The historical verdict is still out on Mao Zedong. Was he a hero who unified China into one nation after a century of chaos? Was he a man who consistently upheld the rights of the poor and downtrodden? Was he a power-mad villain responsible for the deaths of of millions of Chinese? Was he a communist who became an emperor? Or was Mao all of these things? This anthology takes Mao from his humble beginnings as the son of a peasant to his position of ultimate power as the head of the world's most populous nation.