Tania Branigan's Red Memory is an astounding and often harrowing study of Mao's China. A lead writer for The Guardian, Branigan spent seven years in China as a foreign correspondent. Her experiences there led her to embark on a project recording people's memories from the time of the Cultural Revolution, a dark period in the country's history when the nation turned on itself. Despite the devastating impact of the events of this era and their outsized importance in understanding the political and social psychology of China today, memories of the Cultural Revolution remain taboo. Contemporary Communist Party officials have repressed mention of it in museums and history books, reforming the historical narrative into "a gentler, happier tale of historical inevitability under the Party's benign leadership." Many citizens are equally reluctant to relive the era, as acknowledging and processing...