Arrested Histories

“McGranahan has patiently interviewed elderly survivors of the Tibetan guerilla resistance to Chinese rule, which lasted from 1956 to 1974. . . . As an anthropologist, McGranahan attends chiefly to the politics of memory and forgetting, the formation of identity, and the construction of gender, leaving the military and political histories of the forgotten war, as she says, a work in progress.” - Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs
“The book is an invaluable guide to the complexities of Tibetan resistance to the Chinese and is especially strong in its descriptions of the interactions between Tibetan politics and Tibetan religion (including violence in the defense of nonviolence), the tension between a unified Tibet and strong regional traditions, the difficulties and sadness of refugee relocation, and the long CIA involvement with the Tibetan resistance. . . . Recommended.” - D. W. Haines, Choice
“Historians, ethnographers, and students of culture in Tibet particularly, and
more generally in South Asia and China, as well as those in Cold War studies, Memory studies, and further afield should pay attention to this important work: It marks a milestone for how politically sensitive histories that are ‘arrested’ through polemics can be released, and told in a nuanced and
responsible way. Arrested Histories allows for new, unheard voices to enter the archive, while also creating new futures and possibilities for these voices, in its acknowledgement of a truly representative, engaged and relevant history for Tibet.” - Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, Journal of Asian Studies
“Arrested Histories is a book about the attempt of the Tibetan diaspora to construct its global image and about those who played a crucial role in a history but remain relegated to its edges. The book should be of great interest not only to specialists in Tibetan studies but also to those working in the social sciences, as McGranahan skilfully interweaves ethnographic detail with discussions about memory, history and the construction of historical facts.” - Tsering Shakya, The China Quarterly
“The struggle of Tibetans—known to Americans primarily through bumper sticker discourse—is presented here in fine-grained detail. Its complexities, contradictions, and ironies are fully explored. . . . This book would be valuable if it did nothing other than complicate our understanding of Tibet. However, its fruitful use of the ample literature on social memory combined with high-quality ethnography make it a valuable addition to the libraries of those with broader interests in the politics of memory.” - Michael E. Harkin, Political and Legal Anthropology Review
“Arrested Histories breathes an air of dedicated scholarship, thoroughness, of meticulous research. There are maps, including one on the ‘Tibetan areas’ of China, almost two scores of illustrations, an excellent bibliography, a note on transliteration and photographs. Above all, it illumines a subject that has sadly been long neglected, if now half forgotten.” - Parshotam Mehra, The Tribune (Chandigarh)

“Arrested Histories is dense with insights, as well as new ways of looking at its subjects. It shows incredible range, from person- and innovative family-centered approaches to broad regional analysis, to even broader international relations on the borders between Tibet, India, and China and on the border-like edge of relations between the Tibetan resistance army and the CIA. A book that will be of intense interest to scholars interested in incisive political economic analysis of imperial formations of any era or locale.”—Catherine Lutz, author of Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century
“Arrested Histories breathes an air of dedicated scholarship, thoroughness, of meticulous research. There are maps, including one on the ‘Tibetan areas’ of China, almost two scores of illustrations, an excellent bibliography, a note on transliteration and photographs. Above all, it illumines a subject that has sadly been long neglected, if now half forgotten.” -- Parshotam Mehra * The Tribune (Chandigarh) *
“Historians, ethnographers, and students of culture in Tibet particularly, and more generally in South Asia and China, as well as those in Cold War studies, Memory studies, and further afield should pay attention to this important work: It marks a milestone for how politically sensitive histories that are ‘arrested’ through polemics can be released, and told in a nuanced and responsible way. Arrested Histories allows for new, unheard voices to enter the archive, while also creating new futures and possibilities for these voices, in its acknowledgement of a truly representative, engaged and relevant history for Tibet.” -- Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa * Journal of Asian Studies *
“McGranahan has patiently interviewed elderly survivors of the Tibetan guerilla resistance to Chinese rule, which lasted from 1956 to 1974. . . . As an anthropologist, McGranahan attends chiefly to the politics of memory and forgetting, the formation of identity, and the construction of gender, leaving the military and political histories of the forgotten war, as she says, a work in progress.” -- Andrew J. Nathan * Foreign Affairs *
“The book is an invaluable guide to the complexities of Tibetan resistance to the Chinese and is especially strong in its descriptions of the interactions between Tibetan politics and Tibetan religion (including violence in the defense of nonviolence), the tension between a unified Tibet and strong regional traditions, the difficulties and sadness of refugee relocation, and the long CIA involvement with the Tibetan resistance. . . . Recommended.” -- D. W. Haines * Choice *
“The struggle of Tibetans—known to Americans primarily through bumper sticker discourse—is presented here in fine-grained detail. Its complexities, contradictions, and ironies are fully explored. . . . This book would be valuable if it did nothing other than complicate our understanding of Tibet. However, its fruitful use of the ample literature on social memory combined with high-quality ethnography make it a valuable addition to the libraries of those with broader interests in the politics of memory.” -- Michael E. Harkin * PoLAR *