Praise for Mao Zedong: A Life:
“Spence is the best known and most talented historian of China writing in English today. . . . His Mao Zedong succeeds.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Exceptionally successful.”
—The New Yorker
“The task of bringing Mao to a large, non-specialist audience is one for which Spence is eminently well-suited. His lucidly written, compellingly narrated explorations of modern Chinese history have attracted a readership unmatched by that of any other academic China specialist. His study of Mao is short . . . his writing tight, his judgments restrained.”
—The Washington Post
“An elegant account, at once sparse and robust.”
—The Economist
“Jonathan Spence [is] an eloquent chronicler of Chinese history. . . . [A] brisk, elegant book. . . . Spence skillfully uses Mao’s letters and poems to explore the Chinese leader’s thinking and relationships.”
—USA Today
“There is no better person to write a general, readable account of Mao than Spence, an acclaimed Chinese historian and author of several biographies.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“Fluid and informative despite its brevity.”
—Publishers Weekly
Foreword
Acknowledgments
1. A Child of Hunan
2. Self-Strengthening
3. Casting Around
4. Into the Party
5. Workers and Peasants
6. The Long Retreat
7. Crafting the Image
8. Taking Over
9. The Ultimate Vision
10. Bleak Harvest
11. Fanning the Flames
12. Embers
Notes
