This is a long, detailed biography of Mao Zedong--coming in at 617 pages. It is hard hitting and very critical of its subject. And their rendering of the Long March is very different than the view of Alexander V. Pantsov and Steven I. Levine. On the other hand Pantsov and Levine also have a critical take on Mao--although not as unrestrained as Chang and Halliday. Both volumes speak to his marital infidelity and his ceaseless struggle to gain power.

This book takes a chronological view of Mao, with each chapter normally covering 2-3 years of his life. The book describes the difficulties he had at the outset of his career in politics. He was often frustrated and would "become ill" and drop out of action from time to time. Slowly, in fits and starts, he became more entrenched in leadership.

The book describes a number of events: Chiang Kai-Shek's allowing Mao's Communist soldiers to escape to join the rest of the forces during "the Long March," the horrible demands on the troops and families as they carried out the march. The early part of the book explores his first two marriages and his apparent lack of concern for his families.

One theme that recurs is the ups and downs of his career as a leader. The vagaries in who had power left him sometimes vulnerable. By a certain point in time, he became Josef Stalin's favorite to assume leadership of the Community party. Stalin was a key figure for Mao's accession to and maintenance of power. Later in his life, he would make things miserable for those who had earlier crossed him, including his super-loyal comrade, Zhou En-lai (indeed in Zhou's last few years alive, he felt Mao's wrath for things that had happened many years earlier).

There is detailed coverage of two disasters occurring later on in Mao's career--the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Very different events, but in both cases millions of people perished.

The book is very well documented. Some events are described very differently from other biographies (e.g., the Long March) and I do not know enough to determine which view might be more correct. Still, a powerful biography of one of the most important political figures in China's history.

The fascinating story of one of history's greatest monsters, told in a way that is both in depth and supremely readable. Chairman Mao's ascent to power and eminence on the world stage makes for an incredibly compelling story, and this book is filled with details that lend it the texture warranted by the material. Spectacularly researched and written.

Let’s contemplate this, how many people would die if war breaks out. There are 2.7 billion people in the world. One-third could be lost; or, a little more, it could be half … I say that, taking the extreme situation, half dies, half lives, but imperialism would be razed to the ground and the whole world would become socialist.

Hands down, Mao has to be one of the most cruel and ferocious being, communism has ever produced. Siding with Stalin and Soviet Union's aid, this man has unleashed absolute havoc on China and it's people. I understand revolution cannot be achieved without drawing blood, but Mao's way was not only barbaric but also atrocious and heinous.

Jung Chang's book gives out a complete and critical analysis of Mao's life and his rise to power in China as it's Supreme Leader. It also helps us understand Maoism as a concept and it's approach, which affected China and the rest of the world at a certain time period.

There is indeed something to it, that makes people idolize Mao as an inspiration,that they so easily pick up arms in the name of revolution. For people who are terming this book as biased, I assure there's nothing such like it. All of Mao's atrocities as a leader is exposed here, and the author has done a wonderful job at doing so. Hailing from Bengal, my introduction to Mao was nothing new, it is true that I never knew Mao or anything about him, but the term "Maobadi" has frequently reached my ears. News of resurgence, and the fact that Mao's planted poison is still lurking here, actually makes me sad. A brutal regime that ultimately led to the loss of so many lives, Mao proves to be even worse than Hitler or Stalin. Infact, the more I progress into my study of left politics, the more I start hating this authoritarian regimes. Nostalgic elements do exists I agree, amd I am particularly very much drawn to Lenin and Stalin's struggle to power, but the deep state of anguish or misery that it leaves behind it's track, is quite heartbreaking and disturbing and actually want to make you rethink your political affiliations.

“We are prepared to sacrifice 300 million Chinese for the victory of the world revolution.”

Mao's achievements has certainly paid off well, today China being exactly what Mao ever dreamt of it to be, but praising him as a people's leader would be wrong. He was a sycophantic and an unpatriotic tyrant, the Sino- Japanese war being a classic example to prove this. The quest for power over the destruction of China shows the ruthlessness and the dark side of Mao, of how his egotism and arrogance resulted in the loss of so many innocent lives and also the destroying of the lives of the other half of the population. Refusal to address poverty, purging of opposition leaders, starvation, all this are very much common in almost all communist regime, and by now, I have understood that Marx's definition of Communism will be indeed an utopian fantasy.

" Communism has never been actually tried " is something that I have frequently heard from the leftists, but for it to work, as per The Communist Manifesto, I see no other way but to adapt Capitalism at first. Trotsky's Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It, actually foresaw the rise of Adolf Hitler and at one time I have personally admired that article. But today, things have profoundly changed and one must keep in mind the reason behind why Soviet Union fell, and also at the same time why and how China succeeded. Lenin's fight at that time was against the Tsars, that kept Russia backwards, while Mao's fight was against America and the Nationalists. At 2021, China is actually progressing ahead through Mao's approach, while the other left fractions, failing to adapt to the modern methods, are being crushed everyday. In India as well, the CPI became a relic of the past, on its failing to adapt to radical politics of the time. In Bengal particular, for 34 years they contributed to nothing and left behind a state with no development and on top of that, managed to adapt Mao's ways to target the Capitalists. As a result, with the lack of industries, public opinion shifted against them and that resulted in its collapse. The "Kill, Kill, Kill. Burn, Burn, Burn, Burn" campaign of the left also played an important role in Bengal politics, it is now used as a weapon to remind the public why CPI deserves no second chance, and hence, as more days pass by, the weaker the CPI becomes. Students go on admiring Mao and Che and Lenin, but after some time we lose contact with nearly all of them, mainly due to shifting sides with the ruling party.

"People say that poverty is bad, but in fact poverty is good. The poorer people are, the more revolutionary they are. It is dreadful to imagine a time when everyone will be rich … From a surplus of calories people will have two heads and four legs."

This book is filled with all of Mao's disturbing ideologies and to highlight each and every quote, would make this review rather long. In history, the Communist Leaders only come out as the winners, while some suffers the fate as Trotsky's (Lin Biao, in case of Mao). Once the power is transferred to the supreme authority, the proleteriate loses all rights, and George Orwell's 1984 is what that comes to mind at first.

Modern China, unfortunately still believe in Mao, their expansionist policies, their targeting of opposition, their control over the media, all this says so. While reading this, I would advise you to concentrate, Jung Chang have thoroughly researched on it and has put forth her efforts for us to understand Mao and his workings. This is something that truly deserves your appreciation, for its importance.

Okay, I put my hands up...this book has me defeated. At page 228 I am giving up. It is just too dense, and too filled with battle and political strategy to be my cup of tea.

I have however gleaned some interesting points from what I have read. n  

* I had not appreciated the degree to which Soviet Russia and Stalin were involved with the setting up and support of The Chinese Communist Party and the Red Army. The early Chinese Communists were born out of Russia's passion for communism, and their desire to spread it to other countries. The Chinese communists got support from Russia in terms of propaganda, intelligence, arms and expertise. In many ways they were standing on the shoulders of Russia.

* I have never before read about anyone as manipulative, self-serving and Machiavellian as Mao. He was a wheeler-dealer every inch of the way, pushing around people and situations to suit his own ends - frequently pretending to do one thing, but in reality doing something completely different. He was a real conniving trickster.

* He was brutal - he never shied from using torture and death to further his ends.

* He had four wives. The first one he married when still barely a child, and she died before they got together, but he was ruthlessly dismissive of the middle two, and the children they had between them. After he lost interest in them, he just dropped them without a second thought. He left them in dire situations when he could have helped them. One was killed by Chinese Nationalist troops, the other ended up in a mental hospital.

* Whilst ostensibly being opposed to the invasion of China by Japan, in reality he welcomed the Japanese. During much of the invasion the Nationalists (the government's army), and the Red Army agreed to stop fighting one another; but Mao did everything he could to undermine the Nationalists.

"Most of the Red Army leaders wanted to fight the Japanese - but not Mao. This period of history is now known as "The Three Warring Kingdoms" (the Red Army ,the Nationalists and the Japanese). In later years Mao said he was grateful to the Japanese. He said he thanked them for 'lending a big hand', and without them 'we would still be in the mountains today.'

He ordered the Red Army commanders to wait for the Japanese troops to defeat the Nationalists, and then, as the Japanese swept on, to seize the territories behind the Japanese lines. The Japanese could not garrison the vast areas of China they conquered. They could only control the railways and big cities, leaving small towns and the countryside up for grabs........ Mao's plan was to ride on the coat-tails of the Japanese to expand Red territory. He said years later that his attitude had been 'the more land Japan took the better.'

* Throughout the book one is faced with sentences to the effect "the history books say this, but in reality quite the opposite happened." It is no accident that the book is called "Mao: The Unknown Story". I imagine that apologists for Mao find it extremely provocative. As anyone who has read the horrors of Jung Chang's earlier book "Wild Swans" will understand...she is no fan of Mao or the Chinese Communist Party.

n

Those of you who have read the spoiler may well think "Why has she stopped reading this book? She is obviously getting something constructive from it." Well, I stopped because it was a jolly hard slog to wade through all that detail. All the time I was reading I was aware that 99% of the information was just slipping away from me. I am not going to give the book any rating though. Were I an academic doing research on Mao's life I am sure it would be an invaluable resource; it just totally defeated me. (Sorry Mikey!)