FootNotes

Classical Chinese Thought and Culture and Early Chinese History Victor Mair, professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania, noted that China’s great social variety has always made it hard to keep the country together, necessitating...

Perhaps the phrase that best characterizes the Maoist era is “never forget class struggle.” By contrast, the mantra that the Communist Party has endorsed most recently, “harmonious society,” is distinctly unMaoist, even somewhat Confucian: It is a long way...

Although scientist Jared Diamond famously called China an “empire of uniformity,” in fact nothing could be further from the truth. China is one of the most diverse nations on earth. Linguistically, ethnically, religiously—on virtually any basis, China has always...

China’s economy today is ten times larger than it was in 1978, and continues to grow at 10 percent per year. By contrast, since 1980, roughly the beginning of economic reform in China, up until 2005 yearend, the economy...

China has had many foreign policies since the founding of the PRC in 1949. For its first five years, the PRC followed a “lean to one side” policy. As explained by Chairman Mao Zedong, this meant that “whoever is...

Welcoming Remarks Walter McDougall opened the conference with remarks on the U.S. democratization effort in Iraq, noting similarities to Reconstruction in the Confederate South. Then, too, U.S. troops crushed an oppressive regime and occupied its land, the federal government...

Fifty years ago, when I began teaching American students about India, I would probably have begun a lecture on why it’s important for Americans to know about India rather defensively and apologetically. Acknowledging the lack of interest at that...

Why It’s Important to Know about India Ainslie T. Embree of Columbia University noted India’s recent rise in U.S. headlines, especially with the joint statement issued after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s summer 2005 visit to Washington. The statement, pledging...

Presidential Leadership in Times of Crisis David Eisenhower opened the conference by observing that historical parallels for this new war are inexact: unlike World War II, to which President Bush often compares it, a striking feature of the war...

Last year the United States began the process of normalizing relations with Libya after decades of mutual animosity and sanctions disrupted a relationship that goes back 200 years, to when President Thomas Jefferson took our young republic into its...