The Making of a Hinterland: State, Society, and Economy in Inland North China, 1853-1937

by Kenneth Pomeranz

This wholly original reassessment of critical issues in modern Chinese history traces social, economic, and ecological change in inland North China during the late Qing dynasty and the Republic. Using many new sources, Kenneth Pomeranz argues that the development of certain regions entailed the systematic underdevelopment of other regions. He maps changes in local finance, farming, transportation, taxation, and popular protest, and analyzes the consequences for different classes, sub-regions, and genders.

Pomeranz attributes these diverse developments to several the growing but incomplete integration of North China into the world economy, the state's abandonment of many hinterland areas and traditional functions, and the effect of local social structures on these processes. He shows that hinterlands were made , not merely found, and were powerfully shaped by the strategies of local groups as well as outside forces.

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction

368 pages, Hardcover

First published July 4, 1993

About the author

Kenneth Pomeranz (born November 4, 1958) is University Professor of History at the University of Chicago. He received his B.A. from Cornell University in 1980 and his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1988, where he was a student of Jonathan Spence. He then taught at the University of California, Irvine, for more than 20 years. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2006. In 2013-14 he was the president of the American Historical Association.

Reviews

[Sylvia Zhou · Rating 3 out of 5]

嗯。。。实在是不太能看得下去经济史的书，当然都是自己的原因
讲理论的部分还可以理解，但一开始分析各种利率、比价，就完全看不懂了。
如果我理解正确，所谓“腹地的构建”，就是指华北内地因为人为的政策影响，导致了地区发展失衡，甚至落后；又通过“贫困”这一经济描述，将相邻但不同的区域统合到“腹地”这个概念下。
好吧。。。我也不知道对不对，因为真的没怎么看懂：（

[Josh Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

took a while, but finally made that hinterland. Pomeranz surprisingly seems to be on the opposite side of the historiographical debate that he later became so "famous" for.