The Manchus (Peoples of Asia) - Hardcover

"Pamela Crossley's "The Manchus "is the book that those interested in China's last dynasty have always needed. Through her clear, erudite, and succinct presentation, we are led to understand the origins of Manchu social organization, the formation of a Manchu ethnicity, and the implementation of a specifically Manchu view of universal empire. We also see the loss of purpose and erosion of self-confidence that led to the dynasty's collapse in 1912." "Jonathan Spence, Yale University " "Pamela Crossley's The Manchus is the book that those interested in China's last dynasty have always needed. Through her clear, erudite, and succinct presentation, we are led to understand the origins of Manchu social organization, the formation of a Manchu ethnicity, and the implementation of a specifically Manchu view of universal empire. We also see the loss of purpose and erosion of self-confidence that led to the dynasty's collapse in 1912." Jonathan Spence, Yale University

For centuries the Manchurian peoples inhabited a cultural and economic world that made them sometimes enemies, sometimes allies, of neighboring Chinese, Koreans, Mongols, and Russians. Between 1636 and 1700 this picture changed dramatically. The Manchus united and conquered the whole of China and Mongolia. A century later they added Tibet and Eastern Turkistan, creating one of the largest land empires in history. How they achieved this, and what the consequences were to themselves and to their subjects, are the main themes of this book. The final chapters reveal the roles the West and Japan played in undermining Qing authority in the nineteenth century and the sporadic attempts to restore it in the twentieth. Lastly, the book considers the fate of the contemporary Manchu minority in China and examines new signs of its resurgent identity.