Hey everyone, how's it going?

Las Lamontamore again.

Today's episode covers the life of Carl Crow.

Yeah, I know you probably never heard of him.

I didn't either.

One of my listeners sent me the suggestion and frankly

I'd never heard of him. So I looked for him on the Google and after a cursory glance I said this would be a great future topic and when I

searched for books on Carl Crow I really struck gold. British author, a fascinating China expert Paul French, wrote this book called

Carl Crow, a tough old China hand, the Life Times and Adventures of an American in Shanghai that was published by Hong Kong University Press in 2006.

I ordered it on Amazon and this is the primary source that I'll be using to tell this story.

This is sort of like that Sir Robert Hart podcast, episode C. H.P. 58.

By the time we finish you're going to be... Podcast C. H.P. 58.

By the time we finish, you're going to be asking yourself, why have I never heard of this guy before?

Our story takes place between 1911 and 1937, about 26 years. You'll know from previous episodes of the China

history podcast that China had seen better times than the first two-quarter

centuries of the 20th century.

In the early part of the 20th century, the Western powers in Japan were, to a great extent, running

roughshod all over China basking in the afterglow of all the unequal

treaties and enjoying the full advantage of a toothless and unpopular government to the

north.

Between the time Carl Crow landed in Shanghai in July 1911 and when he left as the Japanese bombs came raining down on the city in 1937,

China began to transform itself.

...