dedicated over thirty years to studying this period, offering profound insights into the historical trajectory and the contingencies that shaped it. Drawing on extensive contemporary documents, memoirs, oral interviews, and multiple field investigations, he provides observations on the social, political, economic, and military dynamics of the region since the Qing dynasty. Esherick analyses the decisions made by key figures at critical historical junctures with both objectivity and sympathy. Through "a compelling and richly documented narrative," he elucidated various chances, accidents, and coincidences that led to the emergence of the revolutionary holy land, and how the communist revolution grew through "a long process of multiple contingent events."

延安是中國的「革命聖地」，也是曾經的中共陝甘寧邊區首府所在地。1935年至1947年，中共中央在這裏推行的一系列政策和實踐確立了整個毛澤東時代的坐標系，令陝北成為中國革命的「搖籃」。陝甘革命聖地的建立，是一個漫長而複雜的過程。美國著名史家周錫瑞以三十餘年心血傾力研究，對其間歷史的必然走向與時勢轉換的偶然因緣提出深刻的洞察。他廣泛搜集同時代的文獻、親歷者的回憶錄和口述訪談等資料，並多次前往歷史現場實地考察，從不同角度觀察清代以來這一地區社會、政治、經濟、軍事力量的此消彼長；對關鍵人物在歷史關口的大小抉擇給予客觀之認識與同情之理解；並「以扎實的研究和強有力的敘事」，解析革命聖地之所以能夠出現的種種機緣、意外與偶然，和共產革命如何在「一系列因緣際會的長期過程」中生長起來。

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