Benjamin I. Schwartz

Benjamin Isadore Schwartz (December 12, 1916 – November 14, 1999) was an American academic, author and sinologist.^[1][2]

Educational background

Schwartz graduated from Harvard University in 1938 in modern languages, with an honors thesis on Pascal and the XVIIIth century "philosophes" ^[3] and started a career in school teaching before studying Japanese during the Second World War and working on code-breaking. After the war he studied an M.A. in East Asian studies at Harvard and went on to gain a Ph.D. there.^[1]

Career

Schwartz was a member of the Harvard faculty, teaching in Cambridge until he retired in 1987.

In 1983-1984, Schwartz served as acting director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.^[4]

A festschrift in his honour was held after his retirement, and published in 1990 as Ideas across cultures: essays on Chinese thought in honor of Benjamin I. Schwarz (ISBN 978-0-674-44225-2) and published by the Harvard University Asia Center.

He wrote principally on recent situations in China. His first book in that area was Chinese communism and the rise of Mao (1951), held in 1546 academic libraries.^[5] He subsequently wrote: Communism and China; ideology in flux published by Harvard University Press in 1968, held in 929 libraries according to WorldCat,^[6] and edited the symposium Reflections on the May Fourth movement: a symposium. East Asian Research Center, Harvard University; distributed by Harvard University Press, 1972.^[7] Near the end of his career in 1996 he wrote China and Other Matters Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press ^[8]

He also wrote on earlier periods. His 1985 book The World of Thought in Ancient China was published by Harvard University Press, and is held in 850 libraries, according to WorldCat. It was reviewed in The American Historical Review,^[9] Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies,^[10] Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies,^[11] China Quarterly,^[12] The Journal of Asian Studies,^[13] Philosophy East and West,^[14] Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews,^[15] and The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs.^[16]

Selected works

• Chinese Communism and the Rise of Mao (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951).
• In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1964. ISBN 9780674446526. ; Harvard University Press, 2009, ISBN 9780674043329
• Communism and China: Ideology in Flux (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968).
• The World of Thought in Ancient China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1985. ISBN 9780674961913. ; Harvard University Press, 2009, ISBN 9780674043312
• The secret speeches of Chairman Mao : from the hundred flowers to the great leap forward by Zedong Mao (1989)
• Reflections on the May Fourth movement: a symposium, East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, 1972.
• China's Cultural Values, Center for Asian Studies, Arizona State University, 1985
• China and Other Matters. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1996. ISBN 9780674118621. 

Notes

References and further reading

• Bernal, Martin (16 January 1969). "A Mao for All Seasons (Review of Benjamin Schwartz, Communism and China: Ideology in Flux". New York Review of Books. (Reprinted: China File). 
• Schwartz, Benjamin; Paul A Cohen and Merle Goldman. (1990). Ideas across cultures : essays on Chinese thought in honor of Benjamin I. Schwartz. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674442252; OCLC 21227823
• Suleski, Ronald Stanley. (2005). The Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University: a Fifty Year History, 1955-2005. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780976798002; OCLC 64140358