Radical revisionismsAnd the radically critical appraisals they should engender

Here's a good recent example of how a historian of China has been careful in the acceptance and use of the recent radical revisionist work on Mao, Chang and Halliday’sMao: The Unknown Story. (Source: Jonathan Dresner published this article in the Frog in a Well China Weblog)

Critical appraisal of this work has led to a student website at UCSD that critically assesses claims in the work.

The overall assessment might apply to Aung-thwin's Mists of Ramanna and the so-called Mon Paradigm:

"It seems pretty clear, from the credible reviews and this web site, that Chang and Halliday have been very sloppy, historically speaking, but there is a great deal of new material which might indeed have new and interesting implications. (Honestly, when I write a sentence like this, I’m put in mind of Holocaust denier David Irving, who frequently drew on previously untouched sources … and abused them endlessly to distort the historical record) It needs to be reexamined, published by scholars who are less opaque with citations and sources; primary source collections and interview notes will be necessary before their claims can be accepted" (Source)