The Pattern of the Chinese Past

"A book which is without doubt the most lucid and stimulating introduction to the problems of the economic and social history of traditional China at present available… There is so much that is new and stimulating in this book, and it is written with such a nice balance between argument and vivid quotation from primary sources… A superb introduction to the distinctive patterns of Chinese history over the span of two millennia."
– E. Wilkinson, The Economist

"Every now and then a book appears which by its evidence and boldness of argument redirects our thinking, making us re-examine old problems in unprecedented ways. Marc Bloch's Les caractères originaux de l'histoire rurale française and E. H. Norman's Japan's Emergence as a Modern State. I predict The Pattern of the Chinese Past will achieve similar fame in Chinese historical studies. It is a brillant achievement… Elvin's book will stand out as a landmark in Chinese social and economic studies."
– Ramon H. Myers, The Journal of Asian Studies

"Elvin's is one of those rare works which is simultaneously a fundamental contribution to scholarship and a reliable introduction to its subject suitable for the serious general reader."
– Choice

"The work will attract attention both for its abvious merits –readability, attention to large and important problems, frequent brillant historical insights– and because the author's interpretations at times 'depart considerably from the received consensus.'"
– Albert Feuerwerker, The China Quarterly

"The overall nature of the Chinese historical process as compared with that of the West is a them that has time and again engaged the attention of Western scholars and theoreticians… If the theme is an old one, Elvin's approach to it is utterly new… There is much rich material here for further cogitation."
– John Dardess, History