Alexander V. Pantsov is a professor of history and holds the
Edward and Mary Catherine Gerhold Chair in the Humanities at
Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. Born in Moscow, Pantsov
graduated from Moscow State University Institute of Asian and
African Studies in 1978. He has published more than ten books,
among them The Bolsheviks and the Chinese Revolution 1919-1927 and
Mao Zedong.
Steven I. Levine is research faculty associate in the
department of history at the University of Montana. Levine has
published extensively in the fields of modern Chinese politics and
foreign policy as well as American-East Asian relations.
“Mao’s will for power, his vision as a revolutionary, and his
prodigious capacity for cruelty marked mankind. Yet it is
impossible to understand the transformation of modern China without
absorbing the enormity of one man’s impact. Pantsov and Levine have
opened what are perhaps the final vaults of archival treasures to
buttress their new and engrossing portrait of the Chinese
revolutionary titan. With clear narrative and sparkling anecdote,
they have chiseled a more complete Mao, in the full dimension of
life as a man, as an eager collaborator with Stalin in the
Communist bloc and as the tiger on the mountain who both built and
ravaged a nation.”
—Patrick Tyler, former Beijing Bureau Chief of The New York Times
and author of A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China
“This fine book is based on extraordinary access to Soviet archives
and documents recently published in China and the West, shedding
new light on some aspects of the Chinese leader’s life and career.
. . . Pantsov and Levine succeed in conveying a balanced image of
Mao’s complex persona and revealing the contradictions in his
beliefs and actions.”
*Foreign Affairs*
“Here finally is Mao in the round: vigorous, idealistic, deluded,
and ultimately evil—the full human being in rich personal and
political detail. The widest possible use of Chinese sources
provides deep insight into Mao’s family, colleagues, and rivals and
illuminates the dilemmas he faced and the strategies he chose. New
materials from the Soviet archives enrich our understanding of
Mao’s formative relationship with Stalin.”
*Andrew J. Nathan, Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science,
Columbia University*
“A new, important history. . . . The authors’ most serious
contribution is probably their insight into Mao’s Stalinist creed
and his movement’s complete financial and ideological reliance on
the Soviets.”
*Washington Post*
“Alexander Pantsov and Steven Levine's vividly written and highly
authoritative biography, steeped in previously inaccessible Soviet
archival sources, forever banishes the myth that Mao’s revolution
succeeded as if the Russians had never come.”
—Alice Miller, research fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford
University
“A comprehensive, authoritative new study that challenges the
received wisdom regarding Mao’s relationship with Stalin and the
Soviet Union. . . . The Great Helmsman fully fleshed, still
complicated and ever provocative.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Definitive.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Definitive. . . . Thick with detail, this book sets a high bar for
future Mao biographers."
—Booklist (starred review)
“China scholars now will have to reassess every element of Mao’s
career. . . . More important than Pantsov and Levine’s scholarly
chops, however, is that they spin a balanced and utterly compelling
story larded with telling and often newly uncovered anecdotes about
Mao’s family, wives, comrades, rivals, and victims. The common
sense of the authors’ judgments on Mao’s crimes and achievements
builds on their insights into Mao’s complex personality (and, yes,
sex life). One of the most important China books of recent years
and a page-turner, too.”
*Library Journal (starred review)*
"Comprehensive, judicious, and finely detailed. . . . [A] major
study."
*New York Review of Books*
"A substantial and hair-raising contribution to our knowledge of
the Great Helmsman."
*Dallas News*
“[Mao] goes a long way toward elucidating contemporary China and
Chinese leaders' insistence on one-party rule as the only way to
perpetuate long-lasting political, economic and cultural
change.”
*The Minneapolis Star-Tribune*
"Alexander Pantsov and Steven Levine draw on recently declassified
Soviet material to reveal surprising details about the founder of
the PRC. . . . [Including] a hitherto unseen 15-volume dossier on
Mao, the basis of a vivid and heterogeneous portrait of the
chairman that exposed his personal life, particularly regarding his
health and his serial affairs."
*Time Out Shanghai*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |