This review essay analyzes the historiography of Confucian academies ("shuyuan") in imperial China, focusing on five representative books published in China between 2008 and 2014, including two new editions of books originally published in 1995 and 2004. The five authors share a deep concern about the nature of academies, particularly their relationship with the state. A secondary theme that these books address is the impact that academies had on late imperial Chinese culture and society. Read together, these five works show how research on academies in imperial China has evolved over the past two decades.