By all standards, Mao Tse-tung belongs among the very few great political leaders of the twentieth century. Supporters and foes alike agree that, more than any other leader in modern times, Mao"s personal qualities are responsible for China"s remarkable transformation into a great power in one generation. But what are these qualities? Unlike all other biographies of Mao, which concentrates exclusively on his public role or on his intellectual development as a Marxist "theorist," this fascinating book by one of our leading China specialists is the first to relate the private man to the public figure of Chairman Mao. Drawing on Mao"s own account of his childhood, on his public speeches, and on eyewitness accounts by those who knew him, Lucian Pye describes and analyzes Mao"s emotional development in terms of what is known about his relations with his father and mother, his brothers and sisters, his classmates, and his three wives.