Spence, Jonathan D., Mao Zedong

MAO ZEDONG

One of the most striking figures of the twentieth century is Mao Zedong . It was Mao who brought China from being a backwards state dominated and humiliated by foreign powers to being a nation whose power and presence in the world could not be ignored Rising from the ranks of the commonplace peasantry , imposing his vision with a ruthless will on his divided and diverse people , he united his country against terrible odds and inspired millions of people throughout the world

A professor at Yale and a historian widely

regarded as one of the leading scholars on modern Chinese civilization , Jonathan Spence has written a dozen books on China , including several widely recognized works . In Mao Zedong , he undertakes the truly daunting challenge of producing a small book , just 188 pages , in which he tries to cover the life of a figure who truly looms large over the twentieth century . Of necessity , Spence 's review of Mao 's life is brief and lacks the copious detail of weightier tomes . Nevertheless there is an admirable amount of information in this book , and it has the advantage of being written in a detached style

Spence finds Mao a contradictory figure , and he has trouble reconciling all of the various facets of the man '92s life . He explains in his forward that he explains that one of the metaphors he uses to approach Mao is metaphor drawn from the European seasonal traditions of the Middle Ages . Nobles would appoint a "Lord of Misrule " to exercise free reign and turn the world upside down , making right wrong , wrong right and wreaking havoc with social status .11 . Spence , Jonathan . Mao Zedong New York , New York : Viking , 1999 . Mao was both the ruler who created China , and at times the ruler who misruled China , plunging the country into wild excesses that brought suffering to millions for truly questionable gains . Since his death , ongoing revelations about details of his rule have made it increasingly difficult to understand how it was that in China and throughout the world so many people held him in awe praising his book a quotations as a font of wisdom to which they devoted unqualified , unquestioning zeal

Mao Zedong Page Mao Zedong swam throughout his life .22 . Ibid , 150-51 , 171 , 175 Spence finds this a metaphor for his political skill : Mao had a genius for not sinking , despite facing constant opposition : militarists , who resented his attacks on their incompetence 33 . Ibid , 27-28 , 37-38 party rivals , who found him too zealous 44 . Ibid , 61-64 . landlords who feared and hated his pro-peasant attitude 55 . Ibid , 70-73 . Chiang Kai-shek , who saw him as a mortal enemy 66 . Ibid , 73-75 , 107-10 , 178 the United States after China intervened in the Korean conflict 77 Ibid , 116-19 , 125-26 . the Soviet Union , after he broke with Khrushchev for his anti-Stalinist rhetoric .88 . Ibid , 118 , 134-35 , 149-50 . Mao was equally unsinkable in the domestic turmoil -- much of which he brought about -- that marked the last decades of...