Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012
Summary
This is a critical introduction to Mao Zedong, China's most famous (or infamous) leader of the twentieth century and still a force to contend with today. Mao warrants such a guide not only because he was such a significant historical figure – the recognized leader of China's Socialist Revolution and architect of the disastrous Cultural Revolution – but also because the ideas associated with him transformed a huge nation and still form the grounds of political argument in China today, as well as inspiring revolutionary movements across the world, from Naxalites in South Asia to the Shining Path in South America (and the gruesome example of Pol Pot in Cambodia in the 1970s). The controversies surrounding recent biographies of Mao in the West highlight the continuing significance of Mao even in the distinctly nonrevolutionary societies of “the West.”
What this book offers is the benefit of the historian's perspective as addressed to the educated, nonspecialist reading public. How does one get beyond the partisan uses of Mao, whether by the current Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership in the People's Republic of China (PRC) or by sensationalist journalists of varying stripes inside and outside China? A powerful way to understand the contingent and variable nature of the meanings attributed to Mao, Mao Zedong thought, and the Chinese Revolution is to see the living Mao in his historical context.
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- Information
- A Critical Introduction to Mao , pp. xi - xiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010