Mao Zedong: A Penguin Life (Penguin Lives)

by Jonathan D. Spence

Hardcover, 1999

Status

Available

Publication

Viking Adult (1999), Edition: First Edition, 208 pages

Description

This intimate portrait of Mao Zedong, one of the most formidable and elusive rulers in modern history, introduces the essential background about the Chinese leader, including his relations with family, friends, and confidential assistants, as well as his youthful writings, poems, letters, and drafts of speeches. Drawing from his expertise in Chinese politics & culture, the author penetrates Mao's rhetoric & infamous self-will to distill an intimate portrait of a man as withdrawn & mysterious as the emperors he disdained. The author superbly illuminates Mao, a leader who, at a watershed moment in history, turned the classic Chinese concept of reform through reversal into an endless adventure in upheaval. The complex persona of Chairman Mao-remembered with hate, awe, and even reverence-calls for what the Boston Globe has termed "Jonathan Spence's engaging blend of history, literature, and biography." Spence superbly illuminates Mao, a leader who, at a watershed moment in history, turned the classic Chinese concept of reform through reversal into an endless adventure in upheaval. Mao examines a chilling enigma for historians, students of human nature, and Americans fascinated more than ever by China.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member PaulBerauer
A rather slim book, Jonathan Spence offers a brief window into the world of Mao, one of the most influential people of the 20th Century. Sadly however, this brevity is this books greatest weakness. Names, places and events, especially events in the latter half of Mao's life, fly by quickly. Rather
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than a primer on Mao, this book serves more as a vague introduction, lacking detail on the few events that general readers might actually know about Mao.
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LibraryThing member le.vert.galant
A somewhat unbalanced biography: It opens with an abundance of personal detail during Mao's youth, gives a too brief account his rise to leadership during of the Long March, and then distances itself from its subject during the long years of Mao's chairmanship. It's a decent way of getting an
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outline of Mao's life, but it is too brief to give a complete portrait.
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LibraryThing member stillatim
This took me a surprisingly long time to get through; perhaps I was just in the wrong mood. But at least now I have a general outline of Mao's life. Frankly, it doesn't seem much more effort than this little book--the general histories are probably more worthwhile.

Language

Original language

English
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