"Revolution in its Leninist guise has been a dominant force in the world for most of the 20th century, and the Chinese revolution has been, with the Russian revolution, one of its two most important manifestations. Mao Zedong, the architect of victory in China in 1949, stands out as one of the dominant figures of the century. Guerilla leader, strategist, conqueror, ruler, poet and philosopher, he placed his imprint on China, and on the world. Even though today communism is widely seen as bankrupt, Mao Zedong's achievements as an innovative disciple of Lenin and Stalin in the most populous nation on earth guarantees his place in history. Whatever the ultimate fate of communism in China, the fact of Mao's influence on events during more than five decades, and its resonance after his death, will remain. This edition of Mao Zedong's writings provides abundant documentation in his own words regarding his life and thought. It has been compiled from all available Chinese sources, including not only the 20-volume edition published in Tokyo years ago, but many new materials issued in China since 1978, both openly and for internal circulation. The editors have pursued a threefold goal : firstly, to translate every text by Mao which could be obtained, so as to make this English version as complete as possible ; secondly, to annotate the materials in sufficient detail to make them accessible to the non-specialist reader ; and thirdly, to combine accuracy with a level of literary quality which is intended to make the volumes agreeable as well as instructive to read."--