"[A] profoundly wise and engaging collection of essays . . . While the pieces in The Argumentative Indian are, as one would expect, enjoyably erudite and full of intriguing insights, they are not written in academic language . . . The book is formed from a series of elegantly written historical and moral-philosophical essays which together cohere to form a single original argument: that India is and has always been 'a joint construction in which members of different communities were involved.'"—William Dalrymple, The New York Review of Books

"Gerth author of China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation, does much to redress the imbalance and to point out the potential influence of Chinese consumerism, not only on China but on the rest of the world. The book is both informative and entertaining. Although supported by input from published sources, the text is largely the result of insightful observations of the author, who lived, studied, and traveled extensively in China. The book draws parallels between expanding consumerism in China and corresponding developments in other countries such as the US. However, Gerth is careful in identifying unique aspects of China's embrace of domestic consumption. The book contains extensive source notes, readings, and Web sites for further investigation. The writing style is reader friendly and can be appreciated by a broad spectrum of readers who have even a passing interest in understanding the growing importance of China as a world power. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels."—W. C. Struning, emeritus, Seton Hall University, Choice

“Michael Meyer’s voracious curiosity has led him deep, deep into a vanishing world that other visitors and foreign correspondents almost all see only from a taxi window. He comes at it with a wide knowledge of history, a thirst for people’s life stories, a novelist’s ability to evoke a social universe, and an Arctic explorer’s willingness to live through a sub-zero winter with little heat and the nearest communal toilet far down a snowy lane. This is a stunning, compassionate feat of reportage which will long endure.”—Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost and Bury the Chains

“In 1945 my father John Bradley and other members of Combat Team 28 raised a flag on Iwo Jima.  General Fred Haynes is the highest-ranking surviving officer from that heroic unit. In 1945 General Haynes helped America place a flag atop Mt. Suribachi.  Now with The Lions of Iwo Jima, he helps America understand how it was done.”—James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys

"Gilmour captures the spirit of life in the sharply defined spheres of Queen Victoria's court and the government in London, the viceroy's circle in South Asia, and the district offices where British civil servants met Indian subjects on a daily basis. He skillfully depicts the peculiar mixture of proper manners and gentlemanly practices and the legal and bureaucratic standards of one of the world's great civil services . . . The title of the book succinctly captures his idea that the British colonizers operated as though they were a part of the Indian caste system—thus garnering the mystique of authority without having to rely unduly on force."—Foreign Affairs