On Guerilla Warfare: Mao Tse-Tung On Guerilla Warfare - Hardcover

by Mao Tse-Tung (Author), Mao Zedong (Author), Samuel B. Griffith (Translator)

2022 Hardcover Reprint of 1961 Edition. On Guerrilla Warfare is a foundational military and political treatise written by Mao Tse-Tung (Mao Zedong, 1893–1976), the Chinese communist revolutionary, strategist, and leader who founded the People’s Republic of China. A former librarian and schoolteacher who rose to command the Red Army during the Chinese Civil War and the war against Japanese occupation, Mao developed his theories of revolutionary warfare through years of practical experience in rural base areas and prolonged conflict against superior enemy forces.

Originally written in 1937 during the early stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the book outlines the principles, strategies, and tactics of guerrilla warfare. It explains how small, mobile forces operating in rural territories can harass, exhaust, and ultimately defeat a stronger conventional army. Mao emphasizes the integration of military action with political mobilization of the peasantry, the importance of base areas, intelligence, surprise attacks, and the transition from guerrilla to mobile warfare as revolutionary forces grow stronger. 

A primary source and military classic from one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, On Guerrilla Warfare remains essential reading for those interested in revolutionary strategy, asymmetric warfare, modern insurgency tactics, and the theory of people’s war.