Timothy Brook (historian)
Encyclopedia
Timothy James Brook who writes
as Timothy Brook and who has had many academic works
published, is a distinguished historian
specializing in the study of China
(Sinology
). He is also known as Tim Brook.
, Ontario
in Canada
, "grew up in" that city and currently lives there.
Brook received a bachelor's
degree at the University of Toronto
in 1973; a master's degree
in Regional Studies–East Asia at Harvard University
in 1977, and received a Ph.D.
in History and East Asian Languages
at Harvard University in 1984.
; from 1986–97 he progressed from Assistant to Full Professor at the University of Toronto
; from 1997–99 he was a Professor at Stanford University
, and from 1999 he has been a Professor at the University of Toronto.
Brook held the Shaw Chair of Chinese Studies at the University of Oxford
from 2007–2009 and was appointed as principal and professor
at the University of British Columbia
's St. John's College
. He is also Academic Director of the Contemporary Tibet
an Studies Program at the University of British Columbia's Institute of Asian Research
.
His stated research
interests include the social
and cultural history
of the Ming Dynasty
in China; law
and punishment
in Imperial China; collaboration
during Japan's
wartime occupation of China
, 1937–45 and war crime
s trials in Asia
.
board of Ming Studies, the semi-annual journal of the Society for Ming Studies. Since 2008, he has been Editor-in-chief of The History of Imperial China, a six-volume work published by Harvard University Press
.
n social
, economic
and legal history
and international trade
include the following works which he authored or edited, by himself or in collaboration
with others.
For a complete listing last updated in October 2004 (which additionally lists working papers, scholarly papers, encyclopedia articles, oral presentations and guest lectures), see his academic profile at St. John's College, University of British Columbia (UBC), and also his more recent profiles at the Department of History at UBC and at the University of Oxford.
won Brook the Mark Lynton History Prize
from Columbia University
in New York
, worth $10,000 (U.S.). The prize is one of the Lukas Prize Project
awards. The book was described as a "bold, original and compulsively readable work of history."
Death by a Thousand Cuts
was a finalist and received an honourable mention for the Professional/Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division of the Association of American Publishers
2008 PROSE Award, in the World History and Biography/Autobiography category.
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
as Timothy Brook and who has had many academic works
Academic publishing
Academic publishing describes the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in journal article, book or thesis form. The part of academic written output that is not formally published but merely printed up or posted is often called...
published, is a distinguished historian
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...
specializing in the study of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
(Sinology
Sinology
Sinology in general use is the study of China and things related to China, but, especially in the American academic context, refers more strictly to the study of classical language and literature, and the philological approach...
). He is also known as Tim Brook.
Early life and education
Timothy Brook was born on January 6, 1951 in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, "grew up in" that city and currently lives there.
Brook received a bachelor's
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...
degree at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
in 1973; a master's degree
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...
in Regional Studies–East Asia at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1977, and received a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in History and East Asian Languages
East Asian languages
East Asian languages describe two notional groupings of languages in East and Southeast Asia:* Languages which have been greatly influenced by Classical Chinese and the Chinese writing system, in particular Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese .* The larger grouping of languages includes the...
at Harvard University in 1984.
Academic positions held
From 1984–86 Brook was a MacTaggart Fellow at the University of AlbertaUniversity of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
; from 1986–97 he progressed from Assistant to Full Professor at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
; from 1997–99 he was a Professor at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, and from 1999 he has been a Professor at the University of Toronto.
Brook held the Shaw Chair of Chinese Studies at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
from 2007–2009 and was appointed as principal and professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
at the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
's St. John's College
St. John's College, University of British Columbia
St. John's College is one of two residential colleges at the University of British Columbia, the other being Green College. It provides a community for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, with an international focus....
. He is also Academic Director of the Contemporary Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
an Studies Program at the University of British Columbia's Institute of Asian Research
Institute of Asian Research
The Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia is a research institute founded in 1978 and has been the foremost research centre in Canada for the inter-disciplinary study of Asia...
.
His stated research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
interests include the social
Social history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...
and cultural history
Cultural history
The term cultural history refers both to an academic discipline and to its subject matter.Cultural history, as a discipline, at least in its common definition since the 1970s, often combines the approaches of anthropology and history to look at popular cultural traditions and cultural...
of the Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
in China; law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
and punishment
Punishment
Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person or animal in response to behavior deemed wrong by an individual or group....
in Imperial China; collaboration
Collaborationism
Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...
during Japan's
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
wartime occupation of China
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
, 1937–45 and war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s trials in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
.
Editorial positions
Brook is on the editorialEditing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
board of Ming Studies, the semi-annual journal of the Society for Ming Studies. Since 2008, he has been Editor-in-chief of The History of Imperial China, a six-volume work published by Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...
.
Partial bibliography
Brook's many scholarly publications in the fields of AsiaAsia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n social
Social history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...
, economic
Economic history
Economic history is the study of economies or economic phenomena in the past. Analysis in economic history is undertaken using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and by applying economic theory to historical situations and institutions...
and legal history
Legal history
Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilizations and is set in the wider context of social history...
and international trade
International trade
International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories. In most countries, such trade represents a significant share of gross domestic product...
include the following works which he authored or edited, by himself or in collaboration
Collaboration
Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, — for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing...
with others.
For a complete listing last updated in October 2004 (which additionally lists working papers, scholarly papers, encyclopedia articles, oral presentations and guest lectures), see his academic profile at St. John's College, University of British Columbia (UBC), and also his more recent profiles at the Department of History at UBC and at the University of Oxford.
Books written
- Geographical Sources of Ming-Qing History. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, 1988. Second expanded edition, 2002. - Quelling the People: The Military Suppression of the Beijing Democracy MovementQuelling the People: The Military Suppression of the Beijing Democracy MovementQuelling the People: The Military Suppression of the Beijing Democracy Movement is a history book which investigates the infamous conflict between the Chinese democracy movement in Beijing, China and the communist-ruled Chinese state's People's Liberation Army, culminating in the confrontation...
. New York: Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, Toronto: Lester Publishing, 1992; Stanford: Stanford University PressStanford University PressThe Stanford University Press is the publishing house of Stanford University. In 1892, an independent publishing company was established at the university. The first use of the name "Stanford University Press" in a book's imprinting occurred in 1895...
, 1998. - Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming ChinaPraying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming ChinaPraying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China is a history book which explores the relationship between Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism during the 17th and 18th centuries in China ; tourism to Chinese Buddhist sites, and the patronage of Buddhist monasteries in...
. Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, 1993. Wei quanli qidao: fojiao yu wan Ming Zhongguo shishen shehui de xingcheng. Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 2005. - The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming ChinaThe Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming ChinaThe Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China is an influential and frequently cited book which explores the economic and cultural history and the "influence of economic change on social and cultural life" in China during the Ming Dynasty, which lasted from 1368 to 1644.The book is...
. Berkeley: University of California PressUniversity of California PressUniversity of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
, 1998. Čtvero ročních dob dynastie Ming: Čína v období 1368-1644. Prague: Vyšehrad, 2003. Zongle de kunhuo: Mingdai de shangye yu wenhua. Beijing: Sanlian, Taipei: Linking, 2004. K'waerak ǔi hondon: Chungguk Myǒngdaeǔi sangǒp kwa munhwa. Seoul: Yeesan, 2005. - Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime ChinaCollaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime ChinaCollaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China is a history book which investigates collaboration between the Chinese elites and Japanese, following the attack on the Chinese city of Shanghai in August 1937, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, and during the...
. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. - The Chinese State in Ming SocietyThe Chinese State in Ming SocietyThe Chinese State in Ming Society is a history book which investigates the role of the state in China in the Ming Dynasty ; the interface between the state and society, and the effect of the state on ordinary people.The book is written by Timothy Brook, a distinguished Canadian historian who...
. London: RoutledgeRoutledgeRoutledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
Curzon, 2005. - Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global WorldVermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global WorldVermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World is a book by the historian Professor Timothy Brook in which he explores the roots of world trade in the 17th century, through six paintings by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer...
. New York: Bloomsbury; Toronto: PenguinPenguin BooksPenguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
; London: Profile, 2008. Le chapeau de Vermeer : Le XVIIe siècle à l'aube de la mondialisation. France: Payot, 2010. - Death by a Thousand CutsDeath by a Thousand Cuts (book)Death by a Thousand Cuts is a book by the historians Timothy Brook and Gregory Blue and scientific researcher Jérôme Bourgon which examines the use of slow slicing or lingchi, a form of torture and capital punishment practised in mid- and late-Imperial China from the tenth century until its...
, with Jérôme Bourgon and Gregory Blue. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008.
Books edited
Last updated October 2004.- The Asiatic Mode of Production in China. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1989.
- National Polity and Local Power: The Transformation of Late Imperial China, by Min Tu-ki. Co- edited with Philip KuhnPhilip A. KuhnPhilip A. Kuhn is an American academic, sinologist and the Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History and of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Emeritus, at Harvard University.- Personal life :...
. Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1989. - Culture and Economy: The Shaping of Capitalism in Eastern Asia. Co-edited with Hy Van Luong. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.
- Civil Society in China. Co-edited with B. Michael Frolic. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1997.
- China and Historical Capitalism: Genealogies of Sinological Knowledge. Co-edited with Gregory Blue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
- Zhongguo yu lishi zibenzhuyi: hanxue zhishi de xipuxue. Taipei: Chu liu tushu gongsi, 2004. Simplified character edition: Shanghai: Xinxing chubanshe, 2005.
- Documents on the Rape of Nanking. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999. Expanded Chinese translation: Nanjing datusha yingwen shiliao ji. Taibei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2007.
- Nation Work: Asian Elites and National Identities. Co-edited with Andre Schmid. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000.
- Minzu de goujian: Yazhou jingying ji qi minzu rentong, 2008.
- Opium Regimes: China, Britain, and Japan, 1839-1952. Co-edited with Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
- The History of Imperial China (6 vols). Cambridge: Harvard University Press (2008-). Editor-in-chief from 2008 to date.
Book chapters
Last updated October 2004.- "The Spread of Rice Cultivation and Rice Technology into the Hebei Region in the Ming and Qing." In Explorations in the History of Science and Technology in China, ed. Li Guohao et al., pp. 659–90. Shanghai: Classics Publishing House, 1982. "Ming-Qing liangdai Hebei diqu tuiguang zhongdao he zhongdao jishu de qingkuang." In Zhongguo keji shi tansuo, pp. 633-56. Shanghai: Guji chubanshe, 1986.
- "Family Continuity and Cultural Hegemony: The Gentry of Ningbo, 1368-1911." In Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance, ed. Joseph Esherick and Mary Rankin, pp. 27–50. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
- "Toward Independence: Christianity in China under Japanese Occupation, 1937-1945." Christian-ity and China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present, ed. Daniel Bays, pp. 317–37. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996.
- "Native Identity under Alien Rule: Local Gazetteers of the Yuan Dynasty." In Pragmatic Literacy, East and West, 1200-1330, ed. Richard Britnell, 235-45. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 1997.
- "Profit and Righteousness in Chinese Economic Culture." In Culture and Economy, ed. Timothy Brook and Hy Van Luong, pp. 27–44.
- "Auto-Organization in Chinese Society." In Civil Society in China, ed. Timothy Brook and B. Michael Frolic, pp. 19–45.
- "At the Margin of Public Authority: The Ming State and Buddhism." Culture and State in Chinese History: Conventions, Conflicts, and Accommodations, ed. Theodore Huters, R. Bin Wong, and Pauline Yü, pp. 161–81. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.
- "Communications and Commerce." In The Cambridge History of ChinaThe Cambridge History of ChinaThe Cambridge History of China is an ongoing series of books published by Cambridge University Press covering the early and modern history of China. It has been described as "the largest and most comprehensive history of China in the English language"....
, vol. 8: The Ming Dynasty, pt. 2, ed. Frederick Mote and Denis Twitchett, pp. 579–707. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. - "Capitalism and the Writing of Modern History in China." In China and Historical Capitalism, ed. Timothy Brook and Gregory Blue, pp. 110–57.
- "Collaborationist Nationalism in Wartime Occupied China." In Nation Work, ed. Timothy Brook and Andre Schmid, pp. 159–90.
- "Opium and Collaboration in Central China, 1938-40." In Opium Regimes, ed. Timothy Brook and Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, pp. 323–43.
- "The Creation of the Reformed Government in Central China, 1938." In Chinese Collaboration with Japan, 1932-1945: The Limits of Accommodation, ed. David Barrett and Larry Shyu, pp. 79–101. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000.
- "Xu Guangqi in his Context: The World of the Shanghai Gentry." In Statecraft and Intellectual Renewal in Late Ming China: The Cross-Cultural Synthesis of Xu Guangqi, ed. Catherine Jami, Pieter Engelfriet, and Gregory Blue, pp. 72–98. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2001.
- "The Pacification of Jiading." In Scars of War: The Impact of Warfare on Modern China, ed. Diana Lary and Stephen MacKinnon, pp. 50–74. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2001.
- "Japan in the Late Ming: The View from Shanghai." In Sagacious Monks and Bloodthirsty War-riors: Chinese Views of Japan in the Ming-Qing Period, edited by Joshua A. Fogel, pp. 42–62. Norwalk CT: EastBridge, 2002.
- "Smoking in Imperial China." In Smoke: A Global History of Smoking, ed. Sander Gilman and Zhuo Xun. London: Reaktion Books, 2004.
- "The Great Way Government of Shanghai." In In the Shadow of the Rising Sun: Shanghai under Japanese Occupation, ed. Christian Henriot and Wen-hsin Yeh. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
- "Institution." In Critical Terms for the Study of Buddhism, ed. Donald Lopez. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
Journal articles
Last updated October 2004.- "The Teaching of History to Foreign Students at Peking University." With René Wagner. China Quarterly, no. 71 (Sept. 1977), pp. 598–607.
- "Dying Gods in China: Religion since the Cultural Revolution." Commonweal 105:15 (4 August 1978), pp. 490–95.
- "Traveling to the Trigram Mountains: Buddhism after the Gang of Four." Contemporary China 2:4 (Winter 1978), pp. 70–75.
- "The Revival of China's Musical Culture." China Quarterly, no. 77 (March 1979), pp. 113–21.
- "The Merchant Network in Sixteenth Century China." Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 24:2 (May 1981), pp. 165–214.
- "Guides for Vexed Travelers: Route Books in the Ming and Qing." 3 pts. Ch'ing-shih wen-t'i 4:5 (June 1981), pp. 32–76; 4:6 (December 1981), pp. 130–40; 4:8 (December 1982), pp. 96–109.
- "The Spatial Structure of Ming Local Administration." Late Imperial China 6:1 (June 1985), 1-55.
- "Censorship in Eighteenth-Century China: A View from the Book Trade." Canadian Journal of History 23:2 (August 1988), pp. 177–96.
- "Funerary Ritual and the Building of Lineages in Late Imperial China." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 49:2 (December 1989), pp. 465–99.
- "Rethinking Syncretism: The Unity of the Three Teachings and their Joint Worship in Late- Imperial China." Journal of Chinese Religions, no. 21 (Fall 1993), pp. 13–44.
- "Differing Agendas: China and the Human Rights Treaties." China Rights Forum, Winter 1993, pp. 16–19.
- "Mapping Knowledge in the Sixteenth Century: The Gazetteer Cartography of Ye Chunji." The East Asian Library Journal 7:2 (Autumn 1994), pp. 5–32.
- "Weber, Mencius, and the History of Chinese Capitalism." Asian Perspective 19:1 (1995), 79-98.
- "The Sinology of Joseph Needham." Modern China 22:3 (July 1996), pp. 340–48.
- "Edifying Knowledge: The Building of School Libraries in Ming China." Late Imperial China 17:1 (June 1996), pp. 88–114.
- "Medievality and the Chinese Sense of History." Medieval History Journal 1:1 (1998), pp. 145–64.
- "Picturing Clunas: A Review Essay." Ming Studies 40 (spring 1999), pp. 117–24.
- "The Tokyo Judgment and the Rape of Nanking." The Journal of Asia Studies 60:3(August 2001), pp. 673–700.
- "Is Smoking Chinese?" Ex/Change: Newsletter of Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies (City Univer- sity of Hong Kong), no. 3 (February 2002), pp. 4–6. "Ming-Qing shiqi de guojia tushu jiancha yu tushu maoyi" (State censorship and the book trade in the Ming-Qing period). Shilin (Historical review, published by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences), 2003, no. 3, pp. 90–104. "Mingdai de haishang maoyi yu lushang yichuan xitong" (The Ming system of maritime trade and overland postal communication). Lishi (Historical Monthly), no. 189 (5 Oct. 2003), pp. 58–65. "Mingdai de daoyou shu" (Travel guides in the Ming dynasty). Lishi, no. 189 (5 Oct 2003), p. 144.
Awards
In 2009, Vermeer's HatVermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World
Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World is a book by the historian Professor Timothy Brook in which he explores the roots of world trade in the 17th century, through six paintings by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer...
won Brook the Mark Lynton History Prize
Mark Lynton History Prize
The Mark Lynton History Prize is an annual award in the amount of $10,000 given to a book "of history, on any subject, that best combines intellectual or scholarly distinction with felicity of expression"...
from Columbia University
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...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, worth $10,000 (U.S.). The prize is one of the Lukas Prize Project
J. Anthony Lukas
Jay Anthony Lukas, aka J. Anthony Lucas , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and author, probably best known for his 1985 book Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families, a classic study of race relations and school busing in Boston, Massachusetts, as...
awards. The book was described as a "bold, original and compulsively readable work of history."
Death by a Thousand Cuts
Death by a Thousand Cuts (book)
Death by a Thousand Cuts is a book by the historians Timothy Brook and Gregory Blue and scientific researcher Jérôme Bourgon which examines the use of slow slicing or lingchi, a form of torture and capital punishment practised in mid- and late-Imperial China from the tenth century until its...
was a finalist and received an honourable mention for the Professional/Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division of the Association of American Publishers
Association of American Publishers
The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the American book publishing industry. AAP has more than 300 members, including most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly...
2008 PROSE Award, in the World History and Biography/Autobiography category.