Reddit mentions of The Peculiar Revolution: Rethinking the Peruvian Experiment Under Military Rule

Shining Path is not THE Communist Party of Perú. The original Communist Party was founded in 1928 by José Carlos Mariátegui under the name of "Socialist Party". Following the sino-soviet split in the late 60s, the maoist faction separated. Some members were fed up with a perceived bureacratism and inactivity in the soviet-aligned party (PCP-Unidad) and created the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) inspired by the Cuban revolution. All these guerrillas were quickly crushed by the Estate.

The chinese faction, PCP-Bandera Roja, counted among its founding members an obscure University professor named Abimael Guzmán who developed his own flavor of maoism named "Pensamiento Gonzalo" (Marxism-Leninism-Maoism-Pensamiento Gonzalo) and declared himself the "Fourth Sword" of communism.

Nowadays the main Communist Party of Perú is PCP-Patria Roja, another offshoot from Bandera Roja that reunited with Unidad and became a single party in 1968 (but claim continuity with the original 1928 Partido Socialista del Perú)

Thus, we have:

• PCP-Unidad (Unity)
  
• PCP-Bandera Roja (Red Flag)
  
• PCP-Patria Roja (Red Fatherland)
  
• PCP-Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path)
  
  There were many other fractions but I don't really have my references at hand, but these are some of the most salient ones. You should also consider the irruption of "New Left" politics after 1968 and the quite unique experience of a left-wing military dictatorship by Juan Velasco Alvarado (also this), who put forward one of the most radical Agrarian reforms in the continent. How to react to this regime was a central question and a very divisive factor among communists.
  
  I'm giving this panoramic view of Communist politics in Peru to avoid any conflation of Shining Path's criminal activities with the rest of parties, movements and leading figures.
  
  Now, if you're interested in reading more about Sendero Luminoso's history and ideology you should read the final report of the Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) here. If you don't read spanish, some good English-language books on the topic are Carlos Ivan Degregori's analysis here. He was part of the Commission and was closely involved in the environment where Guzmán recruited his first followers at San Cristóbal de Huamanga University. Another author you should consult is Orin Starn, here is an article about Sendero by him.
  
  There's also this compilation with contributions by many academics. Most of the authors I have cited are anthropogists, which I consider provide the best descriptions and analysis not only because of the discipline's particular overview of social phenomena, but because the social sciences were very intimately related to left-wing politics and many of them were active in the parties mentioned.