Brendan’s Reviews > China's Last Empire: The Great Qing > Status Update
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“Lacking gainful employment, these talented young men developed a flamboyant and provocative political style and a tendency to form factions outside normal bureaucratic channels. They centered their activities in such ‘front’ organizations as a ‘poetry club’ [] and a ‘shrine association’ []. Relentless criticism from these bitter and well organized members of the literati helped provoke the
— Sep 27, 2026 02:38PM
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Brendan
is on page 91 of 368
On the global impact of the Columbian Exchange:
“Both sides of the Eurasian continent began to experience ‘modern population growth’ in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, due in part to the introduction of hardy New World crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and peanuts. These countercyclical crops served as brakes on starvation during harvest failures of the more preferred staples, rice and wheat.”
— Sep 23, 2026 07:46PM
“Both sides of the Eurasian continent began to experience ‘modern population growth’ in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, due in part to the introduction of hardy New World crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and peanuts. These countercyclical crops served as brakes on starvation during harvest failures of the more preferred staples, rice and wheat.”
Brendan
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It is once again striking to note the similarities between Qing conquest and settlement of Xinjiang, Southwest China, and Taiwan, and the westward expansion of the United States. Both involved a mix of genocidal wars, reservation systems, reeducation and acculturation projects, and forceable grouping of disparate peoples into a common “savage” identity. Both were often driven by opportunistic settlers from the
— Sep 22, 2026 08:43PM
Brendan
is on page 31 of 368
“Usually an empire expands up to the point where the costs of maintaining military superiority over its neighbors along increasingly extensive borders, combined with the costs of internal administration and maintenance of stability, become unsustainably great. The economy buckles under the mounting pressure as the imperial government tries to enlarge its share of the realm’s economic product, and the society
— Sep 21, 2026 07:29PM
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Sep 27, 2026 02:39PM
the Qing government into the saber-rattling that led to the disastrous first Anglo-Chinese War.”
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I really wish more Americans would study the Qing dynasty. I’ve felt for a while — and this book certainly reaffirms — that the triumphs and challenges of the Qing era mirror our own far more than might be expected. The failures of the Qing state beginning around 1800, some of which were ironically the products of earlier successes, look eerily familiar to a 21st century American reader. We would do well to study this era as a warning and, perhaps, a guide to our own imperial future.
I would even contend unequivocally that studying the Qing dynasty is more useful for understanding contemporary America than, say, studying Nazi Germany or Imperial Rome, despite that the latter are discussed repeatedly (and usually quite superficially) in current media and culture.