Mao

An authoritative reappraisal of one of the most controversial shapers of the modern world. Crisply and accessibly written for non-specialists, this impressive Profile explores Mao from a number of angles: as revolutionary general, as ideologist, as political manoeuvrer. It considers his achievements from the Long March through to the establishment of the People's Republic; and seeks to understand the reasoning behind his later policies with their often diasastrous consequences, climaxing in the Cultural Revolution. Throughout, Shaun Breslin places the actions of this supremely self- confident being in their full ideological context; but also brings home how far he was eventually isolated by his obsession with power.