Stuart Schram. Mao Tse-tung. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966.

In Mao Tse-tung, Stuart Schram presents the man behind the thought which he spotlighted in his earlier work, The Political Thought of Mao Tse-tung. Although this account of Mao’s life follows a number of other biographies, John Fairbank proclaims in his review that Schram’s biography is "the most perceptive, judicious, and interesting full-length biography of Chairman Mao yet available” (Book Week, 64: 41). Schram traces Mao’s transitions from his early elementary education to events just months before the publication of this book in 1966. An expert on Mao’s proclamations and political shifts, Schram annotates his biography with political insights and highlights parallels between contemporary political thought and Mao’s own writings. Schram places Mao in the context of a highly detailed account of Chinese politics from the May Fourth Movement to the mid-1960s, giving readers an opportunity to see that Mao’s place in the convoluted history of modern China was sometimes less than prominent.

As a boy in a household that had risen from poor to middle peasant status, Mao was politically ambiguous until he embraced Marxist ideas (p. 15). His secondary school teacher, Yang Changji, introduced Mao to Marxist thought. He later pursued his study of Marx by participating in Chen Duxiu’s study group and working in the library Peking University. Mao rose to power through his own active enthusiasm, and the ability to "display in full measure the exceptional grasp of organizational problems which has been one of Mao’s greatest assets throughout his political career” (p. 68). In the face of numerous contradictions in his own writings and professions, Mao held consistently to his vision for a strong China and his faith in the courage and will of the people to create it. Schram’s most significant contribution in this work is his comprehensive explanation of how this "faith in the people’s will” became the foundation of Mao’s Sinified communism. Schram portrays Mao’s philosophical departure from Leninism, not as a turn of theoretical genius, but one of pragmatic nationalism. Mao articulated clearly to Moscow that his Marxist adaptations were not "anti-Soviet,” but were specifically Chinese (p. 205).

In addition to displaying Mao’s fervent voluntarism, Schram also emphasizes the rational side of Mao. Schram explains Mao’s active participation in the Central Committee of the Guomindang during the twenties as extremely logical. Through this experience, Mao was able to actively organize the peasants and later emerged as a politically left communist (p. 98). Schram synthesizes a variety of sources ranging from his own extensive research on Mao’s thought, Edgar Snow’s journalistic account, the insights of Mao’s official biographer Li Rui, and Mao’s poetry to produce a persuasive account of Mao Zedong’s unique charisma,

When the biography reaches the years just prior to the time of the book’s publication, Schram’s message becomes clear--Mao is still able to mobilize the masses of Chinese people. At the apparent close of Mao’s political career, he reappears larger than life, again entreating the people’s will. "But this extreme voluntarism collides with the methods of economic development employed by the regime, which have, on the whole, remained rational (except for the interlude of the "Great Leap Forward” in 1958-60)” (p. 255). By juxtaposing the history of Mao’s success and his failure, Schram highlights the paradox that drives Mao’s desperation to close his career and life in greatness. Through his biography of this charismatic leader, Schram warns the world of the dangerous potential that the very recent development, the Cultural Revolution, may embody. Mao’s persistent call on the people to rise up had been "mitigated by the realism and common sense which have continued to exist in Mao’s own mind and personality with his warlike enthusiasm---at least, until very recently” (p. 255).

John K. Fairbank, in his review (Book Week, 64: 41-42), champions Schram’s demand that the world, and the United States specifically, recognize the power and potential of this nation’s leader who, having already demonstrated an ability to motivate hundreds of millions of his people, has now grown, by his own design, into a magical persona. At the same time that the Cultural Revolution escalated in China, the United States persisted in bombing Vietnam. Schram makes prognostic assessments of the present and potential impact of the Cultural Revolution which had just begun when the book was published. Schram presents Mao’s China to the world as a force that cannot be ignored, nor easily contained. Mao, and China, are alive and active as Schram writes and the international community should, according to Schram, actively engage with China.

E. Elena Songster

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