On the Spot: Julia Lovell
What’s the most important lesson history has taught me? To try to see things from multiple angles.
Why are you a historian of modern China?
When I was 20, my mother lent me her copy of Jung Chang’s Wild Swans. I read it in a weekend and felt I had to know more about China. The best way to do that was to learn Chinese.
What’s the most important lesson history has taught you?
To try to see things from multiple angles.
Which history book has had the greatest influence on you?
For my most recent book, Odd Arne Westad’s The Global Cold War.
What book in your field should everyone read?
Anything by Jonathan Spence, for populating Chinese history with individual voices.
Which moment would you most like to go back to?
The abdication of the last emperor of China in 1912 and the foundation of the republic.
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