Between History and Memory: A Conversation with Paul A. Cohen

Abstract

In this delightful and thought-provoking interview, Paul Cohen shares his thoughts on numerous issues concerning history, memory, and the changes in research mythology and perspective over the past six decades and across generations of Chinese historians, as well as his own experiences as a historian of modern China during that period.

Keywords:

• Paul A. Cohen
• history and memory
• historiography
• the Vietnam War
• Fairbank
• the Fairbank Center

Acknowledgement

The authors would like thank Rose-Ann Thomas of Harvard University for her assistance in preparing the interview script.

Notes

1 The special forum is titled “Reflections on Paul A. Cohen's Contribution to Chinese Historical Studies,” Chinese Historical Review, vol. 14, no. 2 (Fall 2007): 180–211.

2 See Paul A. Cohen and Merle Goldman, eds., Ideas Across Cultures: Essays on Chinese Thought in Honor of Benjamin I. Schwartz (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 1990).

3 See also Huaiyin Li's book, Reinventing Modern China: Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese Historical Writing (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2012), 248–55.

4 At the time of the interview, the book had just been published by Columbia University Press under the title, History and Popular Memory: The Power of Story in Moments of Crisis.

5 See Victor Lieberman, Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800–1830 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul A. Cohen

Paul A. Cohen is Edith Stix Wasserman Professor of Asian Studies and History Emeritus at Wellesley College and Associate of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University.

Hanchao Lu

Hanchao Lu is professor of history in the School of History and Sociology at the Georgia Institute of Technology.