false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176170410m/600778.jpg 9746 15 In the epilogue to her biography of Mao Tse-tung, Jung Chang and her husband and cowriter Jon Halliday lament that, "Today, Mao's portrait and his corpse still dominate Tiananmen Square in the heart of the Chinese capital." For Chang, author of <i>Wild Swans</i>, this fact is an affront, not just to history, but to decency. <i>Mao: The Unknown Story</i> does not contain a formal dedication, but it is clear that Chang is writing to honor the millions of Chinese who fell victim to Mao's drive for absolute power in his 50-plus-year struggle to dominate China and the 20th-century political landscape. From the outset, Chang and Halliday are determined to shatter the "myth" of Mao, and they succeed with the force, not just of moral outrage, but of facts. The result is a book, more indictment than portrait, that paints Mao as a brutal totalitarian, a thug, who unleashed Stalin-like purges of millions with relish and without compunction, all for his personal gain. Through the authors' unrelenting lens even his would-be heroism as the leader of the Long March and father of modern China is exposed as reckless opportunism, subjecting his charges to months of unnecessary hardship in order to maintain the upper hand over his rival, Chang Kuo-tao, an experienced military commander. <p> Using exhaustive research in archives all over the world, Chang and Halliday recast Mao's ascent to power and subsequent grip on China in the context of global events. Sino-Soviet relations, the strengths and weakness of Chiang Kai-shek, the Japanese invasion of China, World War II, the Korean War, the disastrous Great Leap Forward, the vicious Cultural Revolution, the Vietnam War, Nixon's visit, and the constant, unending purges all, understandably, provide the backdrop for Mao's unscrupulous but invincible political maneuverings and betrayals. No one escaped unharmed. Rivals, families, peasants, city dwellers, soldiers, and lifelong allies such as Chou En-lai were all sacrificed to Mao's ambition and paranoia. Appropriately, the authors' consciences are appalled. Their biggest fear is that Mao will escape the global condemnation and infamy he deserves. Their astonishing book will go a long way to ensure that the pendulum of history will adjust itself accordingly. <i>--Silvana Tropea</i><br><br> <hr noshade="noshade" size="1" class="bucketDivider" /><div class="bucket"> <b class="h1"> 10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Jung Chang and Jon Halliday</b><br><br><img src=" http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/books/promos/a-plus/mao.authors.jpg" hspace="4" vspace="4" border="0" align="left"> <b>Q:</b> From idea to finished book, how long did <i>Mao: The Unknown Story</i> take to research and write?<br> <b>A:</b> Over a decade.<br><br> <b>Q:</b> What was your writing process like? How did you two collaborate on this project?<br> <b>A:</b> The research shook itself out by language. Jung did all the Chinese-language research, and Jon did the other languages, of which Russian was the most important, as Mao had a long-term intimate relationship with Stalin. After our research trips around the world, we would work in our separate studies in London. We would then rendezvous at lunch to exchange discoveries.<br><br> <b>Q:</b> Do you have any thoughts about how the book is, or will be received in China? Did that play a part in your writing of the book?<br> <b>A:</b> The book is banned in China, because the current Communist regime is fiercely perpetuating the myth of Mao. Today Mao's portrait and his corpse still dominate Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing, and the regime declares itself to be Mao's heir. The government blocked the distribution of an issue of <i>The Far Eastern Economic Review</i>, and told the magazine's owners, Dow Jones, that this was because that issue contained a review of our book. The regime also tore the review of our book out of <i>The Economist</i> magazine that was going to (very restricted) newsstands. We are not surprised that the book is banned. The regime's attitude had no influence on how we wrote the book. We hope many copies will find their way into China.<br><br> <b>Q:</b> What is the one thing you hope readers get from your book?<br> <b>A:</b> Mao was responsible for the deaths of well over 70 million Chinese in peacetime, and he was bent on dominating the world. As China is today emerging as an economic and military power, the world can never regard it as a benign force unless Beijing rejects Mao and all his legacies. We hope our book will help push China in this direction by telling the truth about Mao.</div> <hr noshade="noshade" size="1" class="bucketDivider" /><div class="bucket"> <b class="h1"> Breakdown of a BIG Book: 5 Things You'll Learn from <i>Mao: The Unknown Story</i></b><br> <p clear="all"> <b>1.</b> Mao became a Communist at the age of 27 for purely pragmatic reasons: a job and income from the Russians.<br><br> <b>2.</b> Far from organizing the Long March in 1934, Mao was nearly left behind by his colleagues who could not stand him and had tried to oust him several times. The aim of the March was to link up with Russia to get arms. The Reds survived the March because Chiang Kai-shek let them, in a secret horse-trade for his son and heir, whom Stalin was holding hostage in Russia.<br><br> <b>3.</b> Mao grew opium on a large scale.<br><br> <b>4.</b> After he conquered China, Mao's over-riding goal was to become a superpower and dominate the world: "Control the Earth," as he put it.<br><br> <b>5.</b> Mao caused the greatest famine in history by exporting food to Russia to buy nuclear and arms industries: 38 million people were starved and slave-driven to death in 1958-61. Mao knew exactly what was happening, saying: "half of China may well have to die."<br><br> <hr /="/" noshade="noshade" class="bucketDivider" size="1"> <div class="bucket"><br><br> 1879340 2005 Mao: The Unknown Story total:747|5:171|4:286|3:219|2:52|1:19| 747 2779 1470 218 9746 0679746323 9780679746324 651 192 3.72 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166052731m/9746.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9746.Mao_The_Unknown_Story 3 2 false Tue Jul 03 23:47:42 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 03 23:59:17 -0700 2007 more...]]> 9746 0679746323 9780679746324 651 192 3.72 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166052731m/9746.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9746.Mao_The_Unknown_Story 4 1 false Sun Jun 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 18 07:02:38 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 17 11:47:30 -0700 2008 more...]]> 9746 0679746323 9780679746324 651 192 3.72 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166052731m/9746.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9746.Mao_The_Unknown_Story 4 1 false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 18 02:13:15 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 18 03:25:18 -0700 2007 more...]]> 9746 0679746323 9780679746324 651 192 3.72 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166052731m/9746.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9746.Mao_The_Unknown_Story 4 1 false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Mar 23 22:00:53 -0700 2007 Thu Mar 29 15:55:32 -0700 2007 Atlas Shrugged...more...]]> 9746 0679746323 9780679746324 651 192 3.72 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166052731m/9746.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9746.Mao_The_Unknown_Story 3 1 false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Jun 28 13:01:14 -0700 2007 Thu May 08 08:38:40 -0700 2008 Wild Swans, the biograpy of her own family through the Mao era, but this biography she has written of Mao Zedong is flawed in that she clearly lets her overwhelming hatred for what her family went through keep her from being an objective biographer. Chang paints...more...]]> 9746 0679746323 9780679746324 651 192 3.72 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166052731m/9746.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9746.Mao_The_Unknown_Story 2 1 false Tue Dec 18 07:14:19 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 18 07:16:45 -0800 2007
The thing that has been turning me off of this book is that it falls victim ...more...]]> 381345 0679422714 9780679422716 22 8 3.72 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174330245m/381345.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/381345.Mao_The_Unknown_Story 0 0 false Thu Feb 05 09:36:54 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:36:54 -0800 2009 Chang, who was born in China in 1952 and left for Britain in 1978, recounted her family's suffering under Mao in her award-winning Wild Swans (1991). With husband-historian Halliday, she has written a shocking, authoritative account of Mao's life. The authors present evidence that refutes almost eve...

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This bo...more...]]> 9746 0679746323 9780679746324 651 192 3.72 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166052731m/9746.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9746.Mao_The_Unknown_Story 3 0 false Sun May 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 15:48:42 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 10:04:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 9746 0679746323 9780679746324 651 192 3.72 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166052731m/9746.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9746.Mao_The_Unknown_Story 3 0 false Tue Aug 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 02 18:31:18 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 08:48:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 9746 0679746323 9780679746324 651 192 3.72 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166052731m/9746.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9746.Mao_The_Unknown_Story 3 0 false Mon Aug 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 16:32:51 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 16 22:41:28 -0700 2009
Luckily much of this book focuses on Mao's early life and his role in China's civil ...more...]]> 9746 0679746323 9780679746324 651 192 3.72 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166052731m/9746.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9746.Mao_The_Unknown_Story 3 0 false Sun Jul 05 20:17:35 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 20:24:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=600778