James A. Millward's study of the Qing dynasty's governance of Xinjiang is possibly the most careful study of the subject written since Owen Lattimore's studies of Central Asia. Taking on the Fairbankian idea of concentric rings of Chinese empire, Millward reminds us that the ways in which the Qing dynasty governed its far western regions was a Manchu policy, with distinct characteristics. The treatment is topical, but does not lose sight of the chronological narrative. The study ends, however, before the Muslim rebellions in the region changed it forever, both in its ethnicity and demographics.

China's 1911-12 Revolution, which overthrew a 2000-year succession of dynasties, is thought of primarily as a change in governmental style, from imperial to republican, traditional to modern. But given that the dynasty that was overthrown—the Qing—was that of a minority ethnic group that had ruled China's Han majority for nearly three centuries, and that the revolutionaries were overwhelmingly Han, to what extent was the revolution not only anti-monarchical, but also anti-Manchu? Edward Rhoads explores this provocative and complicated question in Manchus and Han, analyzing the evolution of the Manchus from a hereditary military caste (the "banner people") to a distinct ethnic group and then detailing the interplay and dialogue between the Manchu court and Han reformers that culminated in the dramatic changes of the early 20th century. Until now, many scholars have assumed that the Manchus had been assimilated into Han culture long before the 1911 Revolution and were no longer separate and distinguishable. But Rhoads demonstrates that in many ways Manchus remained an alien, privileged, and distinct group. Manchus and Han is a pathbreaking study that will forever change the way historians of China view the events leading to the fall of the Qing dynasty. Likewise, it will clarify for ethnologists the unique origin of the Manchus as an occupational caste and their shifting relationship with the Han, from border people to rulers to ruled.

In 1644, the Manchus, a relatively unknown people inhabiting China’s rude northeastern frontier, overthrew the Ming, Asia’s mightiest rulers, and established the Qing dynasty, which endured to 1912. From this event arises one of Chinese history’s great conundrums: How did a barely literate alien people manage to remain in power for nearly 300 years over a highly cultured population that was vastly superior in number? This problem has fascinated scholars for almost a century, but until now no one has approached the question from the Manchu point of view. This book, the first in any language to be based mainly on Manchu documents, supplies a radically new perspective on the formative period of the modern Chinese nation. Drawing on recent critical notions of ethnicity, the author explores the evolution of the “Eight Banners,” a unique Manchu system of social and military organization that was instrumental in the conquest of the Ming. The author argues that as rulers of China the Manchu conquerors had to behave like Confucian monarchs, but that as a non-Han minority they faced other, more complex considerations as well. Their power derived not only from the acceptance of orthodox Chinese notions of legitimacy, but also, the author suggests, from Manchu “ethnic sovereignty,” which depended on the sustained coherence of the conquerors. When, in the early 1700s, this coherence was threatened by rapid acculturation and the prospective loss of Manchu distinctiveness, the Qing court, always insecure, desperately urged its minions to uphold the traditions of an idealized “Manchu Way.” However, the author shows that it was not this appeal but rather the articulation of a broader identity grounded in the realities of Eight Banner life that succeeded in preserving Manchu ethnicity, and the Qing dynasty along with it, into the twentieth century.

本书是中国史研究领域的一部非常重要的专著。罗友枝做出了我们能够期待一部优秀学术著作所能做出的最伟大的贡献：给出大胆的概念和论点，同时为未来几代研究者提供坚实的基础研究。 本书提出的问题很吸引人，也很重要。通过艰苦的档案搜集工作，罗友枝发掘了大量非常有价值的资料，这使她的著作成为研究清代中国社会结构和满族宫廷的公开和非公开礼仪的珍贵手册。罗友枝的专著是一个里程碑，代表了研究中国的新历史学的开端：本书是对远比我们以往所知更为复杂的和更具文化多元性的帝制中国的精深研究。

新清史着重强调了清帝国与众不同的满洲元素及其独特性质，倾向于从边缘的观点审视清史。或从满洲及清的形成，八旗制度的内部结构及其作用等，来判定清朝有别于中原王朝的朝代特征；或把清朝置于内亚的空间，放大可汗体制对清朝的影响，但其否认满族的汉化过程，否认满汉双向互动中的民族融合与文明共生，显然难以让人信服。本书除了选辑国外新清史研究代表性论著，还汇集国内学术界的相关论述与评议，对前者的某些理论进行尖锐剖析，期待以此深化中国史尤其是清史研究。

推翻了中国两千多年王朝统治的辛亥革命，被认为是政体从帝制到共和，从传统到现代转变的关键。但是，由于被推翻的清朝为统治了大多数中国汉人近三百年的少数族群所建，而革命者绝大多数是汉人，那么在多大程度上，辛亥革命不仅仅是反帝，而且是反满呢？ 路康乐在《满与汉》中探索了这个尖锐而复杂的问题，分析了满族作为一个世袭军事特权阶层（“旗人”）向一个独立的族群的转变，也详细描述了清朝与汉族改革者之间的对话与互动，这一互动在清末民初的社会变革中达到了顶峰。 《满与汉》是一项具有开创意义的研究，将改变中国历史学者研究清亡原因的方式。同样，该研究也澄清了族群学者关于满族作为职业军事特权阶层的起源问题，分析了满汉关系的变化，以及满族从边疆“蛮族”到统治者，再到被统治者的历史发展。

《孤军》一书乃家族个案史与王朝兴衰史紧密结合的典范之作。全书以八旗贵族费英东的子嗣，即苏完瓜尔佳氏观成（约1790-1843年）、凤瑞（1824-1896年）、金梁（1878-1962年）这一家三代人为主线，揭示出该家族百余年浮沉消息的“小历史”,适时而巧妙地牵引出清王朝兴盛衰亡的“大历史”,并在此研究基础上，对“族群认同”等重大理论问题作出回应和阐释。

The imperial residence of Chengde was built by two powerful and ambitious Manchu emperors between 1703 and 1780 in the mountains of Jehol. This volume, the first scholarly publication in English on the Manchu summer capital, reveals how this unlikely architectural and landscape enterprise came to help forge a dynasty's multicultural identity and concretize its claims of political legitimacy. Using both visual and textual materials, the author explores the hidden dimensions of landscape, showing how geographical imagination shaped the aesthetics of Qing court culture while proposing a new interpretation of the mental universe that conceived one of the world's most remarkable examples of imperial architecture.

《乾隆帝》一书为美国著名清史学家，哈佛大学东亚语言与文明系讲座教授、哈佛大学历史与东亚语言博士委员会主席欧立德（Mark C. Elliott）2009年出版的同名英文著作的中译本。原书为Longman出版社世界历史人物传记系列之一。作为新清史的领军人物，欧立德教授写作此书的主要目的之一是让西方读者对 乾隆这样一位在中国历史乃至世界历史发展中都发挥过重要作用的中国古代帝王有一个初步的了解，并在此基础上，将18世纪的中国与全球历史潮流联系起来，对流行的“清代中国是对外封闭的”这一观念提出了挑战；与此同时，作者利用大量的中文原始文献，解读乾隆生平的每一个细节，准确地还原了这位曾竭力将自己“神化”的古代帝王的真实面貌。总之，本书既忠实于历史文献而具学术深度，又不乏生动的叙事与巧妙的结构安排，从而立体地全方位地塑造了一个新清史学者视野中的乾隆形象，对于重新理解乾隆皇帝及其时代特征具有重要的意义，不论是普通读者，还是清史研究者，都应该能从中获益匪浅。