'The history of South China is impossible to consider or to write without a historical map of its lineages, as eminent historian Joseph P. McDermott shows in his comprehensive study of rural Huishou, Anhui. The Making of a New Rural Order in South China is a brilliant example of how such work is done as history writing.' Venus Viana, International ... Read moreJournal of Asian Studies 'Historians have long been aware that Huizhou, an isolated prefecture in the mountainous interior of modern Anhui province, has produced a body of documentation that is almost unparalleled in its coverage, detailing history at a local level beginning from the late Tang Dynasty through the twentieth century. The documents have attracted the attention of scholars for many decades, but now Joseph P. McDermott has used them to present a unique and incredibly valuable narrative of history at its most local level … This is an important book grounded in meticulous research …' Hugo Clark, The American Historical Review Show Less