What do you think?
Rate this book
The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900
This acclaimed account of the Boxer Rebellion, by an Oxford-trained historian, is “an outstanding popular history that also passes muster as first-rate historical research" ( Booklist ).
In the last years of the nineteenth century, the Western powers were bickering over how to slice up the pie of China, while the presence they had already established there was undermining the Chinese people’s traditional ways. Then a new movement—mystical, militaristic, and virulently anti-Christian—began to spread like wildfire among the Chinese peasants. The contemptuous foreigners nicknamed them “the Boxers”—a snickering reference to their martial-arts routines—never imagining that the group, with the backing of China’s Empress Dowager, would soon terrorize the world....
“With meticulous research and passionate style, Diana Preston re-creates the tragedy that consumed China a century ago.” —Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking
In the last years of the nineteenth century, the Western powers were bickering over how to slice up the pie of China, while the presence they had already established there was undermining the Chinese people’s traditional ways. Then a new movement—mystical, militaristic, and virulently anti-Christian—began to spread like wildfire among the Chinese peasants. The contemptuous foreigners nicknamed them “the Boxers”—a snickering reference to their martial-arts routines—never imagining that the group, with the backing of China’s Empress Dowager, would soon terrorize the world....
“With meticulous research and passionate style, Diana Preston re-creates the tragedy that consumed China a century ago.” —Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking
436 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
27 people are currently reading
1323 people want to read
About the author
Diana Preston
42 books116 followersBorn and raised in London, Diana Preston studied Modern History at Oxford University, where she first became involved in journalism. After earning her degree, she became a freelance writer of feature and travel articles for national UK newspapers and magazines and has subsequently reviewed books for a number of publications, including The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times. She has also been a broadcaster for the BBC and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and has been featured in various television documentaries.
Eight years ago, her decision to write "popular" history led her to The Road to Culloden Moor: Bonnie Prince Charlie and the '45 Rebellion (Constable UK, 1995). It was followed by A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole (Houghton Mifflin, 1998), The Boxer Rebellion (Walker & Company, 2000), Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy (Walker & Company, 2002) and now, Before The Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima.
In choosing her topics, Preston looks for stories and events which are both compelling in their own right and also help readers gain a wider understanding of the past. She is fascinated by the human experience-what motivates people to think and act as they do‹and the individual stories that comprise the larger historical picture. Preston spent over two years researching Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy. She did a remarkable amount of original research for the book, and is the first author to make full use of the German archives and newly discovered papers that illuminate both the human tragedy and subsequent plots to cover up what really happened. Preston traveled to all the key locations of the tragedy, experiencing firsthand how cold the water off the Irish coast near Cobh would have been in early May when the Lusitania sank, and how eerie it was to stand inside what remains of the U-20 (now at the Strandingsmuseum in West Jutland, Denmark) where the U-boat captain watched the Lusitania through his periscope and gave the order to fire. Of the many artifacts she reviewed, it was her extensive reading of the diaries and memoirs of survivors that had the biggest impact on her. The experience of looking at photographs and touching the scraps of clothing of both survivors and those who died when the Lusitania sank provided her with chilling pictures: The heartbreaking image of a young girl whose sister's hand slipped away from her was one that kept Preston up at night.
When not writing, Preston is an avid traveler with her husband, Michael. Together, they have sojourned throughout India, Asia, Africa, and Antarctica, and have climbed Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and Mount Roraima in Venezuela. Their adventures have also included gorilla-tracking in Zaire and camping their way across the Namibian desert.
Diana and Michael Preston live in London, England.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
May 30, 2021
“The Boxer movement spread with extraordinary rapidity – a Chinese chronicler likened it to a whirlwind – despite its lack of an overall leader or organizational structure. It was in essence a loose coalition, spreading organically from village to village using the traditional grapevines of rural life…They set up boxing grounds, often in temple precincts, where they drilled... Young men flocked ‘to watch the excitement,’ as one of them described it, and stayed, mesmerized by the drama of mass ritual. The Boxers would call on a god to come down and possess them and then fall into a trance, whirling and dancing with their weapons in their hands, daring members of the crowd to attack them. The promise of invulnerability offered by these rites must have been irresistible, particularly to those who felt they had little power over their daily lives…”
- Diana Preston, The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China’s War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900
As the 20th century dawned, China had not yet been able to harness her enormous potential. Since the late 1830s, and following both the First and Second Opium Wars, outside nations had been forcing “concessions” on the Chinese that gave them control over ports, waterways, and railroads. These concessions, chiefly benefiting Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan, allowed foreigners to reap massive trade benefits at China’s expense.
In 1900, things finally came to a boil. Not only were foreigners ever more aggressive in asserting extraterritorial rights, but the one-two punch of a drought followed by a flood forced thousands of peasants to abandon their small farms and flee to the cities. Meanwhile, resentment grew against Christian missionaries, who had been granted the freedom to move about China, preaching and building churches. Even nominally positive internal improvements – such as the building of railroads – fostered bitterness, as these technological advances cost many manual laborers their jobs. While thousands of Chinese peasants struggled to survive, foreigners – living in tight-knit and insular communities – grew fat and happy.
From this imbalance rose the Boxers. Named for their fondness for boxing and martial arts, the Boxers were an anti-Christian, anti-foreign movement that began in rural areas and spread outward. At first, the Boxers targeted missionaries and Christian converts, killing many. Atrocities – both real and imagined – drew the wrath of foreign governments, who pressured the Qing Dynasty to crack down. Initially, the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi (who had locked up her nephew, the Emperor) agreed to suppress the incipient rebellion. Then, under pressure from conservatives at court, and perhaps sensing that she had backed the losing team, the Dowager Empress changed course, siding with the Boxers against the foreigners.
It was a fateful decision.
The short, brutal war that followed is the subject of Diana Preston’s The Boxer Rebellion.
Nicely organized and fast paced, Preston begins her tale on the eve of the Rebellion, tracing the rise of the Boxers, as well as Tzu Hsi’s evolving response. Though I would have appreciated more of the historical background, Preston presents enough to firmly orient the reader as to the causes of the fighting. She also does a good job in methodically describing how things spiraled from near chaos to total chaos in a short period of time. In particular, Preston shows how the foreign powers’ decision to preemptively capture three strategically-important Chinese forts bound Tzu Hsi to the Boxers, and guaranteed a wider conflict.
Most of the book is devoted to the central event of the Rebellion: the siege of the foreign legations in Peking. For fifty-five days, a mixed force of Boxers and Imperial troops threatened to overwhelm the Legation Quarter, which was defended by a small, equally-mixed multinational force, which included United States Marines.
(An unspoken irony of the Boxer Rebellion is that it was an example of international “cooperation” among nations that – over the next forty-five years – would pair off in different ways to wage the two bloodiest wars in history).
Despite cinematic portrayals to the contrary (i.e., the Charlton Heston-starring 55 Days at Peking), this was not exactly Thermopylae. Don’t get me wrong: the fighting in the Legation Quarter was no joke. Still, the Chinese – mostly Imperial troops – never coordinated their assaults or brought their big guns to bear. The reason, it seems, was doubt among certain Chinese leaders that overwhelming the Legation Quarter and slaughtering the inhabitants would ultimately inure to China’s benefit.
The fact that the Chinese pulled their punches at Peking did not exactly make the siege a pleasant experience. Shortages of food, disease, and well-placed bullets killed many. Most of the suffering was incurred by the Christian converts, Chinese men, women, and children who were not invited to share the supplies of the Legation Quarter.
Though an initial relief column was turned back, the siege was eventually lifted. Following this deliverance, foreign troops took their revenge on Peking, systematically looting and destroying everything they could lay hands on. Contemporary accounts were quick to blame the Russians and Japanese, but Preston makes clear that just about every foreign nationality took part in the disgraceful plundering.
Even though the saga of the Legation Quarter dominates the action, Preston does not neglect the other aspects of the Rebellion. For instance, she devotes a chapter to recounting the much more vigorous attacks on the Peitang Cathedral. Here, a small force of French soldiers held off a concerted effort by Boxers to overrun them. Preston also covers the travails of the two relief columns, which included future British naval heroes John Jellicoe and David Beatty (both of whom had starring roles at Jutland in 1916).
Most of The Boxer Rebellion is told in narrative fashion. Relying heavily on Western sources (since Westerners generated most of the documentary evidence), Preston delivers a story that is detailed and intimate. With regard to the siege of the Legations, the full spectrum of humanity is starkly displayed, from the selfless and the heroic, to the selfish and cowardly. Many eyewitnesses wrote not simply of fear and terror, but of drudgery, boredom, and the unfortunate behavior of the people around them. To her credit, Preston does not try to varnish anyone’s testimony, or explain away the ethnocentrism and racism underlying many accounts.
Preston’s focus on storytelling certainly makes for an entertaining read. There are dramatic set-pieces and memorable characters (including a Herbert Hoover cameo). Nevertheless, by hewing to a ground-level chronicle, and by presenting mainly Western viewpoints, I found myself with nagging questions, especially with regard to the role of Tzu Hsi and the actions of the Imperial forces. It is only in the final chapter that Preston even attempts to present the Chinese perspective. I found this backloading of analysis to be unfortunate. The Boxer Rebellion would have been much stronger had Preston taken a more hybrid approach, and integrated this material into her story much earlier.
For me, the most interesting facet of the Boxer Rebellion is what it means to China today. In the aftermath of all the bloodshed, Sir Robert Hart, a British official, wrote a prophetic letter to a friend. “This episode of to-day is not meaningless,” he said. “It is the prelude to a century of change and the keynote of the future history of the Far East: the China of the year 2000 will be very different from the China of 1900!”
Sir Robert wasn’t wrong.
Twenty-one years into the 21st century, China is fast moving into position as the world’s preeminent superpower. As China starts to flex her muscles – both economic and military – one can only wonder at what lessons she has drawn from her own past that will govern her going forward.
- Diana Preston, The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China’s War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900
As the 20th century dawned, China had not yet been able to harness her enormous potential. Since the late 1830s, and following both the First and Second Opium Wars, outside nations had been forcing “concessions” on the Chinese that gave them control over ports, waterways, and railroads. These concessions, chiefly benefiting Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan, allowed foreigners to reap massive trade benefits at China’s expense.
In 1900, things finally came to a boil. Not only were foreigners ever more aggressive in asserting extraterritorial rights, but the one-two punch of a drought followed by a flood forced thousands of peasants to abandon their small farms and flee to the cities. Meanwhile, resentment grew against Christian missionaries, who had been granted the freedom to move about China, preaching and building churches. Even nominally positive internal improvements – such as the building of railroads – fostered bitterness, as these technological advances cost many manual laborers their jobs. While thousands of Chinese peasants struggled to survive, foreigners – living in tight-knit and insular communities – grew fat and happy.
From this imbalance rose the Boxers. Named for their fondness for boxing and martial arts, the Boxers were an anti-Christian, anti-foreign movement that began in rural areas and spread outward. At first, the Boxers targeted missionaries and Christian converts, killing many. Atrocities – both real and imagined – drew the wrath of foreign governments, who pressured the Qing Dynasty to crack down. Initially, the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi (who had locked up her nephew, the Emperor) agreed to suppress the incipient rebellion. Then, under pressure from conservatives at court, and perhaps sensing that she had backed the losing team, the Dowager Empress changed course, siding with the Boxers against the foreigners.
It was a fateful decision.
The short, brutal war that followed is the subject of Diana Preston’s The Boxer Rebellion.
Nicely organized and fast paced, Preston begins her tale on the eve of the Rebellion, tracing the rise of the Boxers, as well as Tzu Hsi’s evolving response. Though I would have appreciated more of the historical background, Preston presents enough to firmly orient the reader as to the causes of the fighting. She also does a good job in methodically describing how things spiraled from near chaos to total chaos in a short period of time. In particular, Preston shows how the foreign powers’ decision to preemptively capture three strategically-important Chinese forts bound Tzu Hsi to the Boxers, and guaranteed a wider conflict.
Most of the book is devoted to the central event of the Rebellion: the siege of the foreign legations in Peking. For fifty-five days, a mixed force of Boxers and Imperial troops threatened to overwhelm the Legation Quarter, which was defended by a small, equally-mixed multinational force, which included United States Marines.
(An unspoken irony of the Boxer Rebellion is that it was an example of international “cooperation” among nations that – over the next forty-five years – would pair off in different ways to wage the two bloodiest wars in history).
Despite cinematic portrayals to the contrary (i.e., the Charlton Heston-starring 55 Days at Peking), this was not exactly Thermopylae. Don’t get me wrong: the fighting in the Legation Quarter was no joke. Still, the Chinese – mostly Imperial troops – never coordinated their assaults or brought their big guns to bear. The reason, it seems, was doubt among certain Chinese leaders that overwhelming the Legation Quarter and slaughtering the inhabitants would ultimately inure to China’s benefit.
The fact that the Chinese pulled their punches at Peking did not exactly make the siege a pleasant experience. Shortages of food, disease, and well-placed bullets killed many. Most of the suffering was incurred by the Christian converts, Chinese men, women, and children who were not invited to share the supplies of the Legation Quarter.
Though an initial relief column was turned back, the siege was eventually lifted. Following this deliverance, foreign troops took their revenge on Peking, systematically looting and destroying everything they could lay hands on. Contemporary accounts were quick to blame the Russians and Japanese, but Preston makes clear that just about every foreign nationality took part in the disgraceful plundering.
Even though the saga of the Legation Quarter dominates the action, Preston does not neglect the other aspects of the Rebellion. For instance, she devotes a chapter to recounting the much more vigorous attacks on the Peitang Cathedral. Here, a small force of French soldiers held off a concerted effort by Boxers to overrun them. Preston also covers the travails of the two relief columns, which included future British naval heroes John Jellicoe and David Beatty (both of whom had starring roles at Jutland in 1916).
Most of The Boxer Rebellion is told in narrative fashion. Relying heavily on Western sources (since Westerners generated most of the documentary evidence), Preston delivers a story that is detailed and intimate. With regard to the siege of the Legations, the full spectrum of humanity is starkly displayed, from the selfless and the heroic, to the selfish and cowardly. Many eyewitnesses wrote not simply of fear and terror, but of drudgery, boredom, and the unfortunate behavior of the people around them. To her credit, Preston does not try to varnish anyone’s testimony, or explain away the ethnocentrism and racism underlying many accounts.
Preston’s focus on storytelling certainly makes for an entertaining read. There are dramatic set-pieces and memorable characters (including a Herbert Hoover cameo). Nevertheless, by hewing to a ground-level chronicle, and by presenting mainly Western viewpoints, I found myself with nagging questions, especially with regard to the role of Tzu Hsi and the actions of the Imperial forces. It is only in the final chapter that Preston even attempts to present the Chinese perspective. I found this backloading of analysis to be unfortunate. The Boxer Rebellion would have been much stronger had Preston taken a more hybrid approach, and integrated this material into her story much earlier.
For me, the most interesting facet of the Boxer Rebellion is what it means to China today. In the aftermath of all the bloodshed, Sir Robert Hart, a British official, wrote a prophetic letter to a friend. “This episode of to-day is not meaningless,” he said. “It is the prelude to a century of change and the keynote of the future history of the Far East: the China of the year 2000 will be very different from the China of 1900!”
Sir Robert wasn’t wrong.
Twenty-one years into the 21st century, China is fast moving into position as the world’s preeminent superpower. As China starts to flex her muscles – both economic and military – one can only wonder at what lessons she has drawn from her own past that will govern her going forward.
Read
October 9, 2018Brisk. unedifying. Mystifying. Overly interested in prurient detail.
From June to mid-August 1900 the staff of International legations to the Imperial court (including 350 odd soldiers), at the time sheltering a number of Chinese converts to Christianity and the Catholic Cathedral in Beijing, were besieged by possibly Boxers, possibly troops of the Imperial Chinese army,maybe both, until an international relief column of circa 20,000 soldiers, principally Japanese & Russians but including American, British, German and French troops forced entry to Beijing and then comprehensively looted the city.
This story is told at a canter by Preston. I hadn't realised that the relief operation operated in 'waterfall' fashion, first a relief party of several thousand soldiers had to be relieved from Tientsin, which in turn had to be relived from the coast, before a big enough force could be built up to march on Beijing.
The sources she relies on are problematic, first there are ones - like accounts of the noble and stoic deaths of missionaries which presumably come from a convert who knows how people are expected to die in such circumstances, secondly all the legation nationalities are blatantly and familiarly inclined to accuse all other nationalities of atrocities while their own soldiers they are clear were models of good conduct , since the British and Americans call everybody else dagos and the Protestants who think that the Chinese converts to Catholicism are dirtier than those who converted to Protestantism, the general sense is that these are unreliable witnesses, doubly so since the legation staff had large amounts of alcohol, mostly plundered or liberated from a neighbouring hotel, ensuring that spirits at least never ran low. Still the picture of endemic, systemic bias and prejudice is the only insight we get into why there was a mass popular movement against all non- Chinese and their works. The legation staff also only pooled their food supplies when they got down to their last thirty ponies, and Preston briefly mentions in her introduction that rations were not offered to the Chinese, even though they were used extensively to dig trenches and build defensive lines, the British apparently even feeling free to flog them for not working hard enough.
This was a modern media event with home audiences 'entertained' by detailed accounts of Chinese atrocities, a special correspondent for the Daily Mail even reported that the legations had been over run and everybody killed while they were still alive (if somewhat bored of a diet of pony and rice). Fantastical reporting and layers of bias so deep that we become incapable of understanding why the people we have extensive prejudices about may dislike us, are familiar enough, perhaps from contemporary media, one can see that this kind of thing is deep rooted.
Because Preston draws on no Chinese sources much remains mysterious, and if we take the title 'Boxer rebellion' we have to ask what was being rebelled against, implicitly the authority they were in rebellion against was that of the foreign 'great powers', though perhaps the Imperial authorities feared that they might turn into an anti-Imperial movement as well as an anti-Imperialist one. Further if we take 'Boxer' - this was an appellation given to them by outsiders on account of their practising Chinese martial arts, not boxing, en-mass. If we were to relabel this conflict as the movement against foreign oppression we might begin to see that our entire frame of reference alienates us from the start, no wonder we have no handle other than the sexual politics of the Imperial court to (mis)understand what might have been going on. What we are reminded of here is the enduring lesson that in "developing nations" the people being developed are less than appreciative, much to the developers surprise, of the figurative and literal buggery involved in the process. Certainly in this book it doesn't seem that many 'Boxers' were involved except initially against Chinese converts to Christianity. The whole affair shows the Imperial government to have been weak, neither able to control a mass popular movement nor its own armed forces, which Preston implies were deliberately mishandled to avoid a massacre of the legation staff - the Catholic cathedral for instance was defended by only 43 soldiers and two officers. Unsurprisingly the Imperial government was overthrown in 1911.
Women's bodies featured curiously, the Boxers apparently believed that the Christians by daubing the doors of houses where Chinese lived with menstrual blood made the occupants weak and sick, and that the defenders of the Catholic Cathedral had a banner woven from women's pubic hair which sapped the strength of the boxers, or maybe we are simply at the mercy of fantastical accounts and mistranslations, Preston mentions Edmund Backhouse, a Chinese speaker (Mandarin?)fantasist and pornographer who wrote about his own alleged affair with the Dowager Empress but also published several purported 'translated' Chinese documents, mysteriously he could never produce the 'originals', later Backhouse was revealed to have invented them, but it is unclear how far other sources may have been contaminated and if it is at all possible to have a reasonable picture of the squabbling divided 'Great Powers' facing off against a squabbling and divided Chinese government.
From June to mid-August 1900 the staff of International legations to the Imperial court (including 350 odd soldiers), at the time sheltering a number of Chinese converts to Christianity and the Catholic Cathedral in Beijing, were besieged by possibly Boxers, possibly troops of the Imperial Chinese army,maybe both, until an international relief column of circa 20,000 soldiers, principally Japanese & Russians but including American, British, German and French troops forced entry to Beijing and then comprehensively looted the city.
This story is told at a canter by Preston. I hadn't realised that the relief operation operated in 'waterfall' fashion, first a relief party of several thousand soldiers had to be relieved from Tientsin, which in turn had to be relived from the coast, before a big enough force could be built up to march on Beijing.
The sources she relies on are problematic, first there are ones - like accounts of the noble and stoic deaths of missionaries which presumably come from a convert who knows how people are expected to die in such circumstances, secondly all the legation nationalities are blatantly and familiarly inclined to accuse all other nationalities of atrocities while their own soldiers they are clear were models of good conduct , since the British and Americans call everybody else dagos and the Protestants who think that the Chinese converts to Catholicism are dirtier than those who converted to Protestantism, the general sense is that these are unreliable witnesses, doubly so since the legation staff had large amounts of alcohol, mostly plundered or liberated from a neighbouring hotel, ensuring that spirits at least never ran low. Still the picture of endemic, systemic bias and prejudice is the only insight we get into why there was a mass popular movement against all non- Chinese and their works. The legation staff also only pooled their food supplies when they got down to their last thirty ponies, and Preston briefly mentions in her introduction that rations were not offered to the Chinese, even though they were used extensively to dig trenches and build defensive lines, the British apparently even feeling free to flog them for not working hard enough.
This was a modern media event with home audiences 'entertained' by detailed accounts of Chinese atrocities, a special correspondent for the Daily Mail even reported that the legations had been over run and everybody killed while they were still alive (if somewhat bored of a diet of pony and rice). Fantastical reporting and layers of bias so deep that we become incapable of understanding why the people we have extensive prejudices about may dislike us, are familiar enough, perhaps from contemporary media, one can see that this kind of thing is deep rooted.
Because Preston draws on no Chinese sources much remains mysterious, and if we take the title 'Boxer rebellion' we have to ask what was being rebelled against, implicitly the authority they were in rebellion against was that of the foreign 'great powers', though perhaps the Imperial authorities feared that they might turn into an anti-Imperial movement as well as an anti-Imperialist one. Further if we take 'Boxer' - this was an appellation given to them by outsiders on account of their practising Chinese martial arts, not boxing, en-mass. If we were to relabel this conflict as the movement against foreign oppression we might begin to see that our entire frame of reference alienates us from the start, no wonder we have no handle other than the sexual politics of the Imperial court to (mis)understand what might have been going on. What we are reminded of here is the enduring lesson that in "developing nations" the people being developed are less than appreciative, much to the developers surprise, of the figurative and literal buggery involved in the process. Certainly in this book it doesn't seem that many 'Boxers' were involved except initially against Chinese converts to Christianity. The whole affair shows the Imperial government to have been weak, neither able to control a mass popular movement nor its own armed forces, which Preston implies were deliberately mishandled to avoid a massacre of the legation staff - the Catholic cathedral for instance was defended by only 43 soldiers and two officers. Unsurprisingly the Imperial government was overthrown in 1911.
Women's bodies featured curiously, the Boxers apparently believed that the Christians by daubing the doors of houses where Chinese lived with menstrual blood made the occupants weak and sick, and that the defenders of the Catholic Cathedral had a banner woven from women's pubic hair which sapped the strength of the boxers, or maybe we are simply at the mercy of fantastical accounts and mistranslations, Preston mentions Edmund Backhouse, a Chinese speaker (Mandarin?)fantasist and pornographer who wrote about his own alleged affair with the Dowager Empress but also published several purported 'translated' Chinese documents, mysteriously he could never produce the 'originals', later Backhouse was revealed to have invented them, but it is unclear how far other sources may have been contaminated and if it is at all possible to have a reasonable picture of the squabbling divided 'Great Powers' facing off against a squabbling and divided Chinese government.
July 20, 2014
This is a well-written account of the Boxer Rebellion but as seen through the eyes of the Western participants only. You will not find many Chinese accounts of the siege and fighting undertaken by the Boxers in this story.
Having said that I still found this book a delight to read once it got into the actual siege and relief operations. I found the first few chapters a bit slow but after that the narrative just flowed along with some great stories and accounts from the people who experienced this upheaval.
The story was well written and presented and it was easy to stay up into the early morning reading the book. The author supplied a number of maps to assist the reader in following the action and movements of the forces involved. She also supplied a great number of (small) black & white photographs taken at the time.
Some of the stories were excellent and I found some of the personal accounts truly amazing and very interesting. This is a book that may not suit the historian looking for a detailed account of the fighting but I am sure that most people who enjoy history will find this book a treat.
The story of Bishop Auguste Favier and his flock of Christians holding out at Peitang with a small detachment of Italian and French soldiers was great. The stories of what happened to a number of Missionaries and their families in the countryside were told in context to the situation as a whole.
Even though the book presents mainly the Western version of events I found that the author present her story in a fair and impartial manner. What happened to the Chinese Christians was not forgotten in the story but the book does concentrate on the Westerners. The chapter dealing with what happened after the siege was lifted was very illuminating and some facets of the interaction between the different foreign powers were very absorbing. I enjoyed a number of the quotes provided by the author and one that I found amusing was:
"I sent my servant (Chinese) on a message. He was robbed by a Russian, buggered by a Frenchman, killed by a German. In my dismay, I made complaint to a British officer. He looked at me, put his eye-glass into his eye, and said, `Was he really? What a bore! '".
This is a good yarn, an enjoyable history and a decent story, well worth the effort to sit down and read.
Having said that I still found this book a delight to read once it got into the actual siege and relief operations. I found the first few chapters a bit slow but after that the narrative just flowed along with some great stories and accounts from the people who experienced this upheaval.
The story was well written and presented and it was easy to stay up into the early morning reading the book. The author supplied a number of maps to assist the reader in following the action and movements of the forces involved. She also supplied a great number of (small) black & white photographs taken at the time.
Some of the stories were excellent and I found some of the personal accounts truly amazing and very interesting. This is a book that may not suit the historian looking for a detailed account of the fighting but I am sure that most people who enjoy history will find this book a treat.
The story of Bishop Auguste Favier and his flock of Christians holding out at Peitang with a small detachment of Italian and French soldiers was great. The stories of what happened to a number of Missionaries and their families in the countryside were told in context to the situation as a whole.
Even though the book presents mainly the Western version of events I found that the author present her story in a fair and impartial manner. What happened to the Chinese Christians was not forgotten in the story but the book does concentrate on the Westerners. The chapter dealing with what happened after the siege was lifted was very illuminating and some facets of the interaction between the different foreign powers were very absorbing. I enjoyed a number of the quotes provided by the author and one that I found amusing was:
"I sent my servant (Chinese) on a message. He was robbed by a Russian, buggered by a Frenchman, killed by a German. In my dismay, I made complaint to a British officer. He looked at me, put his eye-glass into his eye, and said, `Was he really? What a bore! '".
This is a good yarn, an enjoyable history and a decent story, well worth the effort to sit down and read.
October 19, 2015
Picked up this book because I read Saints and Boxers and wanted more background about the Boxer Rebellion.
After finishing this book, I feel a bit frustrated. Most of the book is from an European perspective, simply because people of that era were diarists and so there's a huge stockpile of first person written material from the Western perspective. We get a lot of talk about the events leading up to the rebellion, what life was like in the legations when they were under siege, and the aftermath.
What we don't get is the other side, the Chinese perspective. There's very little known about the Empress' thoughts, what the commanders on the ground wanted to do, or even every day soldiers.
The reason why this is all important is because the entire Boxer Rebellion feels completely weird. By all rights, the Europeans should have been completely slaughtered. They were thoroughly outnumbered and outgunned by the Chinese. The Chinese were equipped with the finest Western arms. So, why did they fail so much? It seems like the Chinese commanders were divided in what they thought they should do and the Empress dithered in deciding whether she wanted to kill all the foreigners like the Boxers wanted her to do. This book left me with more questions than answers.
So, in the end, this book did a great job of showing the Western perspective and the situation within the legations under siege, but not much of the Chinese. It feels incomplete.
After finishing this book, I feel a bit frustrated. Most of the book is from an European perspective, simply because people of that era were diarists and so there's a huge stockpile of first person written material from the Western perspective. We get a lot of talk about the events leading up to the rebellion, what life was like in the legations when they were under siege, and the aftermath.
What we don't get is the other side, the Chinese perspective. There's very little known about the Empress' thoughts, what the commanders on the ground wanted to do, or even every day soldiers.
The reason why this is all important is because the entire Boxer Rebellion feels completely weird. By all rights, the Europeans should have been completely slaughtered. They were thoroughly outnumbered and outgunned by the Chinese. The Chinese were equipped with the finest Western arms. So, why did they fail so much? It seems like the Chinese commanders were divided in what they thought they should do and the Empress dithered in deciding whether she wanted to kill all the foreigners like the Boxers wanted her to do. This book left me with more questions than answers.
So, in the end, this book did a great job of showing the Western perspective and the situation within the legations under siege, but not much of the Chinese. It feels incomplete.
September 18, 2021
Well, I was hoping for a comprehensive, slightly academic, if readable, history of the Boxer Rebellion. However, the title is misleading; what it should be is something like "What happened to the English-speaking White People during the Boxer Rebellion." In fact, the prologue deals mostly with what Western society was like at the beginning of the last century. Ms. Preston relies entirely on English-language sources and the story is told from the point of view of those British and American people trapped in the Legation Quarter in Beijing or the soldiers and sailors who rescued them. The roles of the Russians and Japanese - who supplied most of the troops - are barely touched upon. Almost no effort is made to tell the story of the Chinese who participated in or witnessed these titanic events, and hence are reduced to faceless mobs of howling barbarians. Very one-sided and not very satisfying. I will continue to search for a good book on the Boxer Rebellion, one of the critical events in modern Chinese history. This book doesn't cut it. On the plus side, the book is very readable, the narrative zips along nicely and the maps are good.
April 24, 2018
After reading Diana Preston's "The Boxer Rebellion," I've learned something about my taste in history books. Full-length books on relatively brief historical events tend to be filled with anecdotes. I do not enjoy reading a book full of anecdotes. An encyclopedia entry will suffice.
This is a book admittedly telling only the Western side of the story. Preston claims that Chinese historical accounts are rare. A quick google search shows a few, so I'm dubious of this claim. Suffice it to speculate that a superstitious Chinese Empress believed that the xenophobic and violent "Boxer" sect actually possessed the mystical powers they claimed and were going to be able to throw out the racist and imperialist foreigners. What isn't speculation is that the rebellion failed, causing a summer of misery and fear in 1900.
For a more detailed account, you could read the wikipedia article. If you think you might enjoy reading 360+ pages of anecdotes about turn-of-the century Westerners' plight during these times, you could read this book.
This is a book admittedly telling only the Western side of the story. Preston claims that Chinese historical accounts are rare. A quick google search shows a few, so I'm dubious of this claim. Suffice it to speculate that a superstitious Chinese Empress believed that the xenophobic and violent "Boxer" sect actually possessed the mystical powers they claimed and were going to be able to throw out the racist and imperialist foreigners. What isn't speculation is that the rebellion failed, causing a summer of misery and fear in 1900.
For a more detailed account, you could read the wikipedia article. If you think you might enjoy reading 360+ pages of anecdotes about turn-of-the century Westerners' plight during these times, you could read this book.
May 12, 2020
I first encountered the story of the Boxer Rebellion in a history book and a Once Upon a Time in China movie, the one where Jet Li was the lead actor. Since I was a kid, I saw the movie as only about kung fu.
When I read more about the event years later, I realized that it was not fun at all.
My take on this is, even though the Boxers were definitely no saints (they murdered hundreds of foreigners and even more Chinese Catholics and Protestants), most of the Western countries were no angels either. This event happened at the height of Western imperialism, when many European countries (and Japan and the US) were in a contest to grab colonies and expand their empires. So can the Boxers be blamed for trying to fight the foreigners? Not really.
When I read more about the event years later, I realized that it was not fun at all.
My take on this is, even though the Boxers were definitely no saints (they murdered hundreds of foreigners and even more Chinese Catholics and Protestants), most of the Western countries were no angels either. This event happened at the height of Western imperialism, when many European countries (and Japan and the US) were in a contest to grab colonies and expand their empires. So can the Boxers be blamed for trying to fight the foreigners? Not really.
March 26, 2021
Diane Preston's The Boxer Rebellion provides an engaging, if conventional recapitulation of the 1900 war between Chinese nationalists and the Eight-Nation Alliance of imperial powers. To Western eyes the Rebellion has always seemed more the stuff of melodrama than history, especially the striking saga of the foreign legations besieged by the Boxers (and their Imperial allies) in Beijing, a diverse group of diplomats, missionaries and Chinese Christians defended by a handful of plucky international soldiers. Preston's book is certainly lively, between her spirited portrayals of the major players among the besieged and their relief forces (from the unflappable Brit Claude MacDonald to future American President Herbert Hoover) and muscular dramatizations of battles, riots and sieges oft portrayed on page and screen. While Preston does a fair job sketching Western mistreatment of China, bullying the Middle Kingdom for trading rights and territorial concessions, she affords little space to the Chinese perspective (which she explains, not unreasonably, with the fragmented nature and availability of Chinese sources). Empress Dowager Cixi, so sympathetically sketched in recent books by Sterling Seagrave and Jung Chang, receives short shrift, merely lurking behind the scenes as her minions attack the foreigners. Preston does, however, recount the bloodshed and looting carried out by the Allied relief forces (Imperial Germany's forces earned the epithet "Hun" during this conflict) which undercuts the heroism of the men and women they sought to save. For all Preston's blood-and-thunder dramatizations, the book is incomplete: an enjoyable popular history that can't help feeling superficial and one-sided.
September 27, 2020
Diana Preston has a gift for making history come alive. She did it in “Taj Mahal: A Love Affair at the Heart of the Moghul Empire” and she does it again in “The Boxer Rebellion”, giving the lay reader just the right mixture of historical fact and personal detail to make riveting reading of the rise of the boxer movement, the Manchu court’s intrigues, maneuvering and conflicting behaviour, the rivalry and power struggle between the Western imperial powers, the 55-day-siege of the diplomatic legations in Peking, the attack on the foreign settlements in Tientsin, the siege of the Catholic Peitang Cathedral, the brutal massacres of missionaries and Chinese converts in the countryside of Northern China and the no less brutal aftermath of that momentous upheaval.
In the words of Arthur Smith, an American missionary and expert on China at the time “the indisputable fact that men who knew so much about China did not see the Boxer movement on the horizon nor yet apprehend it when it was at their doors, is one of the most remarkable psychological facts of modern times, but is is, nevertheless, a fact.”
Diana Preston’s meticulous research tries to give answers to this and other phenomena of those incisive events but due to the fact that most of the diaries and (obviously not always truthful) accounts of those days were written by Westerners the Chinese side of the picture is under-represented and the reasoning and intentions of the Imperial Court and specifically of the enigmatic Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi have yet to be unequivocally clarified.
P.S. The maps were very helpful.
In the words of Arthur Smith, an American missionary and expert on China at the time “the indisputable fact that men who knew so much about China did not see the Boxer movement on the horizon nor yet apprehend it when it was at their doors, is one of the most remarkable psychological facts of modern times, but is is, nevertheless, a fact.”
Diana Preston’s meticulous research tries to give answers to this and other phenomena of those incisive events but due to the fact that most of the diaries and (obviously not always truthful) accounts of those days were written by Westerners the Chinese side of the picture is under-represented and the reasoning and intentions of the Imperial Court and specifically of the enigmatic Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi have yet to be unequivocally clarified.
P.S. The maps were very helpful.
April 27, 2013
A very interesting day by day, blow by blow account of the 55 day siege of the Foreign Legations in Beijing and their relief by an international force in the summer of 1900. Drawn almost entirely from first hand accounts in diaries and letters or in memoirs published after the fact, it is primarily a Western account because they kept records and (apparently) Chinese accounts are scarce or nonexistent.
The author tries to put the fanatically anti-foreign Boxer Rising in context of 19th century missionaries and rampant colonialism on the part of all foreign powers. (The diplomats were there to keep an eye on each other as much as on China per se). More background detail and analysis and a lot less of the daily details would have been preferred but for that, perhaps some other author would be more suitable.
One major flaw is the author's inclusion in several places of one Backhouse's extremely graphic sexual descriptions of his alleged affair with the Dowager Empress. It adds nothing to the story and his "fantasist" character could well have been covered off with less vulgar prose.
The author tries to put the fanatically anti-foreign Boxer Rising in context of 19th century missionaries and rampant colonialism on the part of all foreign powers. (The diplomats were there to keep an eye on each other as much as on China per se). More background detail and analysis and a lot less of the daily details would have been preferred but for that, perhaps some other author would be more suitable.
One major flaw is the author's inclusion in several places of one Backhouse's extremely graphic sexual descriptions of his alleged affair with the Dowager Empress. It adds nothing to the story and his "fantasist" character could well have been covered off with less vulgar prose.
October 24, 2016
A page-turner. Preston hits the ground running in the first chapter, and rarely lets the story flag. As several reviewers have noted, this is not an academic history of the Rebellion, and it tends to concentrate on the uprisings in Peking and Tientsin. The story also concentrates upon the Siege of the Legations (embassies) from the European perspective. While this undoubtedly shortchanges the Boxers and Imperial Court, it does actually help the story maintain its hold upon the Western reader. The actions of the besiegers, which appeared mysterious to the hapless besieged, continue to do so to us, and the result is incredible frustration at the failure of the situation to resolve itself. The legations could have been overrun upon any number of occasions, and yet were not. Why not? The answers undoubtedly could be found in imperial archives, but either were not when that might have been possible --- pre-1949? --- and because of Chinese reticence since the advent of communism, have not been released. Still, this was a difficult book to put down, and if you accept its limitations, an excellent read.
March 5, 2020
Very interesting story about a 'dramatic' moment in modern Chinese history. A scary time for westerners living in China at the time.
However, the book is based almost entirely on western resources - studies, diplomatic sources, etc. While the author does acknowledge late in the book that written records from the Chinese side are scant, there is little discussion about Chinese feelings towards western imperialism and Christian missionaries' conversion methods. The western presence in China is taken as a given, hence little attention paid to any justification the the Chinese may have felt for engaging in this 'rebellion'. The foreign devils in this book are not the western imperialists od missionaries; they are the Boxers - crazed barbarians, whose violence would scare the shit out of any right thinking white person. (Quite similar to American settlers' descriptions of/reactions to their interactions with indigenous peoples in the 18th and 19th centuries)
Nonetheless, an increasing read.
However, the book is based almost entirely on western resources - studies, diplomatic sources, etc. While the author does acknowledge late in the book that written records from the Chinese side are scant, there is little discussion about Chinese feelings towards western imperialism and Christian missionaries' conversion methods. The western presence in China is taken as a given, hence little attention paid to any justification the the Chinese may have felt for engaging in this 'rebellion'. The foreign devils in this book are not the western imperialists od missionaries; they are the Boxers - crazed barbarians, whose violence would scare the shit out of any right thinking white person. (Quite similar to American settlers' descriptions of/reactions to their interactions with indigenous peoples in the 18th and 19th centuries)
Nonetheless, an increasing read.
September 17, 2019
British missionaries were in China at the end of the 19th century to try to convert the population to Christianity. Other European peoples were also there trying to establish diplomatic relations and various trade deals. There were so many cultures colliding that it was inevitable to have a major crash.
The Boxers, so-called for their marital arts movements, were from the common people, and they took a hard stand again the Christians and the various Europeans trying to establish a hold in their country. The results were brutal, bloody, and incredibly violent. Cultures crashed headlong into each other. Chaos reigned. Oh, and the Dowager Empress? She was no innocent bystander in the carnage.
Hard to read, but somehow fascinating. Preston is a great researcher and writes non-fiction like prose.
The Boxers, so-called for their marital arts movements, were from the common people, and they took a hard stand again the Christians and the various Europeans trying to establish a hold in their country. The results were brutal, bloody, and incredibly violent. Cultures crashed headlong into each other. Chaos reigned. Oh, and the Dowager Empress? She was no innocent bystander in the carnage.
Hard to read, but somehow fascinating. Preston is a great researcher and writes non-fiction like prose.
September 9, 2017
As a piece of scholarship, it's top notch. The book presents both sides of the conflagration. It shows how the European powers were preparing to divide up China and shows how justified the frustration and anger of the Chinese were. It also shows how this anger was directed, wrongly, at relative innocents. It shows the intrigue of the Chinese court between local courtiers and foreign ministers at the turn of the century. It shows the last gasps of Imperialism and war-as-adventure before the First World War would crush them. And it tells much of this through the words of the people who lived the events.
And, if that weren't enough, it's a pretty good read, too.
And, if that weren't enough, it's a pretty good read, too.
January 8, 2014
The less than dramatic story of Westerners reacting to the Boxer Rebellion. Like the Victorians we learned nothing of the Boxers from this book. They were still meaningless peasants who were only there to terrorize all those well meaning White Christians.
At least it isn't that long
At least it isn't that long
November 11, 2011
read and threw it away.
June 18, 2017
Interesting, but it dragged about two-thirds through. Undeniably Eurocentric. Previously, I was unaware of the roles played by Herbert Hoover and his wife, Lou, in the defense of Tientsin.
January 6, 2015
Pretty good, although entirely one-sided. If you want to know much of anything about the Chinese motivations or perspective on this event, this isn't the book where you will find that out.
May 23, 2023
The siege of Peking is one of the few times in the 20th Century when the Western Nations (including Japan) actually got along, so has always held a certain fascination.
Like many I was expecting an Osprey Publishing type tactical reconstruction of the siege of Peking – this is not that.
This is an overview of the entire Boxer rebellion drilling down into the main siege and the military engagements around it.
Dianna Preston focuses on the human rather than tactical elements of the incident.
You get full accounts of how diplomats, priests, wives and servants struggled to escape the blood thirsty mobs.
It is interesting to read how one particular lady is worrying whether to pack a dress or extra blouses for her escape and later on is caring for wounded in the middle of a battle field.
The book does not rush to the siege and you get a lot background on world events, policy, bureaucracy and even the lives of the diplomats and missionaries.
A picture is painted of how the world was without any judgement.
It clearly shows the distain western people showed for Chinese people, the animosity between the western countries, and the disregard governments (especially China) had for its own general populace.
Dianna Preston does not shrink from the brutality of the events that unfolded and quite clinically shows how brutality begets brutality begats more brutality.
An issue I had midway through this book is understanding the battles.
Thousands of Chinese soldiers fire tens of thousands of rounds and shells in to the compound putting up a “withering” or “devastating” amount of fire that sent seven European soldiers in the hospital.
How can this be?
I have been on stag dos with a higher casualty rate than that!
Dianna Preston addresses this at the end of the book.
The truth is nobody really knows why the Chinese armed forces acted in the ways it did.
She puts up some very intriguing and informed ideas why but a lot of the information is from Western sources that didn’t have access to behind the scenes of the Chinese court.
So, we will likely never know.
This is a great book melding facts with human endeavours - it can be a bit slow in places and it can't deliver on the tactical level - but that is fine with me.
There is a charming exert at the back telling how Dianna Preston visited modern China to research her book along with an extensive bibliography and reference section.
If you are after an actual battlefield account of what happened then this is not it (I think you may struggle to find such a book) but I would still recommend this as it is an interesting read
Like many I was expecting an Osprey Publishing type tactical reconstruction of the siege of Peking – this is not that.
This is an overview of the entire Boxer rebellion drilling down into the main siege and the military engagements around it.
Dianna Preston focuses on the human rather than tactical elements of the incident.
You get full accounts of how diplomats, priests, wives and servants struggled to escape the blood thirsty mobs.
It is interesting to read how one particular lady is worrying whether to pack a dress or extra blouses for her escape and later on is caring for wounded in the middle of a battle field.
The book does not rush to the siege and you get a lot background on world events, policy, bureaucracy and even the lives of the diplomats and missionaries.
A picture is painted of how the world was without any judgement.
It clearly shows the distain western people showed for Chinese people, the animosity between the western countries, and the disregard governments (especially China) had for its own general populace.
Dianna Preston does not shrink from the brutality of the events that unfolded and quite clinically shows how brutality begets brutality begats more brutality.
An issue I had midway through this book is understanding the battles.
Thousands of Chinese soldiers fire tens of thousands of rounds and shells in to the compound putting up a “withering” or “devastating” amount of fire that sent seven European soldiers in the hospital.
How can this be?
I have been on stag dos with a higher casualty rate than that!
Dianna Preston addresses this at the end of the book.
The truth is nobody really knows why the Chinese armed forces acted in the ways it did.
She puts up some very intriguing and informed ideas why but a lot of the information is from Western sources that didn’t have access to behind the scenes of the Chinese court.
So, we will likely never know.
This is a great book melding facts with human endeavours - it can be a bit slow in places and it can't deliver on the tactical level - but that is fine with me.
There is a charming exert at the back telling how Dianna Preston visited modern China to research her book along with an extensive bibliography and reference section.
If you are after an actual battlefield account of what happened then this is not it (I think you may struggle to find such a book) but I would still recommend this as it is an interesting read
February 25, 2025
Eine packende, aber stark westlich geprägte Darstellung des Boxeraufstands von 1900. Das Buch schildert eindrucksvoll die Belagerung des Pekinger Diplomatenviertels aber stützt sich dabei vor allem auf Augenzeugenberichte westlicher Diplomaten, Missionare und Soldaten. Während Prestons erzählerischer Stil die Spannung und das Leid der Belagerten lebendig vermittelt, bleibt die chinesische Perspektive weitgehend unterrepräsentiert. Die Beweggründe oder der historische Kontext der Boxer und ihrer Rebellion sind nicht detailliert ausgearbeitet. Hier frage ich mich allerdings, ob die Quellenlage sowas überhaupt hergibt. Es fließt nicht in die Sternebewertung des Buches ein.
Allerdings ist der Fokus auf bestimmte Länder schon sehr auffällig, allen voran Großbritannien und die USA. Die britischen und amerikanischen Akteure stehen im Mittelpunkt der Erzählung, während andere europäische Mächte wie Deutschland ("Germans to the front!", Admiral Seymour), Frankreich oder Russland zwar erwähnt, aber weniger tiefgehend behandelt werden. Die Rolle Japans, das ebenfalls maßgeblich an der Intervention gegen die Boxer beteiligt war, bleibt im Vergleich zu den westlichen Mächten eher eine Erzählung am Rande.
Diese einseitige Perspektive schränkt die Tiefe von Prestons Werk ein. Wer eine lebendige und spannende Nacherzählung der Ereignisse aus angloamerikanischer Sicht sucht, wird hier fündig. Wer jedoch eine umfassendere und ausgewogenere Analyse des Boxeraufstands wünscht, sollte eventuell weitersuchen.
Allerdings ist der Fokus auf bestimmte Länder schon sehr auffällig, allen voran Großbritannien und die USA. Die britischen und amerikanischen Akteure stehen im Mittelpunkt der Erzählung, während andere europäische Mächte wie Deutschland ("Germans to the front!", Admiral Seymour), Frankreich oder Russland zwar erwähnt, aber weniger tiefgehend behandelt werden. Die Rolle Japans, das ebenfalls maßgeblich an der Intervention gegen die Boxer beteiligt war, bleibt im Vergleich zu den westlichen Mächten eher eine Erzählung am Rande.
Diese einseitige Perspektive schränkt die Tiefe von Prestons Werk ein. Wer eine lebendige und spannende Nacherzählung der Ereignisse aus angloamerikanischer Sicht sucht, wird hier fündig. Wer jedoch eine umfassendere und ausgewogenere Analyse des Boxeraufstands wünscht, sollte eventuell weitersuchen.
December 7, 2020
This book, though named "Boxer Rebellion", isn't really focused on Boxers, but on the foreigners. So it provides a really eye opening perspective to me. And the various detailed accounts of how the besieged foreign diplomats and their family and the convert Chinese struggled during a two months siege are quite interesting to know. For example, they don't really sum up all the food for ration but keep eating their individual food stuff. So rich foreign women keep eating canned beef and poor foreign guys eating horse meat day by day. They developed a washing cloth service, a bell tower and bullet board system for news, etc. On parallel the book depicts the relief force and it's route from Tianjin to Peking, also a very detailed account of what they really think of Chinese. The boxers are not mentioned a lot, but the author wrote a lot about Empress dowager and her flee out of Peking. And her return and inviting foreign ladies to the palace, and also the various fabricated storied about her and her English lover. In sum, it is a very well researched book and decently written. By decent, I mean the author gave a pretty neutral view on both sides. There are boxers and local villagers and local officials killing missionaries, and there are also allied army looting in Beijing and killing more innocent civilians. Every coin has two sides. I probably will like it more if I read it in a Chinese version.
September 4, 2012
If you want to understand current Chinese attitudes toward foreigners, this book is an excellent place to start. No, I'm not predicting a violent uprising and siege, but today's complex and contradictory emotions were formed in the era during which the Boxer Rebellion took place.
Several reviews have noted that the book is filled with fascinating anecdotes. To me, the most telling was the Chinese soldiers, during a brief period of truce, selling rifles and ammunition to the besieged for $15. The Chinese capacity to hold mutually contradictory ideas and emotions can be difficult for a foreigner to understand.
Although the book is written entirely from the foreigners' perspective, the author's assessment of causation and blame is jarringly critical of the Westerners, coming as it does at the end of a story filled with horrible privation and mortal danger inflicted upon more or less innocent individuals. More coverage of the Chinese side during the course of the story would help prepare the reader for the last chapter or two.
Several reviews have noted that the book is filled with fascinating anecdotes. To me, the most telling was the Chinese soldiers, during a brief period of truce, selling rifles and ammunition to the besieged for $15. The Chinese capacity to hold mutually contradictory ideas and emotions can be difficult for a foreigner to understand.
Although the book is written entirely from the foreigners' perspective, the author's assessment of causation and blame is jarringly critical of the Westerners, coming as it does at the end of a story filled with horrible privation and mortal danger inflicted upon more or less innocent individuals. More coverage of the Chinese side during the course of the story would help prepare the reader for the last chapter or two.
July 28, 2014
The Boxer Rebellion has been an aspect of Chinese history that has long interested me. This book therefore immediately piqued my interest. Despite interesting moments, I was somewhat underwhelmed by this book. I was disappointed with Preston's scholarship that focused primarily on reporting from the foreign perspective almost exclusively. This lack of balanced accounting of history detracted from the full story in my opinion. The research she did however pulled from many sources so many voices did help tell the tale of the horrible events of that time.
I also could see that Preston could have reflected more on what these events meant in terms of helping shape the development of a modern China as there are certain similarities to some events of Mao's China in the 50s and of the Cultural Revolution of the 60s.
While I learned more about the events that comprised the Boxer Rebellion, a more thorough and balanced account would be appreciated.
I also could see that Preston could have reflected more on what these events meant in terms of helping shape the development of a modern China as there are certain similarities to some events of Mao's China in the 50s and of the Cultural Revolution of the 60s.
While I learned more about the events that comprised the Boxer Rebellion, a more thorough and balanced account would be appreciated.
July 7, 2021
Excellent insight into an event that I've always wanted to look into. I've read so many things that use this as a part of the story but I wanted more than a portion I wanted the big picture.
She does this and so much more
Her use of letters and pictures help illustrate it with the all important personal perspective of those who experienced this tragedy giving it that "I was there feel". Even more important she doesn't gloss over the warts and moral failures of the non-Chinese. Letting you see the truth that both sides played a part in the failings before during and after this tragedy.
She does this and so much more
Her use of letters and pictures help illustrate it with the all important personal perspective of those who experienced this tragedy giving it that "I was there feel". Even more important she doesn't gloss over the warts and moral failures of the non-Chinese. Letting you see the truth that both sides played a part in the failings before during and after this tragedy.
July 28, 2020
This is a close range view of the Western diplomats, missionaries and Chinese converts besieged in Peking and the mission to rescue them. Just enough big picture to place the Boxer Uprising in context with the Western powers’ grapple for influence. Interesting view behind the walls during the summer of 1900 but not a history for those looking for a deeper understanding of motivations and consequences.
July 16, 2008
Still reading.
So far, bleak.
I'll let you know.
But if you know somthing about Chinese history.
It's beyond fucked up.
So far, bleak.
I'll let you know.
But if you know somthing about Chinese history.
It's beyond fucked up.
April 24, 2023
When I learned about the Boxer rebellion from a monument in Oberlin, Ohio, I didn't think much about it. Apparently, some group of Chinese called the "Boxers" (who I couldn't have told you anything about any more than I could the Uighurs) had rebelled and some missionaries from Oberlin had been killed.
It was only decades later that I learned why they had been called "Boxers." "Boxing" was the English word at the time for any kind of weaponless martial arts. They were practitioners of Kung Fu! It was an attack by the traditional warriors on the imperialist westerners. And even more than that, they were (at least in their own minds) magical wuxia style fighters. They believed that by doing certain moves, they could make themselves invulnerable to bullets or able to fly. Suddenly it became a lot more interesting to me-- while I knew nothing of history, I knew a lot about fantasy literature and movies, and I totally understood this plot.
Here's the setup. On the one had you have the Chinese. The Dowager Empress Cixi is living in the Forbidden City (she is the old woman at the beginning of the movie The Last Emperor) and finds the foreigners coming into China are causing all kinds of trouble. Missionaries are converting tens of thousands. Traders are disrupting everything. The common people are frightened of the telegraph and the railroad. Every western nation is marching its soldiers around, careless about the deaths of the Chinese people. Right next door to the Forbidden City are all the western embassies (legations)-- walled compounds where the diplomats, their families, and tons of other foreigners lived and worked. This book is largely compiled from their journals and accounts, along with other western sources.
When the Boxers start killing foreigners, the government finds it convenient to take a hands-off approach. You get the impression that they think it would be better if all the foreigners were just gone, but want some plausible deniability: it wasn't us, it was those awful Boxers.
Admiral Seymour (he looks kind of like Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck) sitting in the harbor 80 miles away gets word that the diplomats are in trouble, so sends troops on a train to rescue them. But the Boxers tear up all the train tracks and cut the telegraph lines, and the soldiers realize they can't make any further progress. While they have better weapons, they are sorely outnumbered. So they retreat under fire and with heavy losses manage to take over a walled compound in a city nearby, and wait for reinforcements themselves.
For weeks, the westerners (British, American, French, Italian, Russian, German, Austrian, and also Japanese) are besieged in the legations, and struggle to hold their own while waiting for the delayed troops. They are overcrowded because the missionaries retreated to the embassy and brought their Chinese converts with them, who would otherwise be massacred and their bodies mutilated-- the risk they all ran if they were to surrender. They behave just how you would imagine Victorian gentlemen and women would-- some brave to the point if lunacy, some extremely practical, some falling into hysterics, some laying about in bed complaining about flies, boredom, and the smell of rotting Chinese bodies, some trying to maintain their appearance and their tea-times and play tennis while being shot at. Some don't seem to notice their Chinese servants being killed as a tragedy at all, or the fact that the Chinese Christians in the siege with them are literally starving to death. Meanwhile, no information is getting in or out-- the newspapers in the west are announcing they've all been killed, they have no idea why Admiral Seymour hasn't arrived yet.
So anyway, a dramatic story of a siege in unusual conditions. But also, a kind of clash of supernatural beliefs-- during the first Sunday of the siege, the missionaries are asking if others will keep sewing sandbags on the Sabbath, and you see that the belief in supernatural protection is not just on the side of the Boxers. The near complete lack of understanding of the cultures they are dealing with (on both sides) with has led to this tragedy. It's the ultimate clash of the traditional and the modern in 1900 as the world was changing. You also start to get an idea of why China is still pretty pissed at the Western world in general.
I would have liked to have a little more from the Chinese side of things, if any accounts are available (I'm sure its hard to find translations even if journals exist.)
It was only decades later that I learned why they had been called "Boxers." "Boxing" was the English word at the time for any kind of weaponless martial arts. They were practitioners of Kung Fu! It was an attack by the traditional warriors on the imperialist westerners. And even more than that, they were (at least in their own minds) magical wuxia style fighters. They believed that by doing certain moves, they could make themselves invulnerable to bullets or able to fly. Suddenly it became a lot more interesting to me-- while I knew nothing of history, I knew a lot about fantasy literature and movies, and I totally understood this plot.
Here's the setup. On the one had you have the Chinese. The Dowager Empress Cixi is living in the Forbidden City (she is the old woman at the beginning of the movie The Last Emperor) and finds the foreigners coming into China are causing all kinds of trouble. Missionaries are converting tens of thousands. Traders are disrupting everything. The common people are frightened of the telegraph and the railroad. Every western nation is marching its soldiers around, careless about the deaths of the Chinese people. Right next door to the Forbidden City are all the western embassies (legations)-- walled compounds where the diplomats, their families, and tons of other foreigners lived and worked. This book is largely compiled from their journals and accounts, along with other western sources.
When the Boxers start killing foreigners, the government finds it convenient to take a hands-off approach. You get the impression that they think it would be better if all the foreigners were just gone, but want some plausible deniability: it wasn't us, it was those awful Boxers.
Admiral Seymour (he looks kind of like Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck) sitting in the harbor 80 miles away gets word that the diplomats are in trouble, so sends troops on a train to rescue them. But the Boxers tear up all the train tracks and cut the telegraph lines, and the soldiers realize they can't make any further progress. While they have better weapons, they are sorely outnumbered. So they retreat under fire and with heavy losses manage to take over a walled compound in a city nearby, and wait for reinforcements themselves.
For weeks, the westerners (British, American, French, Italian, Russian, German, Austrian, and also Japanese) are besieged in the legations, and struggle to hold their own while waiting for the delayed troops. They are overcrowded because the missionaries retreated to the embassy and brought their Chinese converts with them, who would otherwise be massacred and their bodies mutilated-- the risk they all ran if they were to surrender. They behave just how you would imagine Victorian gentlemen and women would-- some brave to the point if lunacy, some extremely practical, some falling into hysterics, some laying about in bed complaining about flies, boredom, and the smell of rotting Chinese bodies, some trying to maintain their appearance and their tea-times and play tennis while being shot at. Some don't seem to notice their Chinese servants being killed as a tragedy at all, or the fact that the Chinese Christians in the siege with them are literally starving to death. Meanwhile, no information is getting in or out-- the newspapers in the west are announcing they've all been killed, they have no idea why Admiral Seymour hasn't arrived yet.
So anyway, a dramatic story of a siege in unusual conditions. But also, a kind of clash of supernatural beliefs-- during the first Sunday of the siege, the missionaries are asking if others will keep sewing sandbags on the Sabbath, and you see that the belief in supernatural protection is not just on the side of the Boxers. The near complete lack of understanding of the cultures they are dealing with (on both sides) with has led to this tragedy. It's the ultimate clash of the traditional and the modern in 1900 as the world was changing. You also start to get an idea of why China is still pretty pissed at the Western world in general.
I would have liked to have a little more from the Chinese side of things, if any accounts are available (I'm sure its hard to find translations even if journals exist.)
Read
November 15, 2020Diana Preston’s book does an excellent job of telling the story of the Boxer Rebellion from the viewpoint of the Westerners who were caught up in it, although, as pointed out in some of the reviews below, it is a bit thin on the historical background and the motivations and policies of the Manchu government, the Empress Dowager, and the many officials and functionaries who move through the story, as well as the Boxers themselves; but these were complete mysteries to people at the time as well! For anyone wishing to understand the history of China in the 20th Century, and why today’s China seems determined to become a major player on the world stage, the book is highly recommended.
China’s fear and resentment of foreigners can perhaps be traced all the way back to the Mongol invasion of the 13th Century and the setting up of the Yuan Dynasty; as well as the Opium Wars of the 1840’s and the conflict with the French in 1860, plus the efforts of other western powers to carve out, for economic gain and exploitation, their “spheres of influence”; as well as China’s humiliating defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. The Manchu government saw in the Boxer movement, which was a religiously motivated phenomenon of northern China which fanned among the peasantry the flames of nationalism, economic inequality and religious bigotry, an opportunity to exact revenge, and became an active participant in the attempt to wipe out the Western legations and every trace of Christianity. Yet the campaign was disorganized, schizophrenic, half-hearted and erratically pursued; sometimes those in the besieged legations wondered why attacks by Imperial troops suddenly ceased when, if pursued, they could have wiped the Westerners out. China was such a vast country that many regions, especially in the west and south, were not aware of, or cared little about, events in Peking and Tientsin and declined to participate; the outcome was that the campaign backfired and ultimately caused yet another humiliation of China, unimaginable devastation, and the needless deaths of thousands of Chinese and hundreds of Westerners, plus eventually the downfall of the Manchu dynasty in 1911 with the establishment of the Republic of China by Sun Yat-sen. The intervention by the armies of the Western powers to rescue their citizens has been called a “police action” and compared to that initiated by the United Nations in Korea in 1950. And, along with the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, it marked the emergence of Japan as a full-fledged power on the world stage.
The tens of thousands of Chinese Christian converts and the Catholic priests and nuns and Protestant missionaries (including their wives and children), who were mostly located in the interior with little or no protection, and who were mercilessly and pitilessly slaughtered, can certainly be considered modern martyrs for the faith. Yet this did not deter further missionary efforts after the rebellion, and the martyrs would rejoice to see the way the faith is spreading in China today and to realize that their blood was not shed in vain. The “Three-Self Patriotic Movement” encompasses the recognized churches; but there are thousands of house churches which continue to increase in number despite the occasional attempts to suppress them (and the publication of Bibles and other Christian literature), and the Christian community in China is one of the fastest growing worldwide.
*** review by Chuck Graham *****
China’s fear and resentment of foreigners can perhaps be traced all the way back to the Mongol invasion of the 13th Century and the setting up of the Yuan Dynasty; as well as the Opium Wars of the 1840’s and the conflict with the French in 1860, plus the efforts of other western powers to carve out, for economic gain and exploitation, their “spheres of influence”; as well as China’s humiliating defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. The Manchu government saw in the Boxer movement, which was a religiously motivated phenomenon of northern China which fanned among the peasantry the flames of nationalism, economic inequality and religious bigotry, an opportunity to exact revenge, and became an active participant in the attempt to wipe out the Western legations and every trace of Christianity. Yet the campaign was disorganized, schizophrenic, half-hearted and erratically pursued; sometimes those in the besieged legations wondered why attacks by Imperial troops suddenly ceased when, if pursued, they could have wiped the Westerners out. China was such a vast country that many regions, especially in the west and south, were not aware of, or cared little about, events in Peking and Tientsin and declined to participate; the outcome was that the campaign backfired and ultimately caused yet another humiliation of China, unimaginable devastation, and the needless deaths of thousands of Chinese and hundreds of Westerners, plus eventually the downfall of the Manchu dynasty in 1911 with the establishment of the Republic of China by Sun Yat-sen. The intervention by the armies of the Western powers to rescue their citizens has been called a “police action” and compared to that initiated by the United Nations in Korea in 1950. And, along with the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, it marked the emergence of Japan as a full-fledged power on the world stage.
The tens of thousands of Chinese Christian converts and the Catholic priests and nuns and Protestant missionaries (including their wives and children), who were mostly located in the interior with little or no protection, and who were mercilessly and pitilessly slaughtered, can certainly be considered modern martyrs for the faith. Yet this did not deter further missionary efforts after the rebellion, and the martyrs would rejoice to see the way the faith is spreading in China today and to realize that their blood was not shed in vain. The “Three-Self Patriotic Movement” encompasses the recognized churches; but there are thousands of house churches which continue to increase in number despite the occasional attempts to suppress them (and the publication of Bibles and other Christian literature), and the Christian community in China is one of the fastest growing worldwide.
*** review by Chuck Graham *****
April 27, 2025
As the curtain closes on the 19th century, China is in a big mess. The Middle Kingdom, while it was big, it could not withstood the pressure from the foreigners, losing in numerous wars against foreign powers. The Manchu-led Qing Dynasty was entering its twilight, while foreign powers steadily encroaching upon China, demanding concessions here, building trade post there, while spreading various kinds of Christianity through the works of many missionary missions. Against these background, The Qing, with its pro-reformist Emperor Guangxu, undertook a series of reform aimed at modernizing the Qing Empire. However, the pace of reform proved too quick, even for most of the moderates who supported it, and in the ensuing power struggle, The Empress Dowager Cixi took over power. A conservative, she put the Hundred Days Reforms to abrupt halt, and tried its best to do business as usual.
While The Qing court proven powerless against the foreign powers, people ultimately tried to find another savior, and in these, the found the Society of Harmonious Fists, better known as the Boxers. Fiercely anti-foreign, The Boxers claimed invulnerability against bullets and promised to slay all the foreigners especially the Christian devils. This sparks a sentiment against all foreigners, which was ridden by the Qing to beat back the foreign powers.
Meanwhile, in Beijing, foreign powers was housed in Foreign Legation complex, comprised of headquarters of numerous foreign powers, namely British, American, France, Russia, German, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Japan. For them, life was mostly dandy and rose tinted. In this idyllic complacency, most of them failed to spot the signs of widespread anti-foreign, dismissing them as seasonal discontent caused by heat that will be washed away by the eventual raining season. Few warnings by the far-sighted people were dismissed as a paranoid reaction.
All was changed as The Boxers, supported by Imperial Armies, marched upon the Foreign Legations and thus began the Siege of the International Legations, the pivotal event of the Boxer Rebellion. For 55 days, The complex was subjected to numerous attacks including bombardments and mining efforts by the Chinese. The besieged people showed tremendous courage in holding on, while on the Chinese side, the Boxers cause was not helped by the fact that there are still moderate factions within the Qing Court who tried their best to sabotage the whole effort by refusing to go for an all out attack which will certainly wipe out the defenders, in hope for more lenient treatment from the Foreign Powers in subsequent peace treaty.
As the International relief force finally reached Beijing (after a botched first attempt) The Imperial Court fled Beijing and the foreign army engaged in wholesale looting. Meanwhile, The Qing was subjected to indemnity payments, which only paid in full in 1939 by the subsequent Republic of China. The Boxer Rebellion was proven to be the Qing's final gamble, and it failed. The Empire survived for another ten years, then fell and China walked into a Revolutionary era. Overall, I always enjoyed Chinese History for its sheer brutality, and in this book, I found myself mesmerized, mostly by The Boxers stories of theirs and foreigners' supernatural ability, while the story of people under siege is certainly moving. I found myself rather amused by the incredible absurdity of Zongli Yamen in serving as liaison between The Court and foreign officials. A very fun book to read.
While The Qing court proven powerless against the foreign powers, people ultimately tried to find another savior, and in these, the found the Society of Harmonious Fists, better known as the Boxers. Fiercely anti-foreign, The Boxers claimed invulnerability against bullets and promised to slay all the foreigners especially the Christian devils. This sparks a sentiment against all foreigners, which was ridden by the Qing to beat back the foreign powers.
Meanwhile, in Beijing, foreign powers was housed in Foreign Legation complex, comprised of headquarters of numerous foreign powers, namely British, American, France, Russia, German, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Japan. For them, life was mostly dandy and rose tinted. In this idyllic complacency, most of them failed to spot the signs of widespread anti-foreign, dismissing them as seasonal discontent caused by heat that will be washed away by the eventual raining season. Few warnings by the far-sighted people were dismissed as a paranoid reaction.
All was changed as The Boxers, supported by Imperial Armies, marched upon the Foreign Legations and thus began the Siege of the International Legations, the pivotal event of the Boxer Rebellion. For 55 days, The complex was subjected to numerous attacks including bombardments and mining efforts by the Chinese. The besieged people showed tremendous courage in holding on, while on the Chinese side, the Boxers cause was not helped by the fact that there are still moderate factions within the Qing Court who tried their best to sabotage the whole effort by refusing to go for an all out attack which will certainly wipe out the defenders, in hope for more lenient treatment from the Foreign Powers in subsequent peace treaty.
As the International relief force finally reached Beijing (after a botched first attempt) The Imperial Court fled Beijing and the foreign army engaged in wholesale looting. Meanwhile, The Qing was subjected to indemnity payments, which only paid in full in 1939 by the subsequent Republic of China. The Boxer Rebellion was proven to be the Qing's final gamble, and it failed. The Empire survived for another ten years, then fell and China walked into a Revolutionary era. Overall, I always enjoyed Chinese History for its sheer brutality, and in this book, I found myself mesmerized, mostly by The Boxers stories of theirs and foreigners' supernatural ability, while the story of people under siege is certainly moving. I found myself rather amused by the incredible absurdity of Zongli Yamen in serving as liaison between The Court and foreign officials. A very fun book to read.
May 8, 2025
Diana Preston’s The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900 offers a fast-paced, engaging narrative of one of the most tumultuous chapters in modern Chinese history. Preston excels at weaving the voices of diplomats, missionaries, soldiers, and Chinese participants into a panoramic account of the uprising, and her attention to detail brings both the siege of the foreign legations in Beijing and the wider chaos across northern China vividly to life.
The book is especially effective in conveying the claustrophobic tension inside the embattled foreign quarter, and Preston’s ability to humanize the international cast of characters provides welcome nuance. She also captures the fevered paranoia that gripped much of northern China at the time—particularly the wild and desperate rumors among the Boxers that Westerners controlled the weather or kidnapped and consumed Chinese children. These beliefs, while extreme, reflected the deep cultural anxiety and loss of sovereignty many Chinese felt in the face of foreign encroachment. Preston treats these fears not as curiosities, but as important windows into a society in crisis, overwhelmed by foreign presence and struggling to make sense of its own disempowerment.
At the same time, her work sometimes leans a little heavily on Western sources, which—while understandable given the records—can limit the reader’s perspective on Chinese motivations, especially among the Boxers themselves, whose ideology and spiritual world remain somewhat opaque in the narrative.
Preston does not glorify the foreign powers, nor does she romanticize the Boxers; rather, she presents a series of competing fears, miscalculations, and deeply entrenched cultural misunderstandings. Still, readers hoping for a deeper dive into the political or theological currents that shaped both sides may find the book a bit more journalistic than analytical.
In sum, The Boxer Rebellion is a gripping introduction to a pivotal global crisis, ideal for readers looking to understand the contours of the conflict rather than its deeper philosophical or ideological roots. It is vivid, well-researched, and accessible—but best supplemented with further reading for those seeking a more rounded view of China’s internal struggles and the imperial entanglements of the era.
The book is especially effective in conveying the claustrophobic tension inside the embattled foreign quarter, and Preston’s ability to humanize the international cast of characters provides welcome nuance. She also captures the fevered paranoia that gripped much of northern China at the time—particularly the wild and desperate rumors among the Boxers that Westerners controlled the weather or kidnapped and consumed Chinese children. These beliefs, while extreme, reflected the deep cultural anxiety and loss of sovereignty many Chinese felt in the face of foreign encroachment. Preston treats these fears not as curiosities, but as important windows into a society in crisis, overwhelmed by foreign presence and struggling to make sense of its own disempowerment.
At the same time, her work sometimes leans a little heavily on Western sources, which—while understandable given the records—can limit the reader’s perspective on Chinese motivations, especially among the Boxers themselves, whose ideology and spiritual world remain somewhat opaque in the narrative.
Preston does not glorify the foreign powers, nor does she romanticize the Boxers; rather, she presents a series of competing fears, miscalculations, and deeply entrenched cultural misunderstandings. Still, readers hoping for a deeper dive into the political or theological currents that shaped both sides may find the book a bit more journalistic than analytical.
In sum, The Boxer Rebellion is a gripping introduction to a pivotal global crisis, ideal for readers looking to understand the contours of the conflict rather than its deeper philosophical or ideological roots. It is vivid, well-researched, and accessible—but best supplemented with further reading for those seeking a more rounded view of China’s internal struggles and the imperial entanglements of the era.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews