Michael T. W. Tsin is Associate Professor of Chinese History at Columbia University.

"For researchers carrying up-to-date toolkits into the Chinese past, Tsin's judicious analysis will be a model of clarity in exposition as well as a guide to the formation of China modernist discourses on national and social revolution."—Canadian Journal of History "Tsin's book is well organized, refreshingly concise, and ... highly readable."—Journal of Asian Studies "In this elegantly written and meticulously researched study, Tsin uses a social history of early 20th-century Canton to explore the meaning and mechanisms of the political culture of modernity. One of the book's great strengths is Tsin's success in bringing social-historical and theoretical analyses together, using one to illuminate the other." —Journal of Interdisciplinary History "Stanford University Press has produced yet another handsome volume, replete with photographs, a map, a graph, a character list, an extensive bibliography, and an index, all of which make this book a pleasure to use."—China Review International

• Introduction 1. In the name of society 2. Toward modernity 3. The contested nation 4. Privileging labor The riddle of mobilization Epilogue Character list Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index.

Michael T. W. Tsin is Associate Professor of Chinese History at Columbia University.

"For researchers carrying up-to-date toolkits into the Chinese past, Tsin's judicious analysis will be a model of clarity in exposition as well as a guide to the formation of China modernist discourses on national and social revolution."—Canadian Journal of History "Tsin's book is well organized, refreshingly concise, and ... highly readable."—Journal of Asian Studies "In this elegantly written and meticulously researched study, Tsin uses a social history of early 20th-century Canton to explore the meaning and mechanisms of the political culture of modernity. One of the book's great strengths is Tsin's success in bringing social-historical and theoretical analyses together, using one to illuminate the other." —Journal of Interdisciplinary History "Stanford University Press has produced yet another handsome volume, replete with photographs, a map, a graph, a character list, an extensive bibliography, and an index, all of which make this book a pleasure to use."—China Review International

• Introduction 1. In the name of society 2. Toward modernity 3. The contested nation 4. Privileging labor The riddle of mobilization Epilogue Character list Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index.