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This is a very valuable work for historians looking for original sources from this period. For the more casual reader, only some parts of it will stand out, though they are pretty good. Overall, it's very readable. The purely political portions are little more than historical interest, except insofar as Mao went against his own preaching as soon as he was in power, or held the Communists to his principles while denying them to others (like the Kuomintang).
Some of the military principles are little more than general, abstract truisms repeated over and over again without clarification, expansion, or concrete example, making them not very helpful (might as well say "win and don't lose"). It is when Mao gets into specifics that the reader is most rewarded. He clearly had a mind for both combat and politics, and indeed, a la Carl von Clausewitz, saw them as intertwined. He appreciated maneuver warfare at a time when many, including among both his Communist peers and Kuomintang rivals, still saw warfare in terms of taking and holding territory, not in defeating the enemy's ability and will to make war.
Adding maps to the various sections, highlighting the places Mao mentions, or even better, showing the arrangement of forces and their various movements, would vastly enhance the work's value in terms of its direct messages about military affairs. One can still benefit from the more general ideas and principles even without a deep familiarity of Chinese geography, but such maps would broaden the benefit of the work and probably earn it another star from me if well done.
The prefaces and end notes are gushing and adoring of Mao, so don't expect any academic rigor in the edition. However, as a primary source, it well captures the thinking and the feeling of the actors and the time. Naturally, Mao is careful how he phrases some things within the bounds of the sometimes deadly Communist politics, but he had as much skill expressing himself politically as he did outfoxing the Kuomintang. Definitely worth a read, especially for China specialists or those interested in military matters.