In This Issue

This issue of The Historian includes the centennial Phi Alpha Theta presidential address, two research articles on the history of imperial China, and a sizeable cache of book reviews. As president of Phi Alpha Theta, Jacob M. Blosser marked Phi Alpha Theta’s centennial with an address at the society’s biannual convention, held in 2023 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Drawing on the society’s institutional archives, Blosser highlights several themes that have shaped the society over time while also historicizing Phi Alpha Theta’s policies, customs, and traditions. He has developed that address into an article here. In “The Tabgatch empire and the idea of China,” Charles Holcombe examines the periodization and characterization of Chinese history during the “Northern Dynasties” period (386-581 CE). Holcombe finds that a “civic” Chinese identity was established and maintained despite dynastic conflicts, evolving cultural practices, and the shifting strategies of ruling elites. Laurie Venters’ article, “Lightening bonds: servile resistance in early imperial China,” offers a taxonomy of unfree labor and enslavement in the Qin, Western, and Eastern Han dynasties, a study of how the enslaved were often mistreated during this period, and a study of how the enslaved sought to improve or escape the conditions in which they were held. As always, these articles are followed by this quarter’s slate of book reviews and the list of recent initiates into Phi Alpha Theta. THE HISTORIAN 2022, VOL. 84, NO. 2, 225 https://doi.org/10.1080/00182370.2022.2232633