Ah, the twisted view of a megalomaniac. I feel for the experience of the Chinese during the invasion of the Japanese, but man did they lose again bigtime when this guy came to power.

Like a retelling of Sun Tsu's Art of War through a broken mirror, The Little Red Book is repetitive where Art of War is elegant, bloodthirsty instead of measured, and designed to further the profile of a single man instead of avoid needless suffering for those involved in war.

We are still paying the price for what Mao has done to China. ( )

This had been on my reading list for quite some time as a primary historical document; it was well worth the read. If you want to understand Modern China then this book is mandatory; if you want to understand the current cultural elements at the forefront today in the Western world then this book is also mandatory for that as well.

Pay close attention to the language used; you will find the same language, and particular interpretation of that language, currently in vogue. There is plain speaking on Mao's emphasis on ideological education via propaganda and the importance of a unified political philosophy before even standard military considerations.

On a practical note, like Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals," there are certain doctrines of action: such as frugality and discipline which yield results regardless of the end goals.

What I did find most ironic was the promotion of "persuasion and education" in opposition to coercion and use of force; these were mainly culled from writings and speeches given in the 1950s which was before the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s; it is quite clear from history how fast that principle was abandoned within a single decade.

Like Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto" I highly recommend reading this regardless of political affiliation. China is perhaps Sparta to America's Athens and it behooves everyone to be aware of the underlying current philosophical foundation of a major world actor. ( )

Not only is this thing nearly unreadable, it symbolizes a horrible regime. Chairman Mao lead China's great leap backwards and the cultural devolution. I hear this has been updated into an app used across China and tied into their societal credit score system. 1984 was truly predictive fiction. ( )

Pales next to Marx and Engels. Mostly an ego boost for Mao ( )

Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung was published between 1964-1976 after being compiled by the People’s Liberation Army Daily to cover 23 topics with 200 quotations. They intended it to serve as an inspirational work for politicians and military officials. The final version of the book, as approved by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, contains 427 quotations covering 33 topics. The book began appearing in foreign bookstores in 1966 and was ubiquitous during the Cultural Revolution in China. This Easton Press collector’s edition features an exclusive introduction from Maurice Meisner, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in which he situated the book and Mao in their historical context. While Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung may seem a relic of the past, it deserves to be studied like any other text that changed the world. Furthermore, like those texts, a clear reading can reveal wisdom of relevance and interest to modern readers. ( )