While the past twenty years have seen a growth in the body of literature that explores the establishment of the People's Republic of China from a “grassroots” perspective, few studies have been as enjoyable, beautifully written, and accessible as Brian DeMare's Tiger, Tyrant, Bandit, Businessman. Centering on four criminal cases drawn from Poyang County archives, DeMare both delves deeply into the characters of each case, but also what each case file can reveal about the rural experience of the Communist takeover. This is a valuable contribution to the existing literature, and perhaps more rarely, it is a book that proves extremely adept in illustrating how historians use archival sources in their research in a way that is appropriate to teach with.
DeMare begins with his setting: Poyang County, an obscure corner of Jiangxi Province, representing “the furthest reaches of government administration in China” for most of recorded history (ix)....
