Library

After the Second World War, American research on China's modern history was mainly represented by Fairbank and Levinson. They believed that Chinese society had been basically stagnant for a long time and lacked internal motivation to break through the traditional framework. It was only after the impact of the West in the mid-19th century that it evolved into a modern society. On the contrary, Ke Wen opposed treating the history of non-Western societies as a continuation of Western history. He advocated taking China itself as the starting point, in-depth and precise exploration of the dynamics and structure of change within Chinese society, and advocated multi-disciplinary collaborative research. Ke Wen's book is the first time that American historians have given a clear and detailed description of the Sinocentric view. It is also the first work to critically summarize the three main models of studying modern Chinese history in the United States over the past few decades.

"Between Tradition and Modernity: Wang Tao and the Reform in the Late Qing" focuses on Wang Tao, an important historical figure who stood between tradition and modernity and had an impact on the thoughts of Sun Yat-sen, Kang Youwei, Zheng Guanying, Wu Tingfang and others, and explores his participation in the rebellion and reform in the late Qing Dynasty. Revolution, it is the process of introducing modern thought into China. It provides perspective, display and analysis of the ideological trends, political situation and social changes in the late Qing Dynasty. It was the first to raise the issue of "coastal" and "inland" in modern China, and provides a new path to explain the interaction between tradition and modernity in China since modern times.