Book

Mao : the real story / Alexander V. Pantsov with Steven I. Levine.

Pantsov, Alexander, 1955- (Author). Levine, Steven I. (Added Author).

Summary:

This major new biography of Mao uses extensive Russian documents previously unavailable to biographers to reveal surprising details about Mao's rise to power and his leadership in China. Mao Zedong was one of the most important figures of the twentieth century, the most important in the history of modern China. A complex figure, he was champion of the poor and brutal tyrant, poet and despot. Pantsov and Levine show Mao's relentless drive to succeed, vividly describing his growing role in the nascent Communist Party of China. They disclose startling facts about his personal life, particularly regarding his health and his lifelong serial affairs with young women. They portray him as the loyal Stalinist that he was, who never broke with the Soviet Union until after Stalin's death. Mao brought his country from poverty and economic backwardness into the modern age and onto the world stage. But he was also responsible for an unprecedented loss of life. The disastrous Great Leap Forward with its accompanying famine and the bloody Cultural Revolution were Mao's creations. Internationally Mao began to distance China from the USSR under Khrushchev and shrewdly renewed relations with the U.S. as a counter to the Soviets. He lived and behaved as China's last emperor.

Record details

ISBN: 9781451654486 (softcover)
ISBN: 1451654480 (softcover)
ISBN: 9781451654479 (hardcover)
ISBN: 1451654472 (hardcover)
Physical Description: xix, 755 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Edition: First Simon & Schuster paperback edition.
Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2013.
Copyright: ©2012

Content descriptions

General Note:	"Originally published in a different version in 2007 in Russian by Molodaia Gvardiia as Mao Tzėdun"--Title page verso.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 675-713) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Cast of characters -- Note on the spelling of Chinese words-- Introduction: Myths and realities -- Pt. 1. The apprentice : The foster child of the bodhisattva ; On the threshold of a new world ; "I think, therefore, I am" ; The sound of footsteps in a deserted valley ; Dreams of a red chamber ; The great union of the popular masses ; Breathing world revolution, or the magic of dictatorship ; "Following the Russian path" ; The lessons of Bolshevik tactics --Pt. 2. The revolutionary : Entering the Guomindang ; Hopes and disappointments ; Playing with Chiang Kai-shek ; The collapse of the united front ; The path to the Soviets ; Red banner over the Jinggang Mountains ; A single spark can start a prairie fire ; Under the Comintern's wing ; Dog eat dog, Communist-style ; The Long March ; The Xi'an Incident ; The flirtatious philosopher ; Consolidating control over the CCP ; Stalin, Mao, and the New Democratic revolution in China -- Pt. 3. The dictator : Visit to the Red Mecca ; The Korean adventure ; The contradictions of New Democracy ; Socialist industrialization ; The great turning point ; The emancipation of consciousness ; The Great Leap Forward ; Famine and fear ; "The Dismissal of Hai Rui from Office" ; To rebel is justified ; The Red Guard tragedy ; The mystery of Project 571 ; Death of the red emperor ; Epilogue -- Appendix: Mao Zedong's chronology -- Appendix: Mao Zedong's genealogy.