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Mao: The Unknown Story Hardcover – October 18, 2005

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Jung Chang (Author)
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Jon Halliday (Author)
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Jon Halliday (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars 445 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 832 pages
  • Publisher: Knopf (October 18, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0679422714
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679422716
  • Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.8 x 9.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (445 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #213,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

743 of 773 people found the following review helpful
Indeed, "an atom bomb" but beware of radiation
By Sergey Radchenko on July 7, 2007
Format: Paperback
As many reviewers here have said, the book is a sea of controversy, challenging a number of important generally-accepted arguments about Mao and his rule.

Some of the most prominent claims:

Mao's China was Stalin's creation; Mao had received money from the Soviet Union early in his career, and later served basically as Stalin's puppet (though a cunning one at that). Mao's rise to power would have been impossible without the Soviet backing after 1945.

Personally, I think the authors fail to come up with enough evidence to support this argument. On the whole the book seems to misrepresent the Soviet actions and motives. There is plenty of evidence in the materials, to which the authors had full access (Stalin-Mao correspondence, Mikoyan talks in 1949 etc) to at least raise serious questions about Stalin's real preferences in China; in fact, much evidence suggests that after 1945 Stalin was initially willing to trade in his special relationship with Mao for a broader agreement with the Guomindang. To this end, and probably not to confuse the "imperialists", he sponsored CCP-GMD peace talks, handed over territory to the GMD, agreed to suppress anti-GMD rebellion in Xinjiang and Altai, etc. The general tilt of Soviet foreign policy in 1945-46 - not only in China but elsewhere - points to Stalin's willingness to compromise with the West, rather than a propensity towards endless expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence.

A related question: the authors argue that the GMD collapse in the Civil War was a result of infiltration by communist spies and of Jiang Jieshi's kind-hearted treatment of the Soviet "moles" in his ranks.Read more ›
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428 of 443 people found the following review helpful
Thorough yet highly subjective.........
By Pat on March 26, 2008
Format: Paperback
I just finished reading Mao: "The Unknown Story" and think that the author definitley got her point across at portraying Mao for more or less who he was. The problem that I had with this book is the same problem more eloquently expressed in other reviews is its high level of subjectivity to the point of reading like a long drawn out tabloid creating some skepicism surounding the facts. Unlike another reviewer who stated that this book was tough to get through because it was "overly simplistic" I felt that it was easy to get through for that very reason. It needs to be pointed out that whoever was responsible for editing made some very obvious grammatical errors which should be corrected if this book ever gets reprinted.

Mao: "The Unknown Story" would make a good supplement for other more objective biographies written about this enigma called Mao but should not be taken literally as an all conclusive definitive.
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737 of 768 people found the following review helpful
Mindless bashing
By Jake on June 29, 2008
Format: Paperback
I enjoyed the book in the sense that it provided an enormous amount of detail and precise anecdotes to back up it's thesis. It provided a well written and interesting account of Mao's rule. I read the book rather briskly as I found some of the detail to be ecessive or tedious. Much of the book was not comprised of things that were unheard about the story of Mao sofar as the invasion of by Japan etc.
What was original and rather interesting about the book was the connection made with Soviet Russia. The authors used the relatively recently released Soviet (92 i believe) archives to the best of their abilities and provided an interesting connection between Moscow's communism and Mao's. While I found the book to be longwinded at times it presents new information as well as old in an interesting and engaging manner. It is definetly not a quick read by any means but can definitely be worth it for those interested in the origins of Chinese communism and are willing to sift through 700 (ish) pages of matierial.
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316 of 326 people found the following review helpful
The Bad Man Theory of History
By CJA VINE VOICE on April 19, 2007
Format: Paperback
"I look at his face and see Stalin", Krushchev says about Mao. That, in a nutshell, is the theme of this extremely well documented and persuasive book. There are three great bad men of the 20th Century: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. The authors believe there is not a dime's worth of difference between any of them and embark, with admirable singleness of purpose, to deconstruct the brilliant work done by Mao to mythologize himself.

By digging into newly available archives and by interviewing a great number of witnesses, the authors contend that Mao was a completely unprincipled megalomaniac. The only thing that explains his behavior is building his own power. There is no ideology. And the authors take delight in showing the completely barren, if not evil, landscape of his personal life.

The book is important for demystifying Mao. But it is more polemic than history. What's not explained is how Mao succeeded in gaining and wielding power. If the authors are to be believed, someone would have squashed this loathsome bug a generation ago. Hitler had his personal magnetism and speechmaking. Stalin was brilliant with the bureaucracy. Mao had neither. And the authors hate their subject so much that they refuse to acknowlege any redeeming virtues that would explain what must have been some appeal that allowed him to amass so much power.

But there are some hints here: it does appear that Mao had an uncanny ability to spot the weaknesses in his subordinates and to manipulate them for his own ends. The authors are especially good in analyzing Mao's curious relationship with and manipulation of Chou En Lai.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

will definitely recommend this to my friends

Mao: the father of chinese communist party and the iconic figure of asian revolution! will definitely recommend this to my friends!

Published 24 days ago by Brenda Kendrick
Four Stars

This book is in good condition, clean

Published 25 days ago by Zekefs
Become utterly disgusted with Mao and Communism, if you are not...

Very good book. Based on real research, not some Communist Party nonsense. Not an easy read, but real learning is not often easy. Read more

Published 1 month ago by still hiding
A must for anyone travelling to China

Before travelling to China, I wanted to read a bit about its recent history, so I began with the book about the empress Xicí, by the same author, and liked it so much that I... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Amazon Customer
this book feels like a poor man's attempt to draw attention to...

In a world where such book would require large amount of references, the author throws them away. from page 1, authors draws their own analysis based on judgement along. Read more

Published 2 months ago by fish bean
Four Stars

Very informative, but the author was one-sided.

Published 2 months ago by Malik
Chang has done the world a great service. Many forget that those of us...

Finally, those of us in the West get to read the true story of Chairman Mao. Her research was just phenomenal, and this must have been an epic job for her to marshal all those... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Darla Heart
A tragic history unfolds

This book has an extraordinary opening sentence – ‘Mao Tse-tung, who for decades held absolute power over the lives of one-quarter of the world’s population, was responsible for... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Harry
Arrived on time.

Arrived on time.

Published 3 months ago by bhgaw2012
Detailed biography of Mao Zedong

This is a long, detailed biography of Mao Zedong--coming in at 617 pages. It is hard hitting and very critical of its subject. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Steven Peterson

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