"This intimate portrait of Mao Zedong, one of the most formidable and elusive rulers in modern history, introduces the essential background about the Chinese leader, including his relations with family, friends, and confidential assistants, as well as his youthful writings, poems, letters, and drafts of speeches. Drawing from his expertise in Chinese politics and culture, the author penetrates Mao's rhetoric and infamous self-will to distill an intimate portrait of a man as withdrawn and mysterious as the emperors he disdained. The author superbly illuminates Mao, a leader who, at a watershed moment in history, turned the classic Chinese concept of reform through reversal into an endless adventure in upheaval. The complex persona of Chairman Mao-remembered with hate, awe, and even reverence-calls for what the Boston Globe has termed 'Jonathan Spence's engaging blend of history, literature, and biography.' Spence superbly illuminates Mao, a leader who, at a watershed moment in history, turned the classic Chinese concept of reform through reversal into an endless adventure in upheaval. Mao examines a chilling enigma for historians, students of human nature, and Americans fascinated more than ever by China." Publisher's review

Originally published: New York : Viking, 1999.

Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Child of Hunan -- Self-strengthening -- Casting around -- Into the party -- Workers and peasants -- Long retreat -- Crafting the image -- Taking over -- Ultimate vision -- Bleak harvest -- Fanning the flames -- Embers -- Notes.