The Political Thought of Mao Tse-Tung

by Mao Zedong, Stuart R. Schram (Translator & Editor)

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Genres: China, Politics, Nonfiction, Philosophy

479 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung, and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, statesman and leader of the Chinese Revolution. He was the architect and founding father of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949, and held control over the nation until his death in 1976. His theoretical contribution to Marxism–Leninism, along with his military strategies and brand of policies, are collectively known as Maoism.

Mao rose to power by commanding the Long March, forming a Second United Front with Kuomintang (KMT) during the Second Sino-Japanese War to repel a Japanese invasion, and later led the Communist Party of China (CPC) to victory against Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's KMT in the Chinese Civil War. Mao established political and military control over most of the territory formerly contained within the Chinese Empire and launched a campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries. He sent the Communist People's Liberation Army into Xinjiang and Tibet but was unable to oust the remnants of the Nationalist Party from Taiwan. He enacted sweeping land reform by using violence and terror to overthrow landlords before seizing their large estates and dividing the land into people's communes. The Communist Party's final victory came after decades of turmoil in China, which included the Great Depression, a brutal invasion by Japan and a protracted civil war. Mao's Communist Party ultimately achieved a measure of stability in China, though Mao's efforts to close China to trade and market commerce, and eradicate traditional Chinese culture, have been largely rejected by his successors.

Mao styled himself "The Great Helmsman" and supporters continue to contend that he was responsible for some positive changes which came to China during his three decade rule. These included doubling the school population, providing universal housing, abolishing unemployment and inflation, increasing health care access, and dramatically raising life expectancy. A cult of personality grew up around Mao, and community dissent was not permitted. His Communist Party still rules in mainland China, retains control of media and education there and officially celebrates his legacy. As a result, Mao is still officially held in high regard by many Chinese as a great political strategist, military mastermind, and savior of the nation. Maoists promote his role as a theorist, statesman, poet, and visionary, and anti-revisionists continue to defend most of his policies.

Reviews

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took a strange road to Stuart R. Schram's compilation of the Political Thought of Mao Tse-Tung. I bought my much worn copy for $8.00 dollars almost ten years ago in a massive used book store, then carted it across the country. I started it once or twice, never got far, then shifted it from bookshelf to bookshelf in my home to await my next aborted attempt.

Recently, however, I was reading the list of the best selling books of all-time and discovered that Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung is second only to the Christian Bible for copies in circulation. This reminded me that somewhere on one of my bookshelves was my very own sliver of Mao Tse-Tung just waiting to be read.

So I did, and the read was a fascinating one.

While I've read much about the revolutionary struggles of the Soviet Union and Cuba, I knew and still know very little about China. Schram attempts to contextualize Mao's writings with an impressive introductory overview, but it is a mere skeleton, lacking the circulation and respiration and flesh that foreknowledge could have provided.

As I began to read Mao's words, I worried that I was missing too much, and I probably was, but I pressed on because once I was reading the Political Thought of Mao Tse-Tung, in his own words, the book was too interesting to set aside.

Compiled by Schram in 1969, when Mao was still alive and at the height of his power, Political Thought of Mao Tse-Tung is intentionally set up to present Mao's personality as "poetic rather than logical and rigorous," and this makes for palpable gaps in the thought presented (although I can't imagine any presentation that wouldn't leave palpable gaps in one direction or another) -- gaps coloured by Schram's agenda and likely deepened by my own ignorance.

I wouldn't recommend Political Thought of Mao Tse-Tung for anyone who is coming to Mao with only a sketchy understanding of the Chairman's place in revolutionary history (like my own). I wish sincerely that I had started reading about Mao somehow and someplace else, but perhaps it isn't so bad; my curiosity about Mao and Chinese Communism is piqued, and I will certainly continue my studies elsewhere.

Besides, Political Thought of Mao Tse-Tung does offer Mao's unique perspective on U.S. Imperialism from WWI to Vietnam, and that makes it well worth the read...whatever the gaps in the political thought presented might be.

[Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

not a good book, imho.

[Timothy Morrison]

.The whole history of philosophy is the history of the struggle and the development of two mutually opposed schools of philosophy -- idealism and materialism. All philosophical currents and schools are manifestations of these two fundamental schools.

All philosophical theories have been created by men belonging to a definite social class. The ideas of these men have moreover been historically determined by a definite social existence. All philosophical doctrines express the needs of a definite social class and reflect the level of development of the productive forces of society and the historical stage in men's comprehension of nature . . .

The social origins of idealism and materialism lie in a social structure marked by class contradictions. The earliest appearance of idealism was the product of the ignorance and superstition of savage and primitive man. Then, with the development of the productive forces, and the ensuing development of scientific knowledge, it stands to reason that idealism should decline and be replaced by materialism. And yet, from ancient times to the present, idealism not only has not declined, but, on the contrary has developed and carried on a struggle for supremacy with materialism from which neither has emerged the victor. The reason lies in the division of society into classes. On the one hand, in its own interest, the oppressing class must develop and reinforce its idealist doctrines. On the other hand, the oppressed classes, likewise in their own interest, must develop and reinforce their materialist doctrines. Both idealism and materialism are weapons in the class struggle, and the struggle between idealism and materialism cannot disappear so long as classes continue to exist. Idealism, in the process of its historical development, represents the ideology of the exploiting classes and serves reactionary purposes. Materialism, on the other hand, is the world view of the revolutionary class; in a class society, it grows and develops in the midst of an incessant struggle against the reactionary philosophy of idealism. Consequently, the history of the struggle between idealism and materialism in philosophy reflects the struggle of interests between the reactionary class and the revolutionary class…. A given philosophical tendency is in the last analysis a manifestation in a particular guise of the policy of the social class to which the philosophers belong.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read this book back to back, it was more a matter of skim-reading the parts I cared about, but it was nonetheless extremely interesting. Especially so because I felt like some of Mao's ideas, strictly in theory, weren't all that bad. It's just that the execution wasn't always what it should have been. This book is definitely helpful in understanding Mao as well as China as it exists today.