The most authoritative life of the Chinese leader every written, Mao: The Unknown Story is based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao’s close circle in China who have never talked before — and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the Long March, and showing a completely unknown Mao: he was not driven by idealism or ideology; his intimate and intricate relationship with Stalin went back to the 1920s, ultimately bringing him to power; he welcomed Japanese occupation of much of China; and he schemed, poisoned, and blackmailed to get his way. After Mao conquered China in 1949, his secret goal was to dominate the world. In chasing this dream he caused the deaths of 38 million people in the greatest famine in history. In all, well over 70 million Chinese perished under Mao’s rule — in peacetime.

In this unique study of China s militarism, Andrew Scobell examines the use of military force abroad - as in Korea (1950), Vietnam (1979), and the Taiwan Strait (1995 1996) - and domestically, as during the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s and in the 1989 military crackdown in Tiananmen Square. Debunking the view that China has become increasingly belligerent in recent years because of the growing influence of soldiers, Scobell concludes that China s strategic culture has remained unchanged for decades. Nevertheless, the author uncovers the existence of a Cult of Defense in Chinese strategic culture. The author warns that this Cult of Defense disposes Chinese leaders to rationalize all military deployment as defensive, while changes in the People s Liberation Army s doctrine and capabilities over the past two decades suggest that China s twenty-first century leaders may use military force more readily than their predecessors.

An illustrated version of a song celebrating the brotherhood of humanity and the possibility of world peace.

Every nation has its founding myth, and for modern China it is the Long March. In the autumn of 1934, the Chinese Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek routed the Chinese Communists and some 80,000 men, women and children left their homes to walk with Mao Zedong into the unknown. Mao's force had to endure starvation, harsh climates, and challenging terrain whilst under constant aerial bombardment and threatened by daily skirmishes. The Long March survivors had to cross 24 rivers and 18 mountain ranges, through freezing snow and disease-ridden wilderness to reach their safe-haven of Yan'an. In military terms, the Long March was the longest continuous march in the history of warfare and it came as a terrible cost – after one year, 6,000 miles and countless battles, fewer than 4,000 of the original marchers were left. Illustrated with stunning full-colour artwork, this enthralling book tells the full story this epic display of resilience, and shows how, from the desert plateau of Yan'an, these survivors would grow the army that conquered China 14 years on, changing history forever.

In the last years of the Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman marched 60,000 Union troops through Georgia and the Carolinas, cutting a 60-mile wide swath of pillage and destruction. That event comes back in this magisterial novel. High school & older.

An old man in India recalls how, when he was a young boy, he got his first taste of freedom as he and his brother joined the great Muhatma Gandhi on a march to the sea to make salt, in defiance of British law.

Recounts the events of China's Long March, describing the odyssey of thousands of Chinese Communists from their bases to the remote north of China and discussing stories behind the March, including ruthless purges, hunger and disease, and mistreatment ofwomen.

"The authors set off to retrace the Red Army's journey and record the experiences of the last-remaining witnesses and participants of the Long March. They found history alive all along the route, including Tibetans whose accounts the Chinese censors wanted to ban and, sensationally, the woman who may be Mao's long-lost daughter. This book is based on eye-witness evidence and contemporary records. It contrasts starkly not only with the official version, but also with recent claims that the March was a fraud. The Long March really did happen - but not as Mao told it. Bringing together the historic event with images of changing society and their won march - a remarkable feat of endurance itself - the authors offer an exclusive picture of China, past and present." -- BACK COVER.