Focusing on the Ming (1368-1644) and (especially) the Qing (1364-1912) eras, this book analyzes crucial moments in the formation of cultural, regional, and religious identities. The contributors examine the role of the state in a variety of environments on China's "peripheries," paying attention to shifts in law, trade, social stratification, and cultural dialogue. They find that local communities were critical participants in the shaping of their own identities and consciousness as well as the character and behavior of the state. At certain times the state was institutionally definitive, but it could also be symbolic and contingent. They demonstrate how the imperial discourse is many-faceted, rather than a monolithic agent of cultural assimilation.

In this landmark exploration of the origins of nationalism and cultural identity in China, Pamela Kyle Crossley traces the ways in which a large, early modern empire of Eurasia, the Qing (1636-1912), incorporated neighboring, but disparate, political traditions into a new style of emperorship. Drawing on a wide variety of primary sources, including Manchu, Korean, and Chinese archival materials, Crossley argues that distortions introduced in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century historical records have blinded scholars to the actual course of events in the early years of the dynasty. This groundbreaking study examines the relationship between the increasingly abstract ideology of the centralizing emperorship of the Qing and the establishment of concepts of identity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, before the advent of nationalism in China. Concluding with a broad-ranging postscript on the implications of her research for studies of nationalism and nation-building throughout modern Chinese history, A Translucent Mirror combines a readable narrative with a sophisticated, revisionary look at China's history. Crossley's book will alter current understandings of the Qing emperorship, the evolution of concepts of ethnicity, and the legacy of Qing rule for modern Chinese nationalism.

全球史和世界史致力于探讨塑造了人类经验的深层次结构性变迁。这种变迁中有许多是物质的，与环境和气候的变化有关，与牲畜驯养和农业发展有关、与技术和疾病有关，与人类的免疫力、生殖和生理机能的变异有关。另外一些是社会的和文化的，涉及不述问题：移民，贸易，语言的发展和差异，奴役和自由的制度，婚姻和育儿的传统，从早期王国到大帝国、共和国联邦的大规模政治组织的出现，战争与和平的运作。为了探讨这些具有挑战性的问题，全球史学家采用了新的分析和比较方法。然而，他们也从早期文明中继承了古老的传统，以尽可能综合全面和意味深长的方式叙述过去。该书考察了人们对人类整体历史的长期探索，尤其侧重20世纪哲学和理念的急剧变化对历史学科的重大变革。它为学生、也为学者们提供了完美的全球史入门介绍。

《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。