The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900 (Paperback)

by Diana Preston (Author) "TURN-of-the-century Peking (Beijing) was the world's filthiest city-or so foreigners thought..." (more)
Key Phrases: legation lines, southern viceroys, legation area, Sir Claude, Lenox Simpson, Tzu Hsi (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
During the 19th century, rapacious colonial powers squeezed China mercilessly, seizing territory and extorting profits while missionaries sought souls. In the late 1890s, a virulently resentful peasant movement spread across northern China; foreigners nicknamed its adherents "Boxers" for the martial-arts exercises they practiced en masse. When the movement erupted into open violence in 1900, the imperial government supported attacks on foreigners that escalated into a siege of the foreign embassies in Peking. Diana Preston's The Boxer Rebellion is an account of the 55-day confrontation that alarmed the world. When Western and Japanese troops eventually routed the Boxers, soldiers and civilians looted the capital (to the benefit of Western museums) and extracted yet more concessions from China. The events of 1900 showed both sides at their colorful worst, and the author spares neither Chinese cruelty nor colonial pomposity and racism. Though this narrative history is told almost entirely from a Western viewpoint--of the 200 titles in the bibliography, not one is in Chinese--the many diaries and letters that Preston consulted ensure a lively portrayal of personalities and evocation of the times. She enjoys racy rumors, whether substantiated or not, and is so enamored of the charlatan Backhouse's salacious claims that he had an affair with the Dowager Empress that she details them twice. With little analysis but all the pace and immediacy of a popular novel, The Boxer Rebellion makes for absorbing reading. --John Stevenson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
One hundred years ago, China, led by a shadowy and highly militant sect called the Boxers, rose up in revolt against all manner of foreign presence and influence, forever altering China and its relationship with the outside world. In this vivid and thorough account, Oxford-trained historian and journalist Preston (A First-Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole) examines the Boxer Rebellion primarily from the perspective of the Western diplomats and missionaries who narrowly escaped massacre in Peking (as Beijing was then known), Tientsin and elsewhere in the summer of 1900. Drawing extensively on contemporaneous accounts by English and American defenders, Preston places readers inside Peking's barricaded diplomatic district. Detailing the beginning of the Boxer assault, she charts the reasons for the rebellionAthe xenophobia, superstition, abject poverty and legitimate outrage at foreign attempts at domination that drove the rebels and their sympathizers in the Manchu court. With equal immediacy and concreteness, she describes the rebellion's progress: the brutal conditions confronted by Europeans (and the Chinese converts who were barricaded with them) during the bombardment; the long-delayed arrival of Western reinforcements just in the nick of time. Preston puzzles over why the Chinese besiegers, who outnumbered the defenders by perhaps 500 to 1, did not instantly overwhelm their opponents. Evidently, she concludes, even as fanatical a group as the Boxers did not truly wish a wholesale slaughter; still, tens of thousands died in the Boxer Rebellion, most of them Chinese converts to Western religions. Bringing this ordeal back from historical obscurity, Preston tells a riveting story about ordinary people placed under extreme pressure by events they could neither understand nor control. 10 pages photos not seen by PW. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Books (July 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425180840
• ISBN-13: 978-0425180846
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #206,022 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars banner year for history, June 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners That Shook the World in the Summer of 1900. (Hardcover)

What a fabulous year for lovers of well-written prose! Jacques Barzun's magnificent Dawn to Decadence. Diana Muir's surprising and wonderful Bullough's Pond and now Preston gives us the Boxer rebellion. If William Manchester would bring out the new volume of the Churchill biography I think that I could die a happy man. To get back on topic, do not read this book unless, of course, you enjoy good narrative history, well-researched and presented in a prose style that could put most novelists now living to shame. Speaking of which, when did we cease to recognize that well written history is a high literary art? This is both, good history and good writng - and a ripping good yarn.

36 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, a must for a history buff, June 25, 2000

By	Mitch Reed (Washington DC, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners That Shook the World in the Summer of 1900. (Hardcover)

While not much is written about the Boxer Rebellion, Diana Preston, does a great job. I could not put this down, it reads like a novel. Preston vividly re counts the events leading up to the rebellion, as well as the conflict itself. The discription of the charaters in the same detailed light (the sexual habits of the players is also mentioned, but not over done)places a face on the conflict. It also descibes the awkward union of the world powers that sent troops to rescue the legations in Peking. What I noted the most is that in some aspects China has changed very little. The maps and pictures help with the story. I liked this book very much, and being an avid history reader I could not tell if this was a novel or a history book. If you are looking for a great read that covers this period (in which so few books are written) buy Preston's book.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A compelling read, and pretty good history, July 25, 2000

By	Jussi Bjorling (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners That Shook the World in the Summer of 1900. (Hardcover)

I'm not sure what Diana Preston does for a living. I don't think she's a historian for two reasons: first, her writing is much livelier than most historians' (good), and second, she seems less careful with her sources than many historians (bad). The result is a fairly breezy account of the Boxer Rebellion as seen through the eyes of the Westerners living in China at the time, with special focus on those trapped in the siege.

Most of the sources are first-hand accounts by Westerners caught up in the fighting, and as you might expect, the book relies heavily on anecdotes as a result. This is fun to read, but left me hungry for more background and information on the Boxers. Sometimes it felt as if complex groups of actors were being shoehorned into single monolithic categories, e.g. "The Boxers," "The Imperial Court," or "Britain."

These minor flaws detract from the book if you're interested in an academic analysis of the rebellion. However, as a good history book to curl up with, this can't be beat.