The New Emperors: China in the Era of Mao and Deng - Harrison E. Salisbury

Parallels with Stalin are drawn in the book but would, I hope, be obvious anyway. This is yet another example of how it's the system allowing a personality like Mao's to destroy people's lives that is what should be reformed, destroyed, whatever. Some vignettes that should stay with anyone who reads this book - though you should wonder whether they are all trustworthy - Mao's (carefully cultivated) peasant coarseness: for example, he used to have his body-guards dig lumps of compacted faeces from his constipated bowels and he liked to defecate in the fields, sniffing a lump of fertilizing human dung beforehand (in order to blunt his sense of smell and ...  Read the complete review