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Book Review
Asia
Roxann Prazniak. Of Camel Kings and Other Things: Rural Rebels against Modernity in Late Imperial China. (State and Society in East Asia.) Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. 1999. Pp. xi, 305. Cloth $69.00, paper $24.95.
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After the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, China's failing Qing dynasty undertook a program of radical reform. Among other things, the so-called "New Policies" mandated organs of local self-government, sought a new system of public schools, established a modernized military force, and encouraged economic development. The Qing reforms have received considerable academic attention, and some of this workin particular, classic studies by Edward Rhoads on Guangdong and Joseph Esherick on Hunan/Hubeihas suggested that the New Policies could arouse strong popular resistance. |
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Until now, however, we have not had a book in English focusing on this opposition. Roxann Prazniak's excellent and pioneering work not only fills a major historical lacuna but does so on the basis of impressive scholarship that includes archives, local gazetteers and oral histories, reports by foreign observers, and a broad array of Chinese and Western secondary sources. Her book is important for specialists on China and should interest everyone who studies popular rebellion. |
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