Books by Joseph W. Esherick
“There’s a grand narrative of the Chinese Revolution. It’s about how the Communist Party made this triumphant, Long March to escape from the Nationalist Party after it was almost extinguished. They ended up in North China living in isolated redoubts, one of the most famous of which is Yan’an. That’s where the idea of Mao as a sacred figure, the idea of the Communist Party having this miracle-filled, epic quest to save the country comes from. For the Communist Party, it’s a celebratory myth, a powerful story of victory over impossible odds…This is a story that scholars—but not just scholars—want to complicate by bringing in such things as internecine fighting that went on, the struggles between different groups. It wasn’t predetermined that one version of communist ideology would take hold. By posing ‘accidental’ with ‘holy land’ in the title, the book is suggesting that this was driven so much by contingency, by personalities, by the structures of the time. So it’s a case of retelling a grand narrative from a different perspective. That won’t shock scholars, but he does it with a granular detail and feel for the setting and the personalities that is special.” Read more...
Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Historian
The Origins of the Boxer Uprising
by Joseph W. Esherick
Real causes of the 1900 uprising which saw bands of peasant youths streaming into Beijing to besiege the foreign legations.
Interviews where books by Joseph W. Esherick were recommended
The best books on Popular Protest in China, recommended by Elizabeth Perry
To fully understand unrest in China today you have to go back to the 1930s and the circumstances which led to the Chinese Communist Party taking power, says Harvard political scientist Elizabeth Perry. She recommends the best books on popular protest in China.
-
1
Fragile Cargo: The World War II Race to Save the Treasures of China's Forbidden City
by Adam Brookes -
2
Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's Covert War in China
by John Delury -
3
Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden: Two Sisters Separated by China's Civil War
by Zhuqing Li -
4
Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong
by Louisa Lim -
5
Accidental Holy Land: The Communist Revolution in Northwest China
by Joseph W. Esherick
The Best China Books of 2022, recommended by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
The Best China Books of 2022, recommended by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
From a true story that reads like a spy novel to a detailed study of the mythic origins of the Chinese Communist Party in Northwest China, there were lots of interesting books published about China this year. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a professor at UC Irvine and specialist in modern Chinese history, recommends some of his 2022 favourites.