This book explores the role of geology in the formation in Chinese Republican identity. The author, Grace Yen Shen, describes her initial difficulties in justifying scholarship about geologists during this era. The study of rocks, earth, and water, rendered in poetic format in the Chinese Geology Society emblem, seems distant from the politics and ideology that dominate Republican era scholarship. Moreover, science in China was not well-developed at the time as Shen writes: “Chinese wartime science was simply too makeshift, too isolated, and too ephemeral to have had a significant impact on global development. Lying outside … industrial management or government collaboration that emerged as postwar ‘big science,’ the Chinese experience has not been a compelling object of study for foreign scholars” (p. 147). But these reasons contrarily also justify her study. Shen demonstrates that focusing on science, which presents itself as inherently apolitical, can be extremely productive in providing historical insights about the Republican period. She also shows that a field defined independently of Republican ideology is revelatory about the function of the government, its reach, and its antagonists. Moreover, Republican idealists had pursuits outside of politics that led to the global migration of knowledge in many fields, an import-export that lacked the same range of distribution after the Republican period.

The era's politics are complicated—nationalism, communism and warlords were the reigning governments but none of them had a fixed or fully formed identity. In contrast, the study of geology, while only burgeoning and profoundly influenced by foreign exchange, had persisted through dynasties and formalized into an applied science on land formation and earth studies. Motives for surveying China were mixed throughout the decades and not without desire for profit, especially in the areas of mining and natural gas. (Foreign scouting for resources after the Treaties of Tianjin allowed foreigners to get past the major ports and enter the country. In 1863 Raphael Pumpelly landed in China, but not until Ferdinand von Richtofen's geological studies to find coal resources would there be an enduring contribution to the foundations of Chinese geology from a foreigner (p. 33)). Other interests, such as seismology and earthquakes, tectonics and geophysics, and glaciation and climate change would stretch the field of interest in China. Also, China's early isolation from the rest of the world provided opportunity for geologists to form a close-knit community, as well as form a study of “the mountains of Tibet” and “caves of Kuangsi” (p. 148) that might otherwise remain objects of simple fascination. These particular geological pursuits required collaboration with local governments and demands, and provide a record of interactions in a domestic space.

Greed for resources may have been part of the motivation for many of the first explorers, but Shen implies that the thirst for shared knowledge was stronger. Instead of closing their door to the insights of foreign scholars, Chinese geologists sought them out. Moreover, they traveled to Europe for fellowships and surveyed European landmasses using their acquired knowledge. Eventually the Chinese would form a global platform for the migration of modern geological studies, jumpstarted by Ding Wenjiang who lobbied for the first official geological organization (p. 55).

The study of geology and the rise of revolutionary politics often intertwined. Shen points out that writers Liang Qichao and Yan Fu inspired other revolutionists to enter the School of Mines, including Gu Lang and Zhou Shuren (penname Lu Xun) (p. 41). Geologist Li Siguang headed a political organization. As head of Academia Sinica's Research Institute of Geology he “saw geology as a way for Chinese to question the authority of international claims about their territory while pressing the boundaries of scientific knowledge” (p. 136). By 1905 Li was a founding member of Sun Zhongshan's Revolutionary Alliance, and in 1912 he was named both Secretary of the Hubei Revolutionary Alliance and Minister of the Hubei Ministry of Industry (p. 139). He would leave in 1913 for England, after Yuan Shikai's maneuvers collapsed Sun's second revolution, and he took no political position until after 1949 (p. 140). Meanwhile, Weng Wenhao presented the first paper by a Chinese author at the International Geological Congress (p. 118) and joined the National Defense Planning Commission (p. 129).

This book provides a context and narrative for the main players, journals, and associations for geology in Republican China. The research is copious and Shen has made a genuine contribution by linking key players with narrative facility. Furthermore, she provides a context for the Bulletin of the Geological Society (English language) and the Dizhi Lunping (Chinese language), undeniably useful historical sources. One missing component of the book is that Shen could actively use samples from these publications—for example carefully curated data sets—to provide detail on how past and present geologists might differently interpret them. Unearthing the Nation would benefit by augmenting its narrative with small data samples and interpretations of them. At times her audience is privy to the changes of administration, intricacies of funding, and logistics required to get scientific projects off the ground rather than the actual objects of scientific investigation. Follow-up research might examine individual geological projects, or explore more deeply the collaborations between foreign and Chinese geologists worldwide. Nevertheless, the book is a formidable, vibrant contribution to understanding the Republican era in China.

This group of geologists were not only idealistic enough to envision global cooperation through geology, but they were strategic enough to use English for impact factors—two features that are illustrative of the entrepreneurial spirit that drove the republic into being. After the Republican heyday, and when resources became a factor in the war, geologists’ work became prohibitively risky and funding sparse: “Government funds did not even allow indoor work, like specimen processing, to continue, and political conditions were too unstable of foreign funding agencies to offer any assistance” (p. 182). Later many geologists refused to decamp to Taiwan with the Nationalist party, which, Shen writes, was “simply the latest in a long line of improvisations aimed at keeping geological research alive” (p. 187). One of her conclusions which is also a valuable lesson for today's world is that science thrived when suffused with global political collaboration and energy, and declined when resources and isolation from the global community prevented collaborations.