Mao: A Life [Paperback]

Philip Short (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2001

When the Nationalists routed a ragtag Red Army on the Xiang River during the Long March, an earthy Chinese peasant with a brilliant mind moved to a position of power. Eight years after his military success, Mao Tse-tung had won out over more sophisticated rivals to become party chairman, his title for life. Isolated by his eminence, he lived like a feudal emperor for much of his reign after blood purge and agricultural failures took more lives than those killed by either Stalin or Hitler. His virtual quarantine resulted in an ideological/political divide and a devastating reign of terror that became known as the Cultural Revolution. One cannot understand today's China without first understanding Mao, and Philip Short's masterly assessment -- informed by a wealth of new sources -- allows the reader to understand this colossal figure whose shadow will dominate the twenty-first century.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Of the three great tyrants of the 20th century--Hitler, Stalin, and Mao--the West generally knows the least about the latter. What we do know is that he was every bit as genocidal in his policies as either of the other two great villains of the age. In fact, in purely statistical terms, Mao might have been responsible for the deaths of more people than Hitler and Stalin combined. However, Philip Short's immense but immensely readable and impressively researched biography of the man goes far deeper than this. Yes, he acknowledges, Mao was a tyrant, but then China always has been run by tyrants; it never has had a tradition of democracy. And Mao was also an idealist: the deaths of millions was, as he saw it, the price that his country had to pay for being dragged from a state of medieval servitude--perpetually on the brink of famine--to that of a modern, industrialized, self-sufficient nation, in the space of a single lifetime. Short also humanizes Mao, and shows a man who had a profound and sincere interest in Chinese philosophy and poetry, and a surprisingly sharp sense of humor. None of this can exonerate Mao from the charge of inhumanity on an epic scale. But it does make for a much more rounded and complex portrait of the figure who, as the 21st century unfolds, might be shown to have had more influence on world history than either Hitler or Stalin. --Christopher Hart, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In an epic biography, Short draws on a wealth of hitherto untapped sources to fashion an uncanny portrait of Mao Zedong. His Mao is a warrior-poet who gradually lost vital components of his humanity in his exclusive devotion to a cause. By Short's reckoning, Mao's megalomaniacal ambition led to such disasters as the Great Leap Forward (1958-1960), the collectivization and production drive that ended in apocalyptic failure as 20 million Chinese starved to death, and the chaos of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1969), during which hundreds of thousands were tortured, arrested or executed. Short (The Dragon and the Bear), who has lived in China, tries hard to judge Mao in a Chinese rather than Western context, noting that Mao presided over an "era when China's history was so compressed that changes which, in the West, had taken centuries to accomplish, occurred in a single generation." Though Short describes Mao as a "visionary, statesman, political and military strategist of genius," he also points out that Mao's rule "brought about the deaths of more of his own people than any other leader in the history of any country in the world." And yet he concludes by distinguishing Mao's culpability from that of Stalin and Hitler, evoking the distinction in Western law "between murder, manslaughter, and death caused by negligence." Short's dramatic biography will reward readers with its fresh perspectives on China's civil war, Mao's treacherous relations with Stalin, party infighting and the power struggle following Mao's death. It not only sheds valuable light on Mao's character but also serves as an illuminating and sweeping history of modern China. Photos. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 824 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805066381
• ISBN-13: 978-0805066388
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #610,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

340 of 345 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Good Book About Mao!, March 9, 2000

By 

Shogun Len "tokieyasu" (Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mao: A Life (Hardcover)

Two brand new biographies of Mao Zedong came out this year at the same time. One is by the very famous historian of China, Johnathan Spence and the other, this one, by Philip Short. Though I had heard of Spence and not of Short, I picked this one up because Spence's book was over 25$ and only about 100 pages, Shorts book is 600 pages of biography and another 100 pages of notes, pictures, cast of characters, and index. For the money, I figured this book was a better buy!

The book was excellent. The real strenght of this book was the great use of primary sources and the great job the author did on Mao's early life and the history of China from the fall of the Qing Dynasty to the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.

The only faults I had with the book were the post-1949 years with the exception of the chapters on the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The author just did not do as good a job of the post-1949 Mao and China. However, the pre-1949 stuff was great.

The book was well written and easy to read despite the size of the book. I enjoyed reading the book and learned a lot and felt it was time well spent. HOwever, again I enjoyed the first 400 pages much more than the last 200 pages.

The author is fair showing both Mao's brilliance and ruthlessness. Having recently read A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China which looked at China from Nixon to the Present, and this book I feel am I pretty up to date on recent scholarship.

If you like Chinese history and have the time, this book is very good.

352 of 359 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good account of Mao, February 16, 2000

By 

"addamski" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mao: A Life (Hardcover)

Overall, Philip Short does a fine job of analysing Mao and the struggle for communist China. Despite taking a generally sympathetic view of Mao, he remains objective throughout, never ignoring or diminishing Mao's sinister side. Furthermore Short does a good job of investigating how much Mao was directly behind the many purges revealed through the course of the book. He also reveals Mao's fascinating development from strident feminist, anarchist and military hero to ruthless purger, sexist and control freak.

Where Short does error occasionally is in his emphasis. Sometimes he designates paragraphs to minor squabbling, then reveals a major change in only one short sentence, which will cause confusion to those who like to skim read. He also donates hundreds of pages to the communist army build up, then only ten or so to the actual post WWII battle for supreme victory over Kai-Shek.

However don't let these quibbles put you off- for those that want a greater understanding of Maoism and the amazing Red Army victory encapsulating the legendary and heroic 'Long March', you will find this book very enlightening. I would not recommend it to those of you who are particularly right wing as this book isn't the denunciation of Mao as a tailed devil you'd probably want to read, thus you'll only get all hot and bothered then right a dismissive review giving the book one star. Short's conclusion is highly satisfactory, rightly stating that Mao did not belong in the same category of the likes of Hitler or Stalin, whilst certainly not belonging in the same group as Gandhi or such like. The book depicts the good and evil sides of Mao, and the struggle his conscience eventually lost.

98 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book...But Missing Some Info, December 10, 2006

By 

Soxdawger "soxdawger" (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mao: A Life (Paperback)

This is a superbly written biography of Mao Zedong who I feel should be in any Sinophile's library. The great detail of Mao Zedong's early life and how he got into Communism is excellent. The description of his Anarchist/Marxist philosophy gives a reader a very clear understanding on why Communism came about in China; that it was mostly accepted by the majority of the Chinese population (especially peasants) and not initially enforced upon them, a view held by most Americans. The sad developments of Hundred Flowers Campaign, Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution are also revealed in great detail.

However, no matter how good this book is, I'm still a little bothered by some of it's lack of details on certain very important aspects of modern Chinese history.

1) Not enough was mention about his relationship with Japanese when China was engaged in the war with Japan. Nothing was mentioned on any possible collaboration with Japan that would have upset certain Chinese who claimed that the Communists did more against Japanese than Nationalist.

2) And talking about the Sino Japanese War, why wasn't the big battle of Operation Ichigo mentioned? China would have faced annihilation from Japan during this gigantic operation in 1944, something that worried China greatly and affect the future of the Communists and Nationalists.

3) Not enough about Zhou Enlai was mentioned. Zhou Enlai's proposal of the Four Modernization program was used by Deng Xiaoping to transformed China. I felt this is ultra-important information that should have been mentioned about the 70s. The contrast of Mao Zedong's ultra left views with Zhou's moderate views would have given the reader a great understanding how Deng's program succeeded in the great transformation of modern China from Mao's disastrous programs.

4) Mao Zedong developed some sort of mental illness later in life which caused the strange series of events during the cultural revolution, especially his purge of Liu Shaoqi; this mental illness was possibly caused by drugs (this was mentioned in Harrison Salisbury's "New Emperors" this would have explained his erratic behavior during his old age.

But otherwise this is a truly good book. I am most impressed by Short's ultra unbiased viewpoints.

Anybody who read this book should compare it with the Chiang Kai Shek's biography, " Chiang Kai Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost", by Jonathan Fenby.