The ancient story of King Goujian, a psychologically complex 5th-century BCE monarch, spoke powerfully to the Chinese during the 20th century, but remains little known in the West. This book explores the story's connections to the major traumas of the 20th century, and also cons…
The ancient story of King Goujian, a psychologically complex fifth-century BCE monarch, spoke powerfully to the Chinese during China's turbulent twentieth century. In "Speaking to History", Paul A. Cohen opens this previously missing (to the West) chapter of China's recent histo…
"The ancient story of King Goujian, a psychologically complex fifth-century B.C.E. monarch, spoke powerfully to the Chinese during China's turbulent twentieth century. Yet most Americans - even students and specialists of this era - have never heard of Goujian. In Speaking to Hi…
American society in the 1800s had a rough edge to it. In a nation made up of people of diverse backgrounds and heritage, social controls needed to be strict and enforceable. The extreme economic inequality of America's cities and the wide-open moral code of the frontier led to a…
Memory is as central to modern politics as politics is central to modern memory. We are so accustomed to living in a forest of monuments, to having the past represented to us through museums, historic sites, and public sculpture, that we easily lose sight of the recent origins a…
Memory is as central to modern politics as politics is central to modern memory. We are so accustomed to living in a forest of monuments, to having the past represented to us through museums, historic sites, and public sculpture, that we easily lose sight of the recent origins a…