Abstract: Active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) was founded by Professor Han Jingqing, a famous Chinese scholar. It uses an original control thought method that is independent of the controlled process model, and is thus a novel control technology with excellent engineering application prospects. Professor Gao Zhiqiang then proposed linear active disturbance rejection control (LADRC) by linearizing the main components of active disturbance rejection control. LADRC has the advantages of a simple structure, an analysis that is simple to perform, and parameter tuning, and as such it has greatly promoted the development of active disturbance rejection control theory and its generalized application in engineering. This review gives a brief overview of the principles and design schemes of LADRC and summarizes recent research advances in its theory and application, including stability analyses, schemes for design and synthesis of typical control problems, and certain remarkable achievements made in practical engineering applications. Finally, further research directions are presented.