View of chairman mao npr contains audio interview with chang and halliday. Their biography attempted to dispel myths about mao tse. The unknown story was written by jung chang, who described the suffering of her family during the cultural revolution in the bestseller wild swans. Mao s character and the enormity of his behaviour towards his wives, mistresses and children are unveiled for the first time. Her books have been translated into more than forty languages and sold more than fifteen million.
This is an entirely fresh look at mao in both content and approach. The unknown story is a 2005 biography of chinese communist leader mao zedong 18931976 written by jung chang and her husband jon halliday. The expectation has been that she would rewrite modern chinese history. The unknown story, devoted to pointing out the flaws and shortcomings of the chang and halliday text.
The unknown story is a 2005 biography of chinese communist leader mao. Her books have been translated into more than forty languages and sold more than fifteen million copies outside mainland china, where they are both. I had heard this was the best book on mao and find chinese history. The most authoritative life of mao ever written, by the bestselling author of wild swans, jung chang and her husband, historian jon halliday.
Later, in his reports on rural areas, he consistently gave attention to womens issues. Was mao really a monster the academic response to chang. They argue that he was responsible for well over 70. It will astonish historians and the general reader alike. The monitor sometimes reprints material from its archives.
The book also brought me to question how such a nation could respond in the way that it did to maos many cruel tactics and how people could become implicit in it. The most authoritative life of the chinese leader ever written, mao. Discover more authors youll love listening to on audible. Was mao really a monster the academic response to chang and. After mao conquered china in 1949, his secret goal was to dominate the world. He orchestrated the greatest famine in worlds history, he tortured more human being than hilter, himmler and stalin combine. Jung chang, jon halliday, robertson dean, books on tape.
The unknown story by jon halliday, 9780099507376, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Based on a decade of research, this work combines meticulous history with the storytelling style jung changs novel, wild swans. In early published essays, he attacked the arrangedmarriage system and the way women were treated in the family. With most chinese still failing to realise that they should be ashamed of themselves, we have this year seen amazing praise in the british media for a thoroughly silly book. The unknown story is based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of. The unknown story is a 2005 biography of chinese communist leader mao zedong 18931976 written by the wife and husband team of writer jung chang and historian jon halliday, who depict mao as being responsible for more deaths in peacetime than adolf hitler or joseph stalin. Pantsov and levine succeed in conveying a balanced image of maos complex persona and revealing the contradictions in his beliefs and actions. The unknown story is based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of maos close circle in china who have never talked before and with virtually everyone outside china who had significant dealings with him. I would definitely recommend jung changs two books, wild swans and mao, the unknown story. The real story a belittling nod to the last giant work on mao.
Powerful biography lays millions of deaths at maos feet the first sentence of the acclaimed biography, mao. May 11, 2017 i would definitely recommend jung changs two books, wild swans and mao, the unknown story. Now she and her husband jon halliday have written a groundbreaking biography of mao tsetung. The unknown story, jung chang and jon halliday estimate that under mao zedongs rule in china at least 70 million people were killed in one way or another in the name of making a socialist utopia. The biography of mao, by the bestselling author of wild swans. The unknown story, written with her husband, the irish historian jon halliday, was published in june 2005. Journey thru the unknown and the kardashians joke book mao zedong poems the thought of mao tsetung contemporary china institute publications maos last dancer maos great famine on practice and contradiction. His previous books include korea, the unknown war, which is just as silly as his mao book, though he was then in possession of a different eternal truth. He killed more than 10 times the total of jews exterminated by hilter and nazisims. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the long march, and showing a.
This halliday brother of fred ignored the standard story that kim ilsung was a captain in the soviet army who was simply slotted into place by stalin when the ussr was given control of. The unknown story new ed by halliday, jon, chang, jung isbn. The unknown story, by jung chang and jon halliday, is a fascinating and powerful debunking of the many myths that have long surrounded mao tsetung. In the same way, i think, mao s ruthlessness was a catastrophe at the time, brilliantly captured in this extraordinary book and yet theres more to the story. In conducting their research for the book over the course of a decade, the authors interviewed hundreds of people who were close to mao zedong at some point in his life, used recently published memoirs from chinese political figures, and. In conducting their research for the book over the course of a decade, the. While early biographies of mao zedong 18931976 beginning with edgar snows 1936 thunder out of china were worshipful, new biographies have revealed the extent of his ruthlessness. The unknown story by stuart schram, the china quarterly, volume 189, march 2007, pp. It is hard to single out the most chilling aspect of mao. In the same way, i think, maos ruthlessness was a catastrophe at the time, brilliantly captured in this extraordinary book. Ever since the spectacular success of changs wild swans we have waited impatiently for her to complete with her husband this monumental study of chinas most notorious modern leader. This a bombshell of a book, chris patten, the times. The husbandandwife team of chang and halliday have nothing good to say about mao, whom they depict as a cruel tyrant who did not even believe in the ideology he imposed on china. The unknown story audiobook written by jung chang, jon halliday.
Sep 01, 2002 the most authoritative life of the chinese leader ever written, mao. Jung changs wild swans was an extraordinary bestseller throughout the world, selling more than 10 million copies and reaching a wider readership than any other book about china. Maos character and the enormity of his behaviour towards his wives, mistresses and children are unveiled for the first time. This fine book is based on extraordinary access to soviet archives and on documents recently published in china and the west, shedding new light on some aspects of the chinese leaders life and career.
Journey thru the unknown and the kardashians joke book mao zedong poems the thought of mao tsetung contemporary china institute publications mao s last dancer mao s great famine on practice and contradiction. Most were sharply critical, questioning its authority and the authors methods, arguing that chang and hallidays book is not a work of balanced scholarship, as it purports to be, but a highly selective and even polemical study that sets out to demonise mao. Jung chang is the bestselling author of wild swans, which the asian wall street journal called the most widely read book about china, and mao. The most authoritative life of the chinese leader every written, mao.
Combining meticulous history with the story telling style of wild swans this biography makes immediate mao s rollercoaster life, as he intrigued and fought every step of the way to force through his unpopular decisions. Jung chang was a youthful victim of maos cultural revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, and wrote about this gruesome episode in modern chinese history in her earlier work. The author of wild swans and her historian husband, jon halliday, have. Anyone who has an interest in china and its history would greatly benefit from reading mao the unknown story. The unknown story audiobook, by jung chang extended. The book also brought me to question how such a nation could respond in the way that it did to mao s many cruel tactics and how people could become implicit in it.
Anyone who has an interest in china and its history would greatly benefit from reading mao. Wild swans is, in my opinion, the better of the two. The unknown story, jung chang and jon halliday make an impassioned case for mao as the most monstrous tyrant ever. They will learn not just about mao, but of many other famous and infamous people of that time, along with a deeper understanding of the psyche of the chinese people before and after the communist party came to rule. In the unknown story they claim, on what seems to me thin evidence, that she was a russian agent for those of you who dont know what hagiographic means, it means saintlike in this earlier book, mme sun yatsen soong chingling, by chang and halliday, sharp differences occur with mao. In the unknown story they claim, on what seems to me thin evidence, that she was a russian agent for those of you who dont know what hagiographic means, it means saintlike in this earlier book, mme sun yatsen soong chingling, by chang and halliday. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the long march, and.
The unknown story was written by jung chang, who described the suffering of her family during the. The author of wild swans and her historian husband, jon halliday, have torn away the many masks and falsehoods with which. The unknown story with jon halliday, which was described by time as an atom bomb of a book. The book is long and i am skimming but it has been interesting so far.
Their biography attempted to dispel myths about mao tsetung perpetuated by the communist party the. Jung chang and jon halliday talked about their book mao. Oct 20, 2011 powerful biography lays millions of deaths at maos feet the first sentence of the acclaimed biography, mao. Based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of maos close circle in china who have never talked before. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
In the summer of 1936, the american journalist edgar snow left peking for chinas northwest to visit the new territory taken over by the chinese communist party. Mao tsetung, who for decades held absolute power over the lives of onequarter of the worlds population, was responsible for well over 70 million deaths in peacetime, more than. Stream and download audiobooks to your computer, tablet or mobile phone. Oct 20, 2005 new bio offers sinister view of chairman mao mao. Browse jung changs bestselling audiobooks and newest titles.
I had heard this was the best book on mao and find chinese history interesting terrifying since studying it in college. The unknown story by jung chang and jon halliday 832pp, cape. The most authoritative life of mao ever written, by the bestselling author of wild swans and her husband. It follows a family through three generations of females, from the wife of a warlord in turnofthece. This massive biography of chairman mao will alter how both laymen and specialists think about the founder of communist china. The unknown story based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of maos 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. If you are to believe mao, the unknown story, mao directly killed for personnal gain and power over 70 millions chineses. Based on a decade of research, this work combines meticulous history with the story telling style jung changs novel, wild swans. The reader enters the shadowy chambers of mao s court, and eavesdrops on the drama in its hidden recesses. Oct 05, 2011 jung chang is the bestselling author of wild swans, which the asian wall street journal called the most widely read book about china, and mao.
Mao, zedong, 18931976, heads of state publisher new york. June 04, 2005 biography the greatest dictator seventy million dead, a nation taken back to the stone age. The unknown story audiobook by jon halliday, jung chang. The khan dynasty and the mao indulgency are the yang and the yin of the hard to see thing that differentiates china, chinese culture, and most modern chinese from the rest of the world. The academic response to it has not been especially kind, so much so that there is an entire book, was mao really a monster.