| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 277 words from this article are provided below; about 545 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Edward S. Krebs. Shifu, Soul of Chinese Anarchism. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. 1998. Pp. xiv, 289. Cloth $65.00, paper $24.95.

Shifu was one of the most intriguing and romantic figures of the early Chinese revolutionary movement. Born Liu Shaobin, he adopted the name Shifu in 1912, when he began the anarchist writings that affected a whole generation of Chinese, including Mao Zedong. Shifu also popularized Marxist thought in China and developed many of the ideas later promoted by Chen Duxiu and his colleagues in the pages of New Youth magazine. 1

The scion of a wealthy family, Shifu first got involved with the anti-Qing revolutionary movement while studying in Japan, shortly after the turn of the century. Like many other student revolutionaries, he naively believed that the self-sacrificing purity of an assassination attempt would spark sympathy and interest in the revolutionary cause among the masses. His first efforts did not go well. While planning an attack on a Qing official, Shifu blew himself up, losing a hand and exposing the failed plot. His family pulled strings to spare him the death penalty, but he spent three years in jail. He was released from prison only after the start of the 1911 Revolution. Instead of repenting his actions, however, he immediately resumed his assassination activities. In one of the most fascinating parts of the book, Edward S. Krebs argues that in the period immediately after the outbreak of the 1911 Revolution, when the fate of the movement remained in the balance, assassination efforts like Shifu's helped demoralize the Qing, attract interest in the republican cause, and bring success to the movement. . . .

There are about 545 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.