China's American Daughter Ida Pruitt (1888-1985)

Ida Pruitt (1888-1985), born of American missionaries and raised in a rural Chinese village at the end of the nineteenth century, witnessed almost a century of China's revolutionary upheavals. She was the first Director of Social Service at Peking Union Medical College, where she established social casework in China, and later served as the executive secretary of the American Committee in Support of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, the only U.S. aid agency to support both Nationalist and Communist regions during the Chinese Civil War. She was also one of the early advocates for U.S. diplomatic recognition of the People's Republic of China. Marjorie King tells the story of this remarkable woman and brings a unique perspective to the study of modern Chinese history.