Asian history Books

Book SynopsisThis study of the regulation of sexuality in the Qing dynasty explores the social context for sexual behavior criminalized by the state, showing how regulation shifted away from status to a new regime of gender that mandated a uniform standard of sexual morality and criminal liability for all people, regardless of their social status.Trade Review"This book will be indispensible reading for China scholars studying late imperial law, traditional gender norms, the social life of the non-elite, and the history of the reach of the state. It is simultaneously a primer on traditional Chiense law and a study of law as 18th-century social engineering."—Journal of Asian Studies"This is a valuable book which places the study of sexuality in late imperial China on a much firmer footing than heretofore."—Eighteenth-Century Studies"The book is meticulously referential and bibliographic, a foundation and primer for further studies in related areas of law and society."–Journal of Asian History"In this fascinating book, Matthew H. Sommer . . . discusses legislation regulating sexuality in China during the Qing dynast (1644-1912), with looks back into previous dynasties. . . . His work fits with recent interest among history and gender history, but Sommer brings these together in a particularly fruitful manner to give new insights into late imperial society. . . . Sommer's careful theorizing makes Sex, Law, and Society important reading for specialists in all periods. At the same time, with its wealth of illustrative details and contextual explanations, the book is accessible to general readers."—History: Reviews of New Books"This path-breaking book describes how the Qing state dealth with jian, a Chinese term which the author translates as "illicit sexual intercourse". . . . Sommer's work provides an unparalleled view of order and disorder in early modern China. It will become a classic of non-Western legal history and required reading for anyone interested in the history of gender and human rights in Asia."—Comparative Studies in Society & History"Matt Sommer's study of sex and law in late imperial China is a vivid and well-written portrayal of how law worked in several key situations involving the regulation of sexuality: marriage, adultery, prostitution, and sex between men."—NAN NÜ"It will become a classic of non-Western legal history and required reading for anyone interested in the history of gender and human rights in Asia."—Comparative Studies in Society and HistoryTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. A vision of sexual order 3. The evolution of rape law: female chastity and the threat of the outside male 4. The problem of the penetrated male: Qing sodomy legislation and the fixing of male gender 5. Widows in the Qing chastity cult the nexus of sex and property in law and in women's lives 6. Sexual behavior as status performance: the regulation of prostitution before 1723 7. The extension of commoner standards: Yongzheng reforms and the criminalization of prostitution 8. Conclusion Appendices.

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Book SynopsisA study of the lively street culture in Chengdu from 1870 to 1930, this book explores the relationship between urban commoners and public space, the role of community and neighborhood in public life, and how the reform movement and Republican revolution transformed everyday life in this inland city.Trade Review"Overall, the book is well researched, carefully documented, and masterfully crafted." -- Asian Studies Review"The descriptive power of the book (aided by carefully chosen drawings and photographs) helps us visualize an important city in transition. Sharp analyses throughout make sense of practices and institutions otherwise obscure to many of us, such as 'bamboo-branch poetry,' 'chicken-feathers inns,' the 'Climbing High to Escape Disease Festival,'...to name a few examples covered in this encyclopedic and engaging work." -- Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies"This is an engaging and wonderfully readable account of everyday life and popular culture in an indigenous Chinese city at the time of social transition and political turmoil. The book is a fine example of how China's national politics affected the lives of the common people in a particular region. Wang is passionate about his subject, discerning in his analysis, and robus in his presentation. Dozens of photos and drawings, carefully selected from early twentieth century local pictorials, missionary books, and personal collections, provide good allies for the text. Students of Chinese urban history will find this book both riveting and edifying." -- American Historical Review"...the book offers a wealth of information about local customs and traditions in inland China and never fails to keep one engaged." -- Journal of Chinese Political Science"This carefully researched study is a fine example of the kind of fine-grained social history being produced by the new generation of young Chinese historians." -- The China Quarterly"This well-researched book paints a colorful tapestry of street life in a major metropolis in southwestern China." -- Journal of Interdisciplinary HistoryTable of ContentsCommoners and Public Space; The Street; Street life; Commoners and Social Reformers; Reshaping the Street and Public Life; Street Control; Commoners and Local Politics; The Struggle for the Street; Street Politics.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first comprehensive analysis of the ways in which changes in the geopolitical context have altered the nature of the long-stable U.S.-Japan relationship: much of what had once been a bilateral and relatively exclusive relationship has been transformed in the past two decades. The authors present eleven case studies of important domainsranging from increased flows of private capital to international security concerns to the growing importance of multilateral organizationsin which the relationship has been altered to a greater or lesser degree. Individual chapters present new ways of understanding international financial flows, U.S.-Japan trade relations, and U.S.-Japan manufacturing rivalry. Others present very cogent synthetic analyses of the changing context of U.S.-Japan relations. Together they provide an account of the bilateral, regional, and global institutionspolitical, military, and financialthat dominate the geopolitics of U.S.-Asia relations. Although wrTrade Review“This book provides one of the most detailed explanations of U.S.-Japan relations and clearly presents a new way of understanding U.S.-Japan trade and security relations. The contributors to this volume have done a first-rate job in accounting for the myriads of issues that dominate the geopolitics of U.S.-Japan relations.”—Asian Affairs“Written at a highly intelligent level, this volume is, overall, one of the most solid and thorough studies of US-Japan relations in the new context in east Asia, with specific policy suggestions for the US.”—ChoiceTable of Contents@fmct:Contents @toc4:List of Illustrations iii Acknowledgments iii Contributors iii @toc2:1. Challenges to Bilateralism: Changing Foes, Capital Flows, and Complex Forums 000 @tocca:T. J. Pempel @toc1:Part I. Strategy and Security @toc2:2. America in East Asia: Power, Markets, and Grand Strategy 000 @tocca:G. John Ikenberry @toc2:3. U.S.-Japan Security Relations--Toward Bilateralism Plus? 000 @tocca:Christopher W. Hughes and Akiko Fukushima @toc2:4. Terms of Engagement: The U.S.-Japan Alliance and the Rise of China 000 @tocca:Mike M. Mochizuki @toc2:5. American and Japanese Strategies in Asia: Dealing with ASEAN 000 @tocca:Andrew MacIntyre @toc1:Part II: Economic Flows @toc2:6. Capital Flows and Financial Markets in Asia: National, Regional, or Global? 000 @tocca:Natasha Hamilton-Hart @toc2:7. When Strong Ties Fail: U.S.-Japanese Manufacturing Rivalry in Asia 000 @tocca:Walter Hatch @toc2:8. Japan's Counterweight Strategy: U.S.-Japan Cooperation and Competition in International Finance 000 @tocca:Saori N. Katada @toc2:9. Japan and the Evolution of Regional Financial Arrangements in East Asia 000 @tocca:Jennifer A. Amyx @toc1:Part III: Multilateral Organizations @toc2:10. At Play in the Legal Realm: The WTO and the Changing Nature of U.S.-Japan Antidumping Disputes 000 @tocca:Saadia M. Pekkanen @toc2:11. Japan, the United States, and Multilateral Institution-Building in the Asia-Pacific: APEC and the ARF 000 @tocca:Kuniko Ashizawa @toc2:12. The United States and Japan in APEC's EVSL Negotiations: Regional Multilateralism and Trade 000 @tocca:Ellis S. Krauss @toc2:13. Conclusion: Beyond Bilateralism Toward Divided Dependence 000 @tocca:Ellis S. Krauss and T. J. Pempel @toc4:Notes 000 References 000 Index 000 Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication: United States Foreign relations Japan, Japan Foreign relations United States, United States Foreign relations 1989-Asia Economic conditions, Pacific Area Economic conditions, Asia Politics and government 1945-Pacific Area Politics and government, Geopolitics, International economic relations, International agencies

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Book SynopsisThis is the first comprehensive analysis of the ways in which changes in the geopolitical context have altered the nature of the long-stable U.S.-Japan relationship: much of what had once been a bilateral and relatively exclusive relationship has been transformed in the past two decades. The authors present eleven case studies of important domainsranging from increased flows of private capital to international security concerns to the growing importance of multilateral organizationsin which the relationship has been altered to a greater or lesser degree. Individual chapters present new ways of understanding international financial flows, U.S.-Japan trade relations, and U.S.-Japan manufacturing rivalry. Others present very cogent synthetic analyses of the changing context of U.S.-Japan relations. Together they provide an account of the bilateral, regional, and global institutionspolitical, military, and financialthat dominate the geopolitics of U.S.-Asia relations. Although wrTrade Review“This book provides one of the most detailed explanations of U.S.-Japan relations and clearly presents a new way of understanding U.S.-Japan trade and security relations. The contributors to this volume have done a first-rate job in accounting for the myriads of issues that dominate the geopolitics of U.S.-Japan relations.”—Asian Affairs“Written at a highly intelligent level, this volume is, overall, one of the most solid and thorough studies of US-Japan relations in the new context in east Asia, with specific policy suggestions for the US.”—ChoiceTable of Contents@fmct:Contents @toc4:List of Illustrations iii Acknowledgments iii Contributors iii @toc2:1. Challenges to Bilateralism: Changing Foes, Capital Flows, and Complex Forums 000 @tocca:T. J. Pempel @toc1:Part I. Strategy and Security @toc2:2. America in East Asia: Power, Markets, and Grand Strategy 000 @tocca:G. John Ikenberry @toc2:3. U.S.-Japan Security Relations--Toward Bilateralism Plus? 000 @tocca:Christopher W. Hughes and Akiko Fukushima @toc2:4. Terms of Engagement: The U.S.-Japan Alliance and the Rise of China 000 @tocca:Mike M. Mochizuki @toc2:5. American and Japanese Strategies in Asia: Dealing with ASEAN 000 @tocca:Andrew MacIntyre @toc1:Part II: Economic Flows @toc2:6. Capital Flows and Financial Markets in Asia: National, Regional, or Global? 000 @tocca:Natasha Hamilton-Hart @toc2:7. When Strong Ties Fail: U.S.-Japanese Manufacturing Rivalry in Asia 000 @tocca:Walter Hatch @toc2:8. Japan's Counterweight Strategy: U.S.-Japan Cooperation and Competition in International Finance 000 @tocca:Saori N. Katada @toc2:9. Japan and the Evolution of Regional Financial Arrangements in East Asia 000 @tocca:Jennifer A. Amyx @toc1:Part III: Multilateral Organizations @toc2:10. At Play in the Legal Realm: The WTO and the Changing Nature of U.S.-Japan Antidumping Disputes 000 @tocca:Saadia M. Pekkanen @toc2:11. Japan, the United States, and Multilateral Institution-Building in the Asia-Pacific: APEC and the ARF 000 @tocca:Kuniko Ashizawa @toc2:12. The United States and Japan in APEC's EVSL Negotiations: Regional Multilateralism and Trade 000 @tocca:Ellis S. Krauss @toc2:13. Conclusion: Beyond Bilateralism Toward Divided Dependence 000 @tocca:Ellis S. Krauss and T. J. Pempel @toc4:Notes 000 References 000 Index 000 Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication: United States Foreign relations Japan, Japan Foreign relations United States, United States Foreign relations 1989-Asia Economic conditions, Pacific Area Economic conditions, Asia Politics and government 1945-Pacific Area Politics and government, Geopolitics, International economic relations, International agencies

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Book SynopsisThis book explores legal mobilization, culture, and institutions in contemporary China from a perspective informed by 'law and society' scholarship.Trade Review"This remarkable, perspective-setting study of the evolutions in Chinese law and its place in a changing society [is] highly beneficial. One can only strongly encourage this type of research, whose multidisciplinary ambitions allow us to grasp, if not in its entirety, at least certain important aspects of a process that tends to make the law the best ally of an emerging social justice."—China Perspectives"Engaging the Law in China successfully spans the gap between different approaches to Chinese legal studies, and I hope we will see more along this line in the future. This book is highly recommended"—The China Journal"This book is an intrepid and worthy entry into the literature examining China's rapidly developing legal institutions, and especially laudable as a precedent for future investigations into the topic."Cambridge Law Journal"Their Diamant, Lubman, OBrien insights into the roles played by regulators, mediators, arbitrators, police, prosecutors, judges, legislators, and other local government and Communist Party officials leave no doubt that, however limited, imperfect and distinctive Chinas legal processes may be, there is a legal system at work in the P.R.C. and it is ever more important to the polity, economy and society of 1.3 billion people."—Far Eastern Economic Review"Engaging the Law in China heralds a rich set of findings in a promising field of study. It not only serves as an important benchmark for future research on the law in contemporary China but also for studies of Chinese state-society relations, past and present. This volume will make an important addition to any course considering these issues."—The China Quarterly"[T]his book is a valuable contribution to research on contemporary China. It can and should be read by individuals with a specific interest in Chinese legal studies, as well as by those with a general interest in state-society relations in the Chinese context."—Perspectives on Politics"This important book offers glimpses of this tension between state instrumentalism and social idealism and will be an invaluable addition to the growing literature on Chinese law."—Pacific Affairs"By exploring the means through which Chinese law is used by diverse groups against a multitude of parties, the authors of this work offer a refreshing outlook on the advancement of citizen's rights in China."—China Review International"This book truly stands alone as most of its chapters are not written by scholars with legal training but by social scientists for whom legal issues are at the core of the fieldwork."—Chinese Cross CurrentsTable of ContentsContents Part I. Introduction 1. Law and Society in the People's Republic of China Neil J. Diamant, Stanley B. Lubman, Kevin J. O'Brien Part II. Legal Mobilization and Culture 2. Suing the Local State: Administrative Litigation in Rural China Kevin J. O'Brien and Lianjiang Li 3. "Use the Law as Your Weapon"! The Rule of Law and Labor Conflict in the PRC Mary E. Gallagher 4. One Law, Two Interpretations: Mobilizing the Labor Law in Arbitration Committees and in Letters and Visits Bureaus Isabelle Thireau and Hua Linshan 5. What's in a Law?: China's Pension Reform and its Discontents Mark W. Frazier 6. Hollow Glory: The Politics of Rights and Identity among PRC Veterans in the 1950s Neil J. Diamant Part III. Legal Institutions 7. Shifting Legal and Administrative Goalposts: Chinese Bureaucracies, Foreign Actors and the Evolution of China's Anti-Counterfeiting Regime Andrew Mertha 8. Rethinking Law Enforcement and Society: Changing Police Analysis of Unrest Murray Scot Tanner 9. Punishing for Profit: Profitability and Rehabilitation in a Laojiao Institution H. L. Fu Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication: Justice, Administration of China

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Book SynopsisThe first historical examination of a Muslim-led rebellion in mid-nineteenth-century China which carved out an independent sultanate along China's southwestern border lasting nearly seventeen years.Trade Review"[Atwill] has exhausted all the available sources. Open-mindedly, he has not selected one of the contemporary theories about inter-ethnic strife (or border strife) and arranged the facts neatly around it... Atwill's book about the Panthay Rebellion is valuable reading for persons interested in the economic and political history of minorities in China." -- H-Net"Because of the compelling history that the book tells, I would strongly recommend it... It will lead to stimulating discussion and debate." -- Pacific Affairs"The book is of great help in understanding ethnic and religious revolts and violence in concrete terms in imperial as well as modern China, and for the crimes committed by the immigrant Han in China's frontier and ethnic regions in the name of state. . . . This book deserves serious attention from students of imperial Chinese history, ethnic studies, and frontier studies, as well as policymakers." -- American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences"Atwill's book marks a major contribution to the historiography of nineteenth-century China and of Chinese Islam." -- American Historical Review"This is a thought-provoking, sophisticated study that should stimulate discussion on numerous issues." -- Journal of Asian Studies"It is a book that should be read." -- Journal of Chinese Studies

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Book SynopsisReluctant Pioneers describes the migration of Chinese to Manchuria, their settlement there, and the incorporation of Manchuria into an expanding China, from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.Trade Review"Unlike the US or Russia, China's historical development in recent centuries has not conventionally been associated with frontier expansionism. Reardon-Anderson . . . rectifies that oversight in this clearly organized exceptionally well written study of Manchuria's agrarian development over the course of three centuries."CHOICE"James Reardon-Anderson makes a valuable contribution to the burgeoning literature on the frontiers of China." -- The China Quarterly"This ambitious and elegant book covers a subject of vast scope." -- China Review InternationalTable of ContentsTable of Contents for Reluctant Pioneers List of Illustrations List of Tables Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction Part One. Land Introduction to Part One 1. The Manorial Experiment (1644-1740) 2. From Manor to Market (1740-1850) 3. The Advance of the Qing (1850-1911) Analysis Part Two. People Introduction to Part Two 4. Sojourners 5. Networks 6. Refugees Analysis Part Three. Economy Introduction to Part Three 7. Commerce and Trade (1644-1903) 8. A Tale of Two Cities: Newchwang and Dairen (1903-22) 9. Agriculture: Innovation and Devleopment? Analysis Conclusion Glossary of Chinese Terms Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisThe Way That Lives in the Heart is a richly textured ethnographic analysis of the practice of Chinese religion in the modern, multicultural Southeast Asian city of Penang, Malaysia.Trade Review"This is an excellent study on Chinese spirit medium and on Chinese popular religion in Malaysia."—Asian Folklore Studies"I wholeheartedly endorse the text; its most powerful quality for me is that it is a superbly crafted piece of ethnography that transcends the merely descriptive capacity. The theorizing is sophisticated and self-reflexive, and it offers for reflection a number of critical questions and problematics about how to theorize the persistence of folk/popular religious practices... in an urban, modern capitalist society."—Pacific Affairs"This richly detailed study of spirit mediums manages at once to portray an ethnically mixed society in the throes of modern change, and to illuminate the millennial role of spirit-medium performance in Chinese popular cultural traditions."—Donald S. Sutton, Carnegie Mellon University"Except for the detailed observations of de Groot made in the southern provinces in the late nineteenth century, few reports of spirit mediumship in modern China have appeared in print Jean DeBernardi now contributed a richly detailed ethnographic analysis of the practice of Chinese popular religion and spirit mediums in Penang, Malaysia. This newly added title regarding Malaysian Chinese spirit mediumship is most welcome, and will be beneficial to both the general reader and the specialist." —Journal of Chinese ReligionsTable of ContentsContents Preface i Introduction 1 Part I Heaven on Earth Introduction to Part I 1. Mending Luck 2. Spiritual Collisions 3. Possessed by the Past Part II Spirit Mediums Introduction to Part II 4. Domesticating the Dead 5. Self-Cultivation and the Dao 6. The Teachings of a Modern Master 7. Drawing on the Dark Side Conclusion Chinese Glossary Bibliography

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Book SynopsisBased on a wide variety of unusual and only recently available sources, this book covers the entire Cultural Revolution decade (1966-76) and shows how the Cultural Revolution was experienced by ordinary Chinese at the base of urban and rural society. The contributors emphasize the complex interaction of state and society during this tumultuous period, exploring the way events originating at the center of political power changed people''s lives and how, in turn, people''s responses took the Cultural Revolution in unplanned and unanticipated directions. This approach offers a more fruitful way to understand the Cultural Revolution and its historical legacies.The book provides a new look at the student Red Guard movements, the effort to identify and cultivate potential revolutionary leaders in outlying provinces, stubborn resistance to campaigns to destroy the old culture, and the violence and mass killings in rural China.Trade Review"By probing the extent of the revolution across different regions in China and drawing attention to its later development after the Red Guards movement petered out, this work greatly broadens knowledge of the revolution and modern Chinese history in general."—CHOICE"The questions raised by the painful realities illuminated by these important essays are worth taking seriously."—The Chinese Historical Review"This volume is a valuable collection of essays on the Chinese Cultural Revolution It enjoys many new sources of information, which [were] not available for the previous scholarship on the history of the Cultural Revolution. The new information and new interpretations of the events as a result of it, alone were enough to make this volume a very useful reference for students of the Cultural Revolution in particular and the Chinese politics in general." —The Journal of Chinese Political ScienceTable of Contents@fmct:Contents @toc4:Acknowledgements iii @toc2:1. The Chinese Cultural Revolution as History: an Introduction 000 @au:Joseph W. Esherick, Paul G. Pickowicz, Andrew G. Walder @toc2:2. Passion, Reflection and Survival: Political Choices of Red Guards at Qinghua University, June 1966July 1968 000 @au:Xiaowei Zheng @toc2:3. To Protect and Preserve: Resisting the "Destroy the Four Olds" Campaign, 19661967 000 @au:Dahpon David Ho @toc2:4. Mass Killings in the Cultural Revolution: A Study of Three Provinces 000 @au:Yang Su @toc2:5. The Death of a Landlord: Moral Predicament in Rural China, 19681969 000 @au:Jiangsui He @toc2:6. Staging Xiaojinzhuang: The City in the Countryside, 19741976 000 @au:Jeremy Brown @toc2:7. Labor Created Humanity: Cultural Revolution Science on Its Own Terms 000 @au:Sigrid Schmalzer @toc2:8. To Be Somebody: Li Qinglin, Run-of-the-Mill Cultural Revolution Showstopper 000 @au:Jun Zhang @toc2:9. The Sublime and the Profane: A Comparative Analysis of Two Fictional Narratives about Sent-down Youth 000 @au:Liyan Qin @toc4:Contributors 000 Glossary 000 Notes 000 Selected Bibliography 000 Index 000

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the contest between local people, state officials, and foreigners to lay claim to urban streets, state institutions, historic monuments, and temples in Suzhou, one of China's most ancient and culturally rich metropolises, as it was transformed into a modern city.Trade Review"The book is a wonderfully thoughtful piece. Rooted in archival research employing a wide variety of Chinese and Japanese sources, and informed by contemporary analyses of urban spaces and their impact on culture, it adds greatly to a growing, and fascinating, corpus of scholarship on urban change in China." -- Thomas D. Curran * Sacred Heart University *"Carroll's book covers a lot of ground in a very sophisticated way. The case study approach makes for a very engaging read, and also leaves plenty of room for other work on Suzhou's modern transition... The questions Carroll raises are important, the documentation he cites in answering them is rich, and his writing is generally clear and graceful." -- Journal of Chinese Studies"In this engrossing cultural history, Peter Carroll has taken on quite a few sacred cows from venerable historians who imagined an eternal Suzhou to the founder of Chinese architectural history. Other scholars have critiqued nationalistic history and Eurocentric definitions of modernity, but Carroll has gone one step further; taking as his analytic focus space in its discursive, symbolic, and material formations, he has redefined the grounds of writing modern Chinese history. Theoretically informed, meticulously researched and smartly written, this book will be read for both what he said and how he said it."--Dorothy Ko, Barnard College"In his exploration of the impact of modernity in Suzhou, Carroll integrates the cultural historian's interest in symbolic space with the social and economic historian's more familiar concerns about community and class. The result is an imaginative cook that... may well help reshape the writing of modern Chinese history." -- New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies"Carroll's work masterfully presents the complexity of urban change in China's living 'city of antiquities.' The work will be well received by anyone interested in a broad range of topics in Chinese history, including urban studies, art history, cultural studies, Sino-Japanese relations, and architecture, as well as general Chinese social and cultural history. It will also be noteworthy for scholars working on the cultural impact of development in other parts of the world." -- Ruth Rogaski * Vanderbilt University *"Peter Carroll's title deftly positions Suzhou's modern transformations somewhere in the conceptual disjuncture between older and newer ideals of transcendence. In this creative and engagingly written cultural history, fragments of the material city give rise to meditations on the place of both the past and the local in the construction of the modern Suzhou from Chinese scholarship, which has emphasized the economic and political modernization of the city." -- Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies"Carroll's rigorsly researched and cogently argued study... is a model of how to combine both spatial and historical analyses. Through detailed examinations of urban planning, historical preservation, and architectural history, Carroll shows how seemingly abstract ideas about national identity and modern life took concrete form in Suzhou and linked the city to the nation and the world beyond." -- International Journal of Asian Studies"This marvelously rich book describes the ways in which ideas of "tradition" and "modernity" are mapped onto symbolic spaces, such as historical sites (whose presence and preservation are re-imagined as essential to a modern republic) and new roads (intended for industry, but instead co-opted by decadent leisure practices). As the author shows us, in early twentieth-century Suzhou, "tradition" became an object of consumption, while the much sought after "modernity" proved chimerical and multifarious. The author is to be commended for his attention to contradiction, paradox, and irony, as well as his deft use of primary sources." -- Tobie Meyer-Fong * Johns Hopkins University and author of Building Culture in Early Qing Yangzhou (Stanford University Press, 2003) *Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgements xi-xiv Historical Eras Mentioned in Text Introduction 1-28 Part I: Roads to Modernity Chapter 1: Industry and Vice Along the Horse-Road 29-108 Chapter 2: Arteries and Veins to Nourish the Urban Body 109-157 Part II: In "Tradition's" Temple, the Prefectural Confucian Temple Chapter 3: Renovating the Structures of Academic Ritual and Learning 158-207 Chapter 4: The Building of Modern Chinese Culture 208-268 Part III: Preserving National Essence Chapter 5: A Tocsin Sounds at Hanshan Temple 269-320 Chapter 6: Revaluing National Treasures in the Urban Landscape 321-377 Conclusion and Epilogue, Preservation and Industrial Development in the "Peaceful Backyard of Chinese Culture" 378-392 Selected Bibliography 393-434

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Book SynopsisThe author''s purpose in writing this book is to use the Mongolian question to illuminate much larger issues of twentieth-century Asian history: how war, revolution, and great-power rivalries induced or restrained the formation of nationhood and territoriality. He thus continues the argument he made in Frontier Passages that on its way to building a communist state, the CCP was confronted by a series of fundamental issues pertinent to China''s transition to nation-statehood. The book''s focus is on the Mongolian question, which ran through Chinese politics in the first half of the twentieth century. Between the Revolution of 1911 and the Communists'' triumph in 1949, the course of the Mongolian question best illustrates the genesis, clashes, and convergence of Chinese and Mongolian national identities and geopolitical visions.Trade Review"With the publication of this book, Mongolia and the Mongols will be central to any study of China's history of modern diplomacy, China's nationalism, communism, the Chinese Communist Party-Nationalist struggle for supremacy, and studies of ethnicity. A truly monumental piece of scholarship." -- Uradyn E. Bulag * City University of New York *"Liu's work is especially important in providing new insight on the post-WWII struggle of various Mongol independence groups to assert themselves, and the impact this had on the ultimate creation of Inner Mongolia and other autonomous regions in China." -- CHOICE"This book represents the second installment in a project to rethink the twentieth-century history of China and China's self-image in its 'ethnopolitical' context. As a product of the 'great-power-rivalry' approach to Inner Asia, Liu's work is indeed a success and offers much of interest to scholars of modern China." -- Asian Studies Review"An extensive and often fascinating body of detail, which will interest historians of the Chinese civil war." -- International History Review"Liu Xiaoyuan's dense but thought-provoking volume... is an essential tome for contemporary Chinese historians as well as those who follow Mongolia, not only because it throws new light on the period, but also because it offers a new paradigm to analyze the Chinese communist drive for national sovereignty." -- American Historical Review"This book is excellent. It is well written, with a personal touch that makes for interesting reading... It is a truly path-breaking study for our knowledge of Mongolian and Chinese histories, and ways of looking at them." -- The China Journal

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Book SynopsisThis book illuminates what judicial modernity actually meant to the Chinese state and society in the early twentieth century and how the judicial reform resulted in paradoxical consequences due to a lack of resources and a disjunction between the national reform agenda and local social ecology.Trade Review"This is an important book, not only for what it says about legal reform but also for what it says about the practice of modernity."—R. Kent Guy, China Review International "Trial of Modernity is a book that is extensively backed up and illustrated by numerous case studies based on the reading of a large corpus of archival material. It offers a deep insight into the functioning of the judicial system at the grassroots level during the time under examination and shows very clearly the motivations of the different actors involved at all levels of the judiciary and bureaucracy. It can be highly recommended to any reader who wishes to have a detailed and colorful picture of the functioning of the judiciary."—Jana Cyrol, Frontiers of History in China "With Trial of Modernity, Xu offers the finest book available on the first stage of Chinese legal modernization . . . The book's skillful organization combines chronological, thematic and geographical approaches to give complementary views on the 'legal reform' movement."—Jerome Bourgon,China Quarterly "Xiaoqun Xu is a seasoned scholar who has sifted through local archives, provincial archives and published documents to create a compelling, robust study of judicial reform in early twentieth-century China. His extensive research is well-presented in this excellent piece of scholarship, which will make an important contribution to the field of Chinese law and legal practice."—William T. Rowe, Johns Hopkins University "Xu has produced an outstanding study of the perils, pitfalls, and unintended consequences of a centrally mandated reform of a centuries-old legal tradition. Our knowledge of Republican era state making in twentieth-century China is certainly the richer for this work. Present-day political leaders in China who are rapidly moving the country toward the implementation of a full-blown Western style judiciary would do well to ponder the issues raised in these pages as well."—Bradly W. Reed, University of VirginiaTable of ContentsCONTENTS Preface000 Abbreviations000 Introduction Part I:Envisioning Reform from the Center 1 Western Models and Chinese Practices: the New Policy Decade 2 Judicial Modernity as Performance of Formality: the Beiyang Period 3 Justice under Party-State: the Nanjing Decade Part II: Provincial Setting and Financial Constraint 4 Provincial Institutions and Judicial Reform in Jiangsu 5 Judicial Finance: Nation, Province, and County Part III: County Judicial Process 6 Social Ecology of County Judiciary 7 Power and Justice in Local Society 8 Prison Reform and County Jails Part IV: Between Formalization and Informal Practices 9 "Quick Justice": Punishing Robbers and Bandits 10 Praxis of Petition and Economy of False Accusation Conclusion Notes References Glossary Index

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Book SynopsisRepublican Shanghai was a heterogeneous city with no central institutions. Yet somehow it functioned coherently. What held the city together? The authors argue that networks of middlemen with boundless connections provided the glue.Trade Review"One can only admire the patience and the attention to detail that the author applies to reassembling the pieces of the puzzle. . . Offers a precise and concrete illustration of the realities."—Marie-Claire Bergère, Chinese PerspectivesTable of ContentsAcknowledgments 000 Contributors 000 I. Introduction 1. Middlemen, Social Networks and State-building in Republican Shanghai: An Introduction 000 Nara Dillon and Jean Oi II. Middlemen: Compradors, Gangsters & Political Activists 2. Huang Yanpei and the Chinese Society of Vocational Education in Shanghai Networking 000 Wen-hsin Yeh 3. Wang Yiting in the Social Networks of 1910s-1930s Shanghai 000 Kuiyi Shen 4. Du Yuesheng, the French Concession and Social Networks in Shanghai 000 Brian G. Martin III. Network Dynamics: Political Movements and Social Networks 5. Popular Protest in Shanghai, 1919-1927: Social Networks, Collective Identities, and Political Parties 000 Elizabeth J. Perry 6. The National Salvation Movement and Social Networks in Republican Shanghai 000 Parks M. Coble 7. Politics of Trial, the News Media, and Social Networks in Nationalist China: The New Life Weekly Case, 1935 000 Sei Jeong Chin IV. Networks in Action: Charity and Welfare in Republican Shanghai 8. What is in a Network? Local, Personal, and Public Loyalties in the Context of Changing Conceptions of the State and Social Welfare 000 Bryna Goodman 9. The Politics of Philanthropy: The Balance Between Public and Private Refugee Relief in Shanghai, 1932-1949 000 Nara Dillon 10. Cosmopolitan Connections and Transnational Networks 000 Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom Notes 000 Bibliography 000 Index 000

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Book SynopsisA Tender Voyage is the first full-length study of the history of childhood and children's lives in late imperial China.Trade Review"This book contains a feast for the reader... The Chinese past is seen by [Hsiung] as an alternative world that questions and complicates our sense of children and childhoods. The value of this subfield is that it opens up new windows on our humanity, nothing less." -- H-Net Reviews"A definitive work."--CHOICE"This is a fascinating and well-researched book..." -- Asian Affairs"In this collection of eight essays, Professor Hsiung explores fresh material to address topics related to children and early childhood in late imperial China. Overall, the book makes a remarkable contribution to the study of children and childhood in Chinese history. It enables readers to view the subject from various perspectives and to recognize its multifaceted nature and complexity." -- Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History"The greatest strengths of Hsiungs study are the great breadth of material she is able to draw on, and the sophistication with which she applies Western theoretical approaches in interpreting those sources." -- American Historical Review"This volume is a tour de force that provides many insightful glimpses into the late imperial childs world....This superb book should be of interest to anyone interested in Chinese cultural history." -- Journal of Asian Studies"The appearance of Ping-chen Hsiung's excellent book, the result of more than twenty years of research, is indeed an occasion for celebration." -- China Review International"The author's encyclopedic reading has yielded a densely woven fabric of anecdote and story that iams to connect emotional worlds of the past with today's readers. The resulting book, which was extraordinarily popular in its Chinese version, also has something to teach English readers about the complexity of contemporary Chinese perspectives on Confucian traditions." -- Journal of Interdisciplinary HistoryTable of ContentsList of Figures Chronological Table of China's Dynasties Preface Introduction: Children and Childhood in Traditional China 1. Physical Conditions * Treatment of Children * Newborn Care * Nursing and Infant Feeding 2. Social Life 3. Multiplicity * Girlhood * Concepts and Realities 4. Modes of Upbringing * Domestic Bond * The Emotional World Afterword Notes Works Cited Character List Index

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Book SynopsisRise of the Red Engineers explains the tumultuous origins of the class of technocratic officials who rule China today. In a fascinating account, author Joel Andreas chronicles how two mutually hostile groupsthe poorly educated peasant revolutionaries who seized power in 1949 and China''s old educated elitecoalesced to form a new dominant class. After dispossessing the country''s propertied classes, Mao and the Communist Party took radical measures to eliminate class distinctions based on education, aggravating antagonisms between the new political and old cultural elites. Ultimately, however, Mao''s attacks on both groups during the Cultural Revolution spurred inter-elite unity, paving the wayafter his deathfor the consolidation of a new class that combined their political and cultural resources. This story is told through a case study of Tsinghua University, whichas China''s premier school of technologywas at the epicenter of these conflicts and became the party''s preferredTrade Review"Joel Andreas's Rise of the Red Engineers is ambitious in scope and analyzes the "transformations of China's class structure since the 1949 Revolution" with rigor and style. . . . Andreas's work brings fresh perspective to our understanding of class in China, of the machinations of the Cultural Revolution, and of twentieth-century experiments in Communism in comparative perspective" -- Denise Y. Ho * China Review International *"The book is impressively researched and documented, and the findings and arguments are clearly and cogently presented . . . Andreas offers in this book a serious and sophisticated analysis of an important social phenomenon in twentieth-century Chinese history that continues to shape the leadership structure of China today." -- Hua-yu Li * East Asia *"This is an essential book for specialists seeking to understand the murky issues of class in the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 1949; it is also highly engaging and accessible to non-specialists." -- Sigrid Schmalzer * American Historical Review *"Rise of the Red Engineers provides an exciting sociological analysis of Maoist and post-Maoist China . . . The book would work well for graduate courses in political sociology, comparative and historical sociology, and socialism and postsocialism." -- Johanna Bockman * American Journal of Sociology *"Joel Andreas has written a very fine analysis of the emergence of China's current ruling group." -- Thomas P. Bernstein * Political Science Quarterly *"Rise of the Red Engineers is a welcome contrast to scholarship on contemporary China that dismisses the Mao years as crazy or as irrelevant to the reform period. Andreas takes the ideology and policies of the Mao era seriously and judges the results of Mao's programs by their own stated goals . . . Andreas' signal achievement is in using complex human stories to construct a compelling and tightly packaged argument that pushes us to think about the world in new ways. He succeeds because his goal is to explain what happened and why, rather than to give the entire Mao era a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Everyone interested in contemporary China and modern Chinese history should read this book." -- China Journal"Andreas offers not only one of the best books about politics in post-1949 China, but also one of the greatest contributions to the study of the new class in general . . . This theoretically informed, empirically rich study will reach far beyond its particular subject, and should appeal to all readers interested in social stratification, intellectuals, socialist and postsocialist societies, and comparative-historical sociology." -- CHOICE"This is an important study of the Maoist effort to shape China's new generations of political and technocratic elites and the consequences. Joel Andreas focuses on China's premier technology university as the keystone of this effort, explains why the university erupted in violence during the Cultural Revolution, and analyzes the shifts in status today of the political, technocratic, and moneyed elites. This is one of the very best books about China that I have read in recent years." -- Jonathan Unger, Director, Contemporary China Center * Australian National University *"This study of the recruitment and training of a technocratic elite in China reads like a chronicle of the rise and fall of revolutionary communism. Andreas brings back into analysis structural questions of power largely ignored in recent studies of Chinese politics, and shows how the Cultural Revolution ironically played a formative part in the coming together of old and new elites." -- Arif Dirlik, Professor of Chinese Studies * Chinese University of Hong Kong *"Andreas provides a sweeping sociological history of Tsinghua University, told through the lens of class formation and the politics of social mobility. He chronicles Tsinghua's role as a crucible of elite formation from the early imposition of Communist rule on an elite university, through the struggles of the Cultural Revolution and the post-Mao restoration, up through the recent resurgence of high-tech capitalism in the university's Science Park. This book is absorbing reading for those interested in the tortuous course of the Chinese revolution." -- Andrew G. Walder, the Denise O'Leary and Kent Thiry Professor of Sociology * Stanford University *"In providing this thought provoking analysis [Andreas] has not only made a contribution to our understanding of China in the second half of the twentieth century but also helps us to think about why the Chinese Communist project, inaugurated with such idealism in 1949, went wrong and therefore what future idealists might need to think about as they embark on their own revolutions." -- Peter Wood * Hong Kong Economic Journal *

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Book SynopsisThis book presents an analytical account of the causes and dangerous consequences of nuclear proliferation in South Asia.Trade Review"Although there have been a number of good books on the consequences of the 1998 nuclear tests in India and Pakistan, this is probably the most multi-dimensional . . . Very well documented, the book is also a model of the case study method for advanced students, showing how multiple approaches among authors yield rich results . . . This book is a very important guide to understanding the events and processes occurring inside nuclear South Asia, and suggests important ways of thinking about other nuclear regions where states are embraced in protracted entanglements."—Robert Anderson, Pacific Affairs"Sagan has long dwelled on how strong personalities, domestic politics, accidents, and organizational compulsions and screwups could lead to a breakdown of deterrence. His new edited volume, Inside Nuclear South Asia, provides many cautionary notes. Sagan warns once again that the rational deterrence model presumes unitary actors, whereas India and Pakistan are anything but unitary actors. He also cautions that the role of the Pakistani military on nuclear matters is unlikely to be circumscribed by civilian oversight, insider threats will continue to work against efforts to improve nuclear security, Indian nuclear doctrine is evolving in open-ended and potentially dangerous ways, and new complications will arise if and when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returns to power in India."—Michael Krepon, Arms Control Today"[E]xcellent . . . [The essays] are deeply researched and of uniformly high quality."—P.R. Chari, The Book Review"This is an excellent volume that brings together a wide array of perspectives on India and Pakistan's complex nuclear trajectories. The contributors, all prominent scholars of regional security, offer compelling arguments that nuclear weapon decisions in South Asia have been driven by calculations beyond simple security concerns emanating from the military rivalry between the two states. The chapters are succinctly written and they offer new insights as well as interpretations on the nuclear predicament in South Asia."—T.V. Paul, McGill University

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Book SynopsisConnecting Histories: Decolonization and the Cold War in Southeast Asia draws on newly available archival documentation from both Western and Asian countries to explore decolonization, the Cold War, and the establishment of a new international order in post-World War II Southeast Asia. Major historical forces intersected hereof power, politics, economics, and cultureon trajectories East to West, North to South, across the South itself, and along less defined tracks. Especially important, democratic-communist competitions sought the loyalties of Southeast Asian nationalists, even as some colonial powers sought to resume their prewar dominance. These intersections are the focus of the contributions to this book, which use new sources and approaches to examine some of the most important historical trajectories of the twentieth century in Burma, Vietnam, Malaysia, and a number of other countries.Trade Review"Goscha and Ostermann have assembled a remarkable collection of essays that represent a stimulating complement to the emerging scholarship of new Cold War history . . . Overall, this is a refreshing, insightful examination of a part of the world often neglected in historical accounts detailing the early years of the Cold War . . . Highly recommended."—C. G. Frentzos, CHOICE"All in all, this volume is a truly indispensable work for those studying modern Southeast Asian history or Cold War history. Its contributors have done extensive research in various—American, British, French, Russian, and Chinese—archives, and its bibliography is composed of a wide range of secondary sources published in ten languages. To the credit of its editors and contributors, this book brings new perspectives into scholarship in a remarkably non-polemical way."—Balazs Szalontai, H-Soz-u-Kult"Connecting Histories is an important resource on an underexamined subject, namely the intersection in Asia of the East-West struggle and the North-South struggle during the two decades after 1945. An authoritative, consistently illuminating study."—Fredrik Logevall, Cornell University"The roster of contributors comprises a broad, international cast of top established and younger scholars, and the scope of the book is bold and imaginative. This volume has the potential to be a model volume of the new international history."—Robert McMahon, The Ohio State University

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Book SynopsisThis monumental work provides a new perspective on the changing historical significance of famines in China over the last three centuries by examining the relationship between state policies, natural crises, economic change, and ideological imperatives.Trade Review"Li's book makes an important contribution to the study of famine and Chinese economic history . . . Li's work is truly monumental for the study of China's famine and famine fighting."—Yixin Chen, Chinese Historical Review"Li's work deserves the serious attention of those who are interested in understanding how emperors, leaders, and civil societies in China, especially in North China, have dealt with natural catastrophes and famines in the last three hundred years . . . [T]he book provides a comprehensive examination on factors that might have contributed to food shortage or famine during the long period from the 1690s ti the 1990s."—Guanzhong James Wen, China Review International"This is an extraordinary monograph, one that will long remain the definitive account of a most challenging issue—the long-term problem of human sustenance on the northeast China plain."—CHOICE"In this long-awaited book Lillian Li offers us a masterful account of three centuries of environmental and socio-economic history in one of the core regions of China Li's achievement is especially noteworthy when we consider the multiplicity of variables she addresses with equal thoroughness and clarity and combines into a convincing narrative of ever-mounting problems and tensions. Certainly Li's monumental work is a must-read for present-day planners and decision-makers."—EH.NET"People have been looking forward to this book for a long time; the wait was worth it. Lillian Li's Fighting Famine in North China: State, Market, and Environmental Decline, 1690s-1990s is as close to a definitive account of efforts to prevent and relieve famine in North China as we are likely to get for quite some time It goes well beyond the mid-Qing to consider both the century of North China's worst famines and the efforts of the last few decades that seem, for now, to have banished famine from China."—Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies"Li's new study goes beyond both, drawing on far more archival sources; this time especially significant in her examination and use of price data. She also demonstrates greater attentiveness to local, regional and empire-wide grain markets, climate and environmental history, and the local economy The book is too comprehensive to do it justice in a review."—Christopher M. Isett, University of Minnesota"Li's examination of the economic and political history of famines in North China exemplifies the possibilities for quantitative and economic histories of China's last dynasty . . . Li's findings provide an important addition to the debate over the development of the market economy in China during the last dynasty."—American Historical ReviewTable of Contents@fmct:Contents @toc4:List of Tables iii List of Illustrations iii Acknowledgments iii @toc2:Introduction 1 Chapter 1: "Heaven, Earth, and Man" in North China 000 @toc3:History of the Hai River System 000 The Hai River Basin of North China 000 Climate of the Hai River Basin 000 Historical Climate 000 Floods, Droughts, and Disasters 000 Local Records and Social Consequences 000 Conclusion 000 @toc2:Chapter 2. Managing the Rivers: Emperors as Engineers 000 @toc3:Kangxi and the Yongding River 000 Yongzheng, Prince Yi, and a Comprehensive Plan 000 Qianlong and Routinization 000 Jiaqing: Heroic Hydraulics 000 Daoguang: Earnest Efforts 000 Fin-de-siecle Floods 000 Local Initiatives 000 Emperors, Bureaucrats, and Ecology 000 @toc2:Chapter 3. Population, Agriculture, and Food 000 @toc3:Population and Land 000 Land and Agriculture Under Manchu Rule 000 Agriculture: Grains and Other Crops 000 Cropping Patterns and Yields 000 Diet and Standard of Living 000 Not Quite a Malthusian Tale 000 @toc2:Chapter 4. Food and Prices 000 @toc3:Long-Term Price Trends 000 Multicropping and Seasonality 000 Natural Crises and Harvests 000 The Copper Coin-Silver Exchange Rate 000 Conclusion 000 @toc2:Chapter 5. Provisioning Beijing 000 @toc3:Beijing and Grain Tribute 000 Grain Stipends: Distribution, Timing, and Sales 000 Pingtiao and the Beijing Market 000 Social Unrest, Pingtiao, and Soup Kitchens 000 Markets, Merchants, and Gendarmerie 000 Conclusion 000 @toc2: Chapter 6. Storing Grain: Granaries as Solution and Problem 000 @toc3:Granaries in Chinese History 000 Kangxi-Yongzheng Origins 000 Ever-Normal Granaries in the Qianlong Period 000 Ever-Normal Granaries in the Jiaqing and Daoguang Periods 000 Community and Charity Granaries 000 External Grain Supplies 000 Conclusion 000 @toc2:Chapter 7. Markets and Prices 000 @toc3:Market Integration Within Zhili 000 Price Integration with Other Regions 000 Conclusion 000 @toc2:Chapter 8. Famine Relief: The High Qing Model 000 @toc3:Famine Investigation 000 General Relief 000 Grain Versus Cash/Millet Versus Sorghum 000 Soup Kitchens 000 Pingtiao 000 Tax Remissions 000 Shelters and Famine Refugees 000 17431744: Famine Relief Model 000 1759: Disaster Without Relief 000 17611763 and Later: Relief With and Without Disaster 000 Overall Evaluation 000 @toc2:Chapter 9. Famine Relief: Nineteenth-Century Devolution 000 @toc3:The 1801 Flood 000 The 18131814 Crisis 000 Daoguang Crises and Corruption 000 Midcentury Political Crisis 000 The 18711872 Floods and the Li Hongzhang Era 000 The 18761879 North China Famine 000 The 18901895 Floods 000 Conclusion 000 @toc2:Chapter 10. The "Land of Famine," 19001949 000 @toc3:1917 and Later Floods 000 The 19201921 Drought and International Aid 000 The 19281930 North China Drought and National Crisis 000 Conclusion 000 @toc2:Chapter 11. Rural Crisis and Economic Change, 1900<- >1949 000 @toc3:Famine and Poverty 000 Changes in the Economy 000 Local Experiences 000 Economic Trends 000 Japanese Aggression, Communist Insurgency, and Rural Poverty 000 Conclusion 000 @toc2:Chapter 12. Food and Famine Under Socialist Rule, 19491990s 000 @toc3:Population, Agriculture, and Grain in Hebei 000 Socialism and Subsistence in Hebei, 19491958 and Beyond 000 The Great Leap Famine, 19581961 000 Controlling Nature 000 Unleashing the Market 000 Regulating the Grain Market 000 Conclusion 000 @toc2:Conclusion 000 @toc4:Reign Periods of the Qing Dynasty (16441911) and Use of Dates 000 Weights and Measures 000 Glossary (Chinese Characters) 000 @toc4:Appendices 000 @toc3:Appendix 1: Prefectures and Counties in Zhili Province in Qing Period 000 Appendix 2: Data 000 Appendix 3: Quantitative Methods 000 @toc4:Abbreviations Used in Notes 000 Notes 000 Bibliography 000 Gazetteers List 000 Index 000

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Book SynopsisThe Cold War in East Asia studies Asia as a second front in the Cold War, examining how the six powersthe United States, the Soviet Union, China, Japan, and North and South Koreainteracted one another and forged the conditions that were distinct from the Cold War in Europe. The contributors are among the foremost historians of the new Cold War history, and this book draws on a wide array of newly available archival information in many languages, with particular strength in the use of Russian and Chinese archival material. The Cold War in East Asia shows how as a second front the Cold War in East Asia influenced the shape of the Cold War''s first frontthe East-West confrontation centering in Europeand third front in the developing world.Each chapter, while focused on particular countries and particular timespans, situates its story within a broad overview. And the volume stresses the uniqueness of the region''s historical experience and explains how it serves as Trade Review"The book consists of eleven essays on various aspects of the Cold War in Asia, plus a lengthy and informative introduction by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa . . . Together they constitute a remarkable, pioneering work about the Cold War in Asia based on a remarkably broad range of mostly newly available archival materials in Russia, China, Japan, and Korea. This is first-rate international history . . . In conclusion, this volume represents major accomplishments. All of the included essays are based on serious research in Asian and Russian primary sources. They deepen our understanding of the inner workings of all the countries involved and are well written . . . All in all, the authors deserve our congratulations for putting together such a stimulating group of essays, and Tsuyoshi Hasegawa deserves our gratitude for putting it all together." -- Kenton Clymer * Journal of Northeast Asian History *"A studious and scholarly work from many historians and thinkers . . . The Cold War in East Asia, 1945–1991 is a fascinating and scholarly study of the era and its impact that will be felt for many years to come. Highly recommended." -- Midwest Book Review"This edited volume provides a wealth of new information coming from fresh research in Japanese, American, East European, U.S., and Chinese archival and primary sources. This is an important contribution to the state of the field." -- Christopher Goscha * Associate Professor of History at University of Quebec at Montreal *"There is, clearly, a real need for a book of this sort and it will doubtless be welcomed by scholars in all of those fields, as well as international/diplomatic historians more broadly and area specialists and comparativists in Political Science." -- Robert McMahon * Professor of History at Ohio State University *

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Book SynopsisAfter the fall of the Taliban, instability reigned across Afghanistan. However, in the small town of Istalif, located a little over an hour north of Kabul and not far from Bagram on the Shomali Plain, local politics remained relatively violence-free. Bazaar Politics examines this seemingly paradoxical situation, exploring how the town''s local politics maintained peace despite a long, violent history in a country dealing with a growing insurgency.At the heart of this story are the Istalifi potters, skilled craftsmen trained over generations. With workshops organized around extended families and competition between workshops strong, kinship relations become political and subtle negotiations over power and authority underscore most interactions. Starting from this microcosm, Noah Coburn then investigates power and relationships at various levels, from the potters'' families; to the local officials, religious figures, and former warlords; and ultimately to the internationTrade Review"[Coburn's] single-case, ethnographic approach has a distinct advantage: It allows him to paint a fascinating and finely detailed portrait of a local political system that defies many Western categories and concepts of governance . . . an invaluable perspective on the international operation."—Roland Paris, Perspectives on Politics"This book is based on an ethnographic study of Istalif, a small town north of Kabul. . . Coburn's strongest opinions emerge when he writes about local NGO's, and about the presence of international military and development groups in the town. . . [His facts] raise many questions about class relations in Istalif and in the region, and other important questions about the effects of current styles of imperial war on everyday lives."—Nancy Lindisfarne, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute"Soldiers and civilians deploying to Afghanistan and those writing policy papers can all profit from Coburn's work. The focus on a single village opens understanding of crucial factors about Afghanistan that need comprehension; the complexities of political power, why decisions are often difficult to achieve, the superficiality of NGO and foreign interventions, and the fictions that sustain political interactions are as enlightening as they are humbling to our theorizing. This book is worth reading."—Ronald Neumann, US Ambassador to Afghanistan 2005-2007, author of The Other War: Winning and Losing in Afghanistan"Coburn explores and explains a strange paradox in Afghan politics: that local communities appear to have the means to maintain stability even when the national government does not. This is the first ethnographic study published on post-2001 Afghanistan, and is highly recommended not only for those interested in Afghanistan, but those seeking a new perspective on comparative politics more generally."—Thomas Barfield, Boston University

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Book SynopsisExamining politics in a small Afghan town that managed to remain relatively peaceful in the years following the fall of the Taliban, this book calls examines how and when violence erupts and calls into question the international community's approach to developing stability in Afghanistan.Trade Review"[Coburn's] single-case, ethnographic approach has a distinct advantage: It allows him to paint a fascinating and finely detailed portrait of a local political system that defies many Western categories and concepts of governance . . . an invaluable perspective on the international operation."—Roland Paris, Perspectives on Politics"This book is based on an ethnographic study of Istalif, a small town north of Kabul. . . Coburn's strongest opinions emerge when he writes about local NGO's, and about the presence of international military and development groups in the town. . . [His facts] raise many questions about class relations in Istalif and in the region, and other important questions about the effects of current styles of imperial war on everyday lives."—Nancy Lindisfarne, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute"Soldiers and civilians deploying to Afghanistan and those writing policy papers can all profit from Coburn's work. The focus on a single village opens understanding of crucial factors about Afghanistan that need comprehension; the complexities of political power, why decisions are often difficult to achieve, the superficiality of NGO and foreign interventions, and the fictions that sustain political interactions are as enlightening as they are humbling to our theorizing. This book is worth reading."—Ronald Neumann, US Ambassador to Afghanistan 2005-2007, author of The Other War: Winning and Losing in Afghanistan"Coburn explores and explains a strange paradox in Afghan politics: that local communities appear to have the means to maintain stability even when the national government does not. This is the first ethnographic study published on post-2001 Afghanistan, and is highly recommended not only for those interested in Afghanistan, but those seeking a new perspective on comparative politics more generally."—Thomas Barfield, Boston University

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Book SynopsisThe year was 1945. Hundreds of thousands of Allied troops poured into war-torn Japan and spread throughout the country. The effect of this influx on the local population did not lessen in the years following the war''s end. In fact, the presence of foreign servicemen also heightened the visibility of certain others, particularly panpanstreetwalkerswho were objects of their desire. Occupying Power shows how intimate histories and international relations are interconnected in ways scholars have only begun to explore. Sex workers who catered to servicemen were integral to the postwar economic recovery, yet they were nonetheless blamed for increases in venereal disease and charged with diluting the Japanese race by producing mixed-race offspring. In 1956, Japan passed its first national law against prostitution, which produced an unanticipated effect. By ending a centuries-old tradition of sex work regulation, it made sex workers less visible and more vulnerable. ThTrade Review"Sarah Kovner's path breaking study of the Japanese sex industry during the Allied occupation brings to light that the Japanese historical toleration of state-regulated prostitution nonetheless has its limits when confronted with a new reality . . . Occupying Power: Sex Workers and Servicemen in Postwar Japan otherwise makes a compelling case and should be regarded as an indispensable read for all students who explore the history of commercial sex in Japan, the Asia-Pacific region, and beyond." -- Yuma Totani * American Historical Review *"Overall, Occupying Power is a new and important addition to the recently growing literature of the social and grassroots history of postwar Japan . . . The book further deserves praise for incorporating up-to-date developments in the fields of women's, feminist, and sexuality studies, as well as empire and nationalism studies, into the study of occupied Japan, making the book multidisciplinary by nature. Without doubt, therefore, Occupying Power should attract a wide audience in diverse fields." -- Hajimu Masuda * H-War *"With rich data and numerous insights, Occupying Power offers a valuable contribution on a number of levels . . . The book contains detailed descriptions of the complex history of sex work under the Allied Occupation in vivid narratives, which makes it an accessible and useful resource for anyone who is interested in Japanese history and the politics of sex work . . . Kovner's careful and nuanced analysis successfully complicates and challenges conventional approaches for understanding sex work and sex workers in Japan and beyond." -- Kimiko Osawa * Pacific Affairs *"Occupying Power offers the academic researcher a treasure trove of facts, materials, and provocative interpretations." -- Franziska Seraphim * Journal of Asian Studies *" -- Hamish Ion * Monumenta Nipponica *"Kovner's detailed analysis of this movement and the politics of prostitution is illuminating, explaining how sex industry bribery of Diet members facilitated crucial compromises ensuring that outlawing sex work in 1956 had limited practical impact." -- Jeff Kingston * The Japan Times *"Occupying Power addresses an important subject, the multiple roles and shifting statuses of sex work in occupation-era Japan. . . [P]repares the ground for global perspectives and comparisons on sex work wherever occupation has occurred. Students and scholars will find the book a welcome addition to their readings in the modern history of Japan and the still understudied occupation era in particular. . .[M]akes an exciting contribution to women's, feminist, and sexuality studies." * Sabine Frühstück,Journal of Japanese Studies *"Relying on a range of Japanese- and English-language sources, this succinct volume offers a thick analysis of sex work in Japan from political, social, economic, and symbolic viewpoints. . . . Occupying Power is literally a powerful book that adds important insight to the fields of modern Japan, women's studies, and 'America in the world.' This study deserves a wide audience." -- Hiroshi Kitamura * Diplomatic History *"It is well-researched, thoughtful and courageous, and provides much material for scholarly and social debate. Occupying Power nicely complicates our understanding of the power dynamics of occupation, and of the place of sexual interactions within those dynamics . . . I hope that Kovner's research inspires further interrogations of sexual relations under military occupation." -- Christine de Matos * Japanese Studies *"[Kovner] reaches for and firmly grasps interconnections, whether across national boundaries or periods of time, and frequently with an eloquence that requires rereading and sharing. . . . The rave reviews coming in from leading scholars suggest that Kovner already has vaulted into the front ranks of Japanese scholarship. Summing Up: Essential." -- R. B. Lyman Jr. * CHOICE *"Although there have been many books published in recent years dealing either with the post-WW II period of Japanese history or with modern Japanese gender history (whether the focus is on geisha, comfort women, or occupation-era sex workers), this new book by a young historian manages rather brilliantly to advance the discussion of all these interrelated issues. In presentation, the author's prose is entirely free of obfuscation and jargon. Kovner lays out her evidence so logically and clearly that a neophyte undergraduate could follow the interconnected strands of evidence and argument and the many ways even familiar categories such as geisha have sometimes been misconstrued. The author's fluency in Japanese opens up reams of evidence at a level not always seen in books about Japan. She reaches for and firmly grasps interconnections, whether across national boundaries or periods of time, and frequently with an eloquence that requires rereading and sharing . . . The rave reviews coming in from leading scholars suggest that Kovner already has vaulted into the front ranks of Japanese scholarship. Summing Up: Essential. All academic levels/libraries." * R. B. Lyman Jr. *"Sarah Kovner has written a path-breaking work of Japanese history using a broad range of sources from Japanese, American, and British Commonwealth archives. This book will serve as the base line for studies in the history of sex work in postwar Japan for many years to come. Beyond that, it is an important study of women's history, sexuality, and military occupation in the twentieth century, and should be of interest to scholars in these fields worldwide." -- William Johnston * Wesleyan University *"Rich, theoretically-informed, and based on extensive archival research in several countries, Sarah Kovner's study sheds new light on a hitherto unexplored aspect of the Allied occupation of Japan—its sexual politics." -- Vera Mackie * University of Wollongong, and author of Feminism in Modern Japan: Citizenship, Embodiment and Sexuality *"This thorough and authoritative study enables the reader to gain a fresh understanding not only of the interactions between Japanese women and postwar occupying forces but also of the nation's view of itself at a time when Japan—despite its persistent reluctance to embrace interracial individuals—was concerned about its 'moral' standing in the international community." -- Akira Iriye * Harvard University *"Sarah Kovner has tackled a delicate subject with tact, thoughtfulness, and academic rigor. Her important book will be of great interest not just to specialists in Japanese history, but to anyone interested in the consequences of war, occupation, and indeed human relations across cultures." -- Ian Buruma, Henry R. Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights, and Journalism * Bard College *

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Book SynopsisThe Premise of Fidelity: Science, Visuality, and Representing the Real in Nineteenth century Japan uncovers the social and epistemological roles of the term shashin within the scientific community before the term came to mean photography.Trade Review"The Premise of Fidelity analyzes a field that has barely been considered in Western-language materials before, but the text does not, on this account, restrict itself to an introductory treatment. Rather, it leads the reader at once into serious and important topics relating to truth and the ability of scholars to grasp, and then to represent, this. Its particularizing features lie in the author considering an area in which results are crucial, namely medicine, and a time when the stabilizing pillars of Japanese intellectual life were starting to shake, through contact with Europe." -- Timon Screech, Professor of the History of Art, SOAS * University of London *"A major contribution to visual and intellectual studies of nineteenth-century Japan." -- Luke Gartlan, Lecturer in the History of Photography * University of St. Andrews *"There are many optical wonders in Maki Fukuoka's new book . . . This fundamentally trans-disciplinary book offers much of interest to historians of East Asia, of science, and of art: histories of public exhibitions, of natural history, of photography, of anatomical dissection, of translation and typography, and much more can be found within the pages of The Premise of Fidelity." -- Carla Nappi * New Books in East Asian Studies *"[The Premise of Fidelity] contributes substantially to our understanding both why and how the Japanese adopted from Europeans several new approaches to perceiving and comprehending the natural world . . . [The book] deserves a careful read by anybody interested in the broad range of disciplines it traverses, and it provides a model for transdisciplinary studies to come. It is a book that promises a long-term impact based on it's originality of vision, and thorough archival research [...]" -- William Johnston * Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies *"This well-researched book creatively weaves together material from a number of fields, including intellectual history, science (particularly medicine and botany), and visual studies. Fukuoka successfully situates this rich material within a broader social and cultural history while also engaging in a narrowly focused and detailed analysis of specific texts and visual objects. By untangling the complex nuances inherent in shashin, her study ultimately positions the early history of Japanese photography within its own sociocultural nexus as a development of specific local cultural practices pertaining to visual representation, rather than perpetuating the idea of photography as a form of visuality imposed of Japan by the West. This is a seminal work that will be of great interest to a wide range of scholars." -- Karen M. Fraser * Monumenta Nipponica *"Fukuoka has done a great work in synthesizing a variety of sources to convincingly argue for a more nuanced and multivalent understanding of 'shashin' among the late Edo intelligentsia. She has successfully put forward a case, especially in the last chapter, that rescues the term from being merely another cultural import within a unidirectional process of modernization and technological transfer. This piece of scholarship is according highly commended for developing a more sophisticated understanding of pre-Meiji intellectual culture." -- Alistair Swale * Journal of Japanese Studies *"This book is a must for anyone interested in the intellectual and conceptual roots of the photographic pratice in Japan. It is so well written that I read it like a thriller—the complex plot is revealed in every chapter as Fukuoka follows, step by step, the different characters and their deeds as their actions influenced the conceptual future of photography as a medium in Japan." -- Ayelet Zohar * Trans Asia Photography Review *"This highly original work opens a window into the world of early Japanese botanical drawings, ink-rubbings, woodblock prints, and modern photography to show the dynamic connections between art, science, and medicine in nineteenth-century Japan." -- Ann Jannetta, Professor Emerita of Japanese History * University of Pittsburgh *"This book makes a major contribution to the history of art, science, and medicine in Japan by examining botanical illustration in the nineteenth century. It helps us understand how Japanese scholars at the time explored the relationship between seeing and knowing nature . . . This sophisticated study will be essential reading for historians who wish to go beyond simplistic narratives regarding the introduction of Western art, science, and medicine in Japan." -- Morris Low * American Historical Review *"The Premise of Fidelity is thoroughly researched and written clearly and eloquently. It will prove an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Japanese art history, Japanese intellectual history, medical history, and the visual culture of the Edo and Meiji periods, history of photography, and transnational studies. Given the recent growth in appreciation of interdisciplinary research and visual culture, Fukuoka has written a pioneering book." -- Asato Ikeda * CAA Reviews *

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Book SynopsisThe tea ceremony persists as one of the most evocative symbols of Japan. Originally a pastime of elite warriors in premodern society, it was later recast as an emblem of the modern Japanese state, only to be transformed again into its current incarnation, largely the hobby of middle-class housewives. How does the cultural practice of a few come to represent a nation as a whole? Although few non-Japanese scholars have peered behind the walls of a tea room, sociologist Kristin Surak came to know the inner workings of the tea world over the course of ten years of tea training. Here she offers the first comprehensive analysis of the practice that includes new material on its historical changes, a detailed excavation of its institutional organization, and a careful examination of what she terms nation-work-the labor that connects the national meanings of a cultural practice and the actual experience and enactment of it. She concludes by placing tea ceremony in comparative perspective, drawiTrade Review"Surak's Making Tea, Making Japan is one of the most astute studies of the ceremony to appear in decades. Beyond tea aficionados, Surak's book should be read by scholars and students of culture and nationalism because Surak's main contribution is showing how these two fields of embodied culture and nationalism are so deeply intermeshed in the practice of tea."—Eric C. Rath, Journal of Japanese Studies"The author gives a wealth of detail on the tea ceremony itself . . . Tea captures the essence of Japanese-ness as well as the virtue of the East Asian mentality. Surak writes in a compelling way about how Japanese intellectuals used tea to emblemize Japan's role as the last repository of East Asian culture, which was at risk of falling prey to the 'White Disaster' . . . [Making Tea, Making the State] offers a useful account of how tea culture permeates Japanese history and contemporary society."—Danielle Kane, American Journal of Sociology"Kristin Surak's elegantly written analysis of the tea ceremony is an excellent addition to the literature on cultural nationalism . . . [T]his book is a meticulous study of tea. Surak resists the temptation of falling into clichés and offers a vibrant analysis of the practice through historical reconstruction, institutional analysis, ethnographic inquiry, and phenomenological description . . . Surak's study is theoretically innovative and essential for sociologists and anthropologists."—Stephanie Assmann, Social History"A regrettable schizophrenia characterizes the study of nationalism, with macro and micro analysts rarely engaging rival views. Hence, Kristin Surak's book is a theoretical breakthrough, showing the changing functions and social bearers of a single ritual over a long and troubled historical record. Elegantly written and extraordinarily argued."—John A. Hall, James McGill Professor of Comparative Historical Sociology, McGill University"Kristin Surak's fine study unpacks the social and historical context of tea and its ceremonial preparation as a highly illustrative case in point of nationalized cultural production and representation. Deftly crossing disciplinary boundaries between anthropology, sociology, and history, Making Tea, Making Japan is a well-crafted and interpretively provocative book that anyone with an interest in Japanese society and the theoretical dynamics of nationalism will find fascinating . . . [B]eautifully written and lucidly argued, the book offers much of value for scholars and students of modern Japan and the cultural manifestations of national identity there and in other parts of the world."—Erik Esselstrom, Histoire sociale / Social History"If you were ever curious about just what makes the tea ceremony such a Japanese thing, then Kristin Surak's book, Making Tea, Making Japan, should answer your questions from all possible angles. . . Surak's passion and love for the topic emanate from the pages. . . This is not a simple guidebook to enchant novices and teach them the basic steps to get started in the Japanese ritual of 'tea'. Surak's comprehensive research will take those interested deep into the practice's background and allow them to see the tea ceremony as a window into the soul of Japanese national identity. "—Metropolis"The book uses historical analysis to show how tea became an important measure of national competence, and ethnographic analysis to show how the processes of differentiation occur. All this is achieved in elegant prose that is a joy to read."—Chris Perkins, H-Net"Surak's greatest strength is her awareness of the factors that inform the tea ceremony's central place in Japanese society, from commercial structures allowing the seamless delivery of the objects and architecture of tea anywhere on the globe, to the casual use of history—not always accurate—deployed in a Sunday lesson. . . Surak's book offers a scholarly story of choreography and commercialization and will find its way into future dissertations and onto the shelves of school libraries."—Dana Buntrock, Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Cultural Review"Making tea for a guest in Japan is a highly encultured act, demanding much more than a pour of hot water over powdered tea. Kristin Surak has plumbed the depths of the practice and demonstrated the enduring meanings of tea for Japanese performers of the craft."—Merry White, Boston University"Kristin Surak's richly contextualized study shows in vivid detail how and why tea came to be, and remains, such a strong carrier of nation in Japan, at once performance and product. Sociologists in particular will not want to miss the fine ethnographic investigation of the tea ceremony in contemporary Japan."—Priscilla Ferguson, Columbia University"Surak's careful ethnography and clear theoretical analysis demonstrate the historical role of the tea ceremony in constructing and defining the nation, but she also shows how it is an important part of the slightly different work of maintaining and explicating Japanese-ness. Through careful ethnographic details she shows how the tea ceremony is embodied in ways both gendered and historically contingent; how it is used to distinguish Japanese from other Asians, Asia from the West, 'good' Japanese from others who are less good; and how it is carried not only in performative bodies but in places/spaces. This often fascinating and lively study of chanoyu draws the reader through these various, and intertwined, processes over Japan's recent historical past, unpacking a rich trove of material artefacts, rituals, and texts."—Sarah Corse, University of Virginia"Kristin Surak's excellent work, Making Tea, Making Japan, provides an eye-opening survey of the history and practice of chanoyu that reveals the tea world's institutional frameworks and patterns of authority, physical and material aspects of its training and practice, and its representation to general audiences."— Nancy Stalker, Monumenta Nipponica

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam delves deep into the diplomatic maneuvering that transpired in the shadows of the American war in Vietnam. James G. Hershberg offers a book that strikes near perfect balance between macro and micro history . . . Marigold is a detailed account of the diplomatic wrangling during the apogee of the Vietnam War. With a trove of primary sources from all parties, including diplomatic exchanges, interviews, and diaries, Hershberg weaves a masterful analysis of the clandestine world of Cold War-era diplomacy . . . [T]he book offers one of the most detailed retellings of a particular facet of the Vietnam War . . . [O]ne will enjoy Hershberg's detailed packed study. All students and scholars of both the Vietnam War and Cold War will want to own a copy of Marigold." -- Robert Thompson * H-Net *"Marigold offers unprecedented attention to the ICC, its members, and its internal dynamics . . . One cannot question Hershberg's intimate knowledge of the wide range of characters one encounters in this book." -- George Dutton * Journal of Asian Studies *"James Hershberg has produced a truly admirable work of diplomatic history that will undoubtedly stand as the definitive account of the courageous but unsuccessful joint Polish-Italian effort to bring Hanoi and Washington to the negotiating table in 1966 and bring the Vietnam War to an early end. It is a major feat that the author was able to discover such a substantive, original subject matter in the crowded field of Vietnam War scholarship, and the favourable attention this work has drawn is well-deserved . . . Marigold is essential reading for advanced students and professors of the Vietnam War, the Cold War in Asia, and peace history/conflict resolution studies." -- Sean J. McLaughlin * Canadian Journal of History *"James G. Hershberg's book is a valuable addition to the discourse that the Vietnam conflict was far more complicated than originally assumed. . . Hershberg traces Marigold from its inception to the end in minute detail, using archival evidence from numerous countries and interviews of key individuals. His research is not only revealing on marigold but sheds further light on the international dimensions of the Vietnam War." -- Eugenie M. Blang * American Historical Review *"[Marigold] is, in short, the very best kind of scholarship in international history . . . Historians of the Vietnam War, and the Cold War more broadly, will learn much from this remarkably fresh and revealing historical account." -- Andrew Preston * International Affairs *"Hershberg superbly details a singular event of a highly controversial era—the Vietnam conflict . . . Highly recommended." -- Choice"The result of a massive amount of research, this voluminous book delves as deeply as seemingly possible into virtually every aspect of the multinational effort to bring the warring sides together just before the huge American build-up in Vietnam . . . This massive book is a well-written, in-depth look at the facts surrounding a controversial and convoluted abortive peace effort that, had it taken place, could have significantly altered the course of the Vietnam War." -- Marc Leepson * The VVA Veteran *"The product of Hershberg's inquiry is Marigold, a staggering exercise in historical scholarship leveraging both established sources and a huge array of newly surfaced documentary materials and research drawn from 15 countries around the world . . . Hershberg has achieved his presumptive goal of a hidden history that had been the subject of intense speculation over the years but never comprehensively told." -- Gordon M. Goldstein * Washington Post *"An extraordinarily well documented account of battling leaks appears in Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam, a new book by George Washington University history professor James G. Hershberg. Professor Hershberg's exhaustive book . . . draws on declassified diplomatic cables, foreign archives, countless interviews, and reporters' private notes to recount the breakdown of secret Polish-Italian efforts in 1966—code-named 'Marigold'—that hoped to coax the United States and North Vietnam into direct peace negotiations." -- Jack Shafer * Reuters *"This is a superb piece of scholarship, a study that will make a major contribution to our understanding of the Vietnam War in general and the Marigold peace initiative in particular. The research base is simply astounding and what is more, Hershberg shows a marvelous ability to take this mass of material and render it into a gripping and powerful narrative. Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam is history-writing at its best—evocative, elegant, well-organized, deeply researched, and authoritative." -- Fredrik Logevall * Cornell University, author of Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam *"The book will be, I believe, a blockbuster addition to the scholarship of the Vietnam War and, more generally, to Cold War history. Hershberg has produced a remarkably engaging study, a novelesque work of non-fiction that succeeds brilliantly in evoking the feel of 1966 Saigon, Hanoi, Warsaw, Austin, and Washington, It will rank among the finest and most ambitious examples of the 'new Cold War history' and be nothing less than a model for historians and graduate students of how to conduct research in international history and how to weave research drawn from multiple nations into a compelling narrative." -- Mark Atwood Lawrence * University of Texas at Austin, author of The Vietnam War: A Concise International History and Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam *"This is a well-written, in-depth look at the facts of a controversial and convoluted peace effort that could have significantly altered the course of the Vietnam War." -- Publisher's Weekly"Hershberg has done remarkable work, piecing together the Marigold story from newly available Soviet documents, D'Orlandi's journals, and numerous interviews. He has calmed oceans of detail into a graceful narrative, an important work for Vietnam-era and Cold War historians." -- Karl Helicher * Library Journal *"A thoughtful and well-reasoned study, Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam is highly recommended especially for American military history shelves." -- Midwest Book Review

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the emergence of modern Chinese geopolitics by showing how, in its relations with British India, the Qing empire came to understand its place in the world through competition with European imperialism.Trade Review"Matthew W. Mosca has made a graceful and substantial contribution to our understanding not only of late imperial China (the expansive and multicultural Qing Empire in particular) but also of Inner Asian politics, the growth of 'British' India, and the nature of global interactions during the period from 1750 to 1860." -- Richard J. Smith * H-Net *"Breaking the mold of the Chinese universalistic imagination of all under Heaven and the tributary relations in explaining the complexities and dialectics of local-empire relations, Mosca has fused cultural and intellectual history with geography, politics and foreign relations in his highly original and stimulating study of Qing perceptions of British India." -- Ying-kit Chan * China Review International *"To the old narrative of Chinese ignorance of diplomatic relations, Mosca's work provides, not a complete revision, but an intelligent and persuasive reformulation in term of intellectual history, and in doing so outlines a methodology that might well be applied to other fields of Qing political history. The book impresses with its philological dexterity, and draws on a rich body of previously untapped archival sources in Manchu and Chinese. Its scope makes it a contribution, not only to Qing history, but to the history of Chinese foreign policy more generally, and of Sino-Indian relations." -- David Brophy * China Journal *"Matthew Mosca's impressively researched and carefully structured new book maps the transformation of geopolitical worldviews in a crucial period of Qing and global history. . . . Readers from beyond the field of Chinese studies will find useful discussions here of multiple Qing modes of cartography, geography, and lexicography that inform a broader historical epistemology of the early modern world." -- Carla Nappi * New Books in East Asian Studies *"Mosca presents a fresh, convincing take on Qing foreign affairs via close examination of how the state learned about and understood British India between 1757 and 1860. . . . Mosca analyzes the uneasy relationship between frontier policy and foreign policy in a multiethnic empire, offering much food for thought to theorists of international relations and to historians of Asia. Excellent scholarship, written with clarity and precision. . . . Highly recommended." -- K. E. Stapleton * CHOICE *"With this impressive first book, Mosca is now a leader in using Manchu, Mongolian, Chinese, and European texts to rethink over five hundred years of Asian historiography. He demonstrates his erudition and deep knowledge of multi-lingual sources on almost every page of his book. His argument about the global convergence of historiography in the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries is very significant, as is his presentation of Chinese analytical sophistication and interpretive imagination." -- Benjamin A. Elman * International Journal of Asian Studies *"With his clear articulation of Qing ruling elites as actively engaging the knowledge that constructed their worldview, Matthew Mosca in From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy makes an important contribution to Qing studies and helps reshape our understanding of China's foreign relations in the age of Western imperialism." -- Jennifer Rudolph * Worcester Polytechnic Institute *"Meticulously researched and compellingly presented, this book reads like a detective story. Where and what is the true India, and what does it mean for the Qing? Linking politics, foreign relations, cultural and intellectual history, this work is a must read in the current re-conceptualization of the early nineteenth century in China." -- R. Kent Guy * University of Washington *"Mosca expertly revises our understanding of relations between Qing China and the emerging power of British India. Rather than being a failing polity, unable to control its fringes, China possessed sophisticated information systems to manage frontier communities. Yet only after 1850 was a broader 'foreign policy' formulated to handle aggressive western powers." -- C. A. Bayly * Cambridge University *"In this impressive book, Matthew W. Mosca demonstrates that the reasons for the massive Qing intelligence failure about the world at large and strategic vulnerability along its coast lay not only in its bureaucratic structure, but also in the nature of Chinese geographic epistemology and the modes of geographic writing practiced in late imperial times . . . Mosca's fresh and erudite book will surely make all readers reconsider our understanding of Qing world views and the background to the Opium War." -- James Millward * American Historical Review *"Matthew Mosca's meticulously researched book has not only solved my personal angst; it has also filled a serious vacuum between our burgeoning knowledge of Qing 'frontier policy' . . . This is an excellent, much-needed book, one that should be read by all sinologists working on late imperial China and scholars of early modern global history—as well as inquiring undergraduates seated in the back row." -- Laura J. Newby * Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies *"Mosca's erudite study shows that the Qing were well aware of the British presence in India, not least because of encounters during the Gurkha wars of the late-eighteenth century, but that they failed to realise either that this was the same group of people that were making trouble at the opposite end of the empire or how wide-ranging British imperial ambitions were....[T]he wide-ranging and well-informed perspective Mosca brings to his subject makes this an important contribution to the literature." -- Joanna Waley-Cohen * The English Historical Review *

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Book SynopsisThis is a study of the northern region of Korea through a person's life and work, highlighting how a writer from a marginalized region in early modern Korea became an advocate of regional subjectivity through various social, cultural, and intellectual activities, in particular through his conscientious historical writings.Trade Review"Sun Joo Kim's fine new book opens a window on a subject rarely treated in English: regional discrimination against northerners in Korea during the Chosŏn period, and the acute consciousness that historians in North Korea have about it today. Kim adds so much to our understanding of the distinctly Korean and regional heritage that rests at the foundation of this regime. She also teases out the 'amnesia' about the northern region on the part of historians of pre-modern Korea, which is both a traditional predilection and something reinforced by the division of the country. This widely-researched book is essential reading for anyone trying to understand Korea's pronounced history of regionalism." -- Bruce Cumings * University of Chicago, author of Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History *"With admirable dexterity, Kim presents her case of how Yi Sihang successfully resurrected the ethos of his homeland in defiance of the prejudice and discrimination heaped on it by the elites in the capital. A work of careful scholarship, this book is based on exhaustive and meticulous research. Especially noteworthy is Kim's skillful use of a variety of primary sources. Though relatively short, this book is full of useful information on many aspects of the political and social dynamics of late Choson Korea. In addition to regional issues, Kim gives us a good account and a thoughtful analysis of the factional politics of the time. Comparative perspectives from Chinese and European experiences that the author injects are also meaningful and instructive. A work of solid scholarship, this book opens a new dimension in our understanding of the issue of the center versus the periphery in Choson Korea." -- Yong-Ho Ch'oe * American Historical Review *"Voice from the North is much more than merely a study of a single figure. It provides important resources and background on the social, political, economic, and international conditions of mid-Chosŏn history impossible to find in English language scholarship . . . To me, the superb quality of her writing style, the intricate weaving of her arguments, and the meticulous depth and breadth of her research are all the justification she needs to demonstrate that 'the microhistorical investigation of a person' matters. Voice from the North is an important addition to Korean historiography . . . Graduate students working in Korean and East Asian history must read it. The monograph will also be of interest to historians of China, Japan, and those outside East Asian Studies, especially those who do similar work in microhistory." -- George Kallander * Journal of Northeast Asian History *"Sun Joo Kim issues a powerful challenge to the focus on the Seoul elite that dominates most academic discussions of Korea's history. Directing our scholarly glaze toward the neglected north, she invites us to rethink the relationship between the center and the periphery during the Chosŏn dynasty." -- Donald Baker * University of British Columbia *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Mary Bullock, a leader in the development of cultural relations between China and the United States since the 1970s, has given us an impressively researched and balanced account of the Rockefeller family's involvement with China, including some of its less attractive features. She does a superb job of providing the context of American efforts to change China. Her chapter on the post-Mao era is especially valuable. The book is a major contribution to the history of Chinese-American relations." -- Warren Cohen * University of Maryland Baltimore County *"Mary Brown Bullock has been thinking about Rockefeller philanthropy in China for more than 30 years. The Oil Prince's Legacy is a mature reflection on the long-term development of America's most important philanthropic family in the context of Christian internationalism. The book is informed by Bullock's subtle understanding of Big Philanthropy, her family's missionary background, and her personal lifelong love affair with China. No one else could have written this magnificent book, which is as thoughtful as it is acute." -- Stanley N. Katz * President Emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies *"Bullock should be congratulated for having produced this fine piece of work . . . [S]he is uniquely qualified to reassess the Rockefeller legacy in China from the vintage point of China's rise in the early twenty-first century. The effortlessness with which she weaves the various threads together into a seamless story belies the painstaking research, extensive reading, and percipient thinking that produced this work. It is a compelling story told with deep empathy and without compromising her critical stance." -- Yung-Chen Chiang * Journal of Chinese Studies *"The Oil Prince's Legacy is a well-researched and intriguingly written book that offers a clear retrospective on the first century of Rockefeller China philanthropy. Like a professional detective, Bullock gathers clues and evidence that she found from sifting through the recently opened Rockefeller archives and her interviews with prominent players. She skillfully welds them together into a multilayered, lively narrative about the motivations and actions surrounding Rockefeller philanthropy in China." -- Qinghong Wang * China Review International *"This is a book that should be of interest to not only the Sinological community, but also to historians and others interested in philanthropy, civic society, cultural diplomacy, and the role and function of epistemic communities." -- David M. Lampton * Johns Hopkins University *"In The Oil Prince's Legacy, Mary Brown Bullock offers a meticulously researched examination of Rockefeller philanthropy in China. Bullock, an historian of China who has been studying the Rockefeller foundation for decades, draws upon family diaries, letters, institutional archives and interviews to create this detailed description of the relationship between the Rockefeller family and China from 1863 to 2010." -- Carolyn L. Hsu * The China Journal *"This is an extraordinary, nuanced, and complex evaluation of the Rockefeller family's motives, actions, and achievements where East Asia is concerned. Showing the impact of China on the Rockefellers as well as the Rockefellers' impact on China . . . makes for some captivating and at times breathtaking reading." -- Laurence A. Schneider, Professor Emeritus of History * Washington University in St. Louis *"Mary Bullock has written a remarkable, and very readable, account of 150 years of Rockefeller philanthropy in China. The Oil Prince's Legacy is clear in conception, rich in detail, meticulous in scholarship. While properly addressing economic interests and political issues, Bullock offers a convincing case for 'cultural internationalism' as the enduring Rockefeller motivation in China. Bullock's multifaceted background—college president, China specialist, trustee of science and medical institutions—made her the perfect candidate to write this first-rate book." -- Robert Oxnam, Asia Society President Emeritus * Rockefeller Brothers Fund Trustee and Advisory Trustee *

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Book SynopsisBetween Birth and Death is a critical history of female infanticide in nineteenth-century China, when it was transformed from a moral issue affecting local communities into an emblematic cultural marker of a backwards Chinese civilization.Trade Review"In a compelling and elegantly written book, Michelle T. King offers a sensitive exploration of a tense topic. She evokes a silent—voiceless— void and the circles of influence and effect that surround [infanticide] . . . King presents her material gracefully, organizing her first several chapters in concentric circles extending outward from the implied presence of a murdered infant . . . Between Birth and Death is rich in detail drawn from sources in Chinese, English, and French." -- Tobie Meyer-Fong * Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies *"Michelle King has written a fascinating and well-researched account of how infanticide came to be viewed as a characteristically Chinese problem. She examines how infanticide was viewed by participants, as well as local and foreign observers, and explains how Chinese infanticide has had such a strong grip on our minds on the basis of remarkably little evidence other than condemnation of the practice. The book is a pleasure to read, with captivating stories, focusing on individuals who have shaped our ideas about China. It would be an excellent resource for undergraduate teaching and discussion." -- Henrietta Harrison * University of Oxford *"King's research deepens our understanding of gender and imperialism in the nineteenth century by illustrating how imperialist notions of China as a backward and heathen place were constructed in part on dubious claims that identified female infanticide as an emblematically Chinese cultural practice . . . King's fascinating book includes an introduction, conclusion, and five carefully researched chapters that address female infanticide from the perspective of five different groups: women, Confucian scholars, Western China experts, Western missionaries, and Chinese nationalists . . . The book is also richly illustrated with images from nineteenth-century Confucian morality books and Christian missionary publications. All the chapters feature conscientiously framed discussions and arresting vignettes that are absorbing and accessible to undergraduates." -- Margaret Kuo * Cross-Currents *"Between Birth and Death locates a significant historical shift in the representation of female infanticide during the nineteenth century . . . Using a wide array of Chinese, French, and English primary sources, the book takes readers on an unusual historical journey, presenting the varied perspectives of those concerned with the fate of an unwanted Chinese daughter." -- newbooks.asia"Offers riveting discussions of what infanticide meant to mothers and other women in nineteenth-century China, and to elite men who tried to prevent the practice." -- Kathryn Edgerton-Tarpley * San Diego State University *"[Michelle King] successfully demonstrates that infanticide was a global practice rather than a Chinese one, and the association between female infanticide and Chinese culture was a creation of the imperial context of the late nineteenth century. To scholars who have emphasized female infanticide as a Chinese problem, King's book will undoubtedly make them rethink their understandings . . . This study provides a useful foundation for understanding the issue of female infanticide in China, historically and contemporarily. It is an excellent addition to the study of female infanticide in China., The book is well written, and each chapter has its related stories, making it a fascinating read." -- Hongyan Xiang * Pennsylvania State University, New Asia Books *"Michele T. King explores [the topic of female infanticide] in depth and with outstanding sensitivity . . . [She] aims to determine the reason for the 'selective forgetting and collective remembering' of the practice of female infanticide in China and throughout world history . . . The profound and clearly presented book is recommended for college students, specialists, and general audiences." -- Jocelyn M. N. Marinescu * Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal *"This elegantly written, strikingly illustrated book analyzes foreign and domestic perceptions of infanticide in China, with a focus on the years between the First Opium War and the Nanjing Decade. The chapters spiral outward from that intimate moment between birth and death . . . In my reading, their interviews, birth histories, and collations of Chinese sources remain among the best evidence on the frequency and patterns of infanticide in nineteenth-century China; I am grateful to King for restoring these remarkable studies to us." -- Fabian Drixler * Yale University, American Historical Review *

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Book SynopsisThe Right Spouse offers a description and an interpretation of preferential marriages with close kin in South India, as they used to be arranged and experienced in the recent past, one or two generations ago, and as they are increasingly discontinued in the present.Trade Review"This beautifully written study on the 'emotional cosmology' of Tamil kinship (165) is an important contribution to the anthropology of kinship. It will be of interest to scholars in anthropology, South Asian studies, gender, and to anyone interested in what's going on in the marriage scene in India." -- Haripriya Narasimhan * Pacific Affairs *"The decline of preferential marriage among close kin is one of the most dramatic changes to have taken place in South India since the late twentieth century. The Right Spouse brilliantly combines ethnographic insight and theoretical analysis to make an invaluable addition to the long debate on the Dravidian kinship system." -- Chris Fuller * London School of Economics *"This paradigm-shifting study reveals new dimensions of Dravidian kinship-in-action by documenting the fierce Tamil sense of matrimonial 'rights' and the tragic personal dilemmas that may arise from marriages between cross-cousins, maternal uncles, and nieces. This is an innovative and provocative book in every respect." -- Dennis McGilvray, University of Colorado * Boulder *"With her ethnography of kinship and marriage in periurban Tamil Nadu, India, Clark-Decès provides a next chapter in this history, a timely intervention into what is perhaps today an untimely topic . . . The Right Spouse is a must-read for anyone interested in Dravidian kinship, South India, and kinship studies more generally. It makes many needed interventions in the literature." -- Constantine V. Nakassis * Journal of Anthropological Research *"Clark-Decès's work is a timely intervention as it forces the reader to revisit anthropological theories with a critical mind and appraise social change more intelligibly. This book will especially appeal to students and academics of anthropology, sociology, South Asian studies, and those with a specific interest in modernity and social change." -- Parul Bhandari * Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute *

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Book SynopsisMaking the Chinese Mexican presents a fresh perspective on immigration, nationalism, and racism through the experiences of Chinese migrants in the U.S.-Mexico borderlandsduring the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.Trade Review"Making the Chinese Mexican is sophisticated social and cultural history of the U.S.-Mexican borderlands. . . . Delgado masterfully provides both a view from the ground and one from the bird's eye. . . . Opening new possibilities for further research, the book demonstrates how using a borderlands lens can change the way we view migration." -- Julia M. Schiavone Camacho * International Migration Review *"Delgado provides a well-researched, significant addition to borderland history and an excellent example of the growing trend toward transnational examinations of borderland regions around the world . . . Recommended." -- C. L. Sinclair * CHOICE *"This path-breaking history is a probing analysis of the interconnected worlds that the Chinese in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands created, inhabited, and sometimes contested. Making the Chinese Mexican is a stunning example of borderlands history." -- Erika Lee * University of Minnesota *"Delgado gives new life to the argument that the U.S.-Mexico borderlands were diverse and unpredictable. Her attentiveness to the commonalities and differences in the U.S. and Mexico, as well as the historical possibilities and tragedies, will make this required reading for all social historians of the region." -- Katherine Benton-Cohen * Georgetown University *"While [Making the Chinese Mexican] fills the lacuna in the scholarsip on Chinese Mexicans, its greater contribution is in advancing knowledge on subjects such as nationalism, globalizaiton, empire building, diaspora, racism, racial identity, transnationalism, cultural construction, and, of course, the meaning of borderlands." -- Arnoldo De León * The Journal of American History *"In this seminal new work, Grace Peña Delgado offers a compelling transnational history of Chinese fronterizos, or borderlanders. She provides a detailed and pathbreaking analysis of the formation and development of the many Chinese-Mexican communitites that dotted the Arizona-Sonora border during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . . . Making the Chinese Mexican represents a pioneering contribution to the historiography of the Chinese of Mexico and the borderlands . . . it provides borderland scholars with the first nuanced look into the daily lives of Chinese fronterizos." -- Robert Chao Romero * New Mexico Historical Review *"Peña Delgado highlights the importance of this Chinese presence to understand current images of the U.S.- Mexico borderlands. . . . Her book shifts toward a transnational and global history that includes imperial Spain and Britain, and dynastic China. . . . [The author] adopt[s] a transnational approach to the social history of the Chinese presence in Mexico, revealing the many connections and networks that linked them to other Chinese communities." * Ignacio López-Calvo China Review International *"Well-written, grounded in solid research, and innovative." -- Yukari Takai * Labour / Le Travail *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Although one might have wished to see more attention given to the role of Madame Chiang Kai-shek (Soong Mei-ling); her brother, T. V. Soong; and her brother-in-law, H. H. K'ung, in influencing the policies of Chiang, this is a minor quibble. Given the diversity of the contributors to this collection, their credentials, and the quality of their research, this book should be a must- read for any serious students of World War II and modern Chinese history. My advice to these folks: Grab it!"—Ronald Heiferman, American Historical Review"This book, a cohesive collection of essays by an international cast of scholars, stands out in its truly comprehensive treatment of China's international relations during WWII. It reveals not only the contorted diplomatic maneuvers pursued to insure China's survival, but also the determined efforts to 'negotiate China's destiny' to insure China's post-war international status. The book thus strengthens our understanding of how China's contemporary rise was in many ways rooted in the international transformation that accompanied the Pacific War."—Edward McCord, George Washington University"Brimming with new revelations and fresh insights, this book greatly advances our understanding of Chiang Kai-shek's diplomacy during World War II. There is no better introduction to the subject than this collection of penetrating essays by some of the world's leading scholars. The volume is filled with cutting-edge research for the specialists but is also accessible to the general public."—Qiang Zhai, author of China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950–1975"By bringing in scholars from Asia, Europe, and North America, three premier experts on Chinese history—Hans van de Ven, Diana Lary, and Stephen R. MacKinnon—have masterfully put together this edited volume on China's experiences in World War II. The result of their efforts is a collection of well-researched essays answering many important questions left out of previous studies...This book should be read by all students of Chinese history, especially those interested in the Chinese experience in the twentieth century."—Xin Zhang, China Review InternationalTable of ContentsContents and Abstracts1France's Deluded Quest for Allies chapter abstractThis chapter focuses on France's efforts to maintain a role in East Asian affairs and protect its control of French Indo-China. The chapter traces the decline of French influence to WWI, examines France's efforts to maintain a collective security approach before the outbreak of war, and analyzes how France tried to hold on to Indo-China during the war by following a policy of accommodating Japan while not alienating China – an impossibility. 2British Diplomacy and Changing Views of Chinese Governmental Capability across the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945 chapter abstractMitter traces an important change in UK Foreign Office attitudes during WWII. If before the war the British official mind was contemptuous of China, by the end of the war British Foreign Officials had developed a grudging respect for China and had accepted its status as one of the Big Five Powers. The war with Japan caused official Britain to accept British decline and move on to the unwinding of its imperial role. 3An Imperial Envoy chapter abstractChina's relations with Tibet have been, and are, a frequent source of difficulty. During WWII, they achieved a nadir, leading the Nationalists to appoint a high level representative who set out, with some success, to improve relations and push back againt growing British influence. Shen Zonglian was successful, but not to the degree that after the end of WWII Tibetan representatives accepted full incorporation into the Nationalist body politic. 4The Evolution of the Relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and the Comintern during the Sino-Japanese War chapter abstractDuring WWII, Stalin's policy in East Asia aimed at drawing Japan into a quagmire in China so as to avoid fighting a war on two fronts. This meant supporting the Nationalists in China, the only force capable of providing serious resistance to the Japanese. However, the Soviets naturally also maintained relations with the Chinese Communists. Yang Kuisong analyzes how the CCP managed the frequently difficult relationship with the Soviets and how Mao Zedong was able to maintain a delicate balance between preserving the interest of the Chinese Communists and accommodating Soviet wishes. 5Canada-China Relations in Wartime China chapter abstractMost scholarship on China's foreign relations during WWII has focused on US-China relations. While this volume breaks fundamentally with that tradition, Diana Lary demonstrates that even a small country such as Canada had a role to play. Individual Canadians such as Norman Bethune were at work in China during WWII, as did missionaries, diplomats, and journalists, while Chinese living in Canada, such as Quan Louie became significant public figures there. In developing a China policy, Canada also moved away from Britain. 6Declaring War as an Issue in Chinese Wartime Diplomacy chapter abstractChina declared war on Japan only after Pearl Harbor, while Japan never followed suit. Tsuchido Akio demonstrates that contrary to generally held opinion, China did not decline to declare war on Japan after 1937 because it feared triggering the provisions of the USA's neutrality laws. Domestic political factors were far more important. By discussing the debates about this contentious issue within Chinese politics, 'Declaring War' provides important insight into the making of Nationalist foreign policy, demonstrating that Chiang Kaishek regularly listened and accepted the advice of his foreign policy advisors and Chinese diplomats. 7Chiang Kai-shek and Jawaharlal Nehru chapter abstractDuring WWII, Chiang Kai-shek and Nehru visited each other while India and China began to think through what a post-imperialist Asia might look like. While the strengthening Indian independence movement was a concern for Britain, Chiang Kai-shek worried that the British refusal to accept India independence demands would weaken the Allied position in South and Southeast Asia. Yang Tianshi analyzes the Nationalist policy of expressing support for Indian aspirations for independence while maintain workable relations with the British. He also demonstrates how early enthusiasms on both sides gave way to tensions. WWII did not end with amity between China and India. 8Chiang Kai-shek and Stalin chapter abstractUsing official sources, rather than memoirs or diaries, Li Yuzhen reconstructs attempts by Chiang Kaishek to secure the direct participation of Soviet forces in China. Chiang appealed to Stalin to order his forces into China on three occasions at moments of great crisis. Although Stalin rejected Chiang's requests, Li Yuzhen concludes that the limited cooperation that the two established, which was based on the national interest of the countries Stalin and Chiang led, nonetheless was important to the defeat of Japan and for WWII in general, making possible the grand alliance between China, the USSR, Britain, and the USA. 9Reshaping China chapter abstractMost historians of the Sino-US relationship have focused on such issues as the Stilwell Incident, the Dixie Mission, and Lend-Lease. Liu Xiaoyuan demonstrates that in US foreign policy to China, China's ethnic frontiers was an important issue, just as much as the future of China's former dependencies or tributary states. He also shows that the future of China as a multinational and unified country was important US State Department concern. He thus shows that US strategy was far more sophisticated and comprehensive than earlier analyses have allowed us to conclude. 10Northeast China in Chongqing Politics chapter abstractChina's Northeast (formerly known as Manchuria) was contested territory since the late 19th century, fought for by Russia, Japan, and China. It became a Japanese client state in 1932. Until WWII, it was by no means clear that China would end up controlling the area. Nishimura demonstrates how Northeasterners mobilized support in Chongqing for their struggle against the Japanese and how the Nationalists came to invest so much political capital in the area that they could not abandon it after the war, although their military and governmental weakness possibly made that the better option. 11The Nationalist Government's Attitude toward Postwar Japan chapter abstractWu Sufeng demonstrates that the policy of the Nationalists toward post-war Japan was based on the principle of 'repaying aggression with kindness', in stark contrast to US and British approaches. Wu argues that in pursuit of this policy, Chiang Kaishek encountered many setbacks and had to put up with dismissive attitudes of his two major Allies which resulted in China's exclusion from major Allied conferences in the last year of WWII. Chiang Kaishek even had to plead for the inclusion of China as one of the three countries demanding Japan's unconditional surrender in the Potsdam declaration. However, on such key issues as the position of the Japanese emperor and wartime reparations, Chiang's views were nonetheless influential. His careful manouevering also ensured that China did emerge out of WWII as one of the victorious Allies. 12Postwar Sino-French Negotiations about Vietnam, 1945–1946 chapter abstractYang Weizhen's examination of Sino-French negotiations about Vietnam complement Bastid-Bruguiere's account of the fading French influence in East Asian international relations. After Japan's surrender, Chinese troops entered Vietnam; Japanese commanders handed over to Chinese officials. However, the Chinese retreated quickly from Vietnam, in part because they did not have the forces to occupy Vietnam and were already overextended. Conflicts between the central government and local powerholders in south China meant that it was in the interest of the central government to halt China's engagement in Vietnamese affairs. Moreover, the Chinese Foreign Ministry had maintained good relations from 1944 with the Free French of Charles de Gaulle, whom Chiang Kaishek had assured that China had no interests in Vietnam. Chiang needed his collaboration in securing the ending of French privileges in China. And so, France ended the war in Vietnam, although Ho Chi Minh had already achieved major succeses. 13The 1952 Treaty of Peace between China and Japan chapter abstractVan de Ven argues that the 1952 Peace Treaty between the Republic of China and Japan was less a peace treaty than one of a series of US-inspired treaties to contain communism in East Asia. It was important because it meant that the Nationalists would be regarded as one of the victorious allies; because it turned Japan away from concluding an agreement with the PRC and steered it toward Taiwan and other states in South and Southeast Asia; and, finally, because it would form a cornerstone of a political order in East Asia which remaind in place today. Van de Ven demonstrates that many issues that bedevil interstate relations in East Asia, such as the status of Taiwan, have their origins in the negotations leading up to this treaty.

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Book SynopsisA study of the lively street culture in Chengdu from 1870 to 1930, this book explores the relationship between urban commoners and public space, the role of community and neighborhood in public life, and how the reform movement and Republican revolution transformed everyday life in this inland city.Trade Review"Overall, the book is well researched, carefully documented, and masterfully crafted." -- Asian Studies Review"The descriptive power of the book (aided by carefully chosen drawings and photographs) helps us visualize an important city in transition. Sharp analyses throughout make sense of practices and institutions otherwise obscure to many of us, such as 'bamboo-branch poetry,' 'chicken-feathers inns,' the 'Climbing High to Escape Disease Festival,'...to name a few examples covered in this encyclopedic and engaging work." -- Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies"This is an engaging and wonderfully readable account of everyday life and popular culture in an indigenous Chinese city at the time of social transition and political turmoil. The book is a fine example of how China's national politics affected the lives of the common people in a particular region. Wang is passionate about his subject, discerning in his analysis, and robus in his presentation. Dozens of photos and drawings, carefully selected from early twentieth century local pictorials, missionary books, and personal collections, provide good allies for the text. Students of Chinese urban history will find this book both riveting and edifying." -- American Historical Review"...the book offers a wealth of information about local customs and traditions in inland China and never fails to keep one engaged." -- Journal of Chinese Political Science"This carefully researched study is a fine example of the kind of fine-grained social history being produced by the new generation of young Chinese historians." -- The China Quarterly"This well-researched book paints a colorful tapestry of street life in a major metropolis in southwestern China." -- Journal of Interdisciplinary History

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Book SynopsisB.R. Ambedkar, the architect of India''s constitution, and M.K. Gandhi, the Indian nationalist, two figures whose thought and legacies have most strongly shaped the contours of Indian democracy, are typically considered antagonists who held irreconcilable views on empire, politics, and society. As such, they are rarely studied together. This book reassesses their complex relationship, focusing on their shared commitment to equality and justice, which for them was inseparable from anticolonial struggles for sovereignty.Both men inherited the concept of equality from Western humanism, but their ideas mark a radical turn in humanist conceptions of politics. This study recovers the philosophical foundations of their thought in Indian and Western traditions, religious and secular alike. Attending to moments of difficulty in their conceptions of justice and their languages of nonviolence, it probes the nature of risk that radical democracy''s desire for inclusion opens within moderTrade Review"A highly important and original contribution to the study of global intellectual history, Kumar's book convincingly shows that Gandhi and Ambedkar, as the most important nonwestern thinkers of the twentieth century, must be considered together in the making of modern political thought in South Asia and beyond. Beautifully written and carefully argued." -- Vinayak Chaturvedi * University of California, Irvine *"Kumar's patient and probing reading of the works of Gandhi and Ambedkar—developed against the established consensus in the literature and with an eye to questions of liberalism and democracy—adds a new and distinctive voice to a growing, exciting corpus on these two thinkers. This is a welcome development for both South Asian Studies and for the study of modern political thought globally considered." -- Dipesh Chakrabarty * The University of Chicago *"The book is very timely and relevant. Recent times have witnessed an unprecedented surge of communal forces that are actively involved in shrinking the secular spaces of dissent and choking the voices of sanity and rationality. Thus, the need of the day is the synergising of the strengths of both Gandhi and Ambedkar and harnessing them in our collective struggle against all fundamentalist forces. It is heartening to note that the book under review succeeds in meeting that challenge." -- H. S. Komalesha * Economic and Political Weekly *"Aishwary Kumar's intellectual history makes a novel and exciting contribution to the progressively expanding literature concerning Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar...Kumar has demonstrated the moments of symbiosis in Gandhian and Ambedkarite thought, as much as their contradictions. Radical Equality thus deserves to be essential reading for anyone interested in questions of democracy, sovereignty and anticolonial nationalism in the twentieth century." -- Oliver Godsmark * Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History *"Kumar has written one of those unusual books that actually delivers more to readers than is suggested by the title. The book provides plethora of ideas which were rooted in the contemporary historical processes and were articulated dialectically in the course of India's nationalist history in which contrasting ideological views prosperedRadical Equality stands out because (a) it has reconfirmed, once again, that the concept-driven historicising makes historical narratives far clearer than mere description and (b) it has also demonstrated persuasively that BR Ambedkar was not merely a Dalit messiah but was also a powerful voice that created a space for constitutionalism and republican values in India." -- Bidyut Chakrabarty * The Pioneer *"Radical Equality is an achievement. It rejects an all-too-common trend to read Gandhi and Ambedkar solely in oppositional terms, while equally rebuffing efforts to integrate the two as part of some unified theory of the modern Indian state. It captures the complexity of these two non-Western thinkers on their own terms: philosophically sophisticated and radically universal. It leaves the reader pondering the meanings of nonviolence, justice, and larger freedom, urgently relevant to the perilous times in which we live. And for that the book demands to be read. " * Manu Bhagavan,American Historical Review *"Kumar's study is an outstanding work of intellectual history that contains many exciting propositions....Kumar makes a valuable contribution to the field of Indian intellectual history." -- Goolam Vahed * Canadian Journal of History *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1Of Faith in Equality: Toward a Global Measure chapter abstractWhat sort of relationships did anticolonial mobilizations for national sovereignty forge between faith and politics, sacrifice and democracy, philosophy and resistance? This chapter traces a crucial moment in this genealogy to 1914-15, when Gandhi returned to India after spending two decades in South Africa, and Ambedkar arrived in New York as a student at Colombia University. Over the next three decades, the two created an unparalleled body of work engaged with questions of belief, action, and truth, replacing the nationalist aspiration for sovereignty with a resolute commitment to what this book calls unconditional equality. Reconstructing their inseparable and irreconcilable convictions, reclaiming the richness of Ambedkar's formulation "faith in equality" as an interpretive, performative, and methodological coup de force, this chapter charts out an alternative history of ethical responsibility and political realism in the modern nonwest. At stake, it argues, is the tension between the political and "the social question" itself. 2Spirits of Satyagraha: A History of Force chapter abstractGandhi was a master of neologisms, many of which, he insisted, were best left untranslated. Satyagraha, coined in 1907, was one of the earliest, through which Gandhi ingeniously supplanted the pacifism invoked by "passive resistance" and introduced the notion of force (bal) and resistance or firmness (agraha) in India's struggle against the empire. Despite the growing popularity of the term "civil disobedience," Gandhi continued to favor the more forceful term "civil resistance." "Civil resistance is a complete substitute for violence," he declared in 1934. "Through it everyone has to achieve his own swaraj. This weapon has given spirit and new strength to the masses." This spirit, its place in Gandhi's ontology of force, a force whose laws, he insisted, were at once natural and proper to the human alone, is the focus of this chapter. At its center is Gandhi's relationship to the spirit of the law as such. 3Laws of Force: Ambedkar and the Mystical Foundation of Authority chapter abstractReturning to Ambedkar's Atlantic commencements, retracing the relationship between force and justice that he begins to forge in the 1910s, this chapter offers a new history of the beginnings of Ambedkar's revolutionary philosophy. It was in New York that Ambedkar begins to struggle with the problem of force, its mysticism and secrecy, its potentiality and weakness. But the struggle acquires radical form from the 1920s onward, first at the Mahad Satyagraha in 1927 (where a copy of the Manusmriti is publicly burned in the name of a new equality) and then in Annihilation of Caste in 1936 (where a critique of Plato's Republic is mounted for the first time). Was Ambedkar's immense, almost mystical commitment to Indic texts on sovereignty and sacrifice, such as the Gita, ever dissociable from his ethics of destruction? Is resistance against religion, Ambedkar asks, not the heart of every religious responsibility worthy of the name? 4Apotheosis of the Unequal: Gandhi's Harijan chapter abstractIn 1931, Gandhi introduces the name harijan ("children of God") for the 50 million "untouchables" of India. The gesture radicalizes his phenomenology of spirit irreversibly. For it reveals, in the most dogmatic form, Gandhi's commitment to "equality of the spiritwithout which no other equality is possible." This chapter recovers the morals and consequences of that decision. The harijan, it argues, was neither simply another name nor a "sacred force". Instead, it was a condensation of Gandhi's ontological and phenomenological partitions, one in which his incalculable desire to touch the untouchable was rendered indissociable from his ethics of disciplinary limit and measure. Limit at the heart of religion, touching within the calculus of reason alone: this is what Gandhi calls maryada dharma. And this limit, in its punitive integrity, structures his indifference toward the fearless revolutionaries of his time no less decisively than it does his apotheosis of the atishudra. 5The Freedom of Others: Annihilation of Caste and Republican Virtue chapter abstractLike swords crossed against each other, Ambedkar's two major interwar works, Annihilation of Caste (1936) and Thoughts on Pakistan (1941) seem locked in perilous balance. One committed to the unconditionality of equality, the other consumed by the rhetoric of republican security. Yet, they share a set of methodological commitments that would come to enduringly guide Ambedkar's struggle to imagine a freedom without mastery. Beginning with the writings of the 1930s, this chapter follows the modalities of those commitments up until Ambedkar's interventions in the Constituent Assembly debates of the late 1940s. What kind of republic did Ambedkar really envision? A republic of resistance and fearlessness, a city of virtue and truth, it posits. It is this ethics of insurrectionary courage (inscribed at the heart of citizenship), this resistance against the over-constitutionalization of the political, this making reciprocal of the right to freedom that this chapter reconstructs. 6Gandhi, the Reader chapter abstract"Thank Godhe is singularly alone," thus appears Gandhi's relief at Ambedkar's purportedly faithless denunciation of scripture in Annihilation of Caste. This chapter probes the depths of that Gandhian respite. It tracks how Gandhi's conception of truth, transformed by the pressures of mass politics, mediates the convictions of Gandhi, the reader. Did Ambedkar's use of "annihilation" or ucched, a word that prophesized a new religion of responsibility, a word that gestured toward the inalienable and immeasurable freedom of force (which Ambedkar insisted the believer and heretic must equally possess), lead Gandhi to discern in it a nihilistic urge? Recovering the phenomenology of sacrifice and rigor that sustained Gandhi's relationship to the law (and reading), the chapter delineates the relationship between his ethical religion (dharma) and Ambedkar's struggle for a religion without religion (dhamma). At stake, it proposes, was the abyss between Ambedkar's religion of resistance and Gandhi's belief in measure. 7Responding Justly: Ambedkar, Sunnyata, and Finitude chapter abstractDid Ambedkar's democracy have a place for belief? Could his "love of truth" coexist with his "love of politics"? Focusing on his final works (beginning with his opposition to capital punishment), this chapter realigns Ambedkar's constitutionalism along his meditations on the ethical, mapping a topography of his political philosophy that was at once deeply marked by the religious and profoundly aware of its risk. A scrupulous theorist of sovereignty, Ambedkar emerges here as a critic of mastery and sacrifice, who seeks to open a new horizon of justice; a responsibility or maitri that might transcend the anthropological distinctions between man and woman, major and minor, citizen and noncitizen, human and nonhuman. It was Ambedkar's sensitivity to the incommensurable (and yet equally shared) vulnerability of citizens that had perhaps forced Gandhi to sigh at his singular aloneness. Sunnyata was this vulnerability turned radical, the void where force and justice became inseparable. Epilogue: Citizenship and Insurrection chapter abstractAs Ambedkar today emerges as the newest site of modern India's interminable struggle with history, and the Hindu Right—whose politics he once called "gangsterism"— becomes the latest ideological formation to enter the war to appropriate his legacy, it becomes clearer than ever what Ambedkar had meant by the void (of politics): an emptiness, a lawlessness, a lie at the very heart of nation-states. But this void was not to be renounced. For the void was also spirit, the invisible crypt of an insurrectionary citizenship, an instance and institution of force at its most egalitarian. Only when the encounter between Ambedkar and Gandhi is placed within a global constellation of secular and theological traditions, the epilogue argues, that it illuminates why the emancipatory possibilities offered by the insertion of faith into democracy must honestly contend with the transformative risk that the politicization of religion brings in its wake.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Poetry and prose sensitively read, carefully annotated, and deftly translated provide a subjective perspective on such topics as the limitations of a masculine approach to cultural reform, China's accommodation of Western ideas and technologies, and the political imperatives of the era. This book is a must read for scholars in Chinese women's history, modern Chinese history, and Chinese literary history." -- Joan Judge * York University *"The author succeeds in presenting the story of Xue in the intellectual context of the time and challenging the traditional nationalist discourse on women's emancipation....The book will contribute to the fields of late Qing history and Chinese women's studies by helping readers rethink the tension between Chinese nationalism and feminism." -- Guo Wu * The Historian *"Although Xue Shaohui is not yet a household name, I suspect that she would become one with the publication of this book. Opinionated, learned, and indefatigable, the visionary pioneer in women's education and journalism should be celebrated as a role model today, yet she is virtually unknown in and out of China. In restoring Xue to her rightful place in history and in explaining the reasons for her obsolescence, Nanxiu Qian has proved herself to be as erudite, tough-minded, and poetic as the heroine of her book." -- Dorothy Ko * Columbia University *"Qian's study offers a sympathetic and nuanced portrayal of how an erudite woman brought up through a local yet cosmopolitan literary culture made the most of her learning, family connections, and capacity to adapt to the rapidly changing times in the late Qing....Joining other recent studies of classical poetry and literature in early twentiethcentury China, Nanxiu Qian's study has much to offer to students of late imperial and modern Chinese history, literature, and gender studies." -- Ke Ren * Frontiers of Literary Study in China *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractThe introduction presents the themes and ideas to be developed in the book. It first reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the previous studies on the late Qing reforms, against which it briefs the significance and the approaches of the book (as stated in the book abstract). It then introduces Xue's intellectual networks, which comprised of the members from her local Min (Fujian) writing-women circles and their supportive male associates, such as Xue's husband Chen Shoupeng (1857–c. 1928) and Shoupeng's brother Chen Jitong (1852–1907), as well as other Min male scholars who were related to the Fuzhou Navy Yard culture. Sustaining these women's subjectivity was the xianyuan spirit, a legacy from the Wei-Jin era. Literature, as the core constituent of the xianyuan and the Min writing-women traditions, naturally became the major means for women to advance their reform goals. 1Xue Shaohui and the Min Writing-Women Culture chapter abstractThis chapter explores the Min writing-women culture from Xue's perspective, based on Xue's reading of the literature and art of Min women, along with some major critical works on their poetic accomplishments. According to Xue, Min writing-women had been producing a culture of their own since the mid-seventeenth century. This culture boasted the Guanglu poetic school as its institutional manifestation and the xianyuan ideal as its intellectual foundation. Over time, the Min writing-women tradition had been disseminated horizontally through marital and communal ties and vertically through the mechanism of mothers' teaching. This culture made major contributions to the formation of Min poetics, and Min women poets surpassed their male counterpart in poetic accomplishments. This culture demonstrated its tenacity in the midst of the late Qing turmoil and prepared Min writing women for their future participation in the late Qing reforms. 2The Chen Brothers and the Fuzhou Navy Yard Culture chapter abstractThis chapter first examines the structure of the Fuzhou Navy Yard and its affiliated Academy that combined Chinese with Western educations, including English- and French-language instruction in science, engineering, and naval warfare. It then showcases the transformation of late Qing scholars by following the Chen brothers' personal journey from the Fuzhou Naval Academy to their scholarly and diplomatic careers in Europe. From the perspectives of the Chen brothers, in particular Chen Jitong because of his remarkable role in late Qing diplomatic, political, and cultural life, this chapter looks into the constituents of the Fuzhou Navy Yard culture, focusing on those that would have crucial influence on its future "marriage" to the Min writing-women culture. This culture features literature as its basis, women as its indispensable exponents, the press as its mechanism for spreading cultural values, and democracy as its core value. 3A Marriage between the Two Cultures chapter abstractThis chapter explores the mutual transformation of the Min writing-women and Fuzhou Navy Yard cultures, focusing on the union of the Fuzhou girl prodigy Xue Shaohui and the Fuzhou Naval Academy graduate Chen Shoupeng. Shoupeng's experiences abroad introduced Xue to a much broader spectrum of knowledge than what she had acquired from her Min writing-women upbringing, but repeated foreign invasions at Xue's doorstep soon tarnished the alluring luster of Western cultures. Chen Jitong's private life also reveals the complexity of this bicultural "marriage." Such mixed exposure to the outside world led Xue and some of her fellow Min writing women to a lifelong journey of negotiating between the cultural values of China and the West, enabling them to cultivate their unique visions in their future reform career. 4The 1897-98 Shanghai Campaign for Women's Education chapter abstractOne of the major themes of the 1898 reforms was women's education, yet for leading male reformers women's issues tended to be subordinated to larger nationalistic concerns. They expected women to abandon their age-long intellectual adherence to the writing-women tradition and turn to more pragmatic professional training, so as to change "useless" women into laborers to empower the nation. In contrast, women reformers gave priority to self-improvement over national empowerment, as exemplified in the 1898 Shanghai campaign for women's education. The campaign established the first women's association in China (Nü xuehui), published the first Chinese women's journal (Nü xuebao), and opened the first Chinese school for young elite women (Nü xuetang), all run by women. Via this triad, women instigated debates on reform with men and among themselves to promote their own agenda, agency, organizations, and specific strategies for achieving self-cultivation and national strengthening. 5Translating the Female West to Expand Chinese Women's Space chapter abstractAfter the bloody termination of the Hundred Days in 1898, Xue and Shoupeng continued advancing the 1898 goals through translating Western literature, histories, and science. Their most important project was the compilation of the Biographies of Foreign Women (Waiguo lienü zhuan), the first systematic introduction of foreign women to the Chinese readership. This chapter argues that the Foreign Women resulted from women reformers' desire to break the longstanding demarcation between the "inner" and "outer" domains and to reposition the ideal "woman" in an ideal space, at home and in society, within the intersecting frameworks of the family, the state, and the world. In the process, foreign women's lives served not only as a model for Chinese women but also as a collective site where different visions of ideal womanhood were contested. 6Introducing Modern Science and Technology through Literature chapter abstractAs part of her reform efforts in the aftermath of the Hundred Days, Xue wrote broadly on modern science and technology when the topic had not yet attracted attention in the literature in China. Xue employed two literary forms to share her knowledge with Chinese readers—classical parallel prose and the more accessible genre of quasi-vernacular fiction. This chapter looks first at her parallel prose essays that poeticized modern science and technology. It then examines her co-translation with Shoupeng of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, which marked the first Chinese rendition of Western science fiction and the first of Jules Verne's works. The couple's extensive annotation to the text indicates that they aimed at translating this work into a textbook of world culture, history, and modern science and technology. Xue's intentional rewriting of some parts further added feminist touch to this work. 7Xue's Self-Repositioning in the Family chapter abstractAmid changing relationships of gender and between family and state during the late Qing reforms, how would Xue reconsider a woman's position in the family? How did her ideas differ from women's self-positioning in late imperial China? Xue made clear in action and in theorization that, in accord with the current world situation, women had to break their cloistered position and walk into the public space. Drawing upon a broad, eclectic pool of intellectual resources, Xue reinterpreted conventional socio-political principles encoded in the core Confucian documents, and revised and gendered the male-dominated polity into a cooperative enterprise of men and women. Using Xue's personal life as an example, this chapter examines how Xue recast women's conventional roles—wife, mother, daughter, and sister—to fit her ideal womanhood to the changing socio-political situation. 8Xue's Literary Response to the Late Qing Reforms chapter abstractThis chapter probes Xue's poetic response to late Qing reforms. Her four hundred fifty traditional-style poems literally chronicled the era. The termination of the Hundred Days and the repressive aftermath only urged Xue into more profound contemplation on the purpose and practice of the reform. One major issue was women's proper positions within the guo amidst its re-conceptualization as state, country, and/or nation-state in the reform era. Xue would apply related ideas to her portrayal of women in the 1900 Boxer Rebellion. The final section examines Xue's last poems composed during the New Policy campaign and the constitutional movement, when Xue argued for a democratic republic as an ideal political structure for China. Conclusion chapter abstractDespite their significant contributions to the late Qing reforms, Xue and her cohorts were all but forgotten by the end of the dynasty, largely because they opted for a richly nuanced culturalism rather than a strategically oriented nationalism and were therefore written off by the "modernizing" Chinese patriarchy. Yet the power of nationalism and the growth of radical politics in twentieth-century China had not been able to efface late Qing women reformers. Recent studies have come to appreciate the multifaceted historical role of Chinese writing women. This case study of Xue and other writing women in the reform era is intended to provoke further explorations into the dynamism and variety of late Qing intellectual and social life. It also serves as a reminder of the value of the Chinese tradition, which is and has always been multidimensional, resilient, tolerant, and capable of incorporating other traditions into its vast repertoire.

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Book SynopsisFrom 18681872, German geologist Ferdinand von Richthofen went on an expedition to China. His reports on what he found there would transform Western interest in China from the land of porcelain and tea to a repository of immense coal reserves. By the 1890s, European and American powers and the Qing state and local elites battled for control over the rights to these valuable mineral deposits. As coal went from a useful commodity to the essential fuel of industrialization, this vast natural resource would prove integral to the struggle for political control of China.Geology served both as the handmaiden to European imperialism and the rallying point of Chinese resistance to Western encroachment. In the late nineteenth century both foreign powers and the Chinese viewed control over mineral resources as the key to modernization and industrialization. When the first China Geological Survey began work in the 1910s, conceptions of natural resources had already shifted, and the Qing sTrade Review"Historian Wu has written a brilliant and original cultural history of industrialization in late Qing China . . . Thoroughly grounded in the archives and research in both Chinese and German sources (no mean feat), the book examines the powerful interactions of Chinese and Western entrepreneurs and Qing and Western officials in creating an industrial China . . . Highly recommended" -- J. Roger * CHOICE *"Shellen Wu's new book is a fascinating and timely contribution to the histories of China . . . Empires of Coal looks carefully at the importance of mining [...] to the political economy of late imperial China . . . It will be required reading for anyone interested in the entanglement of science, technology, and modernity in global history." -- Carla Nappi * New Books in East Asian Studies *"Refreshing and subtle, this book's engagement with issues of imperialism, China's relationship to European science, and environmental history provides a fascinating reminder of the tight linkages between them all." -- Joanna Waley-Cohen * NYU Shanghai *"This book narrates how, from the 1860s to the 1910s, China entered into a modern, industrializing world driven by fossil fuels. The topic could not carry greater contemporary relevance for China and the world, and only a few other historians have written on it in the past." -- Micah Muscolino * Oxford University *"Wu's study...places China's nineteenth-century development in a global context and adds comparative value to its historical experience." -- Joanna Waley-Cohen * The English Historical Review *"[An] interesting and important set of insights into the history of coal mining, coal imperialism, and the science and political economy of coal in China....[This study] adds a fascinating and novel layer of analysis of German imperialism and engineering at work in China...that has been missing in many of the wider discussions of imperialism and global transformations during the time period." -- Jack Patrick Hayes * Pacific Affairs *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1Fueling Industrialization in the Age of Coal chapter abstractIn order to understand how and why a momentous change of the Chinese worldview occurred in the late nineteenth century, chapter 1 begins with a discussion of pre-modern forms of geological knowledge in China 2Ferdinand von Richthofen and the Geology of Imperialism chapter abstractChapter Two examines Richthofen's contributions to Chinese views of its own mineral resources. Richthofen's career spanned the zenith of European colonial expansion in the nineteenth century, concomitant with the golden age of the railroads and steamers. His academic work on China connected the geography of the eastern seaboard to the Central Asian landmass. Yet his enduring legacy in China remains his observations of Chinese mines and estimates of Chinese mineral potential. 3Lost and Found in Translation: Geology, Mining, and the Search for Wealth and Power chapter abstractChapter Three discusses missionary translations of geology works in the nineteenth century. In the act of translation, geology became further entangled with the role of science in imperialism and the wealth and power of the West. Nineteenth century missionary translations of science in the treaty ports tell only a small part of the story. Focusing on the deficiencies of these translations would only miss the greater accomplishment of these foreign and Chinese translators of Western science texts as cultural intermediaries. These late nineteenth century translations introduced the field of geology to the Chinese public, but in the tumultuous political and economic environment of the late Qing period it was mining and control over mining rights that added urgency to the adoption of modern geology. 4Engineers as the Agents of Science and Empire, 1886-1914 chapter abstractChapter Four examines the large-scale modern enterprises opened in the interior by the Chinese themselves, including influential government figures such as Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong. This chapter focuses on the people who made possible the expansion of the first modern Chinese industries while also promoting European influence on China's future development—engineers who carried their skills from technical schools and mining academies in Europe to the far reaches of empire. The German engineers who began working for Chinese industries transitioned easily when Germany acquired a leasehold in Shandong province in 1898. 5Nations, Empires, and Mining Rights (1895-1911) chapter abstractChapter Five examines the late Qing reform of mining laws and the nation-wide movement to reclaim mining rights. In particular, this chapter uses as a case study the example of two German mining companies in Shandong during the colonial period (1898-1914), and the Chinese response to the foreign scramble for mining concessions. Like the geological surveys taking place across the globe during nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mining regulations became a point of tension between colonizers and the colonized. The Chinese promulgation of mining regulations, based on Japanese and European precedents, demonstrate that by the last years of the Qing dynasty, they had joined the ranks of nations that viewed mineral resources as the key to wealth and power. 6Geology in the Age of Imperialism chapter abstractChapter Six examines continuities and changes in Chinese views on mining from the imperial period through the Republican era. During the late Qing period, control over natural resources became a symbol of sovereignty against foreign encroachment. The study of geology became a means of resistance against imperialism. In the Chinese discourse the positivist views of Western geology in this period transformed into a matter of anti-imperialist struggle with strong social Darwinian undertones. Republican era geologists actively tried to construct a history of geology motivated by Han nationalism, with the efforts of the late-Qing period largely erased from their revision. 7Epilogue chapter abstractThis chapter discusses the implications of the book and its significance for the literature on Chinese industrialization and modern Chinese history.

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Book SynopsisSayyid Fadl, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, led a unique life-one that spanned much of the nineteenth century and connected India, Arabia, and the Ottoman Empire. For God or Empire tells his story, part biography and part global history, as his life and legacy afford a singular view on historical shifts of power and sovereignty, religion and politics. Wilson Chacko Jacob recasts the genealogy of modern sovereignty through the encounter between Islam and empire-states in the Indian Ocean world. Fadl's travels in worlds seen and unseen made for a life that was both unsettled and unsettling. And through his life at least two forms of sovereignty-God and empire-become apparent in intersecting global contexts of religion and modern state formation. While these changes are typically explained in terms of secularization of the state and the birth of rational modern man, the life and afterlives of Sayyid Fadl-which take us from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Indian Ocean worlds toTrade Review"For God or Empire is a gripping global history of the Indian Ocean world, with striking theoretical implications. Wilson Chacko Jacob both recounts the story of modern state sovereignty and troubles it from the grounds of divine sovereignty that cannot be simply read as political theology. A brilliant critical historical inquiry into the present of state sovereignty, threaded with and opposed by life's other trajectories." -- Samera Esmeir * University of California, Berkeley *"Wilson Chacko Jacob joins the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean worlds within a hitherto hidden global history to explore the making and movement of ideas. A forceful intellectual intervention in the way we understand sovereignty." -- Faisal Devji * University of Oxford *"[A] robust biographical rendering which also paints an inverted picture of the modern political subject....For God or Empire is a refreshing and vital theoretical intervention in the study of the Indian Ocean and for intellectual history more broadly." -- Taushif Kara * H-Diplo *"For God or Empire is at once an impressively scholarly, highly imaginative, and hugely challenging book....this is a very fine analysis, presenting an in-depth account of a remarkable man living through a turbulent historical era." -- Pnina Werbner * Pacific Affairs *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"China's Futures is illuminating and thought-provokingly good on so many levels. Anyone who still harbors the notion that China is a monolithic echo chamber when it comes to elite discourse and policy formation needs to read this book. Lynch documents with simultaneously laser-like precision and incredible breadth of scope the intense variety of viewpoints that lie behind the veil of neibu (internal circulation) journals." -- Andrew Mertha"Commentators on domestic politics do not challenge one-party rule, but some call for more 'inner-party democracy,' while others view authoritarianism as a developmental stage that will lead to democracy, and a third group is even more rigid than the Chinese Communist Party itself, portraying the current system as perfectly suited to Chinese culture. No one knows the extent to which these debates influence policy, but this skillful inquiry shows how informed insiders see China's possible future trajectories." -- Foreign Affairs"The value of China's Futures lies in its author's investigation of what China's elites themselves have written and said about their nation's future. What Lynch has documented 'is a kaleidoscopically plural society,' even within the strictures of the Leninist state. . . Highly recommended." -- J.D. Gillespie"Lynch's mature work of major scholarship opens up new knowledge on the frontiers of scholarship—his command of the policy analysis literature, buttressed by excellent interviews, is exceptional. China's Futures is rich with material that would appeal to academics and an educated public alike—really to anyone who cares about what the rise of China means for the world." -- Edward Friedman * University of Wisconsin-Madison *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1The Pitfalls of Rationalist Predictioneering chapter abstractSocial scientists and public intellectuals—including in the media commentariat—are fond of making predictions. Their audiences seems to demand it. Nowhere is this phenomenon more visible than in the case of rising China. But the cross-disciplinary "futures studies" subfield linking social scientists with historians argues cogently that predictioneering is a doomed enterprise with real-world negative consequences such as bad public policy. Chapter 1 explains the three core correctives analysts in this subfield argue should be used to delimit or reshape predictioneering. Many of these analysts stress that much more attention should be given to what a society's own elites imagine their country's future to hold: their images of the future. Images can act as powerful causal factors or "attractors" pulling the country in sometimes different directions. Understanding this perspective is essential to thinking more carefully and productively about the future of China's rise. 2Economic Growth: Marching Into a Middle-Income Trap? chapter abstractWhen the global financial crisis hit in 2008, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) put into place an enormous monetary stimulus program which created the impression that China avoided the crisis and emerged stronger than almost any other country. Countless foreign commentators echoed such sentiments in the media and on the Internet. However, all along Chinese economists were exposing serious problems with China's economy and were harshly criticizing the CCP for allowing these problems to worsen. Chinese economists declined to praise the 2008-2009 stimulus program; they denounced it vociferously. Almost unanimously, the Chinese economists now express alarm that the parlous economic situation will interact with deleterious demographic trends to usher China into a middle-income trap. If this results, China's rise will cease. 3The Leninist Political System Confronts a Pluralistic, Wealthy Society chapter abstractAlmost all Chinese political scientists and commentators recognize that China has become an overwhelmingly more pluralistic, wealthy society since reform and opening began in the late 1970s, and especially during the past decade. While some who hope for and expect eventual democratization think that the state should first tighten control over society in order to combat corruption and crack down on crime—because democracy cannot flourish when inequality is widespread and people are bitter at visible injustice—others think that only by increasing transparency and accountability starting now can corruption, pollution, and the myriad other phenomena that make Chinese citizens angry be addressed effectively. Meanwhile, certain neo-Leftist nationalists completely reject democratization as a legitimate or sensible objective. They worry that democratization would lead to the country's dismemberment, followed by its permanent subjugation to the West. 4The New Frontier: Changing Communication Patterns and China's Transformation into a "Network Society" chapter abstract400 million or so Chinese people who have access to the Internet, either by computer or some other device. The network society affects the functioning of the economy, politics, and administration; politically and administratively, it forces CCP leaders and the bureaucrats they supervise either to become more responsive to public demands or else think of clever new ways to manipulate what citizens think and perceive. For some Chinese social scientists and propaganda officials who specialize in studying communications, transformation into a network society heralds China's eventual democratization and should be encouraged and creatively promoted. For others, it suggests the return of a nightmarishly Hobbesian, Cultural Revolution-like public sphere, only this time with the battles raging mostly through telecommunications circuits. Their debate with the optimists is intense, suggesting that the stakes in this issue-area are higher than perhaps outsiders fully appreciate. 5China's Rise: Irreversibly Reconfiguring International Relations? chapter abstractThe most prominent prediction among (Western) international relations specialists is that China's rise will precipitate serious conflict between China and the United States, stemming from the logic of "power transition theory." In contrast, China's own international relations specialists tend to imagine the power transition leading not to war but instead to China's glorious (and peaceful) recentering in international relations and world history—reflecting what they consider to be China's natural and rightful world-historical destiny. Certainly among the minority of prominent Chinese IR specialists who do read the economists and who are concerned that the success of the rise is not inevitable, a misguided and dangerous hubris is cited as the main reason for the foreign policy shift, which these moderate IR specialists find troubling. 6Competing with the West on the "Cultural Front" in International Relations chapter abstractNot only strategically and economically, but also culturally, Chinese IR specialists—almost to a person—imagine China as being in a contest or even struggle with the West to increase influence or "discourse power" for the purpose of shaping decision-making in other countries and directing the course of world development. Unlike in the case of material (economic and military) competition, Chinese IR specialists are sharply divided on the likely outcome of the cultural competition. The result is that some Chinese specialists—including in the People's Liberation Army—present the West as a menacingly dangerous, subversive cultural threat to China that only massive investment in the culture and information industries could ever possibly counter. Throughout the world, almost everyone wants to resist American cultural hegemony, the thinking goes. China is the only country with the power, respect, and sincerely ethical values to help. 7China: Unstoppably Rising, or Perched on the Edge of a Crisis? chapter abstractThe most striking finding of this research is that there are "two Chinas" in the minds of Chinese elite analysts; that is, there are two dramatically different Chinese futures. The first future is the one generally expected in the outside world: that of China continuing inexorably to rise, albeit facing (but handling) occasional bumps in the road. In this view, China's rise is just as inevitable as was Japan's from the perspective of 1980. It is the view held by the majority of Chinese international relations analysts, including those in the PLA—and the more assertive or aggressive foreign policy since 2009 would seem to indicate the view is also shared by the CCP's top foreign policy strategists.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"While encompassing institutional and social history of the Republican Revolution in China, Zheng successfully breaks new ground by conceptualizing the era's political activism—its struggles and passions—around rights, law, and most of all, constitutionalism. This is the story of the birth of modern politics in China, whose historical messages remain valuable to the present day." -- Prasenjit Duara * Duke University *"A major contribution to the historiography of the 1911 Revolution, this book illuminates the events leading to the birth of the Chinese republic in a context wherein the propagation of new ideas prepared both elites and commoners to turn against the Qing government. Zheng depicts, in vivid and compelling detail, the constitutional movement and the 1911 Revolution in Sichuan, without losing sight of nationwide developments." -- Li Huaiyin * University of Texas at Austin *"In this powerful, original analysis, Xiaowei Zheng traces the genealogy of 'constitutionalism' and the transformation of elite consciousness in the last decades of the Qing dynasty. She analyzes both political culture and electoral politics and skillfully tacks between local and national levels. This is the best book on the 1911 Revolution to appear in many years, and it will be the point of departure for all future research on the subject." -- Matthew Sommer * Stanford University *"This study offers an important new framework for understanding China's 1911 Revolution by bringing intellectual change to the fore as the most decisive factor in creating the conditions for revolution." -- Edward McCord * China Review International *"The Chinese Revolution of 1911 toppled the Qing dynasty and established a republic. In this thoughtful, well-written work, Zheng argues that the revolution ushered in a new political culture of respect for the equality and rights of citizens, formed in response to the imperialist threat to the nation." -- K.E. Stapleton * Choice *"The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China should be mandatory reading for all scholars of twentieth- and twenty-first-century China." -- Peter J. Carroll * Twentieth-Century China *"[A] considerable accomplishment in this impressive book....The repeated failures to establish the requisite political and institutional structures to successfully translate the emergence of this potent force into genuine, orderly, and meaningful political participation of the Chinese people in the management of their own country is, indeed, the tragedy of the Chinese revolution." -- Michael Tsin * American Historical Review *"The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China is worth the attention of every student of modern China." -- Peter Zarrow * Journal of Asian Studies *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: The Political Transformation of 1911 chapter abstractThe rereads the events of 1911 and introduces my key research question. In addition, it asserts the innovativeness of the methodology, the sources, and the lens used in this book. 1Sichuan and the Old Regime chapter abstractChapter One articulates the old regime and its collaborative model between the elite and the state in Sichuan. A rich and self-sufficient region, Sichuan was only fully incorporated into the Qing Empire in the 1850s. Soon after, the collaborative model between the elite and the state was called into question as population growth, foreign invasions, and various new tasks a strained Qing central government had to fulfill generated enormous tension in local society, eroding the established power configurations and destabilizing the old regime. 2The Ideas of Revolution: Equality, the People's Rights , and Popular Sovereignty chapter abstractChapter Two examines the most formative intellectual influences on the Sichuan constitutionalists. Like their cohorts from other provinces, the Sichuan constitutionalists took Liang Qichao as their spiritual leader. Most of them had studied at Hosei University in Japan, where they were also heavily influenced by the French legal tradition, especially its key concepts of rights, equality, and popular sovereignty. Their exposure to radical political thought while studying in Japan, in addition to reinforcing a tradition of elite activism, created a Chinese constitutionalism that was full of contradictions: while claiming to represent the people, these constitutionalists were at the same time the most aggressive agents in imposing state-building projects on local communities. Missing from their thinking was an understanding of the virtues of "limited government." 3The Project: The Chuan-Han Railway Company and the New Policies Reform chapter abstractChapters Three identifies and examines the economic background of the Sichuan constitutionalists and the implication of "rights" in the economic sphere. Acting on the rhetoric of rights, the constitutionalists of Sichuan took over the Chuan-Han Railway Company, but ended up exacting more taxation from Sichuan's people . 4Can Two Sides Walk Together Without Agreeing to Meet? Constitutionalists and Officials in the Late Qing Constitutional Reform chapter abstractChapters Four identifies and examines the political orientation of the Sichuan constitutionalists. Legitimized by the late-Qing constitutional reform and using the same rhetoric of rights, these constitutionalists strove to be the true power holders of the newly enhanced state. Via the Sichuan Provincial Assembly, they obtained both a political reputation that was unmatched by any other group and a solid organizational foundation.. 5The Rhetoric of Revolution: the Rights of the Nation, Constitutionalism, and the Rights of the People chapter abstractChapter Five scrutinizes the rhetoric created by the Sichuan constitutionalists as they took their struggle to the streets. By deploying political concepts like the rights of the nation, constitutionalism, and the rights of the people, and by creating a common purpose "to protect the railway and break the treaty," the movement leaders drew ordinary people into collective action. Combining a new political repertoire with old cultural symbols, they effectively mobilized people from different walks of life against powerful opponents. 6The Practice of Revolution: Organization, Mobilization, and Radicalization chapter abstractChapter Six analyzes the mechanisms by which the Railway Protection movement spread beyond the provincial capital and throughout the entire province. Unlike in most other provinces, in which the 1911 Revolution took place in the cities and happened in a matter of days, the movement in Sichuan involved tens of thousands of people throughout the province and spanned more than six months. How was solidarity created within the movement? What were the social networks and cultural symbols of the movement? 7The Expansion and Division of Revolution: Democratic Political Culture in Action chapter abstractChapter Seven chronicles the expansion and division of the revolution. During the revolution, the newly crafted political culture with rights at its core was practiced by a large group of activists; this lent the revolution strength and legitimacy. 8The End of Revolution: the Rise of Republicanism the Failure of Constitutionalism chapter abstractChapter Eight explores the end of the revolution. In Sichuan, the emergence of popular sovereignty as a new source of power created opportunities for nonactivists to join the revolution and control its politics. This chapter suggests that it was precisely the valorization of the people and the public opinion that prevented the creation of a stable constitutional order. Conclusion: The Legacy of the 1911 Revolution chapter abstractThe Conclusion evaluates the long-term impact of the revolution. Marking the rise of a new political consciousness, thousands of men and women gained firsthand experience in the public arena: they talked, read, and listened in new ways; they voted, protested, and joined political parties. After 1911, the old, imperial political culture was abandoned in favor of a popular republicanism in which elected assemblymen, students, intellectuals, and other members of society collaborated and competed in creating a new Chinese nation.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Christian Henriot provides an utterly original perspective on Shanghai's modernization. Against a background of periodic epidemics and wars, poverty stands out as the biggest killer. Shanghai sucked in and killed people by the tens of thousands, this human fuel being what fired the city and made it work. Henriot's 'scythe' will stick in readers' minds." -- Matthew Sommer * Stanford University *"Henriot probes the question of how the city treated its working masses when they became dead bodies. The industrializing city steadfastly pushed graveyards out while the Sino-Japanese War witnessed numerous 'bodies without masters,' disproportionately of children dying in public places. This is a powerful work and a must-read for all readers enamored with Shanghai's famed splendor." -- Wen-hsin Yeh, University of California * Berkeley *"A city of death: though grim, this is Shanghai in the early twentieth century. Henriot's excellent book shows the unexpected intersections of modernity and traditional custom, whether in the rise of the coffin industry or local guilds' handling of funeral rites. This volume breaks ground as powerfully as the shovels that created Shanghai's modern cemeteries." -- Rana Mitter * Oxford University *"Based on extensive archival research, Christian Henriot's groundbreaking book Scythe and the City: A Social History of Death in Shanghai offers an original perspective on the subject of death—a previously overlooked aspect by which Shanghai modernity deems to be re-defined....The breadth and depth of archival research on historiography of death in modern Shanghai that the book presents is unmistakably pioneering." -- Lei Ping * China Review International *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractThe introduction offers various paths on the study of death in China and Europe, while it also sets the stage for the study of death in Shanghai proper. 1Scythe and the City: The Measure of Death chapter abstractThis chapter is an attempt to take the measure of death in the city through the reconstruction of demographic series and a study of the causes of death. It establishes not just the quantitative parameters of death in the city. It also unveils the dramatic condition in which most urbanites lived, their lives and hopes cut short by disease, malnutrition, work conditions, and so on. The chapter demonstrates Shanghai was a gigantic whirlpool that drew its vitality from the masses of migrants that moved into the city. 2Guilds, Charities, and the Community Management of Death chapter abstractThe second chapter examines the role of community organizations, especially the guilds and charities, in the management of death in the city. Up to the 1920s, before the emergence of commercial funeral companies, community organizations were the sole social actors that took care of the disposal of dead bodies. This chapter also studies the earlier forms of regulation by the imperial administration and the foreign municipal authorities. 3Funeral Companies and the Commoditization of the Dead Body chapter abstract. This chapter takes up the new trend commercial funeral companies set in motion from the mid-1920s, when an American company established the first funeral parlor, to the extraordinary boom during the Sino-Japanese War and its problematic legacy, a full-blown ghost city in the midst of Shanghai, in the postwar and early Communist period. 4A Final Resting Place: From Burial Grounds to Modern Cemeteries chapter abstractDue to the particular political and spatial configuration of the city, the space devoted to the final resting place was sharply divided and fragmented. This chapter focuses on the process of transformation of Chinese burial grounds and the rise of modern cemeteries in the twentieth century. It examines the role of private companies in the light of the official prescriptions from the state and the inability of local municipal authorities to respond adequately to social demand. 5Foreign Cemeteries and the Colonial Space of Death chapter abstractThis chapter addresses the specific issue of the colonial space of death that private individuals and communities, but mostly the two foreign municipal councils, created through the establishment and management of cemeteries reserved to foreigners, with only very few exceptions. In pre-1949 Shanghai, foreign cemeteries established a trail of permanent and temporary burial grounds in the core urban area. 6Invisible Deaths, Silent Deaths chapter abstractThis chapter examines the issue of the invisible deaths, those of the most destitute, especially infants and children, whose bodies ended up in back alleys, vacant land, almost everywhere in the city. This was the most gruesome aspect of death as despite its unthinkable magnitude it dissolved under a veil of social invisibility. 7Funerals and the Price of Death chapter abstractDeath had a price. From the performance of funeral rituals, to funeral apparels, and to funeral processions, death (re)created a complete hierarchy in even sharper lines than among the living. Funerals were a central rite of passage in which families invested considerable amounts of money, as much as they could afford, sometimes beyond their means. This chapter provides keys to situate the importance of funeral ceremonies in Chinese death culture and to establish the parameters of inclusion/exclusion of various social groups. It also examines the fundamental issue of the price of death and the economy of death in Shanghai. 8The Cremated Body: From Social Curse to Political Rule chapter abstractEarth burial was the fundamental way of disposing of the dead. Yet other forms emerged, for example, cremation. This chapter is devoted to the introduction of cremation in Shanghai and its slow diffusion until the war made it a compulsory measure to dispose of the unclaimed bodies of the poor. The image of cremation as a curse goes a long way to explain the strong resistance of the population and the cautious approach the authorities took, even after 1950, in promoting it. Yet, by the Cultural Revolution, this had become a standard practice. 9The Management of Death under Socialism chapter abstractAll through the late imperial and Republican period, customs and practices changed along with the emergence of new funeral organizations and the effect of official regulation. Yet the core set of beliefs and practices evolved slowly until the new Communist regime challenged the whole death culture. The final chapter examines the measures through which the CCP took over the control of all organizations involved in the management of death and reorganized drastically the funeral social landscape.

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Book SynopsisNo nation is free from the charge that it has a less-than-complete view of the past. History is not simply about recording past eventsit is often contested, negotiated, and reshaped over time. Debate over the history of World War II in Asia remains surprisingly intense, and Divergent Memories examines the opinions of powerful individuals to pinpoint the sources of conflict: from Japanese colonialism in Korea and atrocities in China to the American decision to use atomic weapons against Japan.Rather than labeling others'' views as distorted or ignoring dissenting voices to create a monolithic historical account, Gi-Wook Shin and Daniel Sneider pursue a more fruitful approach: analyzing how historical memory has developed, been formulated, and even been challenged in each country. By identifying key factors responsible for these differences, Divergent Memories provides the tools for readers to both approach their own national histories with reflection and to be mTrade Review"Divergent Memories is a wonderful contribution that shows how differently Asian wars were perceived by Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Americans. It breaks through stereotypes by revealing the nuanced views of opinion leaders in all four countries. By digging deeper, Shin and Sneider help pave the way for replacing hateful passions with compassionate understanding."—Ezra Vogel, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University"Divergent Memories is a stimulating and comprehensive account of key issues relating to memory and history in East Asia. It offers a series of intriguing and important contrasts between China, Japan and Korea, as well as the US. A valuable new resource for scholars and general readers interested in the past and future of the Asia-Pacific."—Rana Mitter, Oxford University and author of Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945 "The Asia-Pacific War ended two generations ago but history wars are still fought in East Asia today. Mobilizing evidence from interviews to pop culture to textbooks, the authors show how personal experience, political change, regional diplomacy, and national identity shaped war narratives; they also suggest a path to armistice. This book is essential reading."—Peter Duus, Stanford University"This book is an important counterweight to prevailing tendencies that promote uncritical nationalism and is thus an invaluable resource for this generation's Asian and American youth to gain a critical understanding of their national histories...[T]he authors' non-judgmental approach, coupled with a persistence in pursuing the multiple interpretations and experiences of these traumatic events, provoke a reconsideration of our notions of justice, equality, and humanity within our nationalist thinking."—Grace Huang, Journal of American-East Asian Relations"[Divergent Memories], a well-written investigation on the legacy of World War II in Asia, greatly contributes to the field of cultural and military history."—Mel Vasquez, H-WarTable of Contents1. Historical Memory, National Identity, and International Relations 2. Fashioning a Patriotic Narrative in Contemporary China 3. Confronting Collaboration in Korea 4. Multiple Memories of War in Postwar Japan 5. The Uncomfortable War: the Pacific War in American memory 6. Japanese Colonial Rule, Forced Labor, and Comfort Women 7. The Sino-Japanese War and Japanese War Crimes 8. The War in the Pacific 9. The Atomic Bombings of Japan 10. The United States and Postwar Settlements 11. Toward Historical Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific

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Book SynopsisPresents the first full-length scholarly study in English of the invasion of Korea by Japanese troops in May of 1592. Drawing on Korean, Japanese, and especially Chinese sources, he corrects the Japan-centred perspective of previous accounts.Trade ReviewSwope, a military historian of the Ming dynasty, pays special attention to battles, army size and movement, war strategy and tactics, weaponry, and technology, which enriches and enlivens his account. . . . Given its groundbreaking importance and ambitious agenda to embrace all three East Asian countries, this book will be a must-read for years."" - American Historical Review""Almost single-handedly, Swope has fundametally transformed our understanding of the late Ming [dynasty]. . . . This book is not merely a great work of history; it is a great work of storytelling."" - China Review International

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Book SynopsisAn important new cultural study of the Cold War, Guolin Yi's The Media and Sino-American Rapprochement, 1963-1972 analyses how the media in both countries shaped public perceptions of the changing relations between China and the United States in the decade prior to Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing.

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Book SynopsisIn the quarter century after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Beijing assisted Vietnam in its struggle against France and the USA. This book examines China's conduct towards Vietnam, providing important insights into Mao Zedong's foreign policy and the motives behind it.

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Book SynopsisDevoted to both Chinese immigrants and the American immigration officials who sought to keep them out following the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, this text explores the consequences for the Chinese and for the USA as a nation of immigrants.Trade Review"Lee addresses a multiplicity of issues and deftly weaves together several themes that, in the past, had been treated separately." - Sucheng Chan, University of California, Santa Barbara

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Book SynopsisThis work offers an account of the Russians' 400 years of experience in Siberia. Rasputin looks at the the peculiar physical and character traits of the Siberian Russian type, and at the gap between dreams and reality that have plagued Russians in Siberia.

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Book SynopsisTells the stories, in unprecedented detail, of sixteen surviving Filipino comfort women. M. Evelina Galang began researching these stories in the 1990s as 173 lolas, grannies in Tagalog, emerged after decades of shame and silence. Galang enters into the lives of the surviving women at Lolas' House, a community center for comfort women's organising in metro Manila.

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