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    Mao Zedong
    Unavailable
    Mao Zedong
    Unavailable
    Mao Zedong
    Audiobook5 hours

    Mao Zedong

    Written by Jonathan Spence

    Narrated by Alexander Adams

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Born in rural China in 1893, Mao Zedong led his country through "a long-drawn-out adventure in upheaval." In the process, he became one of the monumental figures of the twentieth century. He died in 1976, just as China was entering a détente with the United States. This excellent biography illuminates Mao's family life, his early years as a revolutionary, and his brief paradoxical flirtation with capitalism. Jonathan Spence, author of 11 books on Chinese history, provides both a panoramic portrait of China and a private portrait of the man at the center of so many historic events. Using sources not readily available, he penetrates the complex persona of Chairman Mao to provide an intimate view of a chilling enigma.

    "Spence is the best known and most talented historian of China writing in English today . . . displaying an inventive ability to derive both meaning and narrative from episodes of Chinese history that are little known in the West."-Los Angeles Times
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 2, 2000
    ISBN9781415910603
    Unavailable
    Mao Zedong

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    Reviews for Mao Zedong

    3.5/5

    58 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      Good but it is short and there aren't many details
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      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.