Mao

The Unknown Story

By: Jung Chang, Jon Halliday

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 29 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

“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.” (Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong, in The Times, London)

Based on a decade of research and on interviews with many of Mao’s close circle in China who have never talked before - and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him - this is the most authoritative life of Mao ever written. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the Long March, and showing a completely unknown Mao: he was not driven by idealism or ideology; his intimate and intricate relationship with Stalin went back to the 1920s, ultimately bringing him to power; he welcomed Japanese occupation of much of China; and he schemed, poisoned and blackmailed to get his way.

After Mao conquered China in 1949, his secret goal was to dominate the world. In chasing this dream he caused the deaths of 38 million people in the greatest famine in history. In all, well over 70 million Chinese perished under Mao’s rule - in peacetime.

Combining meticulous research with the story-telling style of Wild Swans, this biography offers a harrowing portrait of Mao’s ruthless accumulation of power through the exercise of terror: his first victims were the peasants, then the intellectuals and, finally, the inner circle of his own advisors. The listeners enters the shadowy chambers of Mao’s court and eavesdrops on the drama in its hidden recesses. Mao’s character and the enormity of his behavior toward his wives, mistresses and children are unveiled for the first time.

This is an entirely fresh look at Mao in both content and approach. It will astonish historians and the general listener alike.

©2005 Jung Chang and Jon Halliday (P)2006 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"Sweeping." (Publishers Weekly)

"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...." (Michael Yahuda, The Guardian)

"Boasts a monumental marshaling of detail and historiographically overturning revelations." (Booklist)

very informative and interesting

I like the book it very interesting the reader is very good surprisingly not boring at all my only suggestion would be this book be sold in tandem with George Orwell's 1984 I think it would be very complimentary to each other

Profound.

The true history of China over the past 100 years. Terribly honest, and despicably Mao.

Mao

Absolutely essential and should be required in American schools. This book has helped update my historical knowledge and with my prior existing knowledge on world events, I now have a much greater understanding of modern subversion. What is really going on in the West.

Amazing historical book on Mao.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone that loves history. There was so much I did not know. I remember as a child my parents telling to eat my food and remember the starving children in China. I believed later it was caused by inefficiencies in communism but to learn how it was truly caused by a power play. That is just one item. I’m just glad China never received from Russia the know-how to deliver nuclear weapons.

Fills many gaps! Very good..but!

I find this book fascinating, because it is detailed and complete. I am an American and a friend of the late Helen Snow, have lived in China off and on for many years, and am knowledgeable of China's recent history,culture and some of the players. This book answers many questions I have had. The only problem - and it is disturbing - is the narrator. His pronunciation of the Chinese names is so far off the mark that I had to stop now and then to ask myself, "who is he talking about?" Or I would find myself thinking, "Oh, he means ___" This is disturbing. Even though many non-Chinese liseners might not know the difference, it is such a fine presentation, backed by years of painstaking research, the narration is irritating, and falls short in this one area. It seems important to me that the narrator know how to pronounce the names of the recognized leaders of modern China. But this is the only limitation I find- I am listening slowly to get every word! Thanks!

Incompetent Reader and Needs Documentation

The book is excellent and important, but the audio is marred by the absence of the book's several hundred pages of endnotes and references which are desperately needed to understand the quality of the authors' claims. That's the problem with this kind of book in audio. Also, the narrator has no clue how to pronounce Chinese names, so Zhou/Chou Enlai's name is pronounced "Chow," Peng and Deng are similarly butchered, etc. It hurts.

Mao as you never knew him.

A binge listening audiobook if there ever was one. Granted the subject at hand is the sin qua non of an awful person, but wow, is he ever so good about being bad. Day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year one learns exactly what kind of monster we are dealing with. What we are dealing with is a man who gives both Hitler and Stalin a real run for the roses.

Cold, calculating, utterly unconcerned with the violence, misery and death he is inflicting. He is shown to be a totally amoral man only concerned with his own needs, need to power, and vendettas.

In loving detail (if loving is the right word) one is treated to men and women both high and low who are ground down to a fine powder by Mao, even, actually especially, his wives. We get a pretty grim portrait of the man and how he was very much the Red Emperor; with all the megalomania, egomania, and l'état, c'est moi that entails.

For example: palaces are made to specs, just so Mao can "enjoy" a view he might take in a decade from their construction, if at all. Mind you these edifices are made in a nation that is desperately poor and for the most part starving, uneducated, and worked mercilessly. Meanwhile, it's great to be the Emperor, go where ever you want in your armored car, eat whatever you want, and bed whatever woman catches your fancy. It's even more fun to contemplate and then enact the destruction of anyone who dares challenges your will in the slightest degree.

I could write more about this, but then I would be in spoiler territory. Go. Get. Listen. This is a wonderful Audio Book about a horrible man.

great listen

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The narrator did a fantastic job! Very well written and read! I also learned much I did not know about the man, the myths and the legends of Mao.

Mao was a scary guy

what little father I had in humanity is now gone. Communism in it's Maoist form is enough to bring up nightmares and sympathy from the hardest hearts.

True Evil In Human Form

this was a wonderful book and as an audio version very well-read. It takes a while to get through physically reading it or listening to it which I did both. This story really blew my mind! I have become quite interested in history over the last 20 years and am very well-read in a lot of areas. I didn't know anything about Mao to speak of. I did know something of the rise of Communism in the early 20th century. this expose of Chairman Mao and his life and rise to power is a breathtaking story of Pure Evil. Mao even makes Joseph Stalin seem somewhat friendly. the real interesting part I found about the story was that unlike so many other great murder is dictators, Chairman Mao was not loved. He was despised by everyone! It is completely outstanding that he was not murdered. when you read about Hitler you gain a great appreciation for those around him and how much they loved him and followed his desires. Hitler was like a beloved cult leader. Chairman Mao was a wicked murderer who gained Power by destruction and killing and murder and torture and fear. It really is a deeply disturbing story because it's true. there are also so many takeaways in this story about how he engineered his rise through communism and activism and slander tactics. this is directly relative to current political movements and political correctness. Ideas are not even considered and the purveyors of those unacceptable ideas are slandered and called awful names without those ideas ever being debated or questioned. The whole idea of our constitutional republic and Western judeo-christian value system is completely void in the Chinese canvas that now worked in. since reading this book I find myself looking at the actions of leftist activism and seeing its direct familial connection with murder is communism. The whole antifa movement is an exact replication of Mao's cultural revolution system of using young people to murder and kill. admittingly and Tifa is not cut loose enough to go on the Rampages that Mao's young people did but I have no question in my mind that if they had a leader egging them on like Mao did these hooded club wielding otamatone would be murdering raping and torturing just like the Youth of China did. This book is almost like a warning Tale for us to wake up and see what undiluted hate puts into the bloodstream of a society. I encourage you to take this book on and I promise you you won't be the same person by the time you're done.