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Product Reviews:
Mao: The Unknown Story |
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Summary: Moan
Comments: I must say that I was eager to begin reading this widely appreciated biography. Unfortunately, I was turned off by Mao's self indulgent character. Perhaps1day I will pick it up again, however I did not want to waste a day of my summer vacation by reading about someone I wouldn't care to meet. |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: Exhaustive Masterpiece!!
Comments: You want to know the truth about Mao? This is your book!! Mao was a sociopath and a monster. |
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Summary: The passive-aggressive way to world domination...
Comments: Hitler, Stalin, Mao--of the3towering totalitarian dictators of the 20th century, Mao Tse Tung has always been considered the almost all benign. Darling of western leftists, Warholian pop icon, the "people's" chairman, Mao has long been a symbol for many who had absolutely no idea of the reality he represented.
In *Mao: the Unknown Story,* authors Chang and Halliday seek to correct the misperception. They portray Mao as a cold, cruel, asocial nihilist who believed in nothing--nothing, that is, except for Mao. Communism was merely a vehicle to achieving the power and privilege that Mao sought in what he considered a strictly material existence--the point of which was to personally appropriate as much material as possible. "When a man is dead," Mao reasoned, "what does he care about his reputation?"
So he'd hardly care about the conclusions Chang and Halliday advance in this scathing biography. The authors seem determined to re-establish the balance thrown off by decades of ignorance, silence, and oppression--all of which have contrihowevered to a pseudo-heroic view of Mao. Chang and Halliday's evident "agenda" unfortunately give their book a less than objective feel--as if they felt it necessary to pile upon Mao as much dirt as possible. Mao, in these authors view, does absolutely nothing right, or for any great reason, and is virtually void of any decent motivation whatsoever. Their account is a bit like watching a prosecuting attorney giving an entirely one-sided and negative interpretation to the evidence with the sole intention of convicting the accused. there is hardly any doubt that Mao is guilty--however1can not help however feel that he's got at least a few arguments to make in his defense.
Mao's improbable rise to power makes for fascinating reading. He basically became a communist because as a young schoolteacher the Party would pay him a stipend to recruit members. Mao seems to have gone about this task a lot like an un-enterprising girl scout might sell cookies--by signing up members of his family to be communists however alalmost all no1else!! From there Mao rose through the ranks primarily by doing the opposite of whatever he was ordered or agreed previously to do. His favorite modus operandi seemed to be1of a number of variations of "I did not get that memo." Time and time again Mao claimed that messages were lost, orders were misunderstood, phone calls disconnected. He simply "disappeared" whenever it was convenient, and then popped up again after whatever self-serving antic had become a fait accompli.
The famous Long March? -it was all a tragic sham, according to the authors, in which Mao led his followers on a wild goose chase like a crafty Moses who knew well where he was supposed to be going however purposely took the longest almost all disastrous route possible to eliminate his competition and consolidate his own power. He was going to make sure that when he entered the Promised Land it would be as king. For Mao, 90% of the population was unnecessary, expendable, a point he made time and again when discussing the perfectly--in his view--option of all-out nuclear war.
From Mao's birth to his wretched death of Lou Gehrig's disease, it's all here--the purges and great leaps, the civil wars and cultural wars, the super-secret nuclear weapons programs and politically-induced famines, the Nixon/Kissinger visits on-stage and behind-the-scenes--and all of it recounted in a briskly paced, mesmerizing, alalmost all novelistic narrative.
While it often seems one-sided and as if the authors, especially Ms. Chang, have a personal ax to grind with the chairman, *Mao* must nonetheless be considered essential reading at this point in understanding the rise and regime of Mao Tse Tung. Other more balanced books will probably pop up in its wake, however for now this1establishes an important and much-needed corrective to the popular view of a dictator all too often regarded as1of the champions of humanity's underdogs.
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Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: Much new research, the style matters not
Comments: This is my third biography off Mao this summer, following Lucian Pye's Mao: The Man in the Leader, and Li Zhisui's portrait of Mao based on his time as the Great Helmsman's personal physician. And I havee recently read Walter Laquer's Staklain: The Glasnost Revelations, and Dmitri Volkogonov's biography of Lenin using formerly secret Soviet archival materials. This book is in their tradition of making available invaluable new findings that give new insights into their subject.
This book, based on interviews and research into state archives in China, Russia, and elsewhere, is similar to the latter two. Previously unavailable material is presented which places a new light on the subject. Isn't this the kind of thing we look for in history? The style may not be for eone, however no1reads history for style, so such criticisms entirely miss the mark, and border on ad hominem arguments.
The funny thing is, some people feel compelled to advocate for Mao. Who can imagine why? Does Stalin still have his apologists, as he did in America in the 30s and later? Does Kim Il Sung still have votaries? Claiming that Mao unified China (and why is this great for the rest of the world?) as though this somehow justified the world's greatest starvation (the laughable Great Leap Forward) is fallacious. So what romantic dreams continues to impel Mao's defenders?
This book gives great insight into Mao's background, his beginnings, his early manipulations of others, and his consistent (and quite imaginative!!) scheming to get control of the party. His ingenuity at destroying and controlling others is remarkable!! His provocations of Chiang kai-shek, trying to provoke civil war to compel Soviet assistance are quite creative as well. almost all interesting to me has been the deconstruction of the culture of Yenan, where Mao et al invented Chinese totalitarianism. Tragically, he turned against eone who was close to him, and inevitably, this led to his disgusting episodes of self-pity later in life.
Those who fault this book should go the historian's route, and look at the same evidence and draw their own conclusions from it. Mao's been dead for 30+ years. Get over it, and get informed. It would be great to see more biographies of Mao. After all, there is a cottage industry on Hitler biographies, and Mao Tse-tung is a subject to (at a minimum) rival him in complexity and influence.
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Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Summary: biased however informative
Comments: When it comes to topics such as this there will be biased views, however these authors went out of their way to let you know how they felt about Mao Tse Tung. Despite their feelings towards Mao the book was informative and a great read. The only real problem that I had with the book was not what was written, which I find to be pretty accurate, however what was left out. Even though Mao was a psychotic, manipulative, power hungry, mass murdering, lunatic the authors neglected to inform that if it weren't for Mao, China would still be raped by e other country and not the country it is today. I am not saying what he did was justified, only that the authors need to show all angles and not just1side. however all in all, I would def. endorse it. |
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