Mao: The Unknown Story: Amazon.co.uk: Jung Chang, Jon Halliday: Books

Review

" An atom bomb of a book. " - Time
" A magisterial work. . . . This magnificent biography methodically demolishes every pillar of Mao ' s claim to sympathy or legitimacy. . . . A triumph. " - The New York Times Book Review
" Chilling. . . . Impressive. . . . An extremely compelling portrait of Mao that will still shock many. " - The Christian Science Monitor
" An important book in ways not envisaged. . . . A work of unanswerable authority. " - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
" The most complete and assiduously researched biography of its subject yet published. . . . No earlier work comes close to matching the density of detail here. . . . The authors have performed brilliant historical detective work. " - The Atlantic Monthly
& quot; Chang and Halliday cast new and revealing light on nearly every episode in Mao's tumultuous life ... a stupendous work and one hopes that it will be brought before the Chinese people, who still claim to venerate the man and who have yet to come to terms with their own history ... & quot; -Michael Yahuda, The Guardian
& quot; Jung Chang and Jon Halliday have not, in the whole of their narrative, a good word to say about Mao. In a normal biography, such an unequivocal denunciation would be both suspect and tedious. But the clear scholarship, and careful notes, of TheUnknown Story provoke another reaction. Mao Tse-Tung's evil, undoubted and well-documented, is unequalled throughout modern history.& quot; -Roy Hattersley, The Observer
& quot; Ever since the spectacular success of Chang's Wild Swans we have waited impatiently for her to complete with her husband this monumental study of China's most notorious modern leader. The expectation has been that she would rewrite modern Chinese history. The wait has been worthwhile and the expectation justified. This is a bombshell of a book.& quot; -Chris Patten, last British governor of Hong Kong, in The Times
& quot; A triumph. It is a mesmerising portrait of tyranny, degeneracy, mass murder and promiscuity, a barrage of revisionist bombshells, and a superb piece of research.& quot;
-Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Sunday Times
& quot; Jung Chang and Jon Halliday enter a savage indictment drawing on a host of sources, including important Soviet ones, to blow away the miasma of deceit and ignorance which still shrouds Mao's life from many Western eyes...Jung Chang delivers a cry of anguish on behalf of all of those in her native land who, to this day, are still not free to speak of these things.& quot; -Max Hastings, The Sunday Telegraph
& quot; Demonstrating the same pitilessness that they judge to be Mao's most formidable weapon, they unstitch the myths that sustained him in power for forty years and that continue to underpin China's regime ... I suspect that when China comes to terms with its pastthis book will have played a role.& quot; -Nicolas Shakespeare, Telegraph
& quot; The detail and documentation are awesome. The story that they tell, mesmerising in its horror, is the most powerful, compelling, and revealing political biography of modern times. Few books are destined to change history, but this one will.& quot; -George Walden, Daily Mail
& quot; decisive biography ... they have investigated every aspect of his personal life and career, peeling back the layers of lies, myths, and what we used to think of as facts ... what Chang and Halliday have done is immense and surpasses, as a biography, everything that has gone before.& quot; -Jonathan Mirsky, The Independent, Saturday
& quot; written with the same deft hand that enlivened Ms. Chang's 1991 memoir, 'Wild Swans' ... & quot; - The Economist --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Good Book Guide

A brilliant portrait
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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767 of 832 people found the following review helpful

Totalitarian Mode of Analysis 27 Feb 2007

By Prof, USA

Format:Paperback

Jung Chang's young intellect was formed in an environment where totalitarian propaganda substituted for reason and evidence. After she came west, she was unable to make the adjustment. She still thinks and argues the same way. Her one-sided ram-it-down-your-throat approach, her strained interpretations, and her outright distortion of sources are the very characteristics of Maoist propaganda. She has learned nothing. This approach, and her endless repetition, make it clear that she does not trust the reader to make up his or her own mind. She should stick to reminiscences, at which she is adept, and leave history to competent historians. There are much better arguments against Mao than this. Philip Short, in just one example, makes an equally scathing case against Mao, but uses reason and an honest appraisal of sources. It is a compelling case. Chang's totalitarian mode of argument is so silly that it actually undermines the case against Mao by making it the subject of mockery. She thus gives comfort to the Maoists. Nobody except fanatics can take this book seriously, and the case against Mao should be taken seriously. As for Halliday, he should know better. "What does it profit a man...?"

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671 of 728 people found the following review helpful

Not History 10 Feb 2007

By Don A. Mele

All history is biased because we observe objective facts through subjective prisms, and because history's real value is interpretation, which is by its nature personal. However, some histories are more biased than others. This one doesn't even attempt to be fair. Its judgements are so extreme that they undermine the reliability of a massive, indeed impressive, body of research. Unreliability makes for poor history. What a waste of so much energy, labor, and potential! Yes, we all know that Mao was evil and the biggest mass murderer in history, surpassing even Stalin and Hitler. We also know that Mao would still have been a disgusting human being even had his politics been admirable, and none of us would have liked to have him home for dinner. Certainly not I. There is no need to excuse or romanticize anything about Mao. He was bad. But his successes were stunning and world-shaking, not only uniting China but freeing it from foreign control, creating the industrial base that allowed the economy to flourish under a less bandit-like regime, and making China a world power to be reckoned with. We are still dealing with the consequences. Does the end justify the means? Of course not. But there should be room in the authors' model for considering political brilliance or anything else positive. There isn't. They see just will, luck, cunning and ruthlessness. And they see everybody else as just gullible, even Chou En Lai. Can it be so simple? The book goes further. It attributes all evil anywhere in Asia like the Korean and Vietnam Wars solely to Mao. Wow! That's a lot of power! I didn't realize he was omnipotent. (Doesn't the looney left make the same assumptions about the CIA?) There is no subtlety in this investigation, and no sense that either human beings or historical causes can in any way be complex. This book is simplistic, simple-minded, anti-intellectual, and juvenile. It is not history. It is catharsis.

A word on style. People in this book don't just disappear; they "disappear from the face of the earth." This book reads like a seventh grade composition drawn from "Dial a Cliché." The editors couldn't improve the poor historiography, but they certainly could have done something about the pedestrian prose. Depravity, after all, can be interesting, at least in small doses. These authors make it dull.

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508 of 557 people found the following review helpful

Baised 20 Aug 2007

By FH_history

I come from the former British colony Hong Kong. My family members were murdered and humiliated in the Cultural Revolution. I have absolutely no sympathy for Mao. Yet I can tell you this book is heavily biased both in terms of its selection of evidence and its interpretation of historical materials.

As a history graduate of Oxford and a post-graduate at Peking University, I would say this book fails to live up to its promise of representing a historical, truthful Mao. Partial selection of materials in favour of one's argument is no honest history, no matter how abundant the footnotes may seem. For those who can read Chinese, do read some Chinese books for a more balanced perspective. For those who cannot, Philip Short's is a far better (if no less critical) alternative.

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