Andrew S. Erickson, Lyle J. Goldstein, and Carnes Lord
China Goes to Sea: Maritime Transformation in Comparative Historical Perspective
Naval Institute Press, 2009
China's turn toward the sea is evident in its stunning rise in global shipbuilding markets, its expanding merchant marine, its wide reach of offshore energy exploration, its growing fishing fleet, and its increasingly modern navy. This comprehensive assessment of China's potential as a genuine maritime power is both unbiased and apolitical. Unlike other works that view China in isolation, it places China in a larger world historical context. The authors, all authorities on their historical eras, examine cases of attempted maritime transformation through the ages, from the Persian Empire to the Soviet Union, and determine the reasons for success or failure. Dr. Andrew S. Erickson is an Associate Professor in the Strategic Research Department at the U.S. Naval War College and a founding member of the department’s China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI).
Richard Belsky
Localities at the Center: Native Place, Space, and Power in Late Imperial Beijing
(Harvard University Asia Center, 2006)
“The book is a true monograph based on dense research, but framed by a clear and fair discussion of existing scholarship, comparative issues and a conclusion suggesting the significance of the subject. Mr. Belsky's study manages, in the best traditions of the series, to use an engaging case study to illuminate varieties of socially generated forms of management and political action in modern China, as well as to better document the sources of modern China arising from Chinese society.”
--Pamela Crossley, Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER)
Paul A. Cohen
Speaking to History: The Story of King Goujian in Twentieth-Century China
University of California Press, 2008
The ancient story of King Goujian, a psychologically complex fifth-century B.C.E. monarch, spoke powerfully to the Chinese through their turbulent twentieth century history, yet most Westerners are unfamiliar with the impact of the story on China’s modern development. Speaking to History provides a previously missing chapter of China’s recent history by tracing the Goujian story as a source of inspiration and hope during each of the major traumas of the last century, and by exploring more generally why such stories are often contained within a culture and remain unknown to outsiders. Dr. Cohen, a professor of history emeritus at Wellesley College and an associate at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies investigates the relationship between past story and present reality, and how the shared narratives of a community help to define its culture and illuminate its history.
Melvyn C. Goldstein, Dawei Sherap, and William R. Siebenschuh
A Tibetan Revolutionary: The Political Life and Times of Bapa Phuntso Wangye
(University of California Press, 2004)
“This is the as-told-to political autobiography of Phüntso Wangye (Phünwang), one of the most important Tibetan revolutionary figures of the twentieth century. Informed by vivid firsthand accounts of the relations between the Dalai Lama, the Nationalist Chinese government, and the People's Republic of China, this absorbing chronicle illuminates one of the world's most tragic and dangerous ethnic conflicts at the same time that it relates the fascinating details of a stormy life spent in the quest for a new Tibet.”
Kenneth J. Hammond and Kristin Stapleton, editors
The Human Tradition in Modern China
Rowman & Littlefield, 2007
Through compelling biographies of a range of historical figures both famous and obscure, The Human Tradition in Modern China presents a panorama of modern Chinese history that illustrates the great social and political changes that have occurred over the past 500 years. The contributors explore enduring themes that include the flexibility of the definition of Chinese in an era of imperialism and revolution, the tremendous transformations in gender relations, and the wide gap between the lives of urban and rural Chinese. Dr. Stapleton is the director of Asian studies and an associate professor of history at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York.
Carol Lee Hamrin, Editor, with Stacey Bieler
Salt and Light: Lives of Faith that Shaped Modern China
Pickwick Publications, 2008
Salt and Light presents the life stories of Chinese Christians who served as early modernizers, promoting China’s nation building and progress in the early twentieth century. The collection of portraits, which include anecdotes and photographs, highlights the character of ten pioneers in the modern professions of education, medicine, journalism and diplomacy, and the ways they were motivated by faith to introduce practical social reforms to support the building of China’s civil society. The portraits touch on patterns of cooperation between foreign and Chinese partners, the contributions to China of Western-educated professionals and the transnational nature of modern Chinese Christianity. Dr. Hamrin is a research professor at George Mason University and a senior associate with Global China Center.
Sheila Melvin and Jindong Cai
Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese
(Algora Publishing, 2004)
“A very rich study of China, Rhapsody in Red not only focuses on Western classical music, but also covers the events related to the importation of Western culture to China, from Matteo Ricci in the Ming dynasty to the present craze for building opera houses and symphony orchestra halls in Shanghai, Beijing and other big cities. Well informed and engagingly written, the book is a real treat for those who are interested in China and music in general.”
Graham Peck, Introduction by Robert A. Kapp
Two Kinds of Time
University of Washington Press, 2008
Graham Peck’s Two Kinds of Time, first published in 1950, is an engaging eye-witness narrative of China on the eve of revolution, and remains an important source of historical and political insights. Peck made his first trip to China in 1935 and served with the U.S. office of War Information in China throughout the 1940s. In a new introduction to this re-issued classic, Dr. Kapp highlights the book’s unique writing and illustrations and notes its role as a thought-provoking tool for Americans seeking to understand China and both the immense changes and profound continuities that today’s China embraces. Dr. Kapp, president of Robert A. Kapp & Associates, has spent four decades in the China field, including as president of the US-China Business Council from 1994 to 2004.
Roy Rowan
Chasing the Dragon: A Veteran Journalist’s Firsthand Account of the 1949 Chinese Revolution
(The Lyons Press, 2004)
"He illuminates a pivotal historical period with intelligence and passion."
--People Magazine
Madeleine Zelin, Jonathan K. Ocko, and Robert Gardella
Contract and Property in Early Modern China
(Stanford University Press, 2004)
“This book is essential reading for scholars and graduate students interested in Chinese legal, social, and economic history.”
—History: Reviews of New Books