- "China: A Memoir, 1964-72" (1972)
- "Mao Tse-Tung: A Biography" (1980)
- "The Path to Power" (1983)
- "The Making of a Monster: The Biography of Mao Zedong" (2010)
- "The Nanjing Atrocities: 1937–38" (2011)
2. Fiction
- "My Enemy's Enemy" (1983)
- “Heaven's Fury: A Novel of China in Revolution” (1989)
- "Dragonfly" (1990)
- “The Blood of Beijing: A Novel of the Chinese Revolution” (1992)
- "The Gate" (1994)
- "Blood of Brothers: A Novel of China, 1927" (1996)
- "The Heaven Seekers" (1998)
- “Ghost Orchid: A Novel of War, Love, and Survival in China” (1999)
- “Heaven’s Fury” (1999)
- "Brotherly Lust" (2000)
- "The Fifth Modernization: A Novel of Power, Sex, and Scandal in a Rising China" (2001)
- "The Chinese Affair: A Novel" (2003)
- “The Art of War: A Novel of Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia” (2005)
- "The Great American Novels" (2010)