Barbara Ramusack describes the pre-colonial origins of the Indian princes, frequently portrayed as synonymous with oriental luxury, and how they adapted their public activities and personal lifestyles to survive as political leaders and cultural icons. Their collaboration enabled the British to govern India with relatively limited manpower from the late 1790s to 1947. The book is intended for students of colonial history and visitors to the princely states.

Although the princes of India have been caricatured as oriental despots and British stooges, Barbara Ramusack's study argues that the British did not create the princes. On the contrary, many were consummate politicians who exercised considerable degrees of autonomy until the disintegration of the princely states after independence. Ramusack's synthesis has a broad temporal span, tracing the evolution of the Indian kings from their pre-colonial origins to their roles as clients in the British colonial system. The book breaks ground in its integration of political and economic developments in the major princely states with the shifting relationships between the princes and the British. It represents a major contribution, both to British imperial history in its analysis of the theory and practice of indirect rule, and to modern South Asian history, as a portrait of the princes as politicians and patrons of the arts.

"These four volumes in this major series... provide a single-source reference to the status of the field of women's history and to ways that the field can be expanded.... A basic set for all academic libraries." Library Journal Academic Newswire

Writing on South and Southeast Asia, Ramusack surveys both the prescriptive roles and lived experiences of women, as well as the construction of gender from the period of the early states to the 1990s. Sievers presents an overview of women's participation in the histories of China, Japan, and Korea from prehistory to the modern period."

The American Historical Association's Committee on Women Historians commissioned some of the pioneering figures in women's history to prepare essays in their respective areas of expertise. These volumes, the second and third in a series of three, complete their collected efforts. The first volume of the series dealt with the broad them necessary to understanding women's history around the world. As a counterpoint, volume 2 is concerned with issues that have shaped the history of women in particular places and during particular eras. It examines women in ancient civilizations; including women in China, Japan, and Korea; women and gender in south and South East Asia; Medieval women; women and gender in Colonial Latin America; and the history, Susan Mann, Barbara N. Ramusack, Judith M. Bennett. Ann Twinam, and Kathleen Brown. As with volume 2, volume 3 also discusses current trends in gender and women's history from a regional perspective. It includes essays on sub-Saharan African, the Middle East, early and modern Europe, Russian and the Soviet Union, Latin American, and North American after 1865. Its contributors include Cheryl Johnson-Odim, Nikki R. Keddie, Barbara Engel, Asuncion Lavrin, Ellen Dubois, and Judith P. Zinser writing with Bonnie S. Anderson. Incorporating essays from top scholars ranging over an abundance of regions, dates, and methodologies, the three volumes of "Women's History in Global Perspective constitute an invaluable resource for anyone interested in a comprehensive overview on the latest in feminist scholarship.

Barbara Ramusack describes the pre-colonial origins of the Indian princes, frequently portrayed as synonymous with oriental luxury, and how they adapted their public activities and personal lifestyles to survive as political leaders and cultural icons. Their collaboration enabled the British to govern India with relatively limited manpower from the late 1790s to 1947. The book is intended for students of colonial history and visitors to the princely states.