This intimate portrait of Mao Zedong, one of the most formidable and elusive rulers in modern history, introduces the essential background about the Chinese leader, including his relations with family, friends, and confidential assistants, as well as his youthful writings, poems, letters, and drafts of speeches. Drawing from his expertise in Chinese politics & culture, the author penetrates Mao's rhetoric & infamous self-will to distill an intimate portrait of a man as withdrawn & mysterious as the emperors he disdained. The author superbly illuminates Mao, a leader who, at a watershed moment in history, turned the classic Chinese concept of reform through reversal into an endless adventure in upheaval. The complex persona of Chairman Mao-remembered with hate, awe, and even reverence-calls for what the Boston Globe has termed "Jonathan Spence's engaging blend of history, literature, and biography." Spence superbly illuminates Mao, a leader who, at a watershed moment in history, turned the classic Chinese concept of reform through reversal into an endless adventure in upheaval. Mao examines a chilling enigma for historians, students of human nature, and Americans fascinated more than ever by China.