Rating: 
Summary: Everything you ever wanted to know about Mao....
Review: ...but were afraid to ask because you didn't know enough to judge the answers. This book is an excellent review of Mao's life. Complaints about a lack of objectivity are not valid; it's just that we're used to riding the Chaing hobby horse. For true history buffs, this book is a must; others will put it aside quickly. Their loss!
Rating:
Summary: A good book
Review: An excellent book with excellent research! I believe the Author's view is more objective than most books on the market. If this book bothered you, please don't "fly across the Atlantic to slap the author", instead, stay at home slap yourself or learn to be objective.
Rating:
Summary: Another Dream gone bad
Review: Having recently completed Alan Bullock's monumental "Hitler and Stalin - Parallel Lives," I embarked on Philip Short's "Mao," due to my curiosity (I am Chinese American, and my family were refugees from the Communist takover) of the subject. Having had an American education, there really was not much available to the curious non-historian. Short's work is a welcome on this much neglected subject (I noticed Jonathan Spence has also released a work on Mao, though at a cursory glance it is awfully short for such a subject). Comparing Short's account of Mao with Bullock's account of Hitler and Stalin, you get the sense of eerie similarity of all three to a certain extent. All of them had a sense of predestiny, of greatness, drive and vision which put them ahead of their contemporaries and rivals. They were also all very ruthless in getting and keeping what they had achieved. Mao was similar to Hitler in his casual attitude towards the day to day governing of the nation, while Stalin was very hands on. And the methods used by Mao (and his supporters)during the Cultural Revolution and that of Stalin during the great purges are very similar. Mao was an unapologetic Stalinist. He may have distrusted Stalin, but realized Stalin's greatness as a politician. His split with the Soviet Union was in a very significant way caused by what he viewed as Khrushchev's deviation from Stalinism. The one person that comes out short (no pun intended)in this book has to be Zhou En-Lai. Those who thought Zhou was a sane counterweight to Mao's madness in the closing days of Mao's life have to be disappointed by Short's recount of Zhou's role throughout this book. Zhou comes out of no better than Kaganovich in Stalin's biography. He is portrayed as a consummate politician, a sycophant who kissed up to and groveled before Mao for whatever offense Mao may accuse him of, and willing to sell his own mother's hide to save his position in the party leadership. That is the sum of the book's judgment of Zhou. What might Zhou had done had he outlived Mao would make for interesting speculation. Would he had done a "Khurshchev" and exposed Mao for the monster that he was? Certainly the contemporaray CCP has no stomach for such revelations, prefering to maintain the myth of the Great Helmsman who only made periodic "mistakes." As other reviewers have said, the book spends the bulk of its mass on the pre-liberation era and the struggles within and without the CCP. The Cultural Revolution went by in a matter of a couple of chapters towards the end. I wish Short would have spent some more time on it, but I think the book is already large enough including its extensive bibliography. I would recommend it nevertheless as an excellent history of 20th Century Chinese history up to 1976.
Rating:
Summary: Another Dream gone bad
Review: I have always been put off by Chinses history and never found it appealing in comparison with other history. But this book is a good introduction to Chinese history from 1920 to 1976, and subsequent thereto. I thought the early parts kind of a chore to read, but was very glad I kept on and the coverage for the years since 1945 was infomative and full of interest. The author spends no time considering views of Mao from outside China (except from Russia), and such I thought would have been of interest. For instance, the people who are considered so carefully in Barbara Tuchman's Stilwell and the American Experience in China (read by me with considerable appreciation in September of 1972) figure not at all in this account. What a blessing Mao's death was for China: as great as Stalin's was for Russia and maybe as great as Hitler's was for the world. The book lacks footnotes, tho there are source notes for the pages. I was dismayed to see no bibliography: I presume the author figured one could deduce such from the source notes, but I sure would have liked to see a bibliography. There are two maps, but neither shows the town where Mao was born. I think maps in a book should show every city or town mentioned in the book, if possible. But these are minor complaints and I recommend the book to those who want to read a well-written and carefully researched life of a major figure of the 20th century.
Rating:
Summary: Informative and well-written
Review: I have always been put off by Chinses history and never found it appealing in comparison with other history. But this book is a good introduction to Chinese history from 1920 to 1976, and subsequent thereto. I thought the early parts kind of a chore to read, but was very glad I kept on and the coverage for the years since 1945 was infomative and full of interest. The author spends no time considering views of Mao from outside China (except from Russia), and such I thought would have been of interest. For instance, the people who are considered so carefully in Barbara Tuchman's Stilwell and the American Experience in China (read by me with considerable appreciation in September of 1972) figure not at all in this account. What a blessing Mao's death was for China: as great as Stalin's was for Russia and maybe as great as Hitler's was for the world. The book lacks footnotes, tho there are source notes for the pages. I was dismayed to see no bibliography: I presume the author figured one could deduce such from the source notes, but I sure would have liked to see a bibliography. There are two maps, but neither shows the town where Mao was born. I think maps in a book should show every city or town mentioned in the book, if possible. But these are minor complaints and I recommend the book to those who want to read a well-written and carefully researched life of a major figure of the 20th century.
Rating: 
Summary: Differences in Leaders
Review: I knew just a few details of Mao .I now feel that, I can tell the difference in Mao , Stalin and Hitler . This book is very well written . I liked the fact , that he only wrote about what is known . He doesn't seem to fill in any gaps in stories .If he has no sources , then he doesn't fudge it . If you want a well written book on Mao , this is it .
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Summary: Finally! A decent biography of Chairman Mao.
Review: I thought this was an excellent book. Short obviously tirelessly researched Mao's pre-power life. The pre-1949 pages (most of the book) were superb. Sadly, it gets a little sparse after that, but isn't it mostly the early part of Mao's life that we knew less about? The thing that really made this bood five stars, in my mind, was its objectivity. Short stays on track without any rambling anti-Mao essays. This is really good, considering that many of the Mao biographies would be better titled "The Big Book of Pro-American Propaganda" and have little usefull information about Mao himself. Overall a great book, easy to read, great writing, AND there are interesting features like the "cast of charachters" page that gives a brief political description of many of the major players in the book. No, its not so much about China as it is about Mao, as one reviewer complained about, but if it says its about Mao than it should be right?
Rating:
Summary: Balanced Bio
Review: I was surprised to find this to be the best English-language biography of Mao since Ross Terrill's. Jonathan Spence's view of Mao seems to me too politically correct, despite his credential as a distinguished sinologist. Short is a BBC journalist with no special background in Chinese history. (I also gather from his "Acknowledgements" that he doesn't read Chinese either - his wife, who is his assistant, does.) Ironically, this intellectual detachment may have helped. I think Short's opinions of Mao are just right - neither laudatory nor overcritical. Mao may have been a great criminal as well as a great man. Of the three great tyrants of the 20th century - Hitler, Stalin, Mao - Mao was probably the least destructive. Mao's rule caused more deaths than Hitler's and Stalin's combined. But this must be qualified by two facts: First, Mao's greatest number of casualties came from his famine, which, unlike Stalin's, was mostly unintentional - the result of his stupidity about agricultural methods. Stalin's was half-deliberate, aggressively enforced by the OGPU. Mao's famine upset him, while Stalin didn't mind his. (Hitler couldn't care less about casualties in war - German or foreign - and before he died he only regretted he hadn't killed MORE Jews, Russians, etc.) Also, Mao's toll is relatively small as a percentage of China's huge population, while Hitler's and Stalin's deaths made up a big chunk of theirs. Conversely, of the great statesmen of the 20th century, Mao was the least likeable and probably the most ruthless. At the same time, compared with other Chinese emperors in history, Mao was neither the worst (though he often said he wished he were) nor anywhere near the best. He was well above average in achievements - but definitely near the top of the list in power. Mao was undoubtedly one of the most influential revolutionaries of all time, anywhere. He was also one of history's greatest military thinkers and commanders. As with Napoleon, there will be no end to arguments for and against Mao, and Short makes it clear he shares this view in his final words. This seems to me a sensible and objective attitude. (Short does point out Mao's artistic and literary talents, which were undeniable.) I recommed this book to anyone who wants to know why Mao is still admired - if not worshipped - by two-thirds of Chinese today (again rather like Bonaparte is still France's national hero).....
Rating:
Summary: A Solid Biography Of One Of The Greatest Men Of Our Time
Review: I would say that this is probobly the best biography of comrade Mao currently in print.It is very easy to read,despite its length.However,I would say that after 1949,the author loses much of his objectivity.He did not focous on all the great things that Mao did for China.He told many lies in the last few hundred pages.For a better understanding of Mao,I would suggest checking out the Revolutionary Communist Party.
Rating:
Summary: Strong on Detail
Review: It is strange that in the West, of the most powerful totalitarians of the last century -- Hitler, Stalin, and to some extent even lesser figures like Peron, Mussolini, and Franco -- we know the least about the man who ruled the most people for the longest time. Short's book more than fills the gap. This ample biography offers every detail about Mao Zedong's life -- his childhood, political evolution, rise to power, and prowess as a guerilla. Short also satisfactorily explains the evolution of Mao's peculiar and extreme brand of communism. While the book is a bit dry, it is thorough, and would be enjoyed by any fan of history or political biography.
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