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A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION TO MAO. Edited by Timothy Cheek. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. xxi, 369 pp. (Maps, B&W photos.) US$27.99, paper. ISBN 978-0-521-71154-8.
This book is an important addition to the existing writings in English on Mao Zedong, Mao's thought, the Chinese Revolution, and the various debates about them. As a collection of essays by 14 scholars, more than half of whom are historians, this book distinguishes itself in terms of scope, approach and inclusion of varied views and positions. Its purpose, as Timothy Cheek, the editor, states, is to "provide the general reader an opportunity to make sense of Mao and his role in modern Chinese history and the 'socialist moment' in twentieth-century world history, as well as his continuing significance both in China and beyond," and its theme being that "there are multiple Maos, and to settle on one dominant image is to distort the whole" (4).
Structurally, the book is divided into two parts, part 1, "Mao's World" and part 2 , "Mao's Legacy." Part 1 has nine chapters, with chapter 1 serving as the introduction to the entire book. Chapters 2 to 4 are organized chronologically from Mao's early life to the mid 1950s. The other five chapters are issue oriented, focusing on "fragments of Mao Zedong" (chapter 5), "Mao and his followers" (chapter 6), "Mao and communist intellectuals" (chapter 7), "gendered Mao" (chapter 8), and "Mao the man and Mao the icon" (chapter 9). Part 2 includes chapters 10 to 14 that explore Mao's legacy, ranging from contemporary China since the start of the economic reform in the late...