A tasty mixture of essays on PRC politics and Mao thought, classical Chinese philosophy, and China's history with nuggets of comparative intellectual history randomly inserted to sweeten the olio. Schwartz has always been primarily concerned with 'intellectual history and man's conscious life in general,' with 'the world of conscious intentionality.' In his exploration of these realms in both ancient and contemporary China, Schwartz's sensibility, prudence, and inclusiveness have more often than not led him to call the shots correctly, while the merely fashionable have stumbled on their shoelaces. -- Albert Feuerwerker, University of Michigan, author of State and Society in Eighteenth-Century China These essays were published over a quarter century of time, the earliest appearing in 1966, the latest in the early 1990s. Diverse in content--ranging from fairly esoteric explorations of aspects of the Chinese philosophical tradition to ruminations on the thought of Mao to observations about the progressive degeneration of Marxism-Leninist ideology to close analysis of such commonly encountered categories as tradition, modernity, society, and party to critical discussions of issues in the Western intellectual tradition (as formulated, for example, in Rousseau and Hannah Arendt)--they are as fresh and relevant today as they were when first written. -- Paul A. Cohen, Wellesley College
Benjamin I. Schwartz was Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science, Emeritus, at Harvard University.
Schwartz is a scholar of truly amazing breadth as his work spans
historical and political studies of Chinese Communism, and the
thought of ancient China...Each of the essays is a seminal and
provocative discussion of its topic. The essays cover such subjects
as the method of periodising Chinese history, modernity, the
importance of the political order in East Asian society, Chinese
political understanding of the United States, the role of the
leader and the party in Communist Chinese politics, and recent
changes in an evolving post-Communist society in mainland China.
Each of these essays may be read with a great deal of profit both
for the intrinsic value of the essay and for how these essays when
read collectively reflect the changes and development in the
American scholastic community's view of 'China'.
*Asian Affairs*
A tasty mixture of essays on PRC politics and Mao thought,
classical Chinese philosophy, and China's history with nuggets of
comparative intellectual history randomly inserted to sweeten the
olio. Schwartz has always been primarily concerned with
'intellectual history and man's conscious life in general,' with
'the world of conscious intentionality.' In his exploration of
these realms in both ancient and contemporary China, Schwartz's
sensibility, prudence, and inclusiveness have more often than not
led him to call the shots correctly, while the merely fashionable
have stumbled on their shoelaces.
*Albert Feuerwerker, University of Michigan, author of State and
Society in Eighteenth-Century China*
These essays were published over a quarter century of time, the
earliest appearing in 1966, the latest in the early 1990s. Diverse
in content--ranging from fairly esoteric explorations of aspects of
the Chinese philosophical tradition to ruminations on the thought
of Mao to observations about the progressive degeneration of
Marxism-Leninist ideology to close analysis of such commonly
encountered categories as tradition, modernity, society, and party
to critical discussions of issues in the Western intellectual
tradition (as formulated, for example, in Rousseau and Hannah
Arendt)--they are as fresh and relevant today as they were when
first written.
*Paul A. Cohen, Wellesley College*
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