Mao on Warfare compiles Mao Zedong's principal works on martial theory, including On Guerrilla Warfare and On Protracted War. In On Guerrilla Warfare, Mao explores China's long history of guerrilla warfare, beginning with the Chu and Han dynasties. Mao relates the expansion in the theories, tactics and strategies of guerrilla warfare as practiced by the People's Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War.

In On Protracted War, Mao analyzes the fundamental questions of warfare from the standpoint of dialectical materialism. Mao used On Protracted War to explain tactics developed in World War II and instrumental in China's campaigns against the Japanese occupation. On Protracted War also reviews strategies Mao employed in the Chinese Civil War.

Mao on Warfare is of primary interest to military experts and scholars, as well as to casual readers with an interest in warfare in general and Chinese martial history in particular.