American Life: A History of America Through the Eyes of a Chinese Historian

Hsu, Cho-yun

jun 2021 · The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press

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The United States is the land where Cho-yun Hsu pursued his life's work, as well as his window to observations of Western civilization; through his eyes, the nation is revealed as both a mighty empire and a grand social laboratory containing the seeds of prosperity and decline. In this memoir of his sixty-year sojourn in the United States, Cho-yun Hsu offers keen insights through the lens of history and sociology, providing a comprehensive assessment of the social lineaments of the United States in different eras, as well as its substantive transformation in the period spanning from the founding of the nation to the present -- from a young nation of lofty ideals, to the successor to Europe as global hegemon, and, more recently, an emerging regime of tyranny. The work touches upon geography, culture, politics, economics, industrialization, class, ethnicity, the urban-rural divide, military affairs, the imperial enterprise and more in analyzing the origins of tension and conflict, antagonism and divisions between different classes and ethnic groups in American society, and seeks to offer a way forward from a humanistic perspective, in the hope that society may be continuously renewed through our collective efforts, and find a new path.

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CHO-YUN HSU, an internationally recognized authority on ancient Chinese history and comparative civilizations, earned his PhD from the University of Chicago. He was Professor Emeritus of History and Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, and elected Academician of Academia Sinica in Taiwan. As one of the founding members of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, Hsu was instrumental in supporting and encouraging global research in Chinese Studies. In 2004, he received the Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies Award, the highest honor of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), which recognizes his life-long dedication to the advancement of Asian Studies in the international arena. He has authored or coauthored numerous publications, including China: A New Cultural History (2012), Western Chou Civilization (1988), Han Agriculture: The Formation of the Early Chinese Agrarian Economy (1980), and Ancient China in Transition: An Analysis of Social Mobility (1965). The translator, CARISSA FLETCHER specializes in academic and historical translation. She holds a Master's degree in Mandarin and English translation from the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Her previous translation titles include The East Turkestan Independence Movement, 1930s to 1940s by Wang Ke, and The Language Situation in China (Volume 5 and Volume 6), edited by Li Yuming and Li Wei.