The "World Bibliographical" series is designed as a pathfinder providing annotated bibliographies on various countries. Each volume is devoted to a country and records works, mainly in English, dealing with its history, geography, economy, and politics and with its people, culture, customs, religion, and social organization. Hayford, the compiler of this volume, is a respected Chinese studies scholar who has taught at, among other places, Harvard University and Oberlin College. He has selected and annotated over 1500 works and refers to more than 2000 others, covering all fields and disciplines. The emphasis is on publications from the 1980s and 1990s but with a good representation of earlier classic works. The author's erudition shines through many of the annotations on history and literature, as well as on medicine and food.