Out of China: How the Chinese Ended the Era of Western Domination

China’s new nationalism is rooted not in its present power but in shameful memories of its former weaknesses. Invaded, humiliated, and looted by foreign powers in the past, China looks out at the twenty-first century through the lens of the past two centuries. History matters deeply to Beijing’s current rulers, and Robert Bickers explains why.

Table of Contents:
Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Illustrations List of Maps Acknowledgements Pronunciation Guide List of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. Armistice Chapter 2. Making Revolution Chapter 3. Good Earth Chapter 4. Talking it Over Chapter 5. China in the Mind Chapter 6. Monkeys Riding Greyhounds Chapter 7. Allies of a Kind Chapter 8. Foreign Experts Chapter 9. Light of Asia Chapter 10. Monsters and Demons Chapter 11. Unfinished Business Chapter 12. Haunted by History Further Reading, Watching and Listening Notes Index

About the Author :
Robert Bickers is Professor of History at the University of Bristol.

Review :
A beautifully written history of China's 20th-century interactions with the outside world. But instead of the narrow, legitimacy-enhancing story peddled by the Chinese Communist party, Bickers tells a far more complex tale of the forces of attraction, rejection and interdependence that have consistently defined China's varied dealings with the world...Out of China demolishes many favorite motifs of official history in China...Interweaving political and cultural history, the detailed narratives of this book are essential correctives to the tale spun by Beijing's current rulers. Each regime chronicled in this book sought to contort history to serve its purposes, and Xi's today is no exception...Teeming with nuances while assailing the Communist party's nationalistic narrative, Bickers' book is a reminder of the importance of uncovering the past's messy, contradictory truths.
-- Julian Gewirtz Financial Times
[A] superb history of foreign power in China.
-- Gavin Jacobson Times Literary Supplement
We have badly needed a comprehensive account of how Chinese nationalism was formed in interaction with foreign presence in the long twentieth century, and this book admirably fills that gap. Written with great verve and style, Out of China will appeal to a broad audience.
-- Rana Mitter, University of Oxford
Robert Bickers is a pre-eminent chronicler of China...a great story told with splashes of color and sharp wit.
-- Jonathan Fenby Literary Review
[Bickers's] thoughtful, engaging, and well-written analysis helps to separate fact from myth when it comes to understanding the nature of Chinese nationalism...Out of China is a panoramic examination of the increasingly powerful articulation of China's national identity in the twentieth century and the country's painful encounter with Western imperialism...Out of China, underpinned by extensive research in archives and written in warm and often witty prose, seeks neither to condemn nor celebrate the Western presence in China. Instead, it is an important reminder that even when our shared history is forgotten in the West, it is very much remembered--and sometimes resented--in Beijing and Shanghai today.
-- Rana Mitter New York Review of Books
This is a bold endeavor to try to cover an entire century in one volume, yet Bickers does a good job providing detailed narratives which reveal that Chinese nationalism was a corollary of foreign intervention, invasion, and atrocities...An all-embracing and fascinating tale.
-- P. F. Shan Choice