I imagine that the intended target audience of this book was two-fold; firstly to be read and understood by Mao's many followers in the Chinese Red Army ranks, and secondly to perhaps be read by those non-Chinese communist revolutionaries in Vietnam, Korea, and elsewhere. This is entirely my own thinking and I do not know if there is any truth to this. However, the reason why I believe this is so is the format of the book. By this I mean that the book is short and presents ideas and concepts which are basic and easy to understand. This allows the communist-inspired guerrilla commander in Manchuria circa late 1930s to pick this book up, read it quickly, and implement the basic core concepts and thus provide for Mao a more unified front with which to fight the Japanese.
And so it is that this book does not necessarily present revolutionary or groundbreaking concepts about guerrilla warfare. While I found myself having many of those "ahhh, I get it" moments, there is no big secret formula hidden in the pages, but again, I do not believe that this was the intention of Mao Zedong when he wrote the book. And as many reviewers have said before me, much of the core concepts can be seen when studying the Vietnam War and countless other modern guerrilla wars.
Overall I highly recommend this book to be read by all those interested in military history, or those who wish to gain a better understanding of contemporary conflicts. The shortness of this book adds to it's strength, making it hard to argue against reading it (you can read it in a few short sittings).
This publication did suffer from a handful or errors, such as missing '.'s, typos such as "o" in place of "of", etc. But hardly did this render the book unreadable. I also believe that if this book was priced lower, at say $6-7.00, it would be a must-own. The sum of these things, however, do not add up to anything less then a full 5 stars. Enjoy!
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About the author
Mao's military campaigns rank with the best of Napoleon's and Caesar's
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery claimed that four of Mao's military campaigns rank with the best of Napoleon's and Caesar's. But this book is devoted to a form of warfare that Mao analyzed and practiced better than anyone in history: guerilla fighting. It did not originate with him of course, but he was the first to thoroughly understand, dissect and write about it. An invaluable guide for everyone interested in the art of war and an insight into an often-overlooked aspect of a man who will probably go down in history as the greatest leader of the 20th. century and, perhaps, of all time.
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2013
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- Prabar kumar sahaReviewed in India on October 1, 2022
MAN WITHOUT FEAR
BRIEF IDEA ON GUERILLA BAND.Prabar kumar sahaMAN WITHOUT FEAR
Reviewed in India on October 1, 2022
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