Book Description
"It is a piece of local historical research . . . yet it is also a book about all of Taiwan and indeed all of China-as good a book as we are likely to encounter for some time."-Eric Widmer, Brown University, History Book Club prospectus.
"Meskill's aim in this book was to look at Chinese society and history from the ground up rather than, as is usually the case, from the top down. . . . In this, she has succeeded brilliantly. There is, as yet, no other work with a comparable perspective."-Edward Rhoads, History
"Possibly the best historical account of a Chinese gentry family (aside from autobiographical and fictional renditions) available in the English language . . . a milestone in the field of Chinese local history."-Harry Lamley, Journal of Asian Studies
"A major addition to the expanding field of Ch'ing Chinese Studies." -Ching-chih Chen, American Historical Review Johanna Menzel Meskill is Professor of History at Herbert H. Lehman College, The City University of New York. Sponsored by the East Asian Institute, Columbia University
