Description
Book SynopsisThis ambitious work traces a social history of semicolonialism in late-19th and early-20th-century China. It takes as its central concern the intertwining of two antagonistic forces: elite constructions of modernity shaped globally and an alternative line of peasant resistance and development.
Trade Review"Walker successfully integrates Japanese, pre and post-Cultural Revolution Chinese, and Western historiography as well as an impressive body of theoretical work, and her book will become required reading for specialists in the field." --
Canadian Journal of HistoryTable of ContentsIntroduction: modernity, the semicolonial process and alternative histories Part I. Signposts: The Ming-Qing Transition and Beyond: 1. Agrarian class relations and peasant history in the Southern Yangzi delta during the Ming 2. The view from the periphery: Tongzhou and the Northern delta 3. Historical trends during the Qing Part II. The Semicolonial Process: 4. Shanghai, cotton cloth and the shaping of Nantong's modern merchant elite 5. Remaking local power: Zhang Jian's self-reliant path 6. Extending the sway of commercial capital 7. The politics of the peasant and modernist paths in the late Qing-early Republican years 8. Constituting 'semicolonial capitalisms': modern landlordism, commercial farming, and rural labor 9. Subproletarianization in the industrial districts Conclusion: semicolonialism and the peasant path Notes References Character list Index.
