Stanford University Press Shanghai: China's Gateway to Modernity

A lively account of China's encounter with the modern world through the history of its most dynamic and cosmopolitan city in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Occupied by the Japanese in 1937 and then disfavored by the Communists, Shanghai regained its place as China's Big Apple with the resurgence of entrepreneurial activity and foregn investment in the 1980s. Review After examining more than 150 years of Shanghai's history and its starring role in mediating the march of foreign innovation and influence in China, eminent China scholar Marie-Claire Bergère leaves us with a provocative question: Will politics support or impede Shanghai's destiny as teacher and adviser in shaping China's modernity? I eagerly await the answer history reveals.--Marcia R. Ristaino "Kluge Center for Scholars, Library of Congress, author of The Jacquinot Safe Zone: Wartime Refugees in Shanghai "Although other authors have written about aspects of Shanghai's history detailed here, none have brought so much together in a single volume . . . The narrative structure renders it useful as a textbook, and the analyses provide useful starting points for student essays. Given the growing number of courses that focus on Shanghai's history this volume should appear in many university libraries.--Bill Sewell "Canadian Journal of History"Marie-Claire Bergère expertly weaves together a great mass of disparate material that has been published on China's most dynamic city. In the process, she leavens her authoritative rendering of social and economic history with some coverage of cultural history, and her evocation of Shanghai's paradoxical position in the reform era is compelling.--Bryna Goodman "China Journal"The history of Shanghai since the nineteenth century can stand as an accurate shorthand for the history of the changes that China has experienced over the past two centuries. The city was an established port and county seat before Europeans gained permission to sojourn there, but its rapid integration into the world economy and culture following their arrival transformed both the city and d the context within which China would reorient and reorganize itself in the face of Western imperialism. This is the story that Bergère tells so well, in a clear, well-organized, accessible style. She writes in terms of political and economic rhythms that shape and punctuate Shanghai's history. The pace is naturally suitable for describing a cosmopolis, it also serves to set up a loose analytical framework to think about the fluctuations that have put the city through its rocky and exciting history. The book is engrossingly written, managing to show the depths of Bergère's knowledge of the city's history while informing readers who are not China specialists without ever condescending to them.--Tim Brook "University of British Columbia"This translation of Marie-Claire Bergère, Histoire de Shanghai (originally published in French by Fayard, in 2002), makes available to readers of English a study offering the best introduction to its subject. In a field of academic research which has produced an entire industry of publications, Bergère's Shanghai can claim this high status not only by virtue of the knowledge reflected in it but also by being a model of clear and elegant writing, assisted by a flawless translation. The overall result is a book to savour, a history of a great city that will appeal to specialists and general readers alike.--Mark Gamsa "Frontiers of History in China" About the Author Marie-Claire Bergère taught modern and contemporary Chinese history at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales and at the Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris). She published or edited numerous articles and a dozen books, most recently Capitalismes et capitalistes en Chine, XIXe-XXIe siècle (2007).