This book explores the early years of the Cultural Revolution in China's schools, from the mobilization stage through the development of factionalism and the takeover of education by workers and peasants. An analysis of the relations between educational organizations and the larger society that made these developments possible is explored. Factionalism and a lack of concrete goals are targeted as key factors that undermined the students' movement, which had originally aimed at drawing Chinese society closer to socialist ideas. The book supports the arguments that revolutions occur when established institutions of social control are dismantled and no conventional and peaceful means to settle disputes exists. The path of revolution and its eventual failure is traced, illustrating the fragmentation of the revolutionary movement and the creation of a power vacuum. (EH)