Halliday, Jon 1939–

PERSONAL:

Born June 28, 1939, in Dublin, Ireland; married Jung Chang (a writer). Education: Graduated from Oxford University, 1961. Politics: Socialist.

CAREER:

Writer; University of Calabria, Cosenza, Italy, associate professor of comparative politics, 1974-76; Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City, visiting professor of comparative politics, 1977-78; University of London, King's College, senior research fellow.

WRITINGS:

Sirk on Sirk (interviews), Viking (New York, NY), 1972.

(With Gavan McCormack) Japanese Imperialism Today, Penguin (New York, NY), 1973.

(With Peter Fuller) The Psychology of Gambling, Penguin (New York, NY), 1974.

(With others) Modern Hong Kong, Seventies (New York, NY), 1974.

A Political History of Japanese Capitalism, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1975.

(With Bruce Cumings) Korea: The Unknown War, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1988.

(With wife, Jung Chang) Mao: The Unknown Story, Knopf (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to magazines, including Les Temps Modernes, New Left Review, and New Statesman, and newspapers.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jon Halliday is a writer and educator whose works include a number of books on the politics of Asia, many of which reflect his own socialist leanings. Among the volumes he has written or edited is a comprehensive biography of China's Chairman Mao, Mao: The Unknown Story, which he coauthored with his wife, Jung Chang, in 2005. The book swiftly rose to the top of the best-seller lists and was labeled by some reviewers as the definitive work available on Mao. Halliday and Chang pulled no punches in their effort to present the most honest and brutal depiction of Mao's life and politics, refusing to shy away from the chairman's more gruesome acts that ultimately led to the deaths of more than seventy million people—the most seen in the twentieth century. Avi Kramer, reviewing the book for Kliatt, found it to be "both the fascinating revelation of Mao's improbable rise to power and the fierce, long-awaited condemnation of his deadly practices once he got there." Library Journal reviewer Charles W. Hayford called it "a controversial, highly significant, and compellingly readable biography."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kliatt, March, 2007, Avi Kramer, review of Mao: The Unknown Story, p. 33.

Library Journal, September 1, 2005, Charles W. Hayford, review of Mao, p. 152.