A review by huerca_armada
On Guerrilla Warfare by Samuel B. Griffith, Mao Zedong

3.0

While those looking for a field manual on the titular subject will be sorely disappointed in the actual content (much of which is unique to the time in which it was written), there's still a lot to glean from the text. Make no mistake; Mao's writing is blunt and to the point, eschewing eloquence for an organizational program that is easily digestible for masses of readers. While of limited use to anyone who is not currently involved in a Chinese United Front struggling against Japanese occupation, On Guerrilla Warfare is a window into the mindset of Mao and others like him, both from a revolutionary and nationalist perspective. It traces organizational strategies that the Chinese Red Army successfully utilized from their infancy in the Jiangxi Soviet, through their most tenuous circumstances of the Long March to Yan'an, through the Sino-Japanese War and which you can see the outlines of their successes against the Guomindang/Nationalist forces in the Civil War.

A good supplement to other materials on Mao and China from this period overall, but should not be taken in isolation given that it is very much a particular text written for a particular time. Recommended for those with a more focused interest in Mao from this period; otherwise, most of what is written here is incorporated in broader texts that will give you the highlights in fewer words.