Warlord Politics in China, 1916-1928

The first comprehensive analytical treatment of warlordism in twentieth-century China, this book approaches regional militarism as a generic phenomenon of Chinese politics in the most complex and chaotic era of recent Chinese history.After describing the emergence of militarist regimes after the death of Yuan Shih-k'ai in 1916, the author analyzes their membership, goals, capabilities, and sources of cohesion, in the process presenting new information on their organization, methods of recruitmen