Goodman's book is exceptionally well-supported by documentary sources and interviews. The introduction and the conclusions, which set out the relevant issues clearly and resolve them effectively, offer perhaps the best available summary of current research on wartime Chinese communism. The intervening chapters provide numerous thoughtful insights into the nature of social and political change in Taihang. Goodman displays a firm grasp of the issues and provides an authoritative guide to the debates about them.

China Quarterly

The book's wealth of detail, richness of sources and Goodman's skillful command of local social change in areas directly affected by complex warfare provide deep insights into a small corner of China's recent history.

Political Studies Review

Goodman's repeated visits to the region since 1987 have permitted interviews of veteran revolutionaries to supplement the documentary record. The result is a remarkably rich account of the revolutionary process in a key North China base. . . . The sources are rich, and the analysis persuasive. It continues the project of understanding how the revolution really worked at the local level, and, like much recent work, it helps us understand both how the Communists succeeded in establishing local power and how that process could create a regime that gradually became alienated from its social base.

Joseph W. Esherick, University of California, San Diego, Journal of Asian Studies

A remarkably rich account of the revolutionary process in a key North China base. . . . The sources are rich, and the analysis persuasive.

Joseph W. Esherick, University of California, San Diego, Journal of Asian Studies

Goodman's study furthers our appreciation for the wide regional variation that the course of the Chinese revolution took during the war against Japan. . . . [A]n important contribution to scholarship on the Chinese revolution during WW II.

Choice Reviews