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Classical Historiography for Chinese History

Research guide for Chinese Historiography

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  • Bodde, Derk. Essays on Chinese Civilization. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.
  • Cohen, Paul. Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past. New York: Columbia University Press,1984.
  • Eberhard, Wolfram. A History of China. Berkeley: University of California Press, rev. ed., 1960.
  • Fitzgerald, Charles Patrick. China: A Short Cultural History. New York: Praeger, 3rd ed., 1950; paperback reprint by the same publisher, 1961. Interesting.
  • Gernet, Jacques. A History of Chinese Civilization. Translated by J. R. Fisher. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. European-style cultural history.
  • ---. L'intelligence de la China: la social et le mental. Paris: Gallimaid, 1994.
  • Goodrich, L. Carrington. A Short History of the Chinese People. New York: Harper, 3rd ed., 1959; paperback reprint, Harper Torchbooks, 1963. Interested in cultural diffusion.
  • Hucker, Charles O. China's Imperial Past. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1976.
  • Latourette, Kenneth Scott. The Chinese: Their History and Culture. New York: Macmillan, 3rd rev. ed., 1946. A compilation of Western sources on China. Old approach.
  • Li, Dun J. The Essence of Chinese Civilization. Princeton: D. Van Vorstrand Co., 1967.
  • ---. The Ageless Chinese. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971.
  • Loewe, Michael. Imperial China: The Historical Background to the Modern Age. New York: Praeger, 1969.
  • Maspero, Henri. China In Antiquity. Translated by Frank Kierman, Jr. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1978.
  • Meskill, John T. An Introduction to Chinese Civilization. Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath and Company, 1973.
  • Reischauer, Edwin O., John K. Fairbank, & (Vols. II) Albert M. Craig. East Asia. Vol. I: The Great Tradition; Vol. II: The Modern Transformation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960, 1965, 1973, 1978, etc. The standard textbook, covers too much too thinly.
  • Twitchett, Denis, & John. K. Fairbank, eds. Cambridge History of China. Multi-volumes in progress.
  • Wilkinson, Endymion, Chinese History: A New Manual. Fifth edition. Cambridge: Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 84, 2018.