Joseph Esherick is Professor of History, University of Oregon, and author of Reform and Revolution in China: The 1911 Revolution in Hunan and Hubei (California, 1976).

"One of the most stimulating scholarly works of the past decade in Chinese historical studies. It sets high standards of research, analysis and interpretation. Moreover, it will remain for many years not only the standard work on the first part of the Boxer movement, but a model of careful, convincing yet dramatically revisionist history."