Jonathan Spence
Encyclopedia
Jonathan D. Spence is a British-born historian
and public intellectual specializing in Chinese history
. He was Sterling Professor
of History at Yale University
from 1993 to 2008. His most famous book is The Search for Modern China, which has become one of the standard texts on the last several hundred years of Chinese history. A prolific author, reviewer, and essayist, he has written a dozen books on China. He retired from Yale in 2008.
In May and June 2008 he gave the 60th anniversary Reith Lectures, broadcast on BBC Radio 4
.
Spence's major interest is modern China, and especially its relations with the West. A notable recurring theme in Spence's work is the use of biographies
to examine the wider cultural history of China. Another common theme to Spence's work is his interests in efforts on the part of both Westerners and Chinese to Westernize China, and why such efforts have failed.
, an English independent school
for boys, and at Clare College at the University of Cambridge
. He received his B.A.
in history from Cambridge in 1959. He went to Yale on a Clare-Mellon
Fellowship to study the history and culture of China, receiving an M.A.
and then a Ph.D.
in 1965, when he won the John Addison Porter
Prize.
for the 2004-2005 term. While his primary focus has been on medieval China, he has also written a biography of Mao Zedong
and Treason by the Book
, exploring an intriguing episode of 18th-century history. Spence taught a popular undergraduate class at Yale on the history of Modern China 1600-2007 (offered every other spring semester).
and an honorary professor at Nanjing University
. He was named Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
, and in 2006 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.
He received the William C. DeVane Medal of the Yale Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa (1952); a Guggenheim Fellowship
(1979); the Los Angeles Times
History Prize (1982), and the Vursel Prize of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1983). He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
(1985), named a MacArthur Fellow (1988), appointed to the Council of Scholars of the Library of Congress
(1988), elected a member of the American Philosophical Society
(1993), and named a corresponding fellow of the British Academy
(1997).
In 2010, he was appointed to deliver the annual Jefferson Lecture
at the Library of Congress, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities
.
, England
, Spence became an American citizen in 2000. He lives in West Haven
with his wife, Annping Chin
(a Senior Lecturer in History at Yale who got her PhD in Classical Chinese Philosophy at Columbia
). He has two sons from a previous marriage (1962–1993) to Helen Alexander, Colin and Ian Spence
, and two stepchildren, Yar Woo and Mei Chin
.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and public intellectual specializing in Chinese history
History of China
Chinese civilization originated in various regional centers along both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys in the Neolithic era, but the Yellow River is said to be the Cradle of Chinese Civilization. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest...
. He was Sterling Professor
Sterling Professor
A Sterling Professorship is the highest academic rank at Yale University, awarded to a tenured faculty member considered one of the best in his or her field...
of History at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
from 1993 to 2008. His most famous book is The Search for Modern China, which has become one of the standard texts on the last several hundred years of Chinese history. A prolific author, reviewer, and essayist, he has written a dozen books on China. He retired from Yale in 2008.
In May and June 2008 he gave the 60th anniversary Reith Lectures, broadcast on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
.
Spence's major interest is modern China, and especially its relations with the West. A notable recurring theme in Spence's work is the use of biographies
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
to examine the wider cultural history of China. Another common theme to Spence's work is his interests in efforts on the part of both Westerners and Chinese to Westernize China, and why such efforts have failed.
Education
Spence was educated at Winchester CollegeWinchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
, an English independent school
Independent school (UK)
An independent school is a school that is not financed through the taxation system by local or national government and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so is not subject to the conditions imposed by...
for boys, and at Clare College at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. He received his B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in history from Cambridge in 1959. He went to Yale on a Clare-Mellon
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, endowed with wealth accumulated by the late Andrew W. Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969...
Fellowship to study the history and culture of China, receiving an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
and then a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in 1965, when he won the John Addison Porter
John Addison Porter
John Addison Porter was an American Professor of Chemistry. He was born in Catskill, New York and died in New Haven, Connecticut...
Prize.
History
Widely recognized as a leading scholar of Chinese history, Spence was president of the American Historical AssociationAmerican Historical Association
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
for the 2004-2005 term. While his primary focus has been on medieval China, he has also written a biography of Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
and Treason by the Book
Treason by the Book
Treason by the Book, by Jonathan Spence is a fast-paced historical account of the Zeng Jing case which took place during the reign of Emperor Yongzheng of China, around the 1730s...
, exploring an intriguing episode of 18th-century history. Spence taught a popular undergraduate class at Yale on the history of Modern China 1600-2007 (offered every other spring semester).
Honors
Spence has received eight honorary degrees in the United States as well as from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and (in 2003) from Oxford University. He was invited to become a visiting professor at Peking UniversityPeking University
Peking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China, and a member of the C9 League. It is the first established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking in 1898 as a replacement of the...
and an honorary professor at Nanjing University
Nanjing University
Nanjing University , or Nanking University, is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher learning in China...
. He was named Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
, and in 2006 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.
He received the William C. DeVane Medal of the Yale Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa (1952); a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
(1979); the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
History Prize (1982), and the Vursel Prize of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1983). He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
(1985), named a MacArthur Fellow (1988), appointed to the Council of Scholars of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
(1988), elected a member of the American Philosophical Society
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
(1993), and named a corresponding fellow of the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
(1997).
In 2010, he was appointed to deliver the annual Jefferson Lecture
Jefferson Lecture
The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities is an honorary lecture series established in 1972 by the National Endowment for the Humanities . According to the NEH, the Lecture is "the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities."-History of...
at the Library of Congress, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
.
Family
Born in SurreySurrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Spence became an American citizen in 2000. He lives in West Haven
West Haven, Connecticut
West Haven is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 52,721.-History:...
with his wife, Annping Chin
Annping Chin
Annping Chin , born in Taiwan in 1950, is a Senior Lecturer of History at Yale. Her fields of study include Confucianism, Taoism, and the Chinese intellectual tradition. Before Yale, she was on the faculty at Wesleyan University.- Biography :...
(a Senior Lecturer in History at Yale who got her PhD in Classical Chinese Philosophy at Columbia
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
). He has two sons from a previous marriage (1962–1993) to Helen Alexander, Colin and Ian Spence
Ian Spence
Ian Spence is a Scottish former football player and manager.-Football career:Spence's footballing career started at junior side Armadale Thistle. In January 1957 he joined Stirling Albion. An attacking player, Spence was top scorer in the 1957/58 season with 20 goals helping Stirling Albion to win...
, and two stepchildren, Yar Woo and Mei Chin
Mei Chin
Mei Chin is a fiction and food writer living in Dublin.Her short stories have appeared in Fiction and Bomb Magazine and are characterized by a combination of the fantastic and the mundane.She won the James Beard Foundation's M.F.K...
.
Books
- The Search for Modern China
- Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K'ang-Hsi (1974)
- The Death of Woman Wang (1978)
- To Change China: Western Advisers in China, 1620-1960 (1980)
- The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (1984)
- The Question of Hu (1987)
- Chinese Roundabout: Essays on History and Culture
- The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution 1895-1980
- The Chan's Great Continent: China in Western Minds
- God's Chinese Son (1996)
- Mao Zedong (1999)
- Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man (2007) Viking, 332 pages. ISBN 978-0-670-06357-4
- Treason by the BookTreason by the BookTreason by the Book, by Jonathan Spence is a fast-paced historical account of the Zeng Jing case which took place during the reign of Emperor Yongzheng of China, around the 1730s...
Book Reviews
- "The Dream of Catholic China" The New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
54/11 (28 June 2007) : 22-24 [reviews Liam Matthew Brockey, Journey to the East: the Jesuit Mission to China, 1579-1724]
External links
- Biography
- The Search for Modern China Continues
- 2008 Reith Lectures
- Spence archive from The New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
- Jonathan Spence, Cliffhanger Days: A Chinese Family in the Seventeenth Century, AHA Presidential Address Retrieved 18 April 2010
- profile at the New York State Writers Institute