What China and India Once Were: The Pasts That May Shape the Global Future

by Benjamin A. Elman (Editor), Sheldon Pollock (Editor)

In the early years of the twenty-first century, China and India have emerged as world powers. In many respects, this is a return to the historical norm for both countries. For much of the early modern period, China and India were global leaders in a variety of ways. In this book, prominent scholars seek to understand modern China and India through an unprecedented comparative analysis of their long histories.

Using new sources, making new connections, and reexamining old assumptions, noted scholars of China and India pair up in each chapter to tackle major questions by combining their expertise. What China and India Once Were details how these two cultural giants arrived at their present state, considers their commonalities and divergences, assesses what is at stake in their comparison, and, more widely, questions whether European modernity provides useful contrasts. In jointly composed chapters, contributors explore ecology, polity, gender relations, religion, literature, science and technology, and more, to provide the richest comparative account ever offered of China and India before the modern era. What China and India Once Were establishes innovative frameworks for understanding the historical and cultural roots of East and South Asia in global context, drawing on the variety of Asian pasts to offer new ways of thinking about Asian presents.

Genres: China, India, History, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

Published September 25, 2018

About the author

Benjamin A. Elman is Gordon Wu '58 Professor of Chinese Studies, Princeton University. His teaching and research fields include Chinese intellectual and cultural history, history of science and history of education in late imperial China.

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book until the last chapter and the afterword, which were so painfully boring that I'm proud of myself for not breezing through it. I'm also disappointed that not one reference was made to Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda, both of which are integral components of the respective cultures. That said, the rest of the book was quite fascinating and I greatly enjoyed the comparative framework.