A gripping memoir that combines autobiography with historical research in wartime South China.  

In War and Revolution in South China, Edward J. M. Rhoads recounts his childhood in southern China during the turbulent 1930s and 1940s. The book examines the impact of the Sino-Japanese War from the perspective of a single, biracial family, opening a personal window into the wartime experience of a region that is often overlooked by scholars. In an account that combines autobiography with historical research, Rhoads reconstructs his father’s internment and repatriation to the United States, his mother’s flight to “Free China,” and his family’s firsthand experience of regime change. Consulting a large number of archival documents, private correspondence, and scholarly literature, Rhoads produces a rare study that is both scholarly and accessible.