The History of the General Strike: Shanghai 1925, A Chinese Minneapolis

Elizabeth J. Ferry's 'Shanghai on Strike: The Politics of Chinese Labor' examines the emergence and development of labor movements in Shanghai during the 1920s, centering on the 1925 general strike. The book explores how workers, unions, students, business elites, and criminal organizations interacted in the turbulent urban politics of Republican China. Ferry uses rich archival sources and eyewitness accounts to reconstruct strike mobilization, tactics, and the social networks that sustained activism. Her analysis situates the strike within broader processes of national awakening, anti-imperialist sentiment, and the rise of organized labor as a political force. The work is a key scholarly resource for understanding how the 1925 movement shaped modern Chinese political and labor history.

This book investigates the crucial years of 1924–1925 when China moved from fragmented warlord rule toward broader nationalist mobilization. It traces political realignments, the growth of student and labor activism, and the interplay between domestic actors and foreign imperial powers. Through archival evidence and contemporary accounts, the author situates events like the May 30th movement within larger processes of state-building and ideological change. The work highlights the roles of urban protests, party politics, and military confrontations in shaping modern Chinese nationalism. It is widely used by scholars studying the republican era and the antecedents of later revolutionary developments.