Emperor Qianlong

Mark C. Elliott is the Mark Schwartz Professor of Chinese and Inner Asian History in the Department of East Asian Langauges and Civilizations at Harvard University. Professor Elliott's interest in East Asia began at Yale, where he earned his BA (History, 1981) and MA (East Asian Studies, 1983). After several years of study and archival research in Taiwan, the PRC, and Japan, he earned his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1993, specializing in the history of the last imperial dynasty, the Qing. A leading figure in what is sometimes called the "New Qing History," he is among the very few historians in the United States trained in the use of Manchu-language sources, upon which his first book, The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnicity in Late Imperial China (Stanford, 2001) is largely based. He is currently at work on a new book examining the connections between the Manchu empire and modern China.

• Author’s PrefaceList of Maps and IllustrationsChapter 1. Emperor in the MakingChapter 2. Qianlong Takes ChargeChapter 3. Family, Ritual, and Dynastic RuleChapter 4. The Dilemma of Manchu SuccessChapter 5. The Peripatetic SovereignChapter 6. Building the EmpireChapter 7. Renaissance ManChapter 8. Qing China and the WorldChapter 9. Order and Decline in the Late Qianlong EraConclusion. Son of Heaven, Man of the WorldGlossary/Pronunciation KeyTimeline of the Qianlong EraNote on SourcesIndex

Wall Street Journal review - June 19, 2009