Allen Lane | $69.99 | 864 pages
Every now and then comes a fat book of history written with literary grace that takes you on a long and enjoyable journey into a hidden world. Memorable examples include John Dower’s exploration of the occupation of Japan,
Embracing Defeat, and the late Christopher Bayly’s over-modestly titled
Empire and Information, which looked at how the British were blindsided by the 1857 sepoy mutiny (a missed lesson for 9/11).
Now comes this book by Tim Harper, a Cambridge historian who has also collaborated on books with Bayly.
Underground Asia takes us down the burrows of resistance to the Asian empires of Britain, France and the Netherlands, and into the struggles over the carcass of the Chinese empire in the first three decades of the twentieth century.