In Conjunction with the Eighth International Seminar on Decolonization,

A public lecture by 

Seminar Director Wm. Roger Louis of the University of Texas at Austin:

“Dimensions of Empire: The Oxford University Press” 

Tuesday, July 30, 2013 at 4 p.m. in Room LJ119, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

Wm. Roger Louis is completing work on Volume 3 of the official history of the Oxford University Press, covering 1896 through 1970, the period of the exponential growth of the press and its expansion to many parts of the British Empire. He directs the British Studies program at the University of Texas at Austin, was the executive editor of the five-volumeOxford History of the British Empire, and is the author of acclaimed books on empire and decolonization, including Imperialism at Bay, 1941-1945 (1977); The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951 (1984); and Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez and Decolonization: Collected Essays (2006). A past president of the American Historical Association, he is Founding Director of the Association’s National History Center, the co-sponsor of this event with the John W. Kluge Center of the Libra ry of Congress.

Reception to follow.

This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are not necessary.

For more information please e-mail mbarber@historians.org.

In Conjunction with the Eighth International Seminar on Decolonization,

A public lecture by

Kenneth Pomeranz of the University of Chicago:

“Resisting Imperialism, Resisting Decolonization: Making ‘China’ from the Ruins of the Qing, 1912-1949”

Tuesday, July 23, 2013 at 4 p.m. in Room LJ119, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

When a republic replaced China’s Qing dynasty in 1912, it was unclear if it could hold its outer territories, which had few ethnic Chinese. To a remarkable extent it did, even though the succeeding decades brought political chaos in “China proper,” and the break-up of most other multinational empires. This is often told as a two-stage story — in which ethnic chauvinists first alienated non-Han peoples, who were then “re-integrated” through the Communist Party’s more sophisticated, inclusive nationalism. Instead, Kenneth Pomeranz will argue for substantial continuity in late Qing and Republican efforts to keep the empire together, with modified versions of late imperial practices playing a crucial role throughout.

Kenneth Pomeranz is University Professor at the University of Chicago, and President of the American Historical Association. He previously taught at the University of California, Irvine. His publications include The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (2000); The Making of a Hinterland: State, Society and Economy in Inland North China, 1853-1937(1993); several co-authored, edited, and co-edited volumes, and many articles. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Institute for Advanced Studies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and other sources. He received his BA from Cornell University, and MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees from Yale.