MICHAEL LYNCH

Was Mao the first red emperor or the last great Marxist leader? Mao Zedong was held in awe by his people, seen by many as a supreme hero who had freed their country. He led a vast social revolution and made China a world power that competed with the Soviet Union as the leader of international socialism. Michael Lynch presents an engaging and thorough account of Mao's life and politics, making use of a wealth of primary and secondary sources. He locates Maoism in the broader context of twentieth-century Chinese history, discussing the development of the Chinese Communist Party, the creation of the People's Republic of China and the Cultural Revolution, and the part of Mao's China in the Cold War. Details of Mao's private life as well as his political and philosophical thought add to this diverse picture of the influential leader.

Edinburghs reformation was one of the last of the great city reformations of the sixteenth century. It took on a highly distinctive shape due to the burghs social and economic problems and its position as a cockpit for English policy in Scotland and the shifting factionalism of Scottish politics. In studies of the Scottish Reformation, too little attention has been paid to the nature of Scottish society itself. In a society so conscious of rank, tradition and precedent, the Reformation was only likely to make progress where it did not disturb the existing order, and in Edinburgh the new religion was obliged to work within the natural constraints of burgh life. This book shows that the early promise of the Protestant reformers of a new society provoked a backlash and had to be abandoned for a new conciliatory approach. The result was that power remained in much the same hands in the 1580s as it had in the 1540s, with one real difference there was more of it.