This classic in the annals of village studies will be widely read and debated for what it reveals about China's rural dynamics as well as the nature of state power, markets, the military, social relations, and religion. Built on extraordinarily intimate and detailed research in a Sichuan village that Isabel Crook began in 1940, the book provides an unprecedented history of Chinese rural life during the war with Japan. It is an essential resource for all scholars of contemporary China.

Isabel Brown Crookis professor emerita at Beijing Foreign Studies University.Christina Kelley Gilmartin(19462012) was professor of history at Northeastern University.Yu Xiji (19142006) was professor emerita of child psychology at Teachers Training College in Beipei, Sichuan.Gail Hershatter is professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and past president of the Association for Asian Studies.Emily Honig is professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Introduction
Gail Hershatter and Emily Honig
Part I: Insiders
Chapter 1: The Market Way of Life
Chapter 2: Living Off the Land: Farm Labor
Chapter 3: Not Far Afield: Family Survival Strategies
Chapter 4: Lineages, Landlords, and the Local Body Politic
Chapter 5: The Paoge and Informal Power
Part II: Outsiders
Chapter 6: Wartime Reformers
Chapter 7: Taking Health Care Public
Chapter 8: Marriage: Reformed and Unreformed
Chapter 9: Of Money and Men
Chapter 10: Trial of Strength
Glossary
Works Cited