The private life of Chairman Mao
by Li Zhisui, Anne F. Thurston · first published 1992
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From 1954 until Mao Zedong's death twenty-two years later, Dr. Li Zhisui was the Chinese ruler's personal physician, which put him in almost daily - and increasingly intimate - contact with Mao and his inner circle. For most of these years, Mao's health was excellent; thus he and the doctor had time to discuss political and personal matters. Dr. Li recorded many of these conversations in his diaries as well as in his memory. In The Private Life of Chairman Mao he vividly reconstructs his extraordinary experience. The result is a book that will profoundly alter our view of Chairman Mao and o
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William Manchester is about the only writer who comes near Robert Caro. If you liked The Power Broker, you may want to read his American Caesar, or The Arms of Krupp. The Private Life of Chairman Mao is another tremendous account of the excesses of power.
on “Robert A. Caro on the means and ends of power” ↗Strange coincidence, I just finished reading "The Private Life of Chairman Mao", which also describes the mango incident. It's an incredible book.
on “The Mao Mango Cult of 1968 and the Rise of China's Working Class” ↗Preface: I've been fascinated with cults since I read "a piece of blue sky" about L. Ron Hubbard and scientology. I'm reading "The private life of chairman mao" now. I've only skimmed the article but... With the right leader this could make a great cult!
on “Psychonetics: A nerd's toolset to work with mind and perception” ↗…you would like the words private and public to be disjoint sets, however in practice those words have overlapping meanings depending on semantics. A public copy of private information makes sense. “The Private Life of Chairman Mao” is a published book, publically available.
on “Artist finds private medical record photos in popular AI training data set” ↗