of Maoist ideals. The incidents of destruction of cultural heritage, religion, and art remain controversial. Some Western scholars saw Maoism as specifically engaged in a battle to dominate and subdue nature and was a catastrophe for the environment. Populism Mao also believed strongly in the concept of a unified people. These notions prompted him to investigate the peasant uprisings in Hunan while the rest of China's communists were in the cities and focused on the orthodox Marxist proletariat. Many of the pillars of Maoism, such as the distrust of intellectuals and the abhorrence of occupational speciality, are typical populist ideas. The concept of "people's war", central to Maoist thought, is directly populist in its origins. Mao believed that intellectuals and party cadres would first become students of the masses and teachers of the masses later. This concept was vital to the aforementioned "people's war" strategy. Nationalism Mao's nationalist impulses also played a crucially important role in adapting Marxism to the Chinese model and in the formation of Maoism. Mao believed that China was to play a crucial preliminary role in the socialist revolution internationally. This belief, or the fervor with which Mao held it, separated Mao from the other Chinese communists and led Mao onto the path of what Leon Trotsky called "Messianic Revolutionary Nationalism", which was central to his philosophy. German post–World War II far-right activist Michael Kühnen, a former Maoist, once praised Maoism as a Chinese form of Nazism. Mao-Spontex Mao-Spontex refers to a Maoist interpretation in western Europe that stresses the importance of the cultural revolution and overthrowing hierarchy. See also Asiatic mode of production Chiangism Deng Xiaoping Theory History of the People's Republic of China Ideology of the Chinese Communist Party Mao Zedong's cult of personality Marxism–Leninism Marxism–Leninism–Maoism New Left in China Three Principles of the People Three Represents Scientific Outlook on Development Socialism with Chinese characteristics Xi Jinping Thought References Further reading Brown, Jeremy, and Matthew D. Johnson, eds. Maoism at the Grassroots: Everyday Life in China's Era of High Socialism (Harvard UP, 2015) online review. Cook, Alexander C., ed. Mao's Little Red Book: A Global History (Cambridge UP, 2014). Feigon, Lee. Mao: A Reinterpretation. Ivan R. Dee, Publisher. Fields, Belden. “French Maoism,” in The 60s Without Apology, ed. Sohnya Sayrers et al. (University of Minnesota Press, 1984), 148–78 Gregor, A. James and Maria Hsia Chang. "Maoism and Marxism in Comparative Perspective." The Review of