曾經拜訪過一位間接認識的教授想請他做推薦人，他到地下室藏書間翻了這一本舊書送給我，讓我看完寫個書評給他，再談。
我看了第一頁就放棄了，看不懂，後來倒是借給別人數次，據說是一本很著名的關於老毛的傳記。
"Ross Terrill, a China specialist and Research Associate at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, is the author of nine books. Raised in rural Australia, he graduated in history and political science from the University of Melbourne in 1962 and served in the Australian Army. He took a PH.D. in political science at Harvard in 1970, where his thesis on the philosophy of R. H. Tawney was awarded the Sumner Prize and was later published as Socialism As Fellowship.
While teaching at Harvard on political thought, Chinese politics, and international affairs, he wrote 800,000,000: The Real China, The Future of China: After Mao, Flowers on an Iron Tree: Five Cities of China, and the original edition of Mao. A decade a contributing editor of The Atlantic Monthly he won the National Magazine Award for Reporting Excellence and the George Polk Memorial Award for Outstanding Magazine Reporting for writings on China."
