Synopses & Reviews
Ho Chi Minh is one of the towering figures of the twentieth century, considered an icon and father of the nation by many Vietnamese. Pierre Brocheux's biography of Ho Chi Minh is a brilliant feat of historical engineering. In a concise and highly readable account, he negotiates the many twists and turns of Ho Chi Minh's life and his multiple identities, from impoverished beginnings as a communist revolutionary to his founding of the Indochina Communist Party and the League for the Independence of Vietnam, and ultimately to his leadership of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and his death in 1969. Biographical events are adroitly placed within the broader historical canvas of colonization, decolonization, communism, war, and nation building. Brocheux's vivid and convincing portrait of Ho Chi Minh goes further than any previous biography in explaining both the myth and the man, as well as the times in which he was situated.
Review
"The founder of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam emerges as an appealing but still somewhat enigmatic figure in this impressionistic biography."
-Publishers Weekly
Review
"A noted French scholar of colonial and contemporary Vietnam, Brocheux (The Mekong Delta) has written a fascinating account of Ho Chi Minh the man (born Nguyen Sinh Cung in 1890) and 'Uncle Ho' the myth."
-Patti C. McCall, Library Journal
Review
"...the most sensitive treatment of Ho's complex personality, as well as iconic status, that I have read to date. Brocheaux gives us his on interpretation of Ho while avoiding the temptation to extemporize in a quasi-fictional manner."
-David G. Marr, Pacific Affairs
Review
"...a must for anyone fascinated with Southeast Asia and the Vietnam wars." --CHOICE
Synopsis
A fascinating biography of the Vietnamese icon Ho Chi Minh.
About the Author
Pierre Brocheux is retired Professor of History at Université de Paris VII - Denis Diderot. His many publications include Une Histoire économique du Viet Nam, 1850-2007 (2009) and, with Daniel Hemery, Indochina: An Ambiguous Colonization, 1858-1954 (2010).
Table of Contents
1. In search of a future; 2. A missionary of revolution; 3. Under the Sword of Damocles; 4. Father of the nation; 5. The force of circumstance; 6. Epilogue: a man at the interface between two worlds.