Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25322 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-02
• Binding: Hardcover
• 832 pages

Simon Sebag Montefiore, Sunday Times
`A triumph. This is the first intimate, political biography of the greatest monster of them all.'

Robert Service, Evening Standard
`A brilliant portrait of ruthless ruler who abused his subordinates, his party and the Chinese people.'

Jonathan Mirsky, Independent
`What Chang and Halliday have done is immense and surpasses, as a biography, all that has gone before.'

Customer Reviews

The Truth Hurts For Some Readers
Don't be put off by the negative reviews of some of the people here. This is a superb book and a great read. Of course, if some folk still wish to idolise Chairman Mao that is their business, but Jung Chang has done her best to reveal the ghastly nature of the man and the regime that he led.

Not your typical biography
When you read biographies, the subject of the book is typically presented in a cool, analytical fashion. The biases and feelings of the author don't typically come through in the writing of the book and the reader is expected to make his own judgement about the character of the person they're rading about.

The approach I just described is especially true when you read biographies about people of historical import, whose actions, it can be argued, can speak for themselves.

The cool, analytical approach was not used here. Mao is presented here as a ruthless man who wanted to be a leader within the Chinese Communist Party, and as someone who would sacrefice anything, or anyone, to get where he wanted to go. No one who reads about Mao's actions, are described here, can be left with anything but a clear understanding of the view they are supposed to form about Mao.

I'm no deep analyst, but there is no doubt that the authors have a very blinkered view of Mao, and that view colours every page of this book. That has lead to some criticism of the book, especially amongst those who take a certain view of historical biography, and how it should be written. That view might be right, or it might be wrong. It is up to the reader to decide what they want. If you want cool and analytical, don't read this book.

To those that argue they want analytical biographies, however, I would simply ask; if Mao did half the things that he is supposed to have done in this book what other view of Mao could you from? This question is doubly hard, given that there is seemingly little argument he did all the things that are ascribed to him in this book.

Excellent telling of an extraordinary life
Mao certainly dominated the world stage in the last century. From the Long March through the Cultural Revolution to the meetings with Nixon, Mao was a giant historic figure. This book attempts to get behind the icon. In a fairly straightforward convention of following Mao's life, the detail of the Chinese leader's story is explored in detail. The detail is immense and yet the writing style allows you read rather than 'absorb' an academic tome. It's big book befitting a big figure. If you are interested in China's development then it's a good guide to a lot of the working of the Communist Party in an important period of China's modern history. There are a lot of revelations about Mao the man and his motivations. If you like solid, meaty, well researched biographies then this will be an excellent read for you.