Paul A. Cohen (Chinese name: , born June 2, 1934
Great Neck, New York
Great Neck is a region on Long Island, New York, that covers a peninsula on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore and includes nine villages, among them Great Neck (village), New York, Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, New York, Great Neck Es ...
) is Edith Stix Wasserman Professor of Asian Studies and History Emeritus at
Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...
and Associate of the
Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University is a post-graduate research center promoting the study of modern and contemporary China from a social science perspective. The center hosts and organizes academic activities, provides re ...
,
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 higher le ...
. His research interests include 19th-20th century China; historical thought; American historiography on China.
Cohen is the author of influential books on modern Chinese history, as well as historiography, such as ''
Discovering History in China
''Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past'' is a book by Paul A. Cohen introducing the ideas behind American histories of China since 1840. It was published by Columbia University Press in 1984 and rep ...
'' (1984; 2010). His works have been translated into several languages including Chinese and Japanese.
Biography
Paul A. Cohen studied at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
from 1952-1953, before he transferred to the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, where he received his BA in 1955. He received his MA in 1957 and PhD in 1961 from
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 higher le ...
, where he was a student of
John King Fairbank
John King Fairbank (May 24, 1907 – September 14, 1991) was an American historian of China and United States–China relations. He taught at Harvard University from 1936 until his retirement in 1977. He is credited with building the field of Chi ...
and
Benjamin I. Schwartz
Benjamin Isadore Schwartz (December 12, 1916 – November 14, 1999) was an American academic, political scientist, and sinologist who wrote on a wide range of topics in Chinese politics and intellectual history.
He taught at Harvard his entire ...
. After completing his doctorate, he worked at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
from 1962 to 1963. He was a faculty member in the History department at Amherst College from 1963-1965. Thereafter, he taught at Wellesley College till his retirement. He is currently an Associate of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University.
He was formerly married to Jane M. Cohen, now on the faculty at the
University of Texas School of Law
The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the law school of the University of Texas at Austin. Texas Law is consistently ranked as one of the top law schools in the United States and is highly selective—registering the 8th lowest ac ...
in
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
.
Selected publications
''China and Christianity: The Missionary Movement and the Growth of Chinese Antiforeignism, 1860-1870''Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974.
''Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past'' New York: Columbia University Press, 1984.
''History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth'' New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
: Winner of the 1997
John K. Fairbank Prize The John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History is offered annually for an outstanding book in the history of China proper, Vietnam, Chinese Central Asia, Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, or Japan, substantially after 1800. It honors the late John K. ...
in East Asian History and the 1997 New England Historical Book Award.
''China Unbound: Evolving Perspectives on the Chinese Past'' London; New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
''Speaking to History: The Story of King Goujian in Twentieth-Century China'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.
''History and Popular Memory: The Power of Story in Moments of Crisis'' New York: Columbia University Press, 2017.
*
External links
Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Paul
American sinologists
Historians of China
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
Living people
University of Michigan faculty
Harvard University alumni
University of Chicago alumni
Cornell University alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
American male non-fiction writers