"This admirable book ... is an empirical tour de force, the lives of Hershatter's subjects depicted in vivid detail with a style that is both disciplined and insightful.... It is an impressive piece of scholarship, of interest not merely to students of the period covered but to those students of Communist China who wish to undersand the antecedents of China's curren urban society and trace the roots of powerful continuities."—The China Quarterly, "The book is intelligent and intelligently written. It offers a wealth of detail on material life, forms of entertainment, local festivals, and individual rites of passage. It makes effective use of studies of the local economy done by contemporaries and in the People's Republic.... The Workers of Tianjin is a major contribution to both Chinese labor history and urban history."—Journal of Asian Studies, "Hershatter gives us a vivid and many-sided portrait of Tianjin and the people who worked there during the first half of this century. It is a fascinating picture, richly textured and carefully drawn, based on a wide variety of sources that are very ably used, including personal interviews.... The book is immensely rewarding, a pleasure to read.... The best book yet to appear on Chines labor history."—The American Asian Review,
