Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Overall, Philip Short does a fine job of analysing Mao and the struggle for communist China. Despite taking a generally sympathetic view of Mao, he remains objective throughout, never ignoring or diminishing Mao's sinister side. Furthermore Short does a good job of investigating how much Mao was directly behind the many purges revealed through the course of the book. He also reveals Mao's fascinating development from strident feminist, anarchist and military hero to ruthless purger, sexist and control freak. Where Short does error occasionally is in his emphasis. Sometimes he designates paragraphs to minor squabbling, then reveals a major change in only one short sentence, which will cause confusion to those who like to skim read. He also donates hundreds of pages to the communist army build up, then only ten or so to the actual post WWII battle for supreme victory over Kai-Shek. However don't let these quibbles put you off- for those that want a greater understanding of Maoism and the amazing Red Army victory encapsulating the legendary and heroic 'Long March', you will find this book very enlightening. I would not recommend it to those of you who are particularly right wing as this book isn't the denunciation of Mao as a tailed devil you'd probably want to read, thus you'll only get all hot and bothered then right a dismissive review giving the book one star. Short's conclusion is highly satisfactory, rightly stating that Mao did not belong in the same category of the likes of Hitler or Stalin, whilst certainly not belonging in the same group as Gandhi or such like. The book depicts the good and evil sides of Mao, and the struggle his conscience eventually lost.