Massacre in Shansi First edition

The eighteen missionaries who traveled to Shansi were dedicated, pious, hard-working clerics. Ernest At water; the young minister Francis Ward Davis and his wife Lydia; Charles Wesley Price and his family; and Susan Rowena Bird; to name a few, were all spurred by their strong beliefs, but they were also quite ignorant of other countries and cultures. Often having to live in disease-ravaged area of China and under harsh conditions, they were repulsed by the native lifestyle and saw further need to change it. Brandt presents finely wrought portraits of these people, detailing the lives of both the missionaries and their converts, their experiences in the interior province of Shansi, and their struggle in trying to spread Christianity among people whose language they did not speak and whose traditions and customs they did not understand. Brandt's gripping narrative brings to light a penetrating and sincere study of the "Oberlin Band" of Pr