Imperial Bandits

"Bradley Camp Davis has delved deeper into this topic than anyone before. . . . The discussion of the borderlands in this book and the way it reveals the challenges faced by a failed state is helpful in thinking about other periods of Vietnamese history. . . . Davis’s Imperial Bandits takes us deep into one of those times when a Vietnamese state struggled to control its territory, but when we take a step back we can see parallels with other periods and places, too."

"This is a brilliantly woven narrative of the intersecting imperial designs of the Nguyen, Qing, and French, at the center of which was the quintessentially borderland phenomena of the Black Flags. It is the standard work on the Black Flags now, replacing earlier work such as Eastman’s, and will find a welcome place on the desks of political scientists and historians of transnationalism, colonialism, and Asia."

"Bringing Hobsbawm to Southeast Asia, Davis describes the emergence of a culture of violence in northern Vietnam that enabled borderlands forces to seize the political mainstream. Drawing on rich archival and oral sources from China and Vietnam, his illuminating narrative shows how the collapse of Vietnamese imperial rule and the encroachment of French empire were assisted by bandit armies from the hills."

"A fascinating and insightful recreation of the micro-realities of the political history of the very complex Sino-Vietnamese borderlands."

"Examines the various degrees with which indigenous leaders used their informal authority as ‘imperial bandits’ to personal advantage."

"The Black Flags left an enduring legacy in the turbulent borderlands of China and Vietnam. Davis deftly untangles the complex threads that linked their culture of violence to Qing, Vietnamese, and French imperial ambitions, following the twisted tale through the nationalist movements of the twentieth century. He also vividly portrays how ordinary people suffered under the rule of these domineering frontier lords. This is an ambitious and insightful example of cross-border history."