Dick Wilson

"From humble origins in the provinces, Mao Zedong rose to absolute power, unifying with an iron fist a vast country torn apart by years of weak leadership, colonialism, and war."--BOOK JACKET. "Both a canny tactician and a hardworking organizer, Mao parlayed the privations of the famous Long March and the success of his guerrilla army into a powerful cult of personality and a dominant position in the burgeoning Chinese Communist Party. The Communist victory in 1949 not only elevated him to supreme leader but made his eccentric version of Marxism official dogma; his regime was a volatile mixture of power and mystique that exploded in the havoc of the Cultural Revolution. Jonathan Spence captures Mao in all his paradoxical grandeur and sheds light on the radical transformation he unleashed that still reverberates in China today."--BOOK JACKET.

This narrative history is the story of the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). It examines the isssues and partisans that controlled Eastern Asia and eventually influenced its entrance in World War II.

Mao Tse-tung was one of the most influential leaders of the twentieth century. In this 1977 book, eleven scholars renowned for their penetrating and lively analysis of Mao during his life, here make their assessments of his career and influence, after his death. They consider Mao's claims to be an original thinker; the practical side of his career; his ideas on education; his economic and international preoccupations; and his personality as a Chinese. Dick Wilson's introduction indicates some of the common themes, showing inter alia that Mao was neither as politically powerful, nor intellectually consistent and creative, as outsiders seem to have thought: that, on the contrary, his strength lay in his longevity, his concern for the methodology of social change, and those moral qualities that distinguished him. Very much of its time, this book will be essential reading for anyone wishing to assess China's political history.