Mao: A Very Short Introduction

Description

Mao Zedong was a giant of 20th century history. In this Very Short Introduction, Delia Davin provides an account of Mao the man. From his childhood as a peasant to ruler of the most populous nation on Earth, she considers the major events in his life, his revolutionary writing, and his utopian dreams that culminated in the Cultural Revolution.

• Ideal for anyone wishing to know more about one of the most defining figures of the 20th century Asian history
• Fascinating story of Mao's life - from his childhood to his time as leader of China
• Considers Mao the man as well as Mao the leader - exploring the major events in his life and his revolutionary writings
• Examines the events that led to the Cultural Revolution and its historical impact
• Part of the bestselling Very Short Introductions series - over five million copies sold worldwide

About the Author(s)

Delia Davin, Emeritus Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Leeds

Delia Davin taught at Leeds University from 1988 until her retirement in 2004, where she is now emeritus professor of Chinese Studies. Her research interests were focussed on women and gender issues in China and she is the author of Womanwork, Women and the Party in Revolutionary China (OUP, 1976). She wrote some of the earliest studies of the single child policy in China and with other colleagues she translated and edited Chinese Lives, an oral history of contemporary China (Penguin, 1989). Her abiding interest in Mao Zedong and the history of Maoist China was inspired by her experience of living in Beijing.

Table of Contents

1:Formative years
2:Marxist Labour organizer to Peasant Revolutionary
3:Achieving pre-eminence 1934-1949
4:The revolution institutionalized: first years of the People's Republic
5:The Great Leap Forward and its Aftershocks
6:The Cultural Revolution
7:Decline and death
8:Assessments and legacies
References and further reading

Reviews

"[A] tautly argued, plainly told, luminous story that does full justice to all sides of the argument" - The China Journal