Discovering History in China [Paperback]

Paul A. Cohen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 023105811X | ISBN-13: 978-0231058117 | Publication Date: April 15, 1997 | Edition: 2nd

Serious study of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Chinese history did not really get under way in the United States until after World War II. Since then, scholarly publication has proliferated and a genuine professional field -- by far the largest and most active in the West -- has taken shape. Now, for the first time, we have a critical, book-length analysis of this development, written by an insider and structured around the leading conceptual approaches that have informed American scholarship in the postwar decades.

In Paul A. Cohen's view, the supreme problem for American students of Chinese history, particularly in its post-Western impact phase, has been one of ethnocentric distortion. The first two chapters of the book explore this problem in connection with the two approaches that were most influential in American scholarship of the 1950s and 1960s -- the impact-response and modernization (tradition-modernity) approaches. In chapter three, Dr. Cohen argues that a third major approach, the "imperialism" approach, although emerging in the late 1960s as a critique of the two earlier approaches, has been no less Western-centric in its basic presuppositions. The final chapter traces the increasing efforts of American historians to move beyond the Western-centric paradigms of the past toward a more China-centered approach to recent Chinese history -- an approach that strives empathetically to reconstruct the Chinese past as the Chinese themselves experienced it rather than in terms of an imported sense of historical problem. Dr. Cohen concludes with a discussion of some of the implications of this new approach for our understanding of recent Chinese history.

Students of Chinese history, Sino-American relations, and the evolution of American historical scholarship on non-Western societies will welcome this perceptive and thought-provoking book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Every historian of China should read this book. For what Paul A. Cohen has done here is lay bare the hidden assumptions that have informed and skewed much American research on 19th- and 20th-century China. He shows that the questions most American historians have asked about the China past, and consequently the kind of histories they have written, have been determined as much by their own cultural biases as by the historical realities of China itself.... A consciousness-raising experience.

(American Historical Review )

About the Author

Paul A. Cohen is Edith Stix Wasserman Professor of Asian Studies and History at Wellesley College and an associate at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 243 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press; 2nd edition (April 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 023105811X
• ISBN-13: 978-0231058117
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,229,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars China at the Center, March 1, 2005

By 

Daniel Stroup (Chengdu, China) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past (Studies of the East Asian Institute) (Hardcover)

The following review is based on the 1984 edition.

In "Discovering History in China" Cohen argues that much of the scholarship in the West that had occurred on China prior to the mid-1970's, (particularly American scholarship), had been conducted with an "ethnocentric distortion". Because the West had an impact in shaping modern China, pre-World War II (W.W. II) studies on China tended to focus on matters Western countries had a direct role in, such as the Opium Wars, missionary work, the Taiping uprising, sino-foreign trade, etc.. These studies tended to be from missionaries, diplomats, and others who had no formal training as historians.

In post-W.W. II studies of China (while the subject matter had widened) emphasis "was still to an overwhelming extent on the shaping role of the Western intrusion"(p.2). Much of what was written after W.W. II, according to Cohen, viewed the Western role in shaping modern China in a positive light. It was not until the liberalism of the late 1960's that historians began to question this purely positive look at imperialism and looked instead at ways the Western involvement in China had affected the "natural forward movement of Chinese history". However, many scholars still saw the West as the main antagonist in preventing China's 'modern development'.

Chapter one deals with the amount of influence Western nations had on events shaping China in the late 1800's. Cohen believes that the amount of influence the Western imperialist countries had on events inside China during the late 1800's was negligible overall. It was only after the Tongzhi Restoration that the Western presence in China played any significant role in shaping Chinese affairs. Even the reform efforts of 1898 - how much can be contributed to a reaction to the 'Western threat' and how much can be contributed to reactions to domestic conditions.

In the second chapter, "Moving Beyond Tradition and Modernity", Cohen takes aim at the notion of an unchanging China. Much of this section is a variant of the first chapter, where Cohen discusses the views of scholars from the 1950's and 1960's such as Joseph Levenson and John K. Fairbank. During this time the dominant view was that the concept of change or modernization in China was a product of direct contact with the West. In other words, China could not have "modernized" on its own without some kind of impetus from outside.

This concept of an unchanging China in American scholarship began to be questioned and negated with the introduction of Philip Kuhn's study "Rebellion and its Enemies in Late Imperial China"(1970). In this study, Kuhn attempts to redefine the question of Chinese modernity, moving away from a belief that change only occurred with help from the Western presence in the mid- to late 1800's to one that scrutinized domestic changes taking place in China long before the Western presence.

Much of chapter three "Imperialism: Reality or Myth?" analyzes the diatribe of James Peck, who in an article published in the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (Oct. 1969, 2(1)p.59-69), argued modernization theory was a construct that explained away America's imperialistic nature. Written while Peck was a graduate student during the Vietnam War in the late 1960's, the article takes the view of the Chinese Communists, that is, everything which went wrong in China from the Opium War to the 'liberation' of 1949 was caused in large part by Western imperialism.

While reading Cohen's analysis of Peck's argument I could not help but think why was he [Cohen] giving so much attention to someone who, as A. Feuerwerker has pointed out in his own review of Cohen's book, "knew little about China" (see the Journal of Asian Studies, vol.44, no.3, May 1985; pp.579-80).

However, later in the chapter Cohen, through his use of other's scholarship, shows that all of China was not affected the same way by imperialism. The effects felt in the treaty ports and the littorial regions, where much of the Western influence was felt, was not congruent with the effects felt in the hinterland, where daily life went on much as it always had.

This leads us to the final chapter, "A China-Centered History of China". In this chapter, Cohen reviews the trends that had taken place throughout the 1970's and at the time of Cohen's writing, the nascent years of the 1980's. The evolution of American scholarship during this time was increasingly focusing on what Cohen terms, "Chinese problems set in a Chinese context" (p.154) or put another way, studying Chinese history from a Chinese perspective. This involved breaking China down into more manageable "spatial units" - (regional or provincial centered studies) while detracting from a top down approach of Chinese society and concentrating more on lower levels of Chinese society.