Mao: A Reinterpretation
First edition cover
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| Author | Lee Feigon |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Mao Zedong |
| Publisher | Ivan R. Dee |
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Publication date
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2002 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 240 |
| ISBN | |
Mao: A Reinterpretation is a biography of the Chinese communist revolutionary and politician Mao Zedong written by Lee Feigon, an American historian of China then working at Colby College. It was first published by Ivan R. Dee in 2002, and would form the basis of Feigon's 2006 documentary Passion of the Mao.
Revisionist in content, Feigon's book aimed to highlight the achievements of Mao's government. He argues that Mao was influenced by Joseph Stalin to a far greater extent during the Chinese Civil War than has previously been believed.
Mao: A Reinterpretation was reviewed by academic Sinologists such as Ross Terrill, Arthur Waldron, and Gregor Benton. The reception was mixed, but criticism predominated as many believed that Feigon neglected Mao's autocratic tendencies. On the other hand, most reviewers praised Feigon for his argument that the early Mao was heavily influenced by Stalin.
At the time of publication, Lee Feigon had established himself as a "respected China specialist", known for "plain speaking" and his "readiness to stick his neck out."
The Australian Sinologist Ross Terrill of Harvard University reviewed Mao: A Reinterpretation for the Journal of Cold War Studies. Noting that it was clearly not a biography but rather a "smoothly presented plea against the currently prevailing view" of Mao, he refused to fault Feigon on his "unfashionable" views. He nevertheless identified two areas where he disagreed with Feigon's revisionism; first, he noted that Feigon had never dealt with the issue of Mao's "Führerism" and autocratic influence, while secondly, he noted that Feigon made no use of new data, instead merely offering a "Trotskyite opinion" on the available information. Highlighting a number of factual errors and an unexplained use of both forms of transliteration, he nevertheless believed that Feigon did present some "valid points", such as that Mao was far more influenced by Stalin in the 1920s and 1930s than has been widely recognized. Concluding his review, Terrill admitted to being perplexed as to why Feigon had written the book, offering neither "a powerful defense" of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution or a case for "anarchism or Chinese Trotskyism".
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