© Columbia University Press
Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai
October, 2003
Cloth, 384 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13132-2
$39.50
"Empire Made Me is a fascinating and intimate portrait of Shanghai at its apex." — Asian Review of Books
"A work of dedicated and original scholarship . . . . What emerges is the portrait of a singular and heroic man." — John Carey, Sunday Times, London
"Bickers' detailed recovery of an obscure and 'unimportant' policeman's life gives a valuable street-level view of a complex scene." — Robin Blake, Financial Times, London
"One of the most intriguing true-life books of the year." — David Wilson, South China Morning Post
"A superb account." — Giles Foden, Conde Nast Traveler (UK)
"Informative . . . energetically written. Making his way warily between the anti-imperialists and the nostalgists of empire, placing a 'marginal' man in his full context, Bickers does lift a corner of the curtain on a nearly lost world, a world as ordinary then as it may seem extraordinary to us." — John Sperling, The Guardian
"fascinating piece of historical detective work...it is probably the best Old Shanghai book I have read...superb" — Anton Graham, China Economic Review
"Bickers guides us deftly through a wealth of local archives...and personal interviews to fashion a richly layered social history of Shanghai's foreign police." — Carolyn Wakeman, China Review International
"Bickers brings this world of Britain overseas alive in this fascinating study. This book is both a 'good read' and a solid history." — Parks M. Coble, International History ReviewUniversity of Nebraska
"Bickers had done a wonderful job of showing the human face of empire, and bravely, through a distinctively unattractive personality." — Philippa Levine, American Historical Review
"A breathtaking transportation to an utterly fascinating time, place, and individual history." — Karen Fang, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History
"Robert Bickers has written a book providing a new perspective on empire." — Marcia R. Ristaino, Journal of World History