Mao Zedong's 1958-1960 initiative to jump start the Chinese economy and modernize agriculture and industry. It emphasized Do The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work by asking peasants to build backyard steel furnaces in place of large steel mills. It encouraged decentralized industry, rewarded inflated promises of production, and contributed to a contender for the worst famine in human history. Over 20 million people starved to death trying to implement it.
See original on c2.com 