Empires of Coal - (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia Un) by Shellen Xiao Wu (Paperback)

About the Book

Underground Empires examines how Chinese views of strategic mineral resources developed in the last decades of the Qing dynasty.

Book Synopsis

Underground Empires examines how Chinese views of strategic mineral resources developed in the last decades of the Qing dynasty.

Review Quotes

"[An] interesting and important set of insights into the history of coal mining, coal imperialism, and the science and political economy of coal in China....[This study] adds a fascinating and novel layer of analysis of German imperialism and engineering at work in China...that has been missing in many of the wider discussions of imperialism and global transformations during the time period."--Jack Patrick Hayes "Pacific Affairs"

"Historian Wu has written a brilliant and original cultural history of industrialization in late Qing China . . . Thoroughly grounded in the archives and research in both Chinese and German sources (no mean feat), the book examines the powerful interactions of Chinese and Western entrepreneurs and Qing and Western officials in creating an industrial China . . . Highly recommended"--J. Roger "CHOICE"

"Refreshing and subtle, this book's engagement with issues of imperialism, China's relationship to European science, and environmental history provides a fascinating reminder of the tight linkages between them all."--Joanna Waley-Cohen "NYU Shanghai"

"Shellen Wu's new book is a fascinating and timely contribution to the histories of China . . . Empires of Coal looks carefully at the importance of mining [...] to the political economy of late imperial China . . . It will be required reading for anyone interested in the entanglement of science, technology, and modernity in global history."--Carla Nappi "New Books in East Asian Studies"

"This book narrates how, from the 1860s to the 1910s, China entered into a modern, industrializing world driven by fossil fuels. The topic could not carry greater contemporary relevance for China and the world, and only a few other historians have written on it in the past."--Micah Muscolino "Oxford University"

"Wu's study...places China's nineteenth-century development in a global context and adds comparative value to its historical experience."--Joanna Waley-Cohen "The English Historical Review"

About the Author

Shellen Xiao Wu is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.