The warlord period--from 1912 until roughly the beginning of the Second World War--is one of the most extraordinary and colorful in the whole of Chinese history. Yet most English-language studies of the period have focused on either individual warlords or on warlords as a socio-political phenomonon.
This book describes the careers and characters of a number of warlords, locating them in history as regards their politics, methods, military prowess,...