This classic in the annals of village studies will be widely read and debated for what it reveals about China's rural dynamics as well as the nature of state power, markets, the military, social relations, and religion. Built on extraordinarily intimate and detailed research in a Sichuan village that Isabel Crook began in 1940, the book provides an unprecedented history of Chinese rural life during the war with Japan. It is an essential resource for all scholars of contemporary China.

Isabel Brown Crook is professor emerita at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Christina Kelley Gilmartin (1946–2012) was professor of history at Northeastern University.

Yu Xiji (1914–2006) was professor emerita of child psychology at Teachers’ Training College in Beipei, Sichuan.

Gail Hershatter is professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and past president of the Association for Asian Studies.

Emily Honig is professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz.