The Boxer RebellionPrologue
I. The Poison in the Well:
China on the Eve of the Boxer Rebellion
1. A Thousand Deaths
2. Boxers and Devils
3. The Approaching Hour
4. Rats in a Trap
5. "Sha! Sha!"
II. "Death and Destruction to the Foreigner!"
20 June21 July 1900
6. A Failed Rescue
7. City of Mud and Fire
8. Behind the Tartar Wall
9. The Drifting Horror
10. The Darkest Night
III. War and Watermelons: 21 July14 August 1900
11. A Truce and a Triumph
12. The Half-Armistice
13. Horsemeat and Hope
14. In through the Sluice Gate
IV. Murder, Rape, and Exile:
Scenes from the Boxer Summer
15. "Tour of Inspection"
16. The Island of the Peitang
17. The Faith and Fate of the Missionaries
18. The Spoils of Peking
V. Another Country?
China in the Wake of the Boxer Rebellion
19. The Treaty
20. The Court Returns
21. . . . And the Foreigner Departs
22. The Boxer Legacy
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes and Sources
Bibliography
Art Credits
Index
Diana Preston is an Oxford-trained historian, writer, and broadcaster who lives in London, England. She is the author of The Road to Culloden Moor: Bonnie Prince Charlie and the ’45 Rebellion and A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole.
“Enthralling.”—The New Yorker
“With meticulous research and passionate style, Diana Preston
recreates the tragedy that consumed China a century ago.”—Iris
Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking
“An outstanding popular history that also passes muster as
first-rate historical research.”—Booklist
“Fascinating…penned with an obvious addiction to the delicious
little details of history: whimsical, outrageous and macabre.”—The
Washington Post
“A dramatic narrative that can be read on the beach or in the
classroom…well-researched and lavishly descriptive accounts.”—The
Christian Science Monitor
“Highly readable history.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Compelling…Briskly paced and carefully researched, its drama is
replete with curious characters.”—The Boston Globe
“A nail-biting example of narrative history at its best…Preston
knows precisely which colorful details will spice up this masterful
mix of history, gossip, crystal-clear military strategy and ironic
observations about colonial and imperial politiciking—and she keeps
the pot at an irresistibly lively boil throughout.”—Salon.com
“Diana Preston’s dramatic retelling of the summer-long siege of the
Peking foreign district 100 years ago—‘a pivotal episode in China’s
fractured relationship with the West’—does much to clarify China’s
enduring resentment toward foreign interference…Preston’s account,
compiled from the many letters, diaries, and memoirs by European
survivors of the siege, captures an odd strain of mordant
humor.”—The New York Times Book Review
“A colorful and well-presented treatment of a crucial turning point
in history.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Well-researched and well-told…brings to light the details of this
obscure yet culturally significant event. Her stirring account,
culled from the letters, diaries, and memoirs of the foreign
survivors, shows exactly what it was like after June 20, 1900, when
the Boxers and regular Chinese soldiers laid siege to foreign
embassies…The vivid eyewitness accounts place the reader in the
middle of events. And by shedding light on this important episode
in past China-West relations, Preston goes a long way in explaining
China’s current suspicious attitude toward the world.”—Houston
Chronicle
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