Book Summary

Volume III contains extensive new documentation regarding Mao's military thought drawn from the six-volume edition of Mao's military writings recently issued in Beijing, much of it previously unavailable even in internal publications. This volume also contains significant information about the conflict between guerrilla war in the overall strategy of the Chinese revolution during the years 1928-1930. Among such items, Mao's reply of April 1929 to the criticisms leveled at him by the Central Committee is of particular interest. Texts from the Selected Works, with indications as to how the original versions were rewritten, include the Report on the Struggle in the Jinggangshan of November 1928, the Futian Resolution of December 1929, and the letter to Lin Biao of January 1930, otherwise known as A Single Spark Can Start a Praire Fire. A number of the rural social surveys which became so characteristic a feature of Mao's operations in the countryside also appear in this volume, which thus constitutes an important source book on local history, as well as on military and political developments.