History in Three Keys

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

A refreshing work of history.......2007-09-07

I bought this book for its China centered content, and I was not let down, but what I liked best about this work is that Professor Cohen weaves in a fourth component; a discourse on what historians actually do. Just as he divides the Boxer Movement into the above noted three parts he does so as well with the historical craft itself, in the process explaining his development as a historian and seriously examining in what ways history itself can have value greater than myth and commonly held beliefs. Cohen approaches history in a modest, human, and clear thinking way which makes this highly academic work also highly enjoyable to read. I enthusiastically recommend this wonderful book to anybody that is interested in Chinese society, Chinese history, or the art of making history.

History, Myth and the Boxers.......2003-06-09

"History in Three Keys" is an excellent history of the Boxer Rebellion in northern China in the late nineteenth century. Even more than that, however, it is a look at the historian's craft, how history is experienced and related, and how history is used in the present. The book is divided into three parts, which discuss the Boxer Rebellion as Event, Experience and Myth. The first consists of standard historical writing, a brief survey of the Boxer movement. It relates important names, dates, ideas and events in a narrative history constructed by the author.

The second section, The Boxers as Experience, is more interesting. Cohen attempts to analyze the experiences of the Boxers, to form a picture of the past. He looks at various themes, discussing how they shaped the Boxer movement and the attitudes and beliefs of those involved. Making extensive use of primary documents, he tries to determine their thoughts and feelings regarding foreigners, magic, gender and death. Of course, Cohen realizes that he cannot fully recount or recreate the experience of the Boxer rebellion, and spends many pages discussing ways historians and writers can approach history to try to understand and explain it.

These themes become more fully developed in the book's final section, The Boxers as Myth. Here Cohen explores the various ways the Boxers have been used as myths in twentieth century China, serving "the political, ideological, rhetorical and/or emotional needs" of the moment. While foreigners and the New Culture movement mythologized the Boxers as symbols of Chinese superstition and backwardness, anti-Imperialists cheered their anti-foreignism and nationalism, and cultural revolutionaries idolized their rebelliousness and the mythical role of women in the rebellion.

Cohen explores the difference between historians, who attempt to understand and explain the past, and mythologizers, who try to use history to advance an agenda in the present. He discusses the process of myth-making, in which contexts and inconvenient facts are ignored and a one-dimensional 'history' in created through distortion and oversimplification. Still, Cohen has some respect for mythologizing the past, and notes that experience itself is "processed" in terms of culture and myth. "Mythic constructions are ubiquitous in the world of experience and form an inseparable part of it."

I was assigned part of this book in a history course on nineteenth century globalization, but ended up reading the whole thing - and I'm glad I did. In addition to giving an excellent history of the Boxer Rebellion, "History in Three Keys" contains valuable insights into more recent Chinese history and development. Even more valuable are the discussions about the nature of history, myth, historical writing and the historian's craft. It is well written, clear and engaging, with extensive notes, index and bibliography. I enjoyed it immensely and recommend it to all interested in Chinese history or historical writing in general.

Awesome.......2000-07-26

I enjoyed this book immensely. The book is split into three parts, each covering the same events from different perspective.

The first part is covered just like most any other historical book. Mostly facts and dates, and reasons as to why certain things turned out the way they did.

The second part of the book, by far the most interesting to me, was the history of the events as seen through the eyes of those who lived through it: the missionaries, the rebels, and the townsfolk. Mostly derived from writings of people that were living in China at the time, it shows their feelings and thier thoughts.

The third part involves the use of the boxers in the agendas of political and social parties in subsequent years. It is very possibly one of the best history books that I have read.

Not only does it cover this particular historical event, it also is a study of historians and their craft. It looks into how historians decide what is to be recorded and what is not and shows you how this affects the way people in the future perceive the event.

Livin' day by day.......2000-05-02

Cohen's book analyzes a particularly notorious (for Chinese and Western commentators) historical event--the Boxer Rebellion in North China (1899-1900) from an extremely fresh perspective. It is hardly poststructuralist to assert that people live history one day at a time, rather than according to some grand plan, and that is how Cohen treats the Boxer Rebellion. Most Western scholars merely see the Boxers as a manifestation of an irrational, bloodthirsty xenophobiba, while Chinese scholars seem to fall into two categories: (1) those like the early twentieth century modernizers who saw the Boxers as an embarrassment to the cause of national unity and freedom, and (2) those like Communist Chinese historians who see the Boxers as a precursor of their own victorious struggle in 1949. Cohen masterfully demythologizes the Boxers and puts them into the context of (gasp!) their own lives. Working from a combination of secondary and primary sources, Cohen reconstructs the domestic situation in China during the late nineteenth century and argues that domestic issues (particularly famine and floods) more than anything else prompted the Boxer uprising. This thesis, of course, turns on its head the idea that the Boxers were an instrument of the evil Dowager Empress Cixi in order to prevent Westerners from disturbing China's ancient and corrupt culture. Cohen is especially interesting in examining the mechanics and experience of mythmaking, applied in this case to the Boxers but which could be applied to just about any event or experience that has emotional or subjective importance for a group of people. This book is extremely useful for anyone, history students or otherwise, who are interested in Chinese history, or perhaps more fundamentally, how we reconstruct the past in order for it to make sense.

Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900

Average customer rating:

Here's the rest of the story
A racist history of the Boxer Rebellion
Excellent Writting and research
Popular History Well Told
The Boxer Rebellion, a political society for the expulsion of Europeans from China in 1900.

Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900
Diana Preston
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0425180840
Release Date: 2001-07-10

Amazon.com

During the 19th century, rapacious colonial powers squeezed China mercilessly, seizing territory and extorting profits while missionaries sought souls. In the late 1890s, a virulently resentful peasant movement spread across northern China; foreigners nicknamed its adherents "Boxers" for the martial-arts exercises they practiced en masse. When the movement erupted into open violence in 1900, the imperial government supported attacks on foreigners that escalated into a siege of the foreign embassies in Peking. Diana Preston's The Boxer Rebellion is an account of the 55-day confrontation that alarmed the world. When Western and Japanese troops eventually routed the Boxers, soldiers and civilians looted the capital (to the benefit of Western museums) and extracted yet more concessions from China. The events of 1900 showed both sides at their colorful worst, and the author spares neither Chinese cruelty nor colonial pomposity and racism. Though this narrative history is told almost entirely from a Western viewpoint--of the 200 titles in the bibliography, not one is in Chinese--the many diaries and letters that Preston consulted ensure a lively portrayal of personalities and evocation of the times. She enjoys racy rumors, whether substantiated or not, and is so enamored of the charlatan Backhouse's salacious claims that he had an affair with the Dowager Empress that she details them twice. With little analysis but all the pace and immediacy of a popular novel, The Boxer Rebellion makes for absorbing reading. --John Stevenson

Book Description

Chinese peasants chafed against the foreign technologies and ideas that the imperialists introduced. Then a new movement-mystical, materialistic, and virulently anti-Christian-began to spread among them like wildfire. The foreigners laughed at the peasants' martial-arts routines and nicknamed them "the Boxers"-never imagining that the group, with the backing of China's empress dowager, would soon terrorize the world...This acclaimed account of the Boxer Rebellion, by an Oxford-trained historian, is an important new addition to every shelf of high-quality, highly accessible history.

Customer Reviews:

Here's the rest of the story.......2007-08-28

Preston's book is typical of the ethnocentric views characteristic of the previous literature on the subject. Although written in the politically correct present, it still harbors those biased sentiments of the past. Little is said about the arrogant Western powers running ramshod over China, grabbing land, carving spheres of influence and insulting the locals. Little is said of an incident during the Boxer rebellion in the Amur River town of Blagoveshchensk, where all Chinese inhabitants of the neighboring 64-villages were driven at gun-point into the Amur to drown en-masse. Thousands died and what was Chinese terrritory was taken over by the Russians. On the cultural side, the plunder of art treasures by both troops and diplomatic personnel went unchecked. The rape of civilians and summary executions by the occupying troops followed. The famous Admonitions scroll, one of the oldest masterpieces of Chinese painting, now in the British Museum, was looted at the time fom the Imperial Palace. The horrendous indemnity levied against the Chinese, 450 million taels of silver, one tael per person when most Chinese were barely making a few cents, is downright criminal. When the indemnity was paid in full by 1939, China was suffering the ravages of the Japanese invasion while the West continued to sell Japan the oil and other raw materials that allowed her to prolong the war. History is not one-sided as some people might wish to interpret it. The definitive Boxer Rebellion has yet to be written and is eagerly awaited.

A racist history of the Boxer Rebellion.......2007-07-20

Preston's book has a number of fundamental weaknesses which belie its title and ultimately can only be characterized as racist in their utter indifference to the lives and personalities of the Chinese. Preston again and again quotes the racist drivel of the White officers and politicians, without once taking distance from such remarks, without once calling them what they were--despicably racist. I very much agree with the first review that, the Preston's book presented "`good Europeans' vs. the `bad" Chinese" and that, "Rudyard Kipling would be proud."

Throughout the book Preston repeated refers to the Chinese men with the racist epithet -- "Chinaman," and repeatedly and uncritically quotes the racist U.S. and British troops and government officials calling the Chinese "chinks." Preston also frequently uses "coolie" without clarifying the usage of this term for Chinese men as cheap laborers, or who have been press-ganged into labor or indentured servitude. It is certainly considered racist and Preston should have clarified why she felt she had or could use it, instead of simply saying "laborer" or a Chinese man.

Preston also refers to some of the Chinese solders, the Kansu, as "braves." While the term "Kansu brave" was the common racist term used at the time, there is no reason for Preston to repeat it.

Even the conservative and historically racist dictionaries such as Websters and the OED are clear on the matter:

--"CHINAMAN: 1 capitalized : a native of China : CHINESE often taken to be offensive" Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary

--"COOLIE: [...] b. S. Afr. [Afrikaans koelie (also used).] An Asian or Indian, esp. one of the lower classes. Also attrib.
1920 Cape Times 1 Apr. 3/2 Great Public Sale.+ No coolies. 1959 L. Lerner Englishman xiv. 220 It was his girl the other one took, the one who slept with koelies. Ibid. xv. 226 You wont, you koelie girl. 1967 Guardian 4 Oct. 13/7 In South Africa the word `coolie' is used by some whites to describe Asians, and is as bitterly resented by them as the word `Kaffir' is resented by Africans." Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed.

No doubt such was the despicable language of the time and the author should accurately quote this reality, but it is also true that to fail to distance herself from this racism, makes her susceptible to being identified with it.

As is often the case with most "histories" of events involving whites and people of color, the history is written from the perspective of the whites. Rather than a history of the Boxer Rebellion, Preston writes a gushing and admiring history of the lives of the elite whites from the various legations (embassies of the day) that were under siege. Preston makes no effort to explain or analyze what events had taken place that led to this uprising. She also failed to provide any background of the persons in the legations. Rather than admirable heroes, these ambassadors or ministers were the persons in charge of imposing the humiliating and murderous policies of collecting crippling payments of "reparations" imposed at gunpoint by invading forces, as well as deleterious trade policies forced on the Chinese by occupying forces. Preston fails to make any mention whatsoever of this very important background that explains in good part the ire of the Chinese people toward these foreigners.

Why were so many millions of Chinese enraged against the foreign invaders who had imposed their presence in China at gunpoint, who had killed thousands of Chinese, and forced the sale of opium addicting millions of Chinese?

Why were so many Chinese enraged at the missionaries? The book does mention in passing what it characterizes as the "high-handed attitude" of the racist missionaries. It fails to mention the slave labor utilized by the missionaries, the humiliations and beatings and worse of Chinese at the hand of the missionaries. These missions were usually established on stolen lands, often using false accusation to force the Chinese authorities to handover lands they desired.

Preston fails to mention all this and much more. Preston refers with great sympathy to the killings of missionaries, calling them "murders" and using inflammatory terms such as "gruesome" to describe the acts. Yet such language is missing from any description of the terrible murders of tens of thousands of Chinese in their own country at the hands of foreign invaders. Preston makes great effort to arouse the reader to the alleged atrocities against the foreign missionaries. Yet the murders of the Chinese are largely presented as trifles by Preston. In Preston's book murder is reserved only for the death of whites. It would appear that Preston does not assign Chinese lives the same value.

Only briefly does Preston mention the near apocalyptic famine killing millions of Chinese peasants between 1887-1901. Another publication, "Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third Word, by Mike Davis, does a good job of documenting the fact that these famines were in part due to droughts but in fact they were largely due to the inhuman demands of the European governments for "reparation" payments imposed on the Chinese.

Preston also fails to provide any background to the readers concerning the procolonial character of the missionary societies. In fact, the missionary societies served as spies and provocateurs, and provided pretexts to justify colonial demands and attacks against the Chinese. An example was the use by the French of alleged slights against missionaries as the pretext for invading and seizing Vietnam. The author Mike Davis explained, "The first phase of drought, which lasted from 1897 through summer 1898, caused acute distress in the western and southern counties of Shandong, where anti-foreign anger was already at a fever-pitch because of repeated German military interventions on behalf of Catholic missionaries."

Other than a handful of Chinese elite generally described unflatteringly by Preston, there are no Chinese people in her story. In Preston's book, the Chinese are largely nameless caricatures who simply serve as examples of primitive cruelty, except for the noble and servile Christian converts. Of the thousands of converts being held in the legation not one has a name. Interestingly, even the Japanese other than their commanding officers have no names, and no accounts are given by Preston. It seems odd that none of the Japanese would have written diaries nor given interviews about their experience. Indeed, the descriptions of the social life and partying of the interventionists does not include any descriptions of the Japanese, except to refer to their military bravery and discipline in killing Chinese, and their subsequent mass rapes and slaughtering of the Chinese.

Another example of Preston's viewpoint is provided when she writes "for most the diet was a monotonous one of horse, pony, or mule and rice, which gave many people digestive problems and make the feel `out of sorts'." The "most" that Preston refers to are the white Europeans, which is eloquently revealing of Preston's values. While the colonialists are bored with meat, the Chinese converts are left starving, eating tree bark, or if they are lucky, Preston describes the Europeans occasionally leaving the Chinese the largely inedible head and guts of a horse, after they took all the meat.

Preston's descriptions of the Europeans are the usual adulatory tripe of the jolly good and decent, noble and brave white men and women, who faced the hordes of savages with a touch of humor and a dash of fashion. In one part of the book Preston describes the dashing whites who, notwithstanding the inconveniences of the war, were sure to keep clean and wear clean clothes. Preston describes a laundry service for the whites. Unsurprisingly, she does not clarify who was doing the washing. Obviously, it must have been the Chinese hostages who had been forced to keep the Europeans' clothes clean, while the Chinese were filthy and dying. Moreover, as the Chinese were severely malnourished, imposing such hard physical labor as washer-men and women can only have hastened their misery and death. But Preston expresses no concern for with such matters while she spends most of her book describing the parties, food, gossip and hardships, for the white Europeans, which an occasional obligatory mention of the Chinese hardships, and European discrimination.

"When a shell burst into the bakery and killed on the Chinese bakers, Madame Chamot kept the others [Chinese] to their work by brandishing a rifle." [page 159] How quaint!

Preston describes the rapes of the Chinese schoolgirls among the converts by the white soldiers, using a grotesque euphemism "unfortunate incidents" [page 182]. Preston belittles the horror in a titillating humorous tone that is absolutely shocking.

A far more thorough critique of Preston's book is certainly needed, as I have barely scratched the surface.

Excellent Writting and research.......2007-01-04

The author does an excellent job of writing and researching this book however, it is obviously based from the point of view of the imperial powers. This would be fine if she expressed this clearly and emphatically in the Prologue or even added a chapter at the beginning describing the opium wars and a more thorough description of the actions of the imperial powers leading p to the rebellion.

Later in the book Ms. Preston mentions several quotes from German military and political leaders but fails to follow up on their implications in future events. Comments from German officers about the inadequacy of French troops and statements that they could defeat "all of America with a Berlin Fire brigade" clearly set the tone for Germany's attitude towards the armies they would later attack. Germany's' other ominous statements are also glossed over "the Chinese "would feel the iron fist of Germany heavy on their necks"" (p.25) and later "You must know my men, that you are about to meet a crafty, well-armed foe! Meet him and beat him! Give him no quarter! Take no prisoners! Kill him when he falls into your hands! Even as a thousand years ago. the Huns under king Atilla made such a name for themselves as still resounds in terror through legend and fable, so may never again will a Chinese dare to so much as look askance at a German." (p.209) The author also mentions that most of the Chinese modern weapons and war ships came from Germany and especially from the krupp family but fails to follow up with the fact that the Krupps would continue to enrich themselves by selling arms to both sides in many conflicts and by encouraging the following world wars. Despite the fact that they would be tried for their crimes the Krupp manufacturing empire still thrives in plastics.

In summary Ms. Preston seems to fail to put the long term effects of the boxer rebellion especially of the multinational rescue force that would later be fighting each other, into a larger historical context. This leaves the book as a fascinating first hand account of the besieged and their rescuers viewpoints, but fails to adequately explain the reason for the uprising in the first place, and its long term results. This combined with the lack of a Chinese point of view results more in a collection of personnel narratives, impressions and feelings and less of an analysis of the Boxer Rebellion and how it "Shook the World".

R Philip Reynolds
Research Education Librarian

Popular History Well Told.......2006-09-09

The short lived, generally forgotten Boxer Rebellion took place in North China in 1900. The Boxers were Chinese rebels who hated foreign Christian missionaries, their converts, and the foreign diplomats who had taken up residence in China during the last century. They wanted China to be rid of all of them. They were called "Boxers" because of the martial arts they practiced and the poses they assumed. It was very short lived, put down in a couple of months by a coalition of troops from Great Britain, Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy and the United States.

The author is an Oxford trained historian, writer and broadcaster. As she states, the book is a popular history, telling the story of what happened, not necessarily why. It is published by Berkley Books, a division of Penguin Group which has specialized in best selling authors. While it is intended for a general audience and has been a best seller, the support and documentation for the narrative would make any scholar proud. Relying upon many published sources and unpublished letters, diaries, and statements of the Western survivors, many of them women, the book, which contains extensive endnotes, sets forth the day to day resistance of the foreigners and converts encircled in the diplomatic area of Beijing. To a lesser extent it chronicles the movements of the allied troops slowly coming to relieve them. Finally, assuaging the understandable curiosity of the reader, she tells what happened to the major characters as the disastrous twentieth century progressed. For those readers who have no familiarity with this long forgotten war, the book reads like a novel. The tension every novel must have is present in the slow revealing of how the end came and who survived.

The causes of the war are stated very briefly and without extensive Chinese citations. In fact, this war cries out for a history written by the Chinese, perhaps similar to Arthur Whaley's The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes. The cause, in summary, was that the Boxers were angered by the Christian missionaries (mostly Catholic) and their converts, the "rice Christians." They were also incensed by the disruptions of traditional Chinese life by the construction of railroads and the establishment of other businesses by foreign companies. The diplomatic missions were imposed upon the Chinese as a result of a conflict with the French and English in 1860. Concessions to the Japanese were made as a result of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1894. By 1900 there were 672 foreign companies in China, more than half of which were British. The takeover by the foreigners of sections of Beijing and their unilateral actions as occupiers, were not endearing to the Chinese. They certainly were entitled to strongly resent their presence.

The actions of the various nations involved were harbingers of the events to come later in the century. The European powers present in China, as in Africa, were competing for colonies and economic concessions and were keeping more than just an eye on each other. The British had the largest fleet and controlled much of Chinese shipping. The French conversely appeared to have no stomach for armed conflict. The Japanese, on the other hand, were willing to fight and die with the tenacity the world would witness forty years later on Iwo Jima and other South Pacific Islands. The United States, although most of the missionaries were American, was the one nation that just wished everyone would leave China alone. Finally, the Chinese demonstrated a disastrous lack of cohesion and leadership, especially of their military forces.

The barbarity of the Boxers is on display throughout the book. They tortured and killed tens of thousands of missionaries and converts, hacking them to pieces, skinning or burying them alive, or burning them to death. Like the Taliban of recent history, they destroyed churches, temples and other buildings, tore up railways which they particularly hated, and destroyed buildings. They also burned the Hanlin Academy and the only surviving copy of the "fabulous Yung Lo Ta Tien, an encyclopedia completed in 1408 by 2,000 Ming scholars and comprising about 12,000 volumes bound in yellow silk." (139) This was in spite of British efforts, while under attack to extinguish it. Religious fervor or hatred then, as now, seems to lead to the bloodiest acts. The author does not dwell on why.

The characters of some of the players in the drama are well drawn. Of course, pictures help. The British minister to Peking, Sir Claude MacDonald, looks like a British minister should look and he acts the part, leading by undramatic example rationing food, directing the placement of defenses and not being shaken by any of the many small defeats that occurred. The senior American officer present, a future Chief of Staff, Major General Adna Chafee, has an equally representative countenance. His threatening eyes matched his aggressive and courageous actions in directing the American soldiers and in paying respect to those who had fallen. Perhaps the most remarkable is the description of a few members of the diplomatic corps who hid in the British legation compound during the fighting, surfacing to sit outside and drink what appears to be an endless supply of champagne during the lulls. They are contrasted to the women who spent most of the time cooking, making bandages and filling sandbags. The extensive looting that followed the occupation of The Forbidden City is set forth in detail, seemingly accepted as the right of victors.

The Empress Dowager, "the old Buddha," Tzu Hsi, "a woman of unimaginable sexual appetites and political ambition who murdered anyone" (xiii) is a central figure. She and her "state department," the Tsungli Yamen, equivocated; waiting to see if the Boxers would prevail. They judged wrong and threw the weight of the government and its nearby available troops in with the Boxers. Although armed with some of Krupp's most recent weapons they lacked the marksmanship of the U.S. Marines and the discipline of the British and Indian troops. After one false start, led by a British Vice Admiral, Sir Edward Seymour, with only the soldiers and sailors available from the foreign ships in the area, which was repulsed by the Boxers, the allied countries brought in over 20,000 troops from the Philippines, India, Japan, Russia and Indochina. With very little preparation, they fought from the port of Taku through Tientsin, where the first attempt was halted, to Beijing, arriving on August 14 to relieve the encircled missionaries, converts and diplomats.

The questions left open by this book are numerous. Why did the Empress equivocate, letting a rebel group within her country destroy infrastructure and kill missionaries? Why were the diplomats so out of touch so as not to see the violent rebellion coming? What intelligence did they have? After all one of an embassies most important functions is to find out what is going on in the country in which it is located. The leaders of the Boxers are not identified, who were they? We are told the fates of some of the major characters, but are left wondering what their thoughts were, and where all the loot resides. That being said, the author intended to write a popular history and has written a very detailed and interesting one. Many war histories are dulled by endless recitation of where units moved, body counts and rounds fired. This one is not. The author has combined the actions of the civilians in defending themselves and avoiding starvation with the courage of the troops, or the lack of it in a few instances, in rescuing them with little time to spare.

The Boxer Rebellion, a political society for the expulsion of Europeans from China in 1900........2006-05-15

Diana Preston writes a compelling book which is well written, easy to follow, and well documented with 38 pages of notes and sources regarding the epic challenge to China and their foreign occupiers during "The Boxers' Rebellion of 1900".

While the European Powers, consisting of ----Britain, United States of America, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Holland and the Asiatic power Japan, were bickering over how to slice up the pie of China; this caused a great hatred of Europeans to sweep like wild-fire over Northern China.
A U.S. Senator, Albert Beveridge, from Indiana [1899-1911] claimed,"we are a conquering race, we must obey our blood and occupy new markets and if necessary new lands". "The Pacific was "the true field of our operation".[Also see, Albert J. Beveridge: In support of an American Empire. Source:Record, 56 Cong.,1 Sess.,PP.704-712.

In this connection, this book described how a new movement, ----mystical, militaristic and anti Christian, called Boxers by the contemptuous foreigners, had trapped in Peking and murdered 250 Europeans and nearly 20,000 Chinese Christians, called "Rice Christians" because it was believed that they were converted to Christianity in order to get enough rice to eat and receive other preferential treatment from the Europeans.

55 Days in Peking:

This book closes with a combined allied force of 20,000 marching to Peking and relieving the trapped Europeans and their Chinese Christians converts, who had been under the Boxers' siege from June 21,1900 to August 14, 1900.

It is to be noted that unbeknownst to the European Powers, who participated in the Boxers Rebellion; they could not see in their wildest dreams that they would lose within the next 45 years all of their influences, and possessions in China, and later all of Asia, India and Africa, through two suicidal Civil world wars among the white Races of Europe, which was caused by WWI and WWII. Japan would lose its ill-gotten gains also via WWII.

In this regard, I highly recommend this book to all serious minded people who enjoy history from a different perspective.

Peking 1900: The Boxer Rebellion (Campaign)

Average customer rating:

Good intro to Boxer Rebellion
Good overview of the campaign.
Typical Excellent Overview
I had higher expectations
A Solid Campaign Summary

Peking 1900: The Boxer Rebellion (Campaign)
Peter Harrington
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1841761818
Release Date: 2001-05-25

Book Description

In 1900 a violent rebellion swept northern China – the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxers were a secret society who sought to rid their country of the pernicious influence of the foreign powers who had gradually acquired a stranglehold on China. With the connivance of the Imperial Court they laid siege to the legation quarter of Peking. Trapped inside were an assortment of diplomats, civilians and a small number of troops. They were all Sir Claude Macdonald, the British Minister in Peking, had to defend against thousands of hostile Boxers and Imperial troops. It would now be a race against time. Could the rag-tag defenders hold out long enough for the gathering relief force to reach them? This book describes the desperate series of events as the multinational force rushed to their rescue.

Customer Reviews:

Good intro to Boxer Rebellion.......2007-09-03

If you are looking for a decent introduction to the Boxer Rebellion in only 96 pages (i.e., can be read in about an hour to an hour and a half) this is the book for you. It gives a succint (but not in-depth) history of the actual rebellion (political as well as military), its historical context and a discussion of the main "players" with their motivations. Cannot be beat for a 96 page review.

Good overview of the campaign........2006-10-03

As with most Osprey titles, this book was well written, with a great amount of information on a almost forgotten event in international history. If anything, I would say that the illustrations in this book are not as good as the majority of the Campaign Series books. This is counteracted by good use of photography and maps. Overall, this is another strong addition to the Campaign Series.

Typical Excellent Overview.......2002-01-24

The question is not what is not in this book but what is. One must judge by what is intended not what might be expected of a thorough footnoted academic work or a popular history of great length. This entire series is aimed at the casual reader, the sort who reads Military History Quarterly, WWII Journal, Naval History, to name a few. In most cases, reading MHQ, my eye is caught, the narrative is compelling and I find myself reading about the Middle Ages or some border raiders in the Balkans, none of which I would make a trip to the library for or even make a web search.
These campaign series are most useful for their graphics and illustrations, many of which in this one are contemporary photos. Many have orders of battle listings and charts which are of most interest to war gamers. It is my opinion that this series is marketed to them and to the general reader who wants more detail than appears in the general histories covering an entire war. This serves that purpose admirably.

One could also read the volume on the Boxer Rebellion in the Men At Arms series. (see review.)

I had higher expectations.......2001-11-13

The author has established a solid reputation by co-authoring several great books on the boxer rebellion. Thus I had purchased this volume with very high expectations as to its contents.
I was however disappointed by the text which was very choppy with some grammatical errors. I had the distinct feeling that the text was pre-written and then force-fitted into the Osprey format. If space was at a premium, then there was unnecessary duplication of information such as the order of battle for the forces, allied and Chinese in the text, repeated in a few tables.
The face-saving grace of this book is that there were a few nice illustrations with one particularly compelling bird's eye view of the besieged Legation compound.
In this series, an earlier Boxer rebellion book by Lynn Bodin is superior.

A Solid Campaign Summary.......2001-06-09

In Peking 1900, Peter Harrington covers the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion in China and the Allied campaigns in June-August 1900 to relieve the besieged foreign legations in the Chinese capital. Although this campaign, with the dramatic siege of the legations in Peking, has been covered before, Harrington provides a useful summary of the campaign. The author is currently the curator of the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University, and he has used his access to that resource to provide many hitherto unseen photographs and illustrations from the campaign.

In the background to the campaign, Harrington discusses the spread of anti-foreign attitudes in China, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5 and the emergence of the Boxers. Although this section is quite good, there is a subtle use of euphemisms to downplay foreign aggressions against China. For example, the author states that the First Opium War (1839-1842) "was the result of disagreements between Chinese officials and British merchants in the port of Canton particularly concerning the supply of opium from India." In fact, the Chinese were trying to stop the British from importing highly addictive opium into China, where it was already causing social problems. In modern terms, the Chinese were attempting to interdict the flow of narcotics into their country, and even by 19th Century standards of commerce, the Chinese had a right to determine what could be imported into their country. In reference to the Second Opium War in 1860, Harrington states that, "Peking was entered by Allied forces on 12 October 1860." That's putting it very mildly. In fact, the Anglo-French troops stormed and sacked the city. The use of euphemisms such as "disagreement" and "enter" seem akin to the attempts by modern Japanese historians to downplay and justify their own aggressions in China. Oddly, the Taiping Rebellion is not mentioned in this section, although it seriously weakened the Manchu administration of the country.

The main campaign narrative covers the First Relief Column, the storming of the Taku Forts, operations around Tientsin, the siege of the legations in Peking and the final relief effort. There are only two 3-D "Bird's Eye View" maps in this volume, and they cover the storming of the Taku Forts and the defense of the British legation. The later map is particularly good. Three illustrated battle scenes complement the text, in addition to many excellent photographs. A chronology, and detailed order of battle for both sides is provided. The section on opposing commanders is a bit too high-level, focusing only on the senior Chinese and Allied leaders, and the author might have provided a bit more detail on the junior officers such as John Jellicoe who later went on to major commands. David Beatty, of Jutland fame, was wounded in the campaign but is not mentioned here. Nor are details given on any American, Japanese, French or Russian commanders.

One point that the author mentions but glosses over is very significant for readers interested in trying to understand Chinese concepts of war-making. On 14 July 1900, the Chinese asked for a truce in Peking, despite the fact that the defenders in the legations were hard-pressed. Harrington notes that the Chinese virtually had the legations in their grasp. In fact, had the Chinese employed heavy artillery the siege would have been over very quickly, but the Chinese never made an all-out effort to storm the defenses. The reason may lie in the peculiar Chinese penchant for "teaching a lesson" to disrespectful foreigners, which does not see total victory as necessary. Merely besieging the embassies and inflicting losses may have been enough to chastise the 'foreign devils' in Chinese minds. Such conceptions of warfare are useful for Americans to keep in mind, given the current growing level of Sino-American animosities. The Peking Campaign provides a sober lesson that the Chinese mindset toward war is not the same as our own.

Book Description

Captain David Blackwood is embroiled in the Boxer Rebellion. Ordered to escort a beautiful German countess on a dangerous journey up the Hoshun River, Blackwood sees death and slaughter unlike anything he has known. Finally, standing before the walls of Tientsin, he must hold on against a torrent of frenzied Chinese warriors.

Customer Reviews:

Ho- hum!.......1998-05-04

The plot was very shallow with little detail given to support the flow of the fictional content or the historical background of the story. Movement from one event to another was often bumpy. Character development, in most cases, was weak. The book was a disappointment considering the excitment of the historical backdrop.

China Journal 1889-1900: An American Missionary Family During the Boxer Rebellion : With the Letters and Diaries of Eva Jane Price and Her Family

Average customer rating:

A revealing journal about Missionary life in China.

China Journal 1889-1900: An American Missionary Family During the Boxer Rebellion : With the Letters and Diaries of Eva Jane Price and Her Family
Eva Jane Price
Manufacturer: Collier Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0020360657

Customer Reviews:

A revealing journal about Missionary life in China........2003-05-25

This journal documents the tenure of the Price family in China between 1889 and 1900. Missionaries from the U.S., they are caught up in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, and do not survive it. Eva Jane Price's journal and letters--with other family members writings also included--fully reflect the ambience of western missionary life in China in the late 19th century. As an appendix, there is an account by a Chinese friend of the Prices murder at the hands of the Boxers. But there is much journal and letter writing prior to this. The attitudes of the missionaries towards the Chinese is revealed in this book, and they aren't altogether positive. Yet, overall, misdeeds are abundant for both host and guests. In the end, self-serving political forces in the Forbidden City capitalize on the missionaries unpopularity via mindless thugs. These sorry individuals have come to be known historically as the "Boxers", hence the Boxer Rebellion. This is a unique historical document, and I learned much about this era.

Average customer rating:

The definition of sensuous
Good read but too long
An adventure story with history to boot . . .
One of the best
It was a dark and stormy night . . .

The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure
Adam Williams
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Family Saga | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 031231566X
Release Date: 2004-11-25

Book Description

Northern China, 1899. As the Boxer Rebellion erupts, a cast of innocents, fanatics, sinners, and lovers are drawn to the Palace of Heavenly Pleasure - an infamous brothel that overlooks an execution ground - where the fury of the East will meet the ideals of the West and all will face their destiny. Adam Williams's first novel is a historical tour-de-force and a triumphant return to traditional storytelling on a truly grand scale.

Customer Reviews:

The definition of sensuous.......2006-08-27

I have read this book maybe four or five times since I bought it last year. Yes, the book is that good.

The story flows seamlessly as it describes life at the turn of the twentieth century in China. It details the culture, lifestyle and politics of the time beautifully. The book weaves the politics of the Boxer Rebellion, which was a peasant up-rising against the foreign rulers of the day, into a detailed love affair between a Victorian agent/spy and a goody-two-shoes, covent-raised young woman.

The story jumps back and forth between the foreigners attempting to modernize/dominate China and the happenings in The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure (A brothel in the city). The author makes these jumps effortlessly and manages to entwine the two into one majestic tapestry of story-telling.

The characters are so well drawn and the words so well-balanced that this book is impossible to put down. It is the ultimate page-turner.

This is the book you've been waiting to read.

Good read but too long.......2005-12-28

I agree with the other reviewers that this book is a good read. It is an interesting evocation of China around 1900 and its English community. Readers interested in China, its history and cultural clashes between the Chinese and the English settlers will definitely enjoy this book. I wouldn't give it more than 3 stars however, because I think that the book is too long - often I skimmed entire paragraphs of superfluous or overlong descriptions of scenes and main characters' thoughts. I think the author could easily have skipped 200+ pages. Also I had trouble sympathising with the main characters in the book, particularly Henry (whose motives remain unclear), Helen (I couldn't shake off the feeling that she had it all coming) and fussy Dr Airton. The other characters remain a bit of a caricature, and the victims of the Boxer rebellion are not well developed in the book, so it's hard to be very shocked by what happens to them. The mandarin is a great character though, and the almost spiritual/ritualistic scene in which he meets the rebels in the forest is the best in the book.

An adventure story with history to boot . . ........2005-10-30

A well written account of the Boxer rebellion, the book centers on the lives and fates of a small group of europeans in the fictional chinese city of Shishan. I found the first few chapters a bit slow but once the book picked up speed it was a gripping read. The characters weren't that well developed. Henry's dialogues are reminiscent of Bogart and while his character as charming spy/ne'er do well is well done, Helen Frances seems a petty little wretch most of the time. I was surprised at how the book ended. Not so much at how the events unfolded but at how the author chose to convey them. Instead of following the characters as he had throughout the book, he suddenly switched to a dialogue between two new characters to give us an idea of how Henry and Helen Frances finally ended up. Have to say I felt a bit cheated at that. After being shown every nuance of the relationship it felt like the end was cut short. Still a good read with some hefty skimming on my part. I particularly enjoyed the character of the Mandarin and the enigmatic Mongol Shaman. And I learned a lot about the Boxer rebellion too :)

One of the best.......2005-08-01

Interested in Chinese history? Even just a little? Do you also like a novel that`s a real page-turner? Whether you know a lot about Chinese history or not, this novel will captivate your imagination throughout. A longer novel than most, I didn't get bored anywhere! The vivid portrayal of characters in constantly imaginative, challenging situations combined with what is obviously thoroughly researched historical context make this novel absolutely unforgettable!This is a good chance to learn about Chinese history and culture and enjoy every minute of it!

It was a dark and stormy night . . ........2004-12-25

I bought this book last summer because it was the only English-language book available in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris that I had not read and was not written by Jacqueline Susann. As my plane lifted off for the States, I was at first afraid that I had made a mistake. The style is much more like something from the Victorian era than 2004. However, I soon became entranced by the story, and the anachronistic prose just made it better for a long flight. The characters are well-developed, even when not totally credible, and the reader soon comes to care about their trials and tribulations. Mr. Williams displays a thorough knowledge of Chinese history as he paints a panoramic portrait of a country in turmoil. If nothing else, the book should be nominated for a Bulwer-Lytton award, since it really does begin on a "dark and stormy night."

Uncle Sam's Little Wars: The Spanish-American War, Philippine Insurrection, and Boxer Rebellion, 1898-1902 (G.I. Series)

Average customer rating:

Completely Unstructured; Captioned Pictures Only
Clear and Interesting Study

Uncle Sam's Little Wars: The Spanish-American War, Philippine Insurrection, and Boxer Rebellion, 1898-1902 (G.I. Series)
John Langellier
Manufacturer: Greenhill Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Philippines | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Spain | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Pictorials | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Strategy | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Uniforms | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Military Science | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1853673579

Book Description

A remarkable study of an age that incorporated the spirit of the nineteenth-century with the technology of modern aggression One hundred years ago American colonial ambition found expression in the seizure and occupation of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, and intervention in the Boxer Rebellion in China. These military enterprises cast the American Army in a dramatic new role; the G.I.s had to suddenly adapt from policing the American interior to sustaining an international power in far-flung corners of the world.

Customer Reviews:

Completely Unstructured; Captioned Pictures Only.......2006-01-16

This little (but not very inexpensive) book consists of a four-page summary of the America's turn-of-the-century colonial wars and a considerable, though very hit-or-miss, collection of captioned illustrations.

During my second read-through I started organizing the random facts into a coherent (though highly conjectural) system of understanding and I noted the few contradictory (at least by implication) captions. During my third and fourth read-throughs, I tweaked my assumptions and formed somewhat informed opinions regarding which captions were more likely to be entirely accurate. Hopefully I have constructed a passing understanding of the subject, but clearly this is an unnecessarily frustrating way to learn. Also, the editing is probably even worse than that of the average book I read.

There are many hints that the author has more than sufficient knowledge to answer my questions; he just seems to have assumed that his audience has no desire for a remotely systematic knowledge of the subject. However, if you are only interested in members of the "big three" branches of the U. S. Army and do not mind doing some deduction, then you may find it satisfactory.

Clear and Interesting Study.......1999-07-20

The author has produced a slew of photo studies with incisive text on the life and times of the U.S. soldier, and his Spanish and Mexican californio predecessors also. His specialty is in gathering together contemporary source material for the illustrations. This method has the great virtue of showing what was what and when. But if no photos are available, then something may be omitted. All of these books are vertical studies covering a period of years. Though sometimes the illustrations serve to identify individual items of equipment, these works are not intended for that purpose. They are not catalogs intended for materiel collectors. They are of such a length and of such a level of detail that they will serve the purposes of the general reader with a curiousity about what grandaddy did in WW II or great great great grandaddy in the Civil War and what he looked like and how he lived. This is not to say that the specialist such as myself cannot find useful nuggets herein. I can. I use these for general surveys of periods I do not study in detail, such as the Civil War, and the War With Mexico, etc. And to look up the odd facts. I have yet to be disappointed with any of them.

The Last Refugees from Shansi: In the Hands of the Chinese Boxers (An Eyewitness Account)

Average customer rating:

The Last Refugees from Shansi: In the Hands of the Chinese Boxers (An Eyewitness Account)
Written by Olivia C. Ogren, translated by Samuel Ogren, Sr.
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Chinese | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1412016770
Release Date: 2006-07-06

Book Description

A husband scalped, a starving baby, a newly born girl, vermin and disease; spear wounds, blinded eyes. What an experience. What a story.

Average customer rating:

This One Stands the Test of Time
A great primer to the Boxer Rebellion!

The Boxer Rebellion (Men-at-Arms)
Lynn Bodin
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Military Science | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0850453356
Release Date: 1979-11-08

Book Description

In the year 1900, an unprecedented co-operation occurred between the eight major military powers of the world. For more than a year military and naval personnel from Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States fought together against a common enemy. That enemy was a society whose goal was the extermination of all 'foreign devils' in China – the I Ho Ch'uan, or Righteous Harmonious Fists, better known to the West as the Boxers. This engaging account, packed with original photographs and full colour artwork, tells the story of this unique occurrence in military history.

Customer Reviews:

This One Stands the Test of Time.......2001-12-30

So many of the earlier volumes in this series are either superficially done by authors barely familiar with research or just too sketchy, that is, the subject is too vast for the space available.
This one is just about right. It is the story of the first international expeditionary force in the twentieth century, combining forces which sooner or later would fight each other. The major forces were the U.S., and the British, Japanese, French, and German empires, all first commanded by a British admiral.
The Chinese peasant traditionalist organizations, whose names translated as Boxers, revolted against the Imperial Government and laid siege to the Legation Quarter at Peking near the seat of the government. For political reasons, the Imperial Army was first kept on the sidelines, for the Imperial Dowager Empress disapproved of the foreign concessions that had been imposed on China over the last century. (19th).But when the Allies tried to advance along the railway to Peking to rescue the foreigners there the Imperial Army blocked their way.
The advance was no picnic stroll. Hordes of Boxer and Imperial forces attacked the advancing Allies who in the searing heat and stifling dust of the Asian continental climate were hindered by the necessity of marching along the railroad from Tientsin and repairing it as they went.
All in all, a good overview of the incidents which at the time, inspired multitudes of reports, books, and popular histories.
Later the siege was commemorated in the movie "55 Days at Peking" starring Charlton Heston and the US Marine Corps Legation Guard. Though the British Envoy, a former general officer was really in charge of the defense.

A great primer to the Boxer Rebellion!.......1997-04-26

For those contemplating staging a new wargame, look no further than this book for the Boxer Rebellion. Although somewhat dated by comparison with the other Osprey MAA books, the text is readable and the illustrations by C Warner are evocative of the period. Recommended

The Siege of the Peking Embassy 1900: Sir Claude Macdonald's Report on the Boxer Rebellion (Uncovered Editions)

Average customer rating:

Quite interesting

The Siege of the Peking Embassy 1900: Sir Claude Macdonald's Report on the Boxer Rebellion (Uncovered Editions)

Manufacturer: Stationery Office Books (TSO)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Revolutionary | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0117024562

Customer Reviews:

Quite interesting.......2002-04-23

The boxer rebellion as covered in the official despatches to and from the British Embassy, the British ambassador's report and others. Primary reference material on official documentation.
If so, it looks like the Western powers misunderstood Prince Kung's role in the Boxer uprising.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books