After the Second World War, Chiang Kaishek, with U.S. backing, was resuming civil war against the forces led by the Chinese Communists who had fought hardest and best against the Japanese invaders. From England, David and Isabel Crook visited China -- bound for the Liberated Areas with an introduction from the British Communist Party, intending to gather on-the-spot material about the Chinese revolution. During their in-depth study of the land reform in one Chinese village, they were accepted as comrades in Party life and studies, including "the salutary practice of criticism and self-criticism," as Isabel Crook later recalled.