History Weekend 2016: Rethinking the Roots of Modern China

The public is warmly invited to join scholars, students and alumni for NC State’s annual History Weekend on Saturday, March 19, 2016, at Withers Hall. “Rethinking the Roots of Modern China” brings two leading scholars of Chinese history to NC State’s campus.

Madeleine Zelin, of Columbia University, will present “Freedom and the Economy of Late Imperial China.” Zelin researches legal history, the role of law in the Chinese economy and the interface between law, culture and the market in early modern China. She is the author of The Merchants of Zigong: Industrial Entrepreneurship in Early Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2005).

Modern Chinese social and cultural historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom, University of California, Irvine, will speak on “China in 1900: Tales of the Boxer Rising and the First Global War.” Wasserstrom is the author of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2010 and 2013), among other books. He serves as editor of the Journal of Asian Studies and has contributed reviews and commentaries to Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times, among others.

History Weekend, hosted by NC State’s Department of History and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, welcomes the public and scholars alike. This year’s theme honors the late Jonathan Ocko, who served as professor and head of the Department of History for close to 13 years before his unexpected passing in January 2015. Ocko was a highly respected historian of modern China.

The full slate of events is free and open to the public, but registration is recommended to reserve space.