For those studying the history of wartime China (1937–45), this was a highly anticipated book. It is difficult to imagine a more fascinating and overlooked chapter of the war, particularly because histories of the Chinese Nationalist (Kuomintang or KMT) efforts in resisting Japanese invasion are still too few in number. The Japanese attack on Wuhan had the highest combined casualty rates of any single battle during the war, and it was the closest China's factions came to achieving a truly “united front” against the enemy. It was a space where writers of every ideological inclination enjoyed unusual press freedom, and mass mobilization exceeded the state's guidance. In order to capture this event as fully as possible, MacKinnon sensibly divided the book into chapters that focus on military (chapters two and three), social (chapter four), and cultural (chapter five) historical approaches, including a short chapter on the city itself before the war and one on Wuhan's effect on international relations.

In the first chapter, MacKinnon presents Wuhan as a tale of three cities with deep roots in Chinese capitalism and modern militarism, which makes the later plurality of the wartime mobilization easier to understand. The second and third chapters focus on the military and strategic aspects of the war in 1938. MacKinnon begins with the dramatic execution of Han Fuju in Wuhan, after the fall of Nanjing, for abandoning Shandong. This was a turning point in domestic politics, because the reality of the Japanese threat mobilized the defenders of Wuhan to temporarily put aside factionalism, and it was one reason why the KMT fought so bitterly against Japan in 1938. In the third chapter, the author explains how the KMT delayed Japanese attempts to unite its forces in the North with those from the South by holding northern Jiangsu, which was critical to the defence of Wuhan. MacKinnon then skilfully outlines the brutality of the numerous battles in river towns around Wuhan, marking the KMT's successes and humiliating failures.

MacKinnon's chapter on China's refugee crisis is very well done. Although Chinese refugees and orphans were popular subjects of public sympathy during and directly after the war, particularly in the United States, this story needed retelling, and MacKinnon suggests that this trauma had enduring repercussions in Chinese society after the war. His chapter on the press is weaker, only because MacKinnon decided to focus primarily on well-known intellectuals. Wuhan enjoyed broad participation in print media that was a direct result of mass mobilization. Although the author hints at this in his summary of institutional changes in wartime publishing, the latter half of the chapter is dedicated to histories of writers such as Guo Moruo. In the next chapter, MacKinnon convincingly argues that neither the KMT nor the CCP effectively mobilized youth, but the energy of exiled students invigorated various war efforts in Wuhan. Finally, MacKinnon explains the crucial role of Wuhan in forming sympathy for China abroad, particularly in the United States. The Evans Carlson–Roosevelt connection (p. 103) is one that has been generally neglected in favour of Stilwell, Smedley and Snow.

The only major weakness of this book is that it is too short. It is full of fascinating information, but I suspect that MacKinnon had far more to tell. For example, he discusses Chiang's destruction of the Yellow River dikes (p. 36) merely to dismiss it as ineffective, and only briefly mentions Japan's use of poison gas (p. 39). These contentious historical issues would have greatly benefited from his expertise; indeed, the psychological effects of gas attacks on the Chinese have been greatly underestimated. The press chapter could have featured more engagement with publications by lesser known (or even unknown) authors that constituted the cacophony of voices in this unusually free environment. Finally, I am not totally convinced that Baoding leadership, rather than simply a lack of central leadership, produced Wuhan's free-wheeling atmosphere, although I hesitate to commit to this argument in light of MacKinnon's expertise on the Baoding men. Still, MacKinnon identifies some of the most significant forces behind Wuhan's remarkable and fleeting role as the centre of the war effort. Scholars interested in social mobilization, who find it difficult to imagine such efforts without the presence of a centralized state, should commit themselves to reading this book.