Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I borrowed the library copy of the book and checked some of the notes. I swore to myself that I would never buy the book as it is not worth my time reading it (basically Mao was an evil character the day he was born) - and I do not want to contribute my money to make the book a commercial success, because the authors are totally irresponsible to their readers and the book is an insult to people's intelligence. Here is why: The book's use of documents is extremely selective. The authors only included materials that would help them creat the very flat image of Mao and left out whatever that would undercut their arguments (sometimes the other half of a sentence). They also often took quotations out of their contexts, which distorts the message of the sources. The list of interviews is long, but how much do they really rely on the interviews? What can we imagine as contributions from Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger, and George H. Bush to such a portrait of Mao? How likely would these people have discussed Mao with the authors in the terms with which they wrote the book? What is the purpose of such a long list? The book ends up a polemic that does not show much respect for sources. It is too ahistorical and simplistic to hold much explanatory power on modern Chinese history. If this was written for a college history class, it would have received a "F" for grade. I wonder what motivated them to write such a sensational book that is so irresponsible to history. I hope they will share their archives and interview notes with the public someday so that we will know that this is actually a "history." People have been too transfixed by their extensive notes and bibliography, and too busy to check them out and show the extent to which much of this is virtually manufactured by their fertile and conspiratorial imaginations.