This is a fascinating book. For anyone who wants to understand "modern" China, I recommend two books: this one, and Hungry Ghosts by Jasper Becker. The two combined provide many insights into both traditional Chinese culture (Mao acted as a tradtional emporer) and the operations of the Chinese Communist Party today. Becker's book describes the worst famine in the history of mankind and how it was brought on by Mao's brilliance as a politician, his hunger for power and control, and his incomprehension of science and economics. Another book sometimes recommended as being a more "balanced" account of the Great Leap Forward is Calamity and Reform in China by Dali Yang. Yang's book is well documented and worth reading, but it is much less interesting than Becker's book and doesn't give as much explanation of why things happened. The "balance" (between those for and against mass starvation?) comes from his claim that the Great Leap experience was instrumental in China's later reforms, after Mao was out of the way. The idea is that at least something good came out of the experience. It's not surprising that the dismal economic performance of communes and collectivization in 1959-61 played a major role in the later decision to abandon communes and collectivization. But did the Chinese Communist Party really need to see 30 million unnatural deaths in just a few years in order to figure out, 20 years later, that they should go back to the methods they used in the early 1950s? Becker points out that China was copying methods that had already led to massive famine and food shortages in the Soviet Union, and that many Chinese Communists had studied and worked in the Soviet Union since that famine and must surely have heard something about it. Yang is right that the beginning of the reform process in China wasn't entirely due to the brilliant and original ideas of Deng Xiaoping, and it wasn't simply a backlash from the Cultural Revolution (Becker and Li make it clear that the Cultural Revolution was mainly a result of Mao's drive to stay in power after the catastrophe of the Great Leap Forward). Throughout his time in power, Mao forced disastrous and illogical farming methods onto Chinese peasants. Once he and his cronies were finally out of the way, the farmers sensibly went back to their earlier methods, and Deng was smart enough to realize that he couldn't and shouldn't stop them. The mistakes of the "Great Leap Forward" weren't necessary or useful, as readers of Yang's book sometimes imply. All that was necessary was for Mao (and the CCP) to stop holding China back. The reasons why Mao didn't let the "reforms" begin while he was in power become much clearer after reading Li's inside account of Mao.

A facinating memoir of Mao's personal physician- Dr. Li Zhisui. I just finished reading this book for the second time and liked it even more than I did the first time.

This is a truly amazing story of power, corruption and how intrigues, infighting and byzantine court politics affected the lives of hundreds of millions of people during the 'Great Leap Forward' and 'The Cultural Revolution'.

Anyone interested in understanding how one man gained so much influence and power and held such sway with his cult of personality should read this fine book. It was particularly tragic to read how the Chinese people became the pawns in Mao's personal political struggles. Scarier yet is how his wife, Jiang Qing (a obviously neurotic and paranoid woman), would gain so much power for herself.

This is a must read for any student of twentieth century politics or modern Chinese history.

Dr. Li's account of his years in the service of Chairman Mao is one of the most revealing biographies ever written of any major 20th century leader. It is a fascinating look at a man who held more absolute power over more people than anyone else in human history. Like all powerful leaders, Mao is a complex and enigmatic figure, a mass of contradictions that ultimately we can only try to understand by examining his words and deeds. This book amply provides us with those, while refraining from excessive speculation. It is also a lucid explanation of the byzantine alliances and rivalries of that period's Communist government. Finally, it provides us with Dr. Li's own poignant life story, as he witnessed the leader he once revered nearly destroy his beloved country. As he states at the end of this work, he paid for this book with his life, and indeed died soon after its publication. This book is highly recommended for those interested not just in modern Chinese history, but 20th century history as well.

As an aside, I was shocked to read some of the reviews castigating this book and defending Mao, which seem to parrot some of the criticisms of this book issued by Maoists in other parts of the world. Make no mistake: Mao was a great revolutionary leader (his "On Guerrilla Warfare" is a military classic) but a terrible ruler who ranks up there with Hitler, Stalin, and Hirohito. His disastrous policies resulted in at least 30 million deaths from the worst famine in recorded history, caused horrible suffering for hundreds of millions of others, plunged his country into chaos and set it back decades. To attempt to apologize for his atrocities is simply reprehensible. As one reads this book, one constantly wonders how so many could have been so intellectually and morally deficient as to consistently support his reign even as evidence of his venality and incompetence became increasingly obvious. Regrettably, it seems that such people are not all that difficult to find.