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The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright
by Ann M. LittleAn eye-opening biography of a woman at the intersection of three distinct cultures in colonial America Born and raised in a New England garrison town, Esther Wheelwright (1696-1780) was captured by Wabanaki Indians at age seven. Among them, she became a Catholic and lived like any other young girl in the tribe. At age twelve, she was enrolled at a French-Canadian Ursuline convent, where she would spend the rest of her life, eventually becoming the order's only foreign-born mother superior. Among these three major cultures of colonial North America, Wheelwright's life was exceptional: border-crossing, multilingual, and multicultural. This meticulously researched book discovers her life through the communities of girls and women around her: the free and enslaved women who raised her in Wells, Maine; the Wabanaki women who cared for her, catechized her, and taught her to work as an Indian girl; the French-Canadian and Native girls who were her classmates in the Ursuline school; and the Ursuline nuns who led her to a religious life.
The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction
by Gregory KlagesA National Post Bestseller! How did Tom Thomson die in the summer of 1917? Was landscape painter Tom Thomson shot by poachers, or by a German-American draft dodger? Did a blow from a canoe paddle knock him unconscious and into the water? Was he fatally injured in a drunken fight? Did he end his life out of fear of being forced to marry his pregnant girlfriend? Commemorating the one-hundredth anniversary of the death of the renowned Canadian landscape painter, The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson offers an authoritative review of the historical record, as well as some theories you might not have thought of in a hundred years. Cultural historian Gregory Klages surveys first-hand testimony and archival records about Thomson’s tragic demise, attempting to sort fact from legend in the death of this Canadian icon.
The Many Faces of John Kerry: Why this Massachusetts Liberal is Wrong for America
by David BossieA hard-hitting, ruthlessly honest political biography of Sen. John F. Kerry that will expose the real views of and dig up all the dirt on the 2004 Democratic nominee for president. In Prince Albert, he dethroned Al Gore. Now, David N. Bossie, former chief investigator for Congress, is going after John Kerry and giving every conscientious voter a chance to see the truth about this year's Democratic candidate. Using his trademark in-depth investigating, Bossie gives readers the real scoop on the presidential challenger-fully exposing Kerry's peculiar voting record; early Naval discharge (so he could protest the Vietnam War); self-contradictory positions on such vital issues as health care, education, and campaign finance; and shady political dealings he'd rather voters not know about. With an exclusive jailhouse interview with former Kerry finance chairman, David Bossie has the insider's access and the hard-nosed investigator's savvy to ferret out the truth and present it to readers in a gripping, no-nonsense style. He lays bare Kerry's flip-flops, lies, and duplicitous stances on the war in Iraq, defense spending, tax cuts, Medicare, and corporate greed and corruption-finally unveiling all of Kerry's public and private faces.
The Many Faces of Josephine Baker: Dancer, Singer, Activist, Spy
by Peggy CaravantesA complete biographical look at the complex life of a world-famous entertainer With determination and audacity, Josephine Baker turned her comic and musical abilities into becoming a worldwide icon of the Jazz Age. The Many Faces of Josephine Baker: Dancer, Singer, Activist, Spy provides the first in-depth portrait of this remarkable woman for young adults. Author Peggy Caravantes follows Baker's life from her childhood in the depths of poverty to her comedic rise in vaudeville and fame in Europe. This lively biography covers her outspoken participation in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, espionage work for the French Resistance during World War II, and adoption of 12 children--her "rainbow tribe." Also included are informative sidebars on relevant topics such as the 1917 East St. Louis riot, Pullman railway porters, the Charleston, and more. The lush photographs, appendix updating readers on the lives of the rainbow tribe, source notes, and bibliography make this is a must-have resource for any student, Baker fan, or history buff.
Many Faces, One Voice: Secrets from The Anonymous People
by Bud Mikhitarian Greg WilliamsMany Faces, One Voice is a must-read companion book to the award-winning film The Anonymous People.<P><P> Together with the film, this collection of insights, illuminated by vibrant faces and voices of recovery, takes the reader along a journey of individual growth and, potentially, to world change.A vital record of the lives and testimony of brave people who have come out of the shadows of anonymity to fight stigma and discrimination--people who now publicly advocate for the 23 million Americans suffering with addiction. Their inspiring stories, told in intimate detail, are essential to understanding the success, the hope, and the power of recovery.Bud Mikhitarian is an award-winning filmmaker and the producer of The Anonymous People film.Greg Williams is the director of The Anonymous People.
Many Forms of Madness: A Family's Struggle with Mental Illness and the Mental Health System
by Rosemary Radford RuetherIn telling the story of her son's thirty-year struggle with schizophrenia, the author lays bare the inhumane treatment throughout the history of people with mental illness. Despite countless reforms by "idealistic reformers" and an enlightened understanding that mental illness is a physical disease like any other, conditions for people who struggle with mental illness are little improved. She asks why this is so and then goes on to imagine what we would do for people with mental illness "if we really cared."
Many Hands Make a Farm: 47 Years of Questioning Authority, Feeding a Community, and Building an Organic Movement
by Jack Kittredge Julie Rawson*Northeast Organic Farmers Lifetime Achievement Award: Jack Kittredge and Julie Rawson In this heartfelt and unflinching memoir, two activists recount the nearly half century they’ve spent questioning authority while raising a family, building a self-reliant community, starting an organic farm, leading a farming organization, and experiencing the struggles and joys of living a purposeful life. Many Hands Make a Farm traces the journey of organic farming pioneers Julie Rawson and Jack Kittredge from their early years of bright-eyed excitement, through the long slog for economic stability, to the formation of a thriving community and a growing natural farming movement. Along the way, they established relationships with farming leaders across the country during the creation of the National Organic Program. Julie and Jack met while working as community organizers in Boston. After falling in love and starting a family, they decided to use Jack’s irregular earnings as a board game designer to support a move to a rural area where they could grow healthy food and earn their living at home, so they could be present for their four children. What began as a family homestead soon grew into the small, diversified Many Hands Organic Farm. Julie and Jack have intentionally chosen to live their lives differently than the mainstream, prioritizing minimizing energy use, raising food organically, not relying on credit, favoring natural health care, participating in the arts, working creatively, and instilling the values of hard work and responsibility in their children. In a time when society at large was “going along to get along,” Julie and Jack stood out as leaders and iconoclasts. They believe that taking risks and making bold decisions can unlock one’s potential and lead to actions that enrich the spirit, the family, and the community. Many Hands Make a Farm will resonate with fans of original thinkers from Henry David Thoreau and Wendell Berry to Lynn Margulis and Adelle Davis. The book strongly conveys the message of finding roots in a community, respecting the Earth, and combining social justice work with the joys and challenges of raising a family. These themes shine through on every page, making this memoir a must-read for anyone seeking inspiration and guidance on finding meaning in their life. "Told in complementary, alternating narratives between husband and wife, this informative and heartfelt memoir is uplifting from start to finish."—Booklist
Many Hills yet to Climb: Memoirs of an Armenian Deportee
by John MinassianVictims of tragedies seldom are able to tell of their experiences objectively and without bitterness. It is usually left to others to interpret—and fictionalize—such events. Many Hills Yet to Climb is an exception because its author is an exceptional man. As a young man coming of age, John Minassian lived through the Armenian genocide from 1895 through 1915, which even today the Turkish government denies ever occurred. Now, nearly a century later, Minassian describes his experiences—the destruction of his home, the loss and scattering of family and friends, the bitter enmity between two cultures—in a unique memoir. He does not attempt to give a global significance to the events, but rather a human document that lets us see things as a perceptive and sensitive teenage boy saw them at the turn of the twentieth century. JOHN MINASSIAN was born in 1895 of Armenian parents in Sivas, in central Turkey. He started school with the American missionaries in Sivas and finished his grammar school education in 1908 in Gurun. In 1913 he attended the American Teachers College in Sivas. His studies ended in 1914 with the outbreak of the first World War. During the war he was deported, with most Armenians, to Aleppo. Concealing his identity, he fled into the Syrian desert where he worked with Turkish, German, and Indian work crews. After the war, he went to Constantinople, where he worked for the post-war British Army. In 1920, he gained passage to the U.S. in 1920. He lives today with his wife, Mary, in Santa Barbara, California.
Many Lives
by Stephanie BeachamStephanie Beacham is one of the leading actors of her generation. In the course of a career which spans over 40 years, the RADA trained actress has treaded the boards of some of the most prestigious theatres in the world from the National Theatre to Broadway, made countless appearances on television in much loved series such as Tenko, Connie, Bad Girls and Coronation Street and starred in feature films alongside some of the greatest actors of their time such as Marlon Brando and Ava Gardner. But it was in her incarnation as the smouldering super-bitch Sable Colby in the long-running blockbuster soap of eighties Dynasty that Stephanie will perhaps be best remembered. It was a role that would bring the celebrated beauty both worldwide fame and awards and would earn her a fortune. But Stephanie’s life has not always been glamour and glitz – for all the highs, she has had her low moments too as she reveals in this extraordinarily candid but heart-warming memoir. Born with just 40% hearing the young Stephanie would have to overcome her deafness to face the world and make it in a profession where hearing meant everything. She would struggle as a young actress, would go through the pain and the heartache of a divorce, raise her children as a single-parent, as well as overcoming a health scare which nearly killed her in her mid-thirties. And it would be this near death experience that would send Stephanie on what she describes as a ‘spiritual adventure’ to arm her with both the tools and knowledge she believes she needed to propel her through the rest of her life.
The Many Lives of Cy Endfield
by Brian NeveCy Endfield (1914-1995) was a filmmaker who was also fascinated by the worlds of close-up magic, science, and invention. After directing several distinctive low-budget films in Hollywood, he was blacklisted in 1951 and fled to Britain rather than "name names” before HUAC, the U. S. House of Representatives’ Un-American Activities Committee. The Pennsylvania-born Endfield made films that exhibit an outsider’s eye for his adopted country, including the working-class "trucking” drama Hell Drivers and the cult film Zulu--a war epic as politically nuanced as it is spectacular. Along the way he encountered Orson Welles, collaborated with pioneering animator Ray Harryhausen, published a book of his card magic, and co-invented an early word processor that anticipated today’s technology. The Many Lives of Cy Endfield is the first book on this fascinating figure. The fruit of years of archival research and personal interviews by Brian Neve, it documents Endfield’s many identities: among them second-generation immigrant, Jew, Communist, and exile. Neve paints detailed scenes not only of the political and personal dramas of the blacklist era, but also of the attempts by Hollywood directors in the postwar 1940s and early 1950s to address social and political controversies of the day. Out of these efforts came two crime melodramas (what would become known as film noir) on inequalities of class and race: The Underworld Story and The Sound of Fury (also known as Try and Get Me!). Neve reveals the complex production and reception histories of Endfield’s films, which the critic Jonathan Rosenbaum saw as reflective of "an uncommon intelligence so radically critical of the world we live in that it’s dangerous. ” The Many Lives of Cy Endfield is at once a revealing biography of an independent, protean figure, an insight into film industry struggles, and a sensitive and informed study of an underappreciated body of work.
The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Prison Journey - To Hell and Back
by Lara Love Hardin'Lara Love Hardin shares compelling and important truths in her beautifully told personal story.' PIPER KERMAN, author of the no. 1 New York Times bestseller Orange is the New Black'Thrilling, funny, heartbreaking and moving. I'll return to this book when I need to be reminded of the power of the human spirit.' DAVID SHEFF, author of the no. 1 New York Times bestseller Beautiful Boy'Compelling and timely' BRYAN STEVENSON, author of the New York Times bestseller Just MercyThe Neighbour From Hell is the astonishing tale of Lara's descent from middle class soccer mum with an enviable lifestyle, beautiful home and family to an opiate addict and identity thief. Convicted of 32 felonies, her children are taken away and she is placed in a local jail.In this strange and frightening new world, she has to get grips with life behind bars. Lara becomes known in prison as Mama Love. She helps the women around her get to grips with their own troubles, writes letters for them, acts as an advocate, and comforts them in their darkest moments. Soon she climbs the jailhouse social ladder to become 'the shot caller' showing that jailhouse politics and PTA politics are not that different.Through her incarceration, Lara reveals a world where makeshift furniture is made from tampon boxes and snicker bars are currency, a world of brutal corruption and abuse, and of surprising humanity and tenderness.Her story gives us a rare glimpse into the lives of the women in jail she spent time with and the very real challenges they, and she, faced trying to make it out of prison, regain custody of their children and start life afresh.
The Many Lives of Mama Love (Oprah's Book Club): A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing
by Lara Love Hardin&“Once you start reading, be prepared, because you won&’t want to stop.&” —Oprah Winfrey OPRAH&’S BOOK CLUB PICK • New York Times bestselling author Lara Love Hardin recounts her slide from soccer mom to opioid addict to jailhouse shot caller and her unlikely comeback as a highly successful ghostwriter in this harrowing, hilarious, no-holds-barred memoir.No one expects the police to knock on the door of the million-dollar two-story home of the perfect cul-de-sac housewife. But soccer mom Lara Love Hardin has been hiding a shady secret: she is funding her heroin addiction by stealing her neighbors&’ credit cards. Lara is convicted of thirty-two felonies and becomes inmate S32179. She finds that jail is a class system with a power structure that is somewhere between an adolescent sleepover party and Lord of the Flies. Furniture is made from tampon boxes, and Snickers bars are currency. But Lara quickly learns the rules and brings love and healing to her fellow inmates as she climbs the social ladder and acquires the nickname &“Mama Love,&” showing that jailhouse politics aren&’t that different from the PTA meetings she used to attend. When she&’s released, she reinvents herself as a ghostwriter. Now, she&’s legally co-opting other people&’s identities and getting to meet Oprah, meditate with the Dalai Lama, and have dinner with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the shadow of her past follows her. Shame is a poison worse than heroin—there is no way to detox. Lara must learn how to forgive herself and others, navigate life as a felon on probation, and prove to herself that she is more good than bad, among other essential lessons. The Many Lives of Mama Love is a heartbreaking and tender journey from shame to redemption, despite a system that makes it almost impossible for us to move beyond the worst thing we have ever done.
The Many Lives of Michael Bloomberg: Innovation, Money, And Politics
by Eleanor RandolphWith unprecedented access, the veteran New York Times reporter and editorial writer who covered New York City and state politics offers a revealing portrait of one of the richest and famously private/public figures in the country. Business genius, inventor, innovator, publisher, philanthropist, activist, and sly wit Michael Bloomberg.Michael Bloomberg’s life sounds like an exaggerated version of The American Story, except his adventures are real. From modest Jewish middle class (and Eagle Scout) to Harvard MBA to Salomon Brothers hot shot (where he gets “sent upstairs” and later fired) to creator of the machine that would change Wall Street and the rest of the world and make him a billionaire (a description by the author makes the invention clear to non-engineers). Randolph’s account of Bloomberg’s life and time reads almost like a novel, a quintessentially American story. She explains the “machine” he invented that gave and continues to give instant access to an infinite amount of information to bankers and investors on how, what, and where to invest, and how it changed the financial universe. Randolph recounts one day not long ago when the Bloomberg machine briefly blipped and the whole world’s financial marketplace came to a halt. Randolph recounts Mayor Bloomberg’s vigorous approach to New York city’s care—including his attempts at education reform, contract control, anti-smoking and anti-obesity campaigns, green climate control, and his political adventures with both aides and opponents. After a surprising third term as Mayor, Bloomberg returned to his business and doubles its already tremendous worth. The chapter that describes this is one of the most revealing of his temperament and energy and vision as well as how he spends his “private” time—private but convivial. Bloomberg’s philanthropies are education, anti-NRA, and supporting a cleaner environment. He is a moderate liberal in a time when that quality holds the future of the Democratic Party and the country to account.
The Many Lives of Miss K: Toto Koopman - Model, Muse, Spy
by Jean-Noel Liaut Denise Raab JacobsA life of glamour and tragedy, set against the watershed cultural and political movements of twentieth-century Europe. "Toto" Koopman (1908-1991) is a new addition to the set of iconoclastic women whose biographies intrigue and inspire modern-day readers. Like her contemporaries Lee Miller or Vita Sackville-West, Toto lived with an independent spirit more typical of the men of her generation, moving in the worlds of fashion, society, art, and politics with an insouciant ease that would stir both admiration and envy even today. Sphinxlike and tantalizing, Toto conducted her life as a game, driven by audacity and style. Jean-Noël Liaut chases his enigmatic subject through the many roles and lives she inhabited, both happy and tragic. Though her beauty, charisma, and taste for the extraordinary made her an exuberant fixture of Paris fashion and café society, her intelligence and steely sense of self drove her toward bigger things, culminating in espionage during WWII, for which she was imprisoned by the Nazis in Ravensbruck. After the horrors of the camp, she found solace in Erica Brausen, the German art dealer who launched the career of Francis Bacon, and the two women lived out their lives together surrounded by cultural luminaries like Edmonde Charles-Roux and Luchino Visconti. But even in her later decades, Toto remained impossible for anyone to possess. The Many Lives of Miss K explores the allure of a freethinking and courageous woman who, fiercely protective of her independence, was sought after by so many but ultimately known by very few.
Many Love: A Memoir of Polyamory and Finding Love(s)
by Sophie Lucido JohnsonSophie Lucido Johnson gets a lot of questions when she tells people that she’s polyamorous. Many Love is an intimate look at this often misunderstood practice: its history, its misconceptions, and Sophie’s personal transformation from serial monogamist to proud polyamorist.After trying for years to emulate her boomer parents’ forty-year and still-going-strong marriage, Sophie realized that maybe the love she was looking for was down a road less traveled. In this bold, graphic memoir, she explores her sexuality, her values, and the versions of love our society accepts and practices. Along the way, she shares what it’s like to play on Tinder side-by-side with your boyfriend, encounter—and surmount—many types of jealousy, learn the power of female friendship, and other amazing things that happened when she stopped looking for “the one.” In a lot of ways, Many Love is Sophie’s love letter to everyone she has ever cared for. Witty, insightful, and complete with illustrations, this debut provides a memorable glimpse into an unconventional life.
Many Masks: A Life of Frank Lloyd Wright
by Brendan GillBiography of the great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is often described as the greatest of American architects--an opinion Wright was quick to agree with, objecting only to what he considered the lessening of his place in history implied by the adjective "American." His works--among them Taliesin North, Taliesin West, Fallingwater, the Johnson Wax buildings, the Guggenheim Museum--earned him a good measure of his fame, but his flamboyant personal life earned him the rest. Here Brendan Gill, a personal friend of Wright and his family and the architecture critic for the New Yorker Magazine, gives us not only the fullest, fairest, and most entertaining account of Wright to date, but also strips away the many masks the architect tirelessly constructed to fascinate and mislead his admirers and detractors. Enriched by hitherto unpublished letters and three hundred photographs and drawings, this definitive biography makes Wright, in all his creativity, crankiness, and zest, fairly leap from its pages.
Many Subtle Channels: In Praise of Potential Literature
by Levin Becker DanielWhat sort of society could bind together Jacques Roubaud, Italo Calvino, Marcel Duchamp, and Raymond Queneau-and Daniel Levin Becker, a young American obsessed with language play? Only the Oulipo, the Paris-based experimental collective founded in 1960 and fated to become one of literature’s quirkiest movements. An international organization of writers, artists, and scientists who embrace formal and procedural constraints to achieve literature’s possibilities, the Oulipo (the French acronym stands for workshop for potential literature) is perhaps best known as the cradle of Georges Perec’s novel A Void, which does not contain the letter e. Drawn to the Oulipo’s mystique, Levin Becker secured a Fulbright grant to study the organization and traveled to Paris. He was eventually offered membership, becoming only the second American to be admitted to the group. From the perspective of a young initiate, the Oulipians and their projects are at once bizarre and utterly compelling. Levin Becker’s love for games, puzzles, and language play is infectious, calling to mind Elif Batuman’s delight in Russian literature in The Possessed. In recent years, the Oulipo has inspired the creation of numerous other collectives: the OuMuPo (a collective of DJs), the OuMaPo (marionette players), the OuBaPo (comic strip artists), the OuFlarfPo (poets who generate poetry with the aid of search engines), and a menagerie of other Ou-X-Pos (workshops for potential something). Levin Becker discusses these and other intriguing developments in this history and personal appreciation of an iconic-and iconoclastic-group.
The Many Worlds of Sarala Devi: A Diary & The Tagores and Sartorial Style: A Photo Essay
by Sukhendu Ray Malavika Karlekar Bharati RayThis charming book The Many Worlds of Sarala Devi and The Tagores and Sartorial Styles, as the titles suggest, contain two separate but related writings on the Tagores. The Tagores were a pre-eminent family which became synonymous with the cultural regeneration of India, specifically of Bengal, in the nineteenth century. The first writing is a sensitive translation of Sarala Devis memoirs from the Bengali, Jeevaner Jharapata, by Sukhendu Ray. It is the first autobiography written by a nationalist woman leader of India. Sarala Devi was Rabindranath Tagores niece and had an unusual life. The translation unfolds, among other things, what it was like to grow up in a big affluent house Jorasanko, that had more than 116 inmates and a dozen cooks! The second writing by Malavika Karlekar is a photo essay, creatively conceived, visually reflecting the social and cultural trends of the times, through styles of dress, jewellery and accoutrements. The modern style of wearing a sari was introduced by Jnanadanandini Devi, a member of the Tagore family. The introduction by the well-known historian, Bharati Ray, very perceptively captures the larger context of family, marriage, womens education and politics of the time which touched Sarala Devis life. She points out that if memoirs are a kind of social history then womens diaries record social influences not found in official accounts and are therefore, a rich source of documentation.
Manzanar to Mount Whitney: The Life and Times of a Lost Hiker
by Hank UmemotoIn 1942, fourteen-year-old Hank Umemoto gazed out a barrack window at Manzanar Internment Camp, saw the silhouette of Mount Whitney against an indigo sky, and vowed that one day he would climb to the top. Fifty-seven years and a lifetime of stories later, at the age of seventy-one, he reached the summit. Part memoir and part hiker's diary, Manzanar to Mount Whitney gives an intimate, rollicking account of Japanese American life California before and after World War II. As he wanders through the mountains of California's Inland Empire, Umemoto recalls pieces of his childhood on a grape vineyard in the Sacramento Valley, his time at Manzanar, where beauty and hope were maintained despite the odds, and his later career as proprietor of a printing firm, all with grace, honesty, and unfailing humor. And all along, the peak of Mount Whitney casts its shadow, a symbol of freedom, beauty, and resilience.
Manzanar to Mount Whitney: The Life and Times of a Lost Hiker
by Hank UmemotoThis intimate memoir offers a poignant, at times humorous account of Japanese American life in California before and after WWII.In 1942, fourteen-year-old Hank Umemoto gazed out a barrack window at Manzanar Internment Camp, saw the silhouette of Mount Whitney against an indigo sky, and vowed that one day he would climb to the top. Fifty-seven years and a lifetime of stories later, at the age of seventy-one, he reached the summit. As Umemoto wanders through the mountains of California’s Inland Empire, he recalls pieces of his childhood on a grape vineyard in the Sacramento Valley, his time at Manzanar, where beauty and hope were maintained despite the odds, and his later career as proprietor of a printing firm—sharing it all with grace, honesty, and unfailing humor.
The Manzoni Family: A Novel
by Natalia GinzburgWinner of the Bagutta Prize, The Manzoni Family set in ducal Italy and post-revolutionary France, captures the story of Alessandro Manzoni—celebrated Milanese nobleman, man of letters, and author of the masterpiece of nineteenth-century Italian literature, I promessi sposi (The Betrothed)—and the women of his life. The dynastic tale begins with the matriarchal figure of Giulia, the mother whom the young Alessandro Manzoni found in Paris after she had abandoned him as an infant. Following her, there is Enrichetta, the woman he and his mother chose to be his wife, and the many children she had by him until her death; literary friends from the beau monde in Italy and Paris; and Alessandro's second wife, Teresa, and her children. Against the background of Napoleonic occupation, the reestablishment of Austrian hegemony, and the stirrings of the revolutionary urge for unification and independence, Ginzburg gracefully weaves the story of the Manzoni dynasty, a family that seems to grow autonomously around the life of the writer, effortlessly incorporating the epic tumult and emotion of the age. Ginzburg explores this fascinating true story and celebrated author with the elegance that has assured her rightful place among history’s acclaimed literary titans.
Mao: La Historia Desconocida
by Jung ChangLa biografía definitiva de Mao Zedong. Jung Chang y el historiador Jon Halliday, su marido, han escrito una biografía de Mao realmente sobrecogedora. Basada en diez años de investigación y en las entrevistas realizadas a muchas de las figuras que se movieron en los círculos más cercanos a Mao -y que hasta ahora no habían hablado- y con casi todo aquel que, fuera de China, mantuvo alguna relación significativa con el líder chino, ésta es la biografía de Mao más seria y acreditada que se ha escrito. Después de conquistar China, a partir de 1949 Mao tuvo el secreto objetivo de dominar el mundo. En la persecución de esta fantasía causó la muerte de 38 millones de personas en la mayor hambruna de la historia. En conjunto, bajo el gobierno de Mao perecieron, en tiempos de paz, más de 70 millones de seres humanos. La autora nos lleva a las sombrías estancias de su corte y nos deja observar el drama hasta en los rincones más recónditos. La personalidad de Mao y su relación con sus esposas, hijos y amantes salen a la luz por primera vez. Reseñas:«Pocos libros están destinados a cambiar la historia, pero este lo hará.»George Walden, Daily Mail «Jung Chang y Jon Halliday entran en una crítica salvaje que, basándose en numerosísimas fuentes -incluidas las soviéticas-, acabarán por barrer las miasmas de engaño e ignorancia que todavía envuelven la vida de Mao a los ojos de muchos ciudadanos occidentales.»Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph «Una obra magistral. Esta magnífica biografía destruye metódicamente cada pilar de las reivindicaciones de Mao. Un logro.»Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times Book Review «Un triunfo. Un asombroso retrato de la tiranía, la degeneración, los asesinatos en masa y la promiscuidad, una batería de bombas para el revisionismo histórico y una soberbia pieza de investigación. La primera biografía privada y política del mayor monstruo de los monstruos.»Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Sunday Times «Lo que Chang y Halliday han hecho es inmenso y sobrepasa, dentro del ámbito de las biografías, todo lo que se había hecho anteriormente.»Jonathan Mirsky, The Independent «Chang y Halliday arrojan una luz nueva y reveladora sobre cada uno de los episodios de la tumultuosa vida de Mao. Un libro estupendo.»Michael Yahuda, The Guardian «Este libro es una bomba atómica.»Donald Morrison, TIME «Una obra que pone de manifiesto que comunismo y destrucción son sinónimos, pese a la admiración que la mencionada ideología recibió y sigue recibiendo desde determinadas instancias académicas y culturales.»Alfredo Crespo, El imparcial
Mao: The Unknown Story
by Jung Chang Jon Halliday"Ever since the spectacular success of Chang's Wild Swans we have waited impatiently for her to complete with her husband this monumental study of China's most notorious modern leader. The expectation has been that she would rewrite modern Chinese history. The wait has been worthwhile and the expectation justified. This is a bombshell of a book."-Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong, in The Times (London)Based on a decade of research and on interviews with many of Mao's close circle in China who have never talked before-and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him-this is the most authoritative life of Mao ever written. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the Long March, and showing a completely unknown Mao: he was not driven by idealism or ideology; his intimate and intricate relationship with Stalin went back to the 1920s, ultimately bringing him to power; he welcomed Japanese occupation of much of China; and he schemed, poisoned and blackmailed to get his way. After Mao conquered China in 1949, his secret goal was to dominate the world. In chasing this dream he caused the deaths of 38 million people in the greatest famine in history. In all, well over 70 million Chinese perished under Mao's rule-in peacetime.Combining meticulous research with the story-telling style of Wild Swans, this biography offers a harrowing portrait of Mao's ruthless accumulation of power through the exercise of terror: his first victims were the peasants, then the intellectuals and, finally, the inner circle of his own advisors. The reader enters the shadowy chambers of Mao's court and eavesdrops on the drama in its hidden recesses. Mao's character and the enormity of his behavior toward his wives, mistresses and children are unveiled for the first time.This is an entirely fresh look at Mao in both content and approach. It will astonish historians and the general reader alike.From the Hardcover edition.
Mao: The Unknown Story
by Jung Chang Jon HallidayThe most authoritative life of the Chinese leader every written,Mao: The Unknown Storyis based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao's close circle in China who have never talked before -- and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the Long March, and showing a completely unknown Mao: he was not driven by idealism or ideology; his intimate and intricate relationship with Stalin went back to the 1920s, ultimately bringing him to power; he welcomed Japanese occupation of much of China; and he schemed, poisoned, and blackmailed to get his way. After Mao conquered China in 1949, his secret goal was to dominate the world. In chasing this dream he caused the deaths of 38 million people in the greatest famine in history. In all, well over 70 million Chinese perished under Mao's rule -- in peacetime.
Mao (Routledge Historical Biographies)
by Michael LynchMichael Lynch’s second edition of Mao examines the life of this controversial figure. Opening with a detailed chronology, it delves into Mao’s younger years and tracks his gradual rise to power, with a chapter dedicated to the cult status that surrounded him. Through a wealth of primary and secondary sources and a balanced consideration of the conflicting views that surround Mao’s leadership, this book provides a thorough exploration of Mao’s political and private life. Key features of the second edition include a detailed analysis of the Long March, an account of Sino-Japanese relations and an assessment of Mao’s ongoing legacy. This biography will be essential reading for anyone interested in Mao and the politics of twentieth-century China.