Mao Zedong: A Penguin Life

In this blend of history, literature and politics, the world's pre-eminent historian of China gets to the heart of the complex personality of Chairman Mao Zedong. Steeped in Chinese politics and culture, Spence penetrates Mao's rhetoric and infamous self-will to distil an intimate portrait of a man as withdrawn and mysterious as the emperors he disdained. How did this farm boy from the remote Hunan province, with a haphazard education and unexceptional talents, evolve from a rebel youth cutting off his braided queue and refusing the 'legalized rape' of a bourgeois marriage to the Iron hand that devastated millions for so long? Spence illuminates a man who, at a watershed moment in history, turned the classic Chinese concept of reform show more through reversal into an endless adventure in upheaval and examines why he is still remembered with hate, awe and even reverence. show less

A great introduction to Mao’s personal and political life. Impressively written in a matter-of-factly style avoiding any sensationalization, while still so engaging that it’s hard to put down. If you’re unfamiliar with Mao, I highly recommend this book! If you’re a China scholar, there won’t be much new information, but it still provides a nice overview of the chain of events (the lack of in-text references can be a little frustrating, but each chapter has a short list of used/recommended sources).

I think Jonathan Spence was one of the best historians of Modern China, and wrote extremely readable history.

This is also probably the best short biography I have read, and Spence did a great job making me want to know more. The story of Mao's early life was so fascinating, and getting to read about the beginnings of the Chinese Communist Party was probably my favorite part of the book. I really recommend this for anyone wanting to get into Chinese history.

A rather slim book, Jonathan Spence offers a brief window into the world of Mao, one of the most influential people of the 20th Century. Sadly however, this brevity is this books greatest weakness. Names, places and events, especially events in the latter half of Mao's life, fly by quickly. Rather than a primer on Mao, this book serves more as a vague introduction, lacking detail on the few events that general readers might actually know about Mao.

As the pre-eminent scholar of China in the USA, Jonathan Spence was an excellent choice to author a biography of Mao Tse Tung for the Penguin Lives series. While necessarily brief (at less than 200 pages), this work offers highlights of the life, times, and career of China's most significant modern leader. I found it informative and enlightening, and consider it a fine introduction for readers who (like me) are unlikely to tackle a large tome on Mao. Having read 17 of the contributions to the Penguin Lives series, I consider this one of the best.

Given the concise nature of books in the Penguin Lives series, they lend themselves well to the audio book format. Having read Jonathan Spence's biography of Mao Tse Tung for the series, I was glad to also experience it as an audiobook. At 6 hours in duration, the work is brief, yet it manages to cover the main features of Mao's life and career. I recommend this work, in print or audio format, as a fine, scholarly introduction.

A somewhat unbalanced biography: It opens with an abundance of personal detail during Mao's youth, gives a too brief account his rise to leadership during of the Long March, and then distances itself from its subject during the long years of Mao's chairmanship. It's a decent way of getting an outline of Mao's life, but it is too brief to give a complete portrait.