Revolutionary and ruler, Marxist and nationalist, liberator and
despot, Mao Zedong takes a place among the iconic leaders of the
twentieth century. In this book, Maurice Meisner offers a balanced
portrait of the man who defined modern China.

From his role as leader of a communist revolution in a war-torn
and largely rural country to the disasters of the Great Leap
Forward and the Cultural Revolution, the relationship between Mao's
ideas and his political action is highly disputed. With
unparalleled authority, Meisner shows how Mao's unique sinification
of Marxism provides the key to looking at this extraordinary
political career. The first part of the book is devoted to Mao's
revolutionary leadership before 1949, in particular the influence
of the liberal and anarchist ideas of the May Fourth era, his
discovery of Marxism, Leninism and his conviction that peasants
held the potential for revolution. In the second part, Meisner
analyses Mao's early successes as a nationalist unifier and
modernizer, the failure of his socialism and his eventual
transformation into a tyrant.