Mao: A Life
- Book Review,
by Philip Short
Amazon.com
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
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.
From Library Journal
"Mao is China, China is Mao" is the thesis of this rather lengthy yet well-written and -researched biography of the first leader of the Chinese Communist Party, in power from 1949 until his death in 1976. Interestingly, the sources Short uses, including eyewitness accounts by Agnes Smedley, Edgar Snow, and Sidney Rittenberg, generally are overlooked by China scholars in the United States because these individuals were known sympathizers to Chinese communism. In contrast to Jonathan Spence's recent biography on the same subject (Mao Zedong, LJ 9/15/99), Short's does not cite the latest research in the field but nonetheless presents remarkably similar conclusions about how Mao gained power in the Chinese civil war and maintained command during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the nature of Mao's intellectual shortcomings in the realm of economics, and how he eliminated individuals and groups that threatened his supreme authority. Like Spence's work and that of Jin Qiu (The Culture of Power, LJ 7/99), Short's discusses Mao's psychological state(s) and relationships with his wives (and other women) by placing them in the context of the pressures suffered by many in the long and turbulent periods of Chinese politics. In sum, Short (a former BCC correspondent in China who is married to a Chinese woman) soberly posits that Mao and his cohorts came to disregard human suffering. Recommended especially for academic libraries.APeggy Spitzer Christoff, Oak Park, IL Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The New York Times Book Review
"[Short] has combined what is best in journalism and scholarship...He has a large canvas, and he uses it brilliantly."
From Kirkus Reviews
A masterful biography by Short, former BBC correspondent in Beijing (The Dragon and the Bear, 1982), that incorporates much material, mainly from Chinese sources, that has only recently become available. One significant result is to illuminate a good deal that was shadowy in Mao's early life. Two-thirds of Shorts account deals with Mao's career before the Communist Party came to power in 1949. His youthful embrace of anarchism was linked to an explicit rejection of revolutionary violence. Within a few years, however, Mao had begun ruthless purges of any comrades even remotely suspected of treachery. Most historians now believe that tens of thousands of members of the Communist forces and their allies died in the early 1930s. These waves of executions may account in part for the fact that six times between 1924 and 1932 Mao was pushed aside by his comrades. Short believes that the seeds of Chinas later disasters were sown as early as 1933, when class origin rather than worth became the ultimate determinant of one's fate. But Maos dominance of the party also began at that time, and was rooted in the success of his strategies. Short skillfully traces the ways Mao used that dominance to promote policies many of his colleagues knew were absurd: to surpass Britain in steel production, for example, in a year, Russia in two years, the US in four; and to purge anyone who was not sycophantic or agile enough. He had ``an extraordinary mix of talents,'' Short concludes, this ``visionary, statesman, political and military strategist of genius''; but his rule ``brought about the deaths of more of his own people than [that of] any leader in . . . history.'' The most measured, thoughtful, and complete biography of Mao now available in English. (24 pages b&w photos, 4 maps) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"A surprising and revelatory biography that Westerners would be well advised to read."
Review
"Short has the larger canvas, and he uses it brilliantly . . . he has combined what is best in journalism and scholarship; his book is full of colorful insights and detail . . ."--The New York Times Book Review
"A masterful biography. . . . The most measured, thoughtful and complete biography of Mao now available in English."--Kirkus Reviews
"Mao: A Life deserves to be the standard history. It is everything one could hope for: magisterial, beautifully written, excellently printed and rich in material from Mr. Short's own researches among those who knew and observed Mao."--Sunday Telegraph, London
"Draws on a wealth of hitherto untapped sources to fashion an uncanny portrait of Mao Zedong. . . . Short's dramatic biography will reward readers with its fresh perspective 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."--Publishers Weekly
"Beautifully written, grippingly readable . . . a formidable piece of research, which wears its learning so lightly you can hardly feel it."--Terry Eagleton, The Independent
"Wonderfully readable and rich . . . he tells the story superbly."--The Guardian
Review
"Short has the larger canvas, and he uses it brilliantly . . . he has combined what is best in journalism and scholarship; his book is full of colorful insights and detail . . ."--The New York Times Book Review
"A masterful biography. . . . The most measured, thoughtful and complete biography of Mao now available in English."--Kirkus Reviews
"Mao: A Life deserves to be the standard history. It is everything one could hope for: magisterial, beautifully written, excellently printed and rich in material from Mr. Short's own researches among those who knew and observed Mao."--Sunday Telegraph, London
"Draws on a wealth of hitherto untapped sources to fashion an uncanny portrait of Mao Zedong. . . . Short's dramatic biography will reward readers with its fresh perspective 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."--Publishers Weekly
"Beautifully written, grippingly readable . . . a formidable piece of research, which wears its learning so lightly you can hardly feel it."--Terry Eagleton, The Independent
"Wonderfully readable and rich . . . he tells the story superbly."--The Guardian
Book Description
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.
About the Author
Philip Short has been a foreign correspondent for The Times (London), The Economist, and BBC in Uganda, Moscow, China, and Washington, D.C. He lived in China for seven years; he now resides in Paris.
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