I haven`t got this book yet, but it seems worth buying. Amazon.com review tells the following:
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.
Amazon.com also tells 5 things readers will learn from this book:
1. Mao became a Communist at the age of 27 for purely pragmatic reasons: a job and income from the Russians.
2. 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.
3. Mao grew opium on a large scale.
4. 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.
5. 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.”
I got a little snap shot at bookstore and found out that:
- Mao was generous in every subject that he liked. He was gourmet and food for him was brought from all over the country. One special fish had to be brought alive for 1000 km.
- Mao didn`t like to take a shower or bath so for 25 years his servants rubbed him down every day with hot towel.
- Mao had double standards in life and most disastrous effect they had on private intimate life.
Strange and unpleasant fellow he seems.
Tags: mao, biography, book, historical-personality
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