There have been many books on Mao Zedong, but few match this indispensable study by Wang Fanxi, a leading Chinese Trotskyist and contemporary of Mao. Written more than fifty years ago during Wang Fanxi's exile in Macau, this outstanding analysis has stood the test of time as a critical appraisal of Maoism as a political current from within the Marxist tradition. Wang Fanxi himself was forced to live out his life in exile. His book remains indispensable to anyone interested in a serious appraisal of Mao Zedong.