Books by William T. Rowe

This book explores the cultural and social roots of violence in China by studying the history of recurrent, massive carnage in one county, Macheng, between the expulsion of the Mongols in the 14th century and the Japanese invasion of 1938.

In this second volume of a two-volume social history of Hankow the focus is on the people of Hankow, in all their ethnic diversity, occupational variety, constant mobility, and social bonds.

Five historians uncover the ties between people's daily routines and the all-encompassing framework of their lives. They trace the processes of social construction in Western Europe, the United States, Latin America, Africa, and China, discussing both the historical similarities and the ways in which individual history has shaped each area's development.

In a brisk revisionist history, William Rowe challenges the standard narrative of Qing China as a decadent, inward-looking state that failed to keep pace with the modern West. This original, thought-provoking history of China's last empire is a must-read for understanding the challenges facing China today.

Through the case of a single well-placed official, Chen Hongmou (1696-1771), this book studies the consciousness and the governing project of the 18th-century Chinese official-elite.