Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Bradley Camp Davis has delved deeper into this topic than anyone before. . . . The discussion of the borderlands in this book and the way it reveals the challenges faced by a failed state is helpful in thinking about other periods of Vietnamese history. . . . Davis’s Imperial Bandits takes us deep into one of those times when a Vietnamese state struggled to control its territory, but when we take a step back we can see parallels with other periods and places, too."
-- Liam C. Kelley * Mekong Review *
"This is a brilliantly woven narrative of the intersecting imperial designs of the Nguyen, Qing, and French, at the center of which was the quintessentially borderland phenomena of the Black Flags. It is the standard work on the Black Flags now, replacing earlier work such as Eastman’s, and will find a welcome place on the desks of political scientists and historians of transnationalism, colonialism, and Asia."
* H-Net *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Imperial Bandits, Cultures of Violence, and Oral Traditions
1. Opium and Rebellion at High Altitudes
2. Commerce, Rebellion, and Consular Optics
3. Imperial Bandits and the Sino-French War
4. Borderline, Resistance, and Technology
Conclusion: Flags in the Dust
