Origins of the Modern Chinese State

"This is a work of the first importance, one that successfully attempts to reach both a specialist and a broader audience. . . . It not only offers new and provocative historiographic arguments, but also recasts the familiar outline of post-1800 Chinese history in consistently novel and refreshing terms. . . . Both audiences will be intrigued by its implications for contemporary Chinese politics."-William T. Rowe, Johns Hopkins University "Fluently argued and genuinely important, this work has value for specialists and generalists alike."-David E. Kelley, Oberlin College "Admirers of Kuhn's own writings will find in this book a consummate summing up of decades of research in late imperial and twentieth-century Chinese history. The chapters move constantly back and forth, across the twentieth-century divide and over to European and American intellectual history, seamlessly meshing archival gems with insights from wenji, gazetteers, and other published sources."-China Review International "This is a small book but one packed with much erudition and insight. The Harvard historian, Philip Kuhn, is a master of his craft, filling page after page with the wisdom of his vast experience and expertise."-Journal of Asian History