Boxer Rebellion, The

The author explains the story behind that puzzling affair, a bizarre mixture of farce & tragedy which captured the world's headlines in the summer of 1900. The Boxers (a nickname derived from their official title, The Fists of Righteous Harmony) were a fanatical secret organization who had been incited by anti-foreign elements in the Chinese Government to commit wide-scale depredations against foreign missionaries & their Chinese converts. As the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsui stoutly maintained that the Boxers were beyond her control, matters came to a climax with the siege of the Peking Legations which lasted 55 days & the taking of Peit'ang Cathedral which lasted even longer. Troops from Russia, America, France, Japan, & Britain assembled for the relief of Peking. Here is a witty and shrewd analysis of the whole episode, which ended in total humiliation for the Chinese.