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Owen Lattimore (July 29, 1900 – May 31, 1989) was an American Orientalist and writer. He was an influential scholar of
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
and
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...
, especially
Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million ...
. Although he never earned a college degree, in the 1930s he was editor of ''
Pacific Affairs ''Pacific Affairs'' (''PA'') is a Canadian peer-reviewed scholarly journal that publishes academic research on contemporary political, economic, and social issues in Asia and the Pacific. The journal was founded in 1926 as the newsletter for th ...
'', a journal published by the Institute of Pacific Relations, and then taught at
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
in
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
, Maryland, from 1938 to 1963. He was director of the Walter Hines Page School of International Relations there from 1939 to 1953. During World War II, he was an advisor to
Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
and the American government and contributed extensively to the public debate on American policy in Asia. From 1963 to 1970, Lattimore was the first Professor of Chinese Studies at the
University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...
in England. In the early post-war period of
McCarthyism McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origin ...
and the
Red Scare A Red Scare is the promotion of a widespread fear of a potential rise of communism, anarchism or other leftist ideologies by a society or state. The term is most often used to refer to two periods in the history of the United States which ar ...
, American wartime " China Hands" were accused of being agents of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
or under the influence of
Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
. In 1950, Senator
Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarth ...
accused Lattimore in particular of being "the top Russian espionage agent in the United States." The accusations led to years of Congressional hearings that did not substantiate the charge that Lattimore had been a spy. Soviet Venona cables, decoded during WWII and declassified decades later, have not referred to Lattimore as one of the Soviet agents active in the US. The hearings did document Lattimore's sympathetic statements about Stalin and the Soviet Union, however. Although charges of perjury were dismissed, the controversy put an end to Lattimore's role as a consultant of the
U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
and eventually to his career in American academic life. He died in 1989 in
Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...
, having resided in his later years in Pawtucket. Lattimore's "lifetime intellectual project", notes one recent scholar, was to "develop a 'scientific' model of the way human societies form, evolve, grow, decline, mutate and interact with one another along 'frontiers'." He eclectically absorbed and often abandoned influential theories of his day that dealt with the great themes of history. These included the ecological determinism of
Ellsworth Huntington __NOTOC__ Ellsworth Huntington (September 16, 1876 – October 17, 1947) was a professor of geography at Yale University during the early 20th century, known for his studies on environmental determinism/climatic determinism, economic growth, econo ...
;
biological racism Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism ( racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.. "Few tragedies can be mor ...
, though only to the extent of seeing characteristics which grew out of
ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...
; the
economic geography Economic geography is the subfield of human geography which studies economic activity and factors affecting them. It can also be considered a subfield or method in economics. There are four branches of economic geography. There is, primary sect ...
and location theory; and some aspects of Marxist modes of production and stages of history, especially through the influence of Karl August Wittfogel. The most important and lasting influence, however, was
Arnold J. Toynbee Arnold Joseph Toynbee (; 14 April 1889 – 22 October 1975) was an English historian, a philosopher of history, an author of numerous books and a research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and King's Colleg ...
and his treatment of the great civilizations as organic wholes which were born, matured, grew old, and died. Lattimore's most influential book, ''The Inner Asian Frontiers of China'' (1940), used these theories to explain the history of
East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...
not as the history of China and its influence on its neighbors, but as the interaction between two types of civilizations, settled farming and pastoral, each of which had its role in changing the other.


Early life

Born in the United States, Lattimore was raised in
Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...
, China, where his parents, David and Margaret Lattimore, were teachers of English at a Chinese university. (His brother was the poet and classics scholar and translator Richmond Lattimore. One of his sisters was author Eleanor Frances Lattimore.) After being schooled at home by his mother, he left China at the age of twelve and attended Collège Classique Cantonal near
Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...
, Switzerland. After war broke out in 1914, he was sent to England, where he was enrolled at St Bees School,
Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...
, England (1915–1919). He pursued literary interests, especially poetry, and briefly converted to Catholicism. He did well on the entrance exams for
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, but returned to China in 1919 when it turned out that he would not have enough funds for attending university. He worked first for a newspaper and then for a British import/export related business. This gave him the opportunity to travel extensively in China and time to study Chinese with an old-fashioned
Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
scholar. His commercial travels also gave him a feel for the realities of life and the economy. A turning point was negotiating the passage of a trainload of wool through the lines of two battling warlords early in 1925, an experience which led him the next year to follow the caravans across
Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
to the end of the line in
Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwes ...
. The managers of his firm saw no advantage in subsidizing his travels but did send him to spend a final year of employment with them in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...
as government liaison. During this year in Beijing before departing on his expedition, he met his wife, Eleanor Holgate. For their honeymoon they planned to travel from Beijing to India, he overland, she by rail across
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
, a mammoth feat in the first half of the 20th century. In the event, the plans were disrupted and she had to travel alone by horse-drawn sled for in February to find him. She described her journey in ''Turkestan Reunion'' (1934), he in ''The Desert Road to Turkestan'' (1928) and ''High Tartary'' (1930). This trip laid the ground for his lifelong interest in all matters related to the
Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...
and other peoples of the
Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and rel ...
. Upon his return to America in 1928, he succeeded in receiving a fellowship from the
Social Science Research Council The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a US-based, independent, international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it today maintains ...
for further travel in
Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
, then for the academic year 1928/1929 as a student at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
. He did not, however, enroll in a doctoral program, but returned to China 1930–1933 with fellowships from the
Harvard–Yenching Institute The Harvard–Yenching Institute is an independent foundation dedicated to advancing higher education in Asia in the humanities and social sciences, with special attention to the study of Asian culture. It traditionally had close ties to Harvar ...
and the
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowships to professionals who have demonstrated exceptional ...
. He was awarded the
Patron's Medal The Royal Geographical Society's Gold Medal consists of two separate awards: the Founder's Medal 1830 and the Patron's Medal 1838. Together they form the most prestigious of the society's awards. They are given for "the encouragement and promoti ...
by the British
Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
in 1942 for his travels in Central Asia.


''Pacific Affairs'' and the Institute of Pacific Relations

In 1934, on the recommendation of treaty port journalist H.G.E. Woodhead, Lattimore was appointed editor of ''
Pacific Affairs ''Pacific Affairs'' (''PA'') is a Canadian peer-reviewed scholarly journal that publishes academic research on contemporary political, economic, and social issues in Asia and the Pacific. The journal was founded in 1926 as the newsletter for th ...
'', published by the Institute of Pacific Relations, which he edited from Beijing. Rather than have bland official statements, he made it his policy to make the journal a "forum of controversy". As he later recalled, he was "continually in hot water, especially with the Japan Council, which thought I was too anti-imperialist, and the Soviet Council, which thought that its own anti-imperialist line was the only permissible one...." As explained below, others later accused him of motives which were less scholarly than political. Lattimore sought articles from a wide range of perspectives and made the journal a forum for new ideas, especially from the social sciences and social philosophy. Scholars and writers of all persuasions were contributors, including
Pearl S. Buck Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, Pulitze ...
, some Chinese literary figures, and dedicated Marxists. IPR secretary Edward Carter was eager to solicit the participation of Soviet scholars, and insisted that Lattimore meet him in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
on his way back to the States. Lattimore had never been to the Soviet Union, having been denied a visa, and felt eager to obtain contributions from Soviet scholars, who had a distinguished tradition in Central Asian studies. But he was also wary because of the attacks Soviet scholars had made on him – Lattimore's "scholasticism is similar to
Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
's madness" – and for publishing an article by Harold Isaacs, who they considered a Trotskyite. The Lattimores spent two weeks on the
Trans-Siberian Railroad The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the eas ...
with their five-year-old son before arriving in Moscow for a two-week stay toward the end of March 1936. Soviet officials coldly demanded that the IPR and its journal support collective security arrangements against Japan. Lattimore responded that ''Pacific Affairs'' had the obligation to serve all the national councils, even the Japanese, and could not take political sides. Lattimore's request to visit the
Mongolian People's Republic The Mongolian People's Republic ( mn, Бүгд Найрамдах Монгол Ард Улс, БНМАУ; , ''BNMAU''; ) was a socialist state which existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia in East Asia. It w ...
was denied on the grounds that "Mongolia now is constantly ready for war and conditions are very unstable." And in the end, Soviet scholars sent only one article to ''Pacific Affairs''. After sojourns in New York and London, the Lattimores returned to Beijing in 1937. Owen visited the Communist headquarters at
Yan'an Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an) ...
to act as translator for T. A. Bisson and Philip Jaffé, who were gathering material for ''
Amerasia ''Amerasia'' was a journal of Far Eastern affairs best known for the 1940s "Amerasia Affair" in which several of its staff and their contacts were suspected of espionage and charged with unauthorized possession of government documents. Publicati ...
'', an activist journal of political commentary. There he met
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...
and
Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman M ...
. He was impressed with their candor, but had a less favorable experience on his visit to the party school for national minorities. When he spoke to the Mongols in Mongolian, his Chinese hosts broke off the session. The Lattimores left China in 1938. Owen spent six months in
Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...
, writing a draft of the ''Inner Asian Frontiers of China'' and continuing as editor of ''Pacific Affairs''. As editor, he then made what Robert Newman, a sympathetic biographer, called "the most serious error of his career." Lattimore published an article by a pro-Soviet writer, whom Lattimore did not know, praising Stalin's purge trials because they strengthened the Soviet Union for the coming battle against Germany and Japan. Lattimore famously stated that the show trials "sound to me like democracy". Lattimore's misjudgment of the purge trials was undoubtedly influenced by his generally favorable evaluation of Soviet foreign policy, which emphasized international cooperation against Japan and Germany and his judgment that the Soviets had been supportive of Mongol autonomy. He was "nonetheless wrong," Newman concluded. He also soon wrote prominently against allowing Soviet expansion into China. As editor of ''Pacific Affairs'' he was expected to maintain a balance, but writing in another journal in the spring of 1940 he urged that "Above all, while we want to get Japan out of China, we do not want to let Russia in. Nor do we want to 'drive Japan into the arms of Russia.'" He continued: "the savagery of the Japanese assault is doing more to spread Communism than the teaching of the Chinese Communists themselves or the influences of Russia. It supplies the pressure under which the detonative ideas can work. At the same time it destroys Chinese wealth of every kindcapital, trade, revenue from agricultural rentthus weakening that side of Chinese society which is most antagonistic to Communism." The ''Middlesboro Daily News'' ran an article by Owen Lattimore which reported on Japan's planned offensive into a Hui Muslim region of China in 1938, which predicted that the Japanese would suffer a massive crushing defeat at the hands of the Muslims. In 1940, the Japanese were crushed and routed by the Muslims at the
Battle of West Suiyuan The Battle of West Suiyuan () was part of the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was fought from January – February 1940, as part of the Chinese 1939 Winter Offensive. Battle In 1937 the Chinese government picked up intelligence that the Japa ...
. The Japanese planned to invade
Ningxia Ningxia (,; , ; alternately romanized as Ninghsia), officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR), is an autonomous region in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu in 1 ...
from Suiyuan in 1939 and create a Hui Muslim
puppet state A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government, is a state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside power and subject to its orders.Compare: Puppet states have nominal sove ...
. The following year in 1940, the Japanese were defeated militarily by the
Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Ta ...
Muslim General
Ma Hongbin Ma Hongbin ( zh, 马鸿宾, Xiao'erjing: , September 14, 1884 – October 21, 1960), was a prominent Chinese Muslim warlord active mainly during the Republican era, and was part of the Ma clique. He was the acting Chairman of Gansu and Ningxi ...
, who caused the plan to collapse. Ma Hongbin's Hui Muslim troops launched further attacks against Japan in the Battle of West Suiyuan. In Suiyuan 300 Mongol collaborators serving the Japanese were fought off by a single Muslim who held the rank of Major at the Battle of Wulan Obo in 1939 April.


World War II

Following the German invasion of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
in June 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Lattimore to serve as US advisor to Chinese Nationalist leader
Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
for one and a half years. Lattimore advocated on behalf of the
ethnic minorities in China Ethnic minorities in China are the non- Han population in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The PRC officially recognizes 55 ethnic minority groups within China in addition to the Han majority. As of 2010, the combined population of o ...
, arguing that China should adopt a cultural autonomy policy based on the Soviet Union's minority policy, which he regarded as "one of the most successful Soviet policies." His advice was mostly disregarded by Chiang's officials, as defense secretary Wang Ch'ung-hui suspected Lattimore of understating Soviet interference in
Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwes ...
and
Outer Mongolia Outer Mongolia was the name of a territory in the Manchu people, Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China from 1691 to 1911. It corresponds to the modern-day independent state of Mongolia and the Russian republic of Tuva. The historical region gain ...
. In 1944, Lattimore was placed in charge of the Pacific area for the
Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and othe ...
. By this time, Lattimore's political activities and associations had been under scrutiny for the last two years by the FBI, which recommended Lattimore be put under "Custodial Detention in case of National Emergency". At President Roosevelt's request, he accompanied U.S. Vice-President
Henry A. Wallace Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965) was an American politician, journalist, farmer, and businessman who served as the 33rd vice president of the United States, the 11th U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and the 10th U.S. ...
on a mission to
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
, China, and Mongolia in 1944 for the U.S. Office of War Information. The trip had been arranged by
Lauchlin Currie Lauchlin Bernard Currie (October 8, 1902 – December 23, 1993) worked as White House economic adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II (1939–45). From 1949 to 1953, he directed a major World Bank mission to Colombia and re ...
, who recommended to FDR that Lattimore accompany Wallace. During this visit, which overlapped the
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
landings, Wallace and his delegates stayed 25 days in Siberia and were given a tour of the Soviet Union's
Magadan Magadan ( rus, Магадан, p=məɡɐˈdan) is a port town and the administrative center of Magadan Oblast, Russia, located on the Sea of Okhotsk in Nagayev Bay (within Taui Bay) and serving as a gateway to the Kolyma region. History Maga ...
Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...
camp at
Kolyma Kolyma (russian: Колыма́, ) is a region located in the Russian Far East. It is bounded to the north by the East Siberian Sea and the Arctic Ocean, and by the Sea of Okhotsk to the south. The region gets its name from the Kolyma River ...
. In a travelogue for ''
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...
'', Lattimore described what little he saw as a combination of the
Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...
and the
Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...
, remarking on how strong and well-fed the inmates were and ascribing to camp commandant Ivan Nikishov "a trained and sensitive interest in art and music and also a deep sense of civic responsibility". In a letter written to the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'' in 1968, Lattimore justified himself by arguing his role had not been one to "snoop on his hosts." (In contrast, camp commander
Naftaly Frenkel Naftaly Aronovich Frenkel (russian: Нафталий Аронович Френкель; 1883 in Haifa – 1960 in Moscow) was a Soviet security officer and member of the Soviet secret police. Frenkel is best known for his role in the organisatio ...
explained: "We have to squeeze everything out of a prisoner in the first three months – after that we don't need him anymore." The system of hard labor and minimal or no food reduced most prisoners to helpless "goners" (''dokhodyaga'', in Russian). Conditions varied depending on the state of the country.) During the 1940s, Lattimore came into increasing conflict with another member of the IPR's board,
Alfred Kohlberg Alfred Kohlberg (January 27, 1887, San Francisco, California, April 7, 1960, New York City, New York) was an American textile importer. A staunch anti-Communist, he was a member of the pro-Chiang "China lobby", as well as an ally of Wisconsin Sen ...
, a manufacturer with long experience in the China trade whose visit to China in 1943 convinced him that stories of Chiang Kai-shek's corruption were false. He accused Lattimore of being hostile to Chiang and too sympathetic towards the
Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...
. In 1944, relations between Kohlberg and Lattimore became so bad that Kohlberg left the IPR and founded a new journal, '' Plain Talk'', in which he attempted to rebut the claims made in ''Pacific Affairs''. By the late 1940s, Lattimore had become a particular target of Kohlberg and other members of the
China Lobby In American politics, the China lobby consisted of advocacy groups calling for American support for the Republic of China during the period from the 1930s until US recognition of the People's Republic of China in 1979, and then calling for cl ...
. Kohlberg was later to become an advisor to Senator
Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarth ...
, and it is possible that McCarthy first learned of Lattimore through Kohlberg.


Accused of espionage

Meanwhile, accusations were made, which later became public. On 14 December 1948,
Alexander Barmine Alexander Grigoryevich Barmin (russian: Александр Григорьевич Бармин, ''Aleksandr Grigoryevich Barmin''; August 16, 1899 – December 25, 1987), most commonly Alexander Barmine, was an officer in the Soviet Army and dip ...
, former ''
chargé d'affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassado ...
'' at the Soviet Embassy in
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...
, Greece, advised
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice ...
agents that Soviet
GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...
Director
Yan Karlovich Berzin Yan (Ian) Karlovich Berzin (russian: Ян Карлович Берзин; lv, Jānis Bērziņš; real name Pēteris Ķuzis; , Kreis Riga (now in Zaube parish), the Russian Empire – 29 July 1938, Moscow, the USSR), was a Latvian Soviet commun ...
had informed him prior to Barmine's 1937 defection that Lattimore was a Soviet agent, an allegation Barmine would repeat under oath before the Senate McCarran Committee in 1951.


Congressional investigation

In March 1950, in executive session of the
Tydings Committee The Subcommittee on the Investigation of Loyalty of State Department Employees, more commonly referred to as the Tydings Committee, was a subcommittee authorized by in February 1950 to look into charges by Joseph R. McCarthy that he had a list of ...
, Senator
Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarth ...
accused Lattimore of being the top Soviet agent, either in the US, in the State Department, or both. The committee, chaired by Senator
Millard Tydings Millard Evelyn Tydings (April 6, 1890February 9, 1961) was an American attorney, author, soldier, state legislator, and served as a Democratic Representative and Senator in the United States Congress from Maryland, serving in the House from 19 ...
, was investigating McCarthy's claims of widespread Soviet infiltration of the State Department. When the accusation was leaked to the press, McCarthy backed off from the charge that Lattimore was a spy but continued the attack in public session of the committee and in speeches. Lattimore, he said, "in view of his position of tremendous power at the State Department" was the "'architect' of our Far Eastern policy" and asked whether Lattimore's "aims are American aims or whether they coincide with the aims of Soviet Russia." At the time, Lattimore was in
Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into #Districts, 22 municipal dist ...
,
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...
, on a cultural mission for the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
. Lattimore dismissed the charges against him as "moonshine" and hurried back to the United States to testify before the Tydings Committee. McCarthy, who had no evidence of specific acts of espionage and only weak evidence that Lattimore was a concealed Communist, in April 1950 persuaded Louis F. Budenz, the now-
anticommunist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...
former editor of the Communist Party organ ''
Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...
,'' to testify. Budenz had no first-hand knowledge of Lattimore's Communist allegiance and had never previously identified him as a Communist in his extensive FBI interviews. In addition, Budenz had in 1947 told a State Department investigator that he "did not recall any instances" that suggested that Lattimore was a Communist and had also told his editor at ''
Collier's ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Coll ...
'' magazine in 1949 that Lattimore had never "acted as a Communist in any way." Now, however, Budenz testified that Lattimore was a secret Communist but not a Soviet agent; he was a person of influence who often assisted Soviet foreign policy. Budenz said his party superiors had told him that Lattimore's "great value lay in the fact that he could bring the emphasis in support of Soviet policy in non-Soviet language." The majority report of the Tydings committee cleared Lattimore of all charges against him; the minority report accepted Budenz's charges. In February 1952, Lattimore was called to testify before the
Senate Internal Security Subcommittee The United States Senate's Special Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, 1951–77, known more commonly as the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) and sometimes the M ...
(SISS), headed by McCarthy's ally, Senator
Pat McCarran Patrick Anthony McCarran (August 8, 1876 – September 28, 1954) was an American farmer, attorney, judge, and Democratic politician who represented Nevada in the United States Senate from 1933 until 1954. McCarran was born in Reno, Nevada, atte ...
. Before Lattimore was called as witness, investigators for the SISS had seized all of the records of the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR). The twelve days of testimony were marked by shouting matches, which pitted McCarran and McCarthy on one side against Lattimore on the other. Lattimore took three days to deliver his opening statement: the delays were caused by frequent interruptions as McCarran challenged Lattimore point by point. McCarran then used the records from the IPR to ask questions that often taxed Lattimore's memory. Budenz again testified, but this time claimed that Lattimore was both a Communist and a Soviet agent. The subcommittee also summoned scholars.
Nicholas Poppe Nicholas N. Poppe (russian: Никола́й/Ни́колас Никола́евич Поппе, ''Nikoláj/Níkolas Nikolájevič Poppe''; 27 July 1897 – 8 August 1991) was an important Russian linguist. He is also known as Nikolaus Poppe, wit ...
, a Russian émigré and a scholar of
Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million ...
and
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
, resisted the committee's invitation to label Lattimore a Communist but found some of his writings superficial and uncritical. The most damaging testimony came from Karl August Wittfogel, supported by his colleague from the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...
, George Taylor. Wittfogel, a former Communist, said that at the time Lattimore edited the journal ''
Pacific Affairs ''Pacific Affairs'' (''PA'') is a Canadian peer-reviewed scholarly journal that publishes academic research on contemporary political, economic, and social issues in Asia and the Pacific. The journal was founded in 1926 as the newsletter for th ...
'', Lattimore knew of his Communist background; even though they had not exchanged words on the matter, Lattimore had given Wittfogel a "knowing smile." Lattimore acknowledged that Wittfogel's thought had been tremendously influential but said that if there had been a smile, it was a "non-Communist smile". Wittfogel and Taylor charged that Lattimore had done "great harm to the
free world The Free World is a propaganda term, primarily used during the Cold War from 1945 to 1991, to refer to the Western Bloc and similar countries. It also more broadly refers to all non-communist and democratic countries. It has traditionally prima ...
" in disregarding the need to defeat world Communism as a first priority. John K. Fairbank, in his memoirs, suggests that Wittfogel may have said this because he had been made to leave Germany for having views unacceptable to the powers that be, and he did not want to make the same mistake twice. They also asserted that the influence of Marxism on Lattimore was shown by his use of the word "
feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
." Lattimore replied that he did not think that Marxists had a "patent" on that word. In 1952, after 17 months of study and hearing, involving 66 witnesses and thousands of documents, the
McCarran Committee The United States Senate's Special Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, 1951–77, known more commonly as the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) and sometimes the M ...
issued its 226-page, unanimous final report. This report stated that "Owen Lattimore was, from some time beginning in the 1930s, a conscious articulate instrument of the Soviet
conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agr ...
," and that on "at least five separate matters," Lattimore had not told the whole truth. One example: "The evidence... shows conclusively that Lattimore knew
Frederick V. Field Frederick Vanderbilt Field (April 13, 1905 – February 1, 2000) was an American leftist political activist, political writer and a great-great-grandson of railroad tycoon Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt, disinherited by his wealthy relatives fo ...
to be a Communist; that he collaborated with Field after he possessed this knowledge; and that he did not tell the truth before the subcommittee about this association with Field...." On February 16, 1952, Lattimore was indicted for perjury on seven counts. Six of the counts related to various discrepancies between Lattimore's testimony and the IPR records; the seventh accused Lattimore of seeking to deliberately deceive the SISS. Lattimore's defenders, such as his lawyer
Abe Fortas Abraham Fortas (June 19, 1910 – April 5, 1982) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1965 to 1969. Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Fortas graduated from R ...
, claimed that the discrepancies were caused by McCarran deliberately asking questions about arcane and obscure matters that took place in the 1930s. At the initiative of
George Boas George Boas (; 28 August 1891 – 17 March 1980) was a professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. He received his education at Brown University, obtaining both a BA and MA in philosophy there, after which he studied shortly at ...
, a professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins, a Lattimore Defense Fund was set up in January 1953 with the goal to gather funds to pay for the legal fees of the defense. Within three years, federal judge
Luther Youngdahl Luther Wallace Youngdahl (May 29, 1896 – June 21, 1978) was an American judge and politician who served as the 27th governor of Minnesota and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Ed ...
dismissed the perjury charges on technical grounds. United States v. Lattimore, 127 F. Supp. 405 (D.D.C. 1955). Four of the charges were dismissed as insubstantial and not judicable; denying that he was sympathetic to communism was too vague to be fairly answered; and the other counts were matters of little concern, those for which a jury would be unlikely to convict on matters of political judgment. In his book ''Ordeal by Slander'', Lattimore gives his own account of these events up until 1950. In his 1979 memoir, former FBI agent
William C. Sullivan William Cornelius Sullivan (May 12, 1912 – November 9, 1977) was a Federal Bureau of Investigation official who directed the agency's domestic intelligence operations from 1961 to 1971. Sullivan was forced out of the FBI at the end of Septembe ...
said that, despite Hoover's relentless efforts, the FBI never found "anything substantial" and that the accusations against Lattimore were "ridiculous."


Legacy

In 1963, he was recruited from
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
to establish the Department of Chinese Studies (now East Asian Studies) at the
University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...
. In addition to setting up Chinese Studies, he promoted Mongolian Studies, building good relations between Leeds and Mongolia and establishing a programme in Mongolian Studies in 1968. He remained at Leeds until he retired as
Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
Professor in 1970. In 1984 the University of Leeds conferred the degree of
Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Docto ...
(DLitt) on Emeritus Professor Lattimore
honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...
. Lattimore had a lifelong dedication to establishing research centres to further the study of Mongolian history and culture. In 1979 he became the first Westerner to be awarded the
Order of the Polar Star The Royal Order of the Polar Star ( Swedish: ''Kungliga Nordstjärneorden'') is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Sword and the Order of the Seraphim. The Order of t ...
, the highest award that the Mongolian state gives to foreigners. The State Museum in
Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar (; mn, Улаанбаатар, , "Red Hero"), previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It is the coldest capital city in the world, on average. The municipality is located in north ce ...
named a newly discovered dinosaur after him in 1986. The American Centre for Mongolian Studies, together with the International Association of Mongolian Studies and the National University of Mongolia School of Foreign Service, organized a conference entitled "Owen Lattimore: The Past, Present, and Future of Inner Asian Studies" in
Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar (; mn, Улаанбаатар, , "Red Hero"), previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It is the coldest capital city in the world, on average. The municipality is located in north ce ...
,
Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million ...
, on August 20 and 21, 2008. Prominent figures in the anti-Communist American political left offered mixed evaluations of Lattimore's legacy in foreign policy. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. thought that while Lattimore was not a Soviet spy, he may have been a
fellow traveler The term ''fellow traveller'' (also ''fellow traveler'') identifies a person who is intellectually sympathetic to the ideology of a political organization, and who co-operates in the organization's politics, without being a formal member of that o ...
who was deeply committed to communist ideals, and
Sidney Hook Sidney Hook (December 20, 1902 – July 12, 1989) was an American philosopher of pragmatism known for his contributions to the philosophy of history, the philosophy of education, political theory, and ethics. After embracing communism in his you ...
similarly proclaimed Latimore "a devious and skillful follower of the Communist Party line on Asian affairs”.


Theory

Historian Peter Perdue wrote that "Modern historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists have revised many of Lattimore’s arguments, but they still rely on his insights. All of the themes addressed by Lattimore continue to inspire world historians today." In ''An Inner Asian Approach to the Historical Geography of China'' (1947), Lattimore explored the system through which humanity affects the
environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
and is changed by it, and concluded that civilization is molded by its own impact on the environment. He lists the following pattern: # A primitive society pursues some agricultural activities, but is aware that it has many limitations. # Growing and evolving, the society begins to change the environment. For example, depleting its game supply and wild crops, it begins to domesticate animals and plants. It deforests land to create room for these activities. # The environment changes, offering new opportunities. For example, it becomes
grasslands A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur nat ...
. # Society changes in response, and reacts to the new opportunities as a new society. For example, the once-nomads build permanent settlements and shift from a
hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fung ...
mentality to a farming society culture. # The reciprocal process continues, offering new variations.


Publications

* 1928: '' The Desert Road to Turkestan.'' London: Methuen. . **1929 (reprint):
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
:
Little Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
; 1995 (reprint): New York: Kodansha International. * 1930: '' High Tartary.'' Boston:
Little Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
. **1994 (reprint): New York: Kodansha International. * 1932
''Manchuria: Cradle of Conflict''.
New York:
Macmillan MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan MacMillan ...
. Revised in 1935. * 1933
"The Unknown Frontier of Manchuria."
''
Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy a ...
'', vol. 11, no. 2 (January 1933). * 1934:
Empire in the East.
'
Doubleday Doran Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed th ...
, on behalf of the Institute of Pacific Relations, American Council. . * 1934:
The Mongols of Manchuria: Their Tribal Divisions, Geographical Distribution, Historical Relations With Manchus and Chinese, and Present Political Problems.
' New York: John Day (with maps). ** 1969 (reprint): New York: H. Fertig. * 1934: "China and the Barbarians." In: Joseph Barnes, ed. ''Empire in the East''. New York: Doubleday. ** 1970 (reprint). . * 1935
"On the Wickedness of Being Nomads."
'' T'ien Hsia Monthly'', vol. 1, no. 1 (August 1935), pp. 47–62. * 1940: '' Inner Asian Frontiers of China.'' International Research Series. New York:
American Geographical Society The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the ...
, in conjunction with the Secretariat of the Institute of Pacific Relations. **1967 (reprint): Boston:
Beacon Press Beacon Press is an American left-wing non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is known for publishing authors such as James B ...
. * 1941: ''Mongol Journeys''. New York:
Doubleday Doran Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed th ...
. * 1941
"Stalemate in China."
''
Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy a ...
'', vol. 19, no. 3 (April 1941). * 1942
"The Fight for Democracy in Asia."
''
Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy a ...
'', vol. 20, no. 4 (July 1942). * 1942: "China Opens Her Wild West." Washington, D.C.: ''
National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, ...
'', Vol. 182, No. 3, September 1942. * 1943
''America and Asia: Problems of Today's War and the Peace of Tomorrow''.
Claremont, Calif.:
Claremont Colleges The Claremont Colleges (known colloquially as the 7Cs) are a consortium of seven private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges (the 5Cs)— Pomona College, Sc ...
. Foreword by
Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet ...
Harry E. Yarnell Admiral Harry Ervin Yarnell (18 October 1875 – 7 July 1959) was an American naval officer whose career spanned over 51 years and three wars, from the Spanish–American War through World War II. Among his achievements was proving, in 1932 war g ...
. * 1944
''The Making of Modern China: A Short History''
with Eleanor Holgate Lattimore. New York:
W. W. Norton W. W. Norton & Company is an American publishing company based in New York City. Established in 1923, it has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is known for its Norton Anthologies (particularly ''The Norton A ...
. **1944 (reprint): Washington, D.C.: ''
Infantry Journal ''Infantry'' is the professional journal of the U.S. Army soldier, published by the United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Following the success of ''ARMOR'' magazine (first published 1888), ''Infantry'' was launched in 1904 ...
''. * 1945: '' Solution in Asia.'' Boston:
Little Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
. . * 1947
"An Inner Asian Approach to the Historical Geography of China."
''
Geographical Journal ''The Geographical Journal'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). It publishes papers covering research on all aspects of geography. It also publishes shorter C ...
'' (UK), vol. 110, no. 4/6 (Oct./Dec. 1947), pp. 180–187. . * 1947: ''China: A Short History'', with Eleanor Holgate Lattimore. New York:
W. W. Norton W. W. Norton & Company is an American publishing company based in New York City. Established in 1923, it has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is known for its Norton Anthologies (particularly ''The Norton A ...
. Revised edition. * 1949: '' The Situation in Asia.'' Boston:
Little Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
. * 1950: '' Pivot of Asia: Sinkiang and the Inner Asian Frontiers of China and Russia.'' Boston:
Little Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
. * 1950: '' Ordeal by Slander.'' Boston:
Little Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
. . **2004 (reprint): New York:
Carroll & Graf Carroll & Graf Publishers was an American publishing company based in New York City, New York, known for publishing a wide range of fiction and non-fiction by both new and established authors, as well as issuing reprints of previously hard-to ...
. Introduction by Blanche Wiessen Cook. Preface by David Lattimore. * 1953
"The New Political Geography of Inner Asia."
Great Britain: ''
Geographical Journal ''The Geographical Journal'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). It publishes papers covering research on all aspects of geography. It also publishes shorter C ...
'', vol. CXIX, no. 1 (March 1953). **Reprint: London: William Clowes and Sons. * 1955
''Nationalism and Revolution in Mongolia''
with Sh. Nachukdorgi. New York:
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
. * 1962:
Nomads and Commissars: Mongolia Revisited
'. New York:
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
. . * 1962
''Studies in Frontier History: Collected Papers, 1928–1958''.
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
:
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
; Paris: Mouton. * 1964
''From China, Looking Outward: An Inaugural Lecture''.
Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...
:
Leeds University Press , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , t ...
. * 1968: '' Silks, Spices, and Empire: Asia Seen Through the Eyes of Its Discoverers,'' with Eleanor Holgate Lattimore. New York: Delacorte. * 1970:
History and Revolution in China.
' Lund:
Studentlitteratur Studentlitteratur is an academic publishing company based in Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN W ...
. * 1982: ''The Diluv Khutagt: Memoirs and Autobiography of a Mongol Buddhist Reincarnation in Religion and Revolution''.
Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
: O. Harrassowitz. . * 1990:
China Memoirs: Chiang Kai-shek and the War Against Japan.
' Compiled by Fujiko Isono. Tokyo:
University of Tokyo Press The is a university press affiliated with the University of Tokyo in Japan. It was founded in 1951, following the post-World War II reorganization of the university. Honors * Japan Foundation: Special Prize, 1990. Location The headquarters o ...
. . ** Japanese translation available. .


References


References and further reading

* * * * Also available a
Hathi Trust.
* * * *
Full text online.
* * * *


External links


FBI reports from the espionage investigation of Lattimore
5161 pages *

'
Owen Lattimore interview
by
Caroline Humphrey Caroline Humphrey, Baroness Rees of Ludlow, (''née'' Waddington; born 1 September 1943) is a British anthropologist and academic. Biography Humphrey's father was the biologist Conrad H. Waddington. Her mother was her father's second wife, ar ...
, filmed by
Alan Macfarlane Alan Donald James Macfarlane (born 20 December 1941 in Shillong, Meghalaya, India) is an anthropologist and historian, and a Professor Emeritus of King's College, Cambridge. He is the author or editor of 20 books and numerous articles o ...
(May 21, 1983) via
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Owen Lattimore: A Register of His Papers
in the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
, 1998.
American Center for Mongolian Studies Library
Brief biography of Lattimore, with links to books by or about him and relevant websites.
The Papers of Owen Lattimore
at Dartmouth College Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Lattimore, Owen 1900 births 1989 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American writers Academics of the University of Leeds American expatriates in China American expatriates in the United Kingdom American non-fiction writers American orientalists Anti-communism in the United States China Hands Mongolists People educated at St Bees School People of the United States Office of War Information Social Science Research Council Victims of McCarthyism