Revolution and History--The Origins of Chinese Marxist Historiography, 1919-1937 (Series of Overseas Chinese Studies)

Author: Derek
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: This book centers on the [Historical Controversy in Modern Chinese Society] of the 1920s-1930s, and within the context of the development of modern Chinese thought, provides an in-depth analysis of the origins of Marxist historiography in China. It elucidates the problems and difficulties faced by Marxist historians at the time when they applied Marxist theory to analyze Chinese history, as well as how their focus on the revolutionary transformation of China at the time shaped their approach to theoretical and historical issues. The author argues that despite the academic flaws that these Marxist historians should be criticized for, and despite their often rough application of Marxist concepts, their contributions to Chinese historiography have been lasting., the rise of Marxist historiography was shaped and determined by the intellectual and political context of China at the time. Therefore, the appeal of Marxism to Chinese intellectuals primarily lay not, as Levenson pointed out, in its resolution of the contradiction between [history] and [values], but in its provision of answers to the question of Chinese revolution.