Mao: The Real Story

This comprehensive biography of Mao Zedong traces how he created a totalitarian government even more destructive and extreme than Stalin's, while transforming China from an impoverished nation to a leading world power.

Drawing on revelatory Russian documents unavailable to previous biographers, "Mao: The Real Story" traces the ascension to power of one of the most important figures in the twentieth century. A complex individual who was both revolutionary and tyrant, poet and despot, Mao brought China from poverty and medieval backwardness into the modern age--but was responsible for a loss of life at least as great as that caused by Hitler and Stalin.

Alexander V. Pantsov and Steven I. Levine reveal Mao's ruthless consolidation of power as China unified under the communists, as well as the tragic failure of Mao's infamous Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution and the ways he ruthlessly tossed aside old comrades with whom he disagreed.

This page-turner also presents startling information about the Great Helmsman's personal life: his deep depressions and manic highs, his many marriages and children, and his affairs with young women, even into his last years. Perhaps the biggest news in this biography, is how Mao remained a loyal Stalinist throughout his life, taking orders from the Soviet leader until the dictator's death. "Mao: The Real Story "is a substantial and unparalleled contribution to our understanding of one of history's towering figures, a man whose crimes and achievements are at last coming to light.