Timothy Brook

Timothy Brook
Born	Timothy James Brook (1951-01-06) January 6, 1951 (age 74) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Sinologist, historian, writer
Language	English, Chinese, French, Japanese
Education	University of Toronto (BA) Harvard University (MA, PhD)
Genre	History
Subject	Sinology; cultural, economic, legal and social history; world trade and globalization
Notable works	Books by the author
Website
www.timothybrook.com

Timothy James Brook (Chinese name: 卜正民; born January 6, 1951) is a Canadian historian, sinologist, and writer specializing in the study of China (sinology). ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} He holds the Republic of China Chair, Department of History, University of British Columbia.

His research interests include the social and cultural history of the Ming Dynasty in China; law and punishment in Imperial China; collaboration during Japan's wartime occupation of China, 1937–45, the Nanjing massacre, and Japanese war crimes trials; global history; and historiography.

Early life and education

Timothy Brook was born on January 6, 1951, in Toronto, Ontario in Canada, grew up in that city and currently lives in Vancouver. ^{[1] [5]}

After graduating from the University of Toronto Schools, Brook received a bachelor's degree in English literature at the University of Toronto in 1973; a master's degree in Regional Studies–East Asia at Harvard University in 1977, and in 1984 received a Ph.D. in History and East Asian Languages at Harvard University, where his dissertation advisor was Philip A. Kuhn . ^[6]

Academic positions

From 1984–86 Brook was a MacTaggart Fellow at the University of Alberta; from 1986–97 he progressed from Assistant to Full Professor at the University of Toronto; from 1997–99 he was Professor of History at Stanford University, and 1999–2004 he was Professor of History at the University of Toronto, ^[6] and Shaw Professor of Chinese at the University of Oxford. ^[7] He came to University of British Columbia in 2004, and was Principal, St. John's College 2004–2009. ^{[4] [6]} He is also Academic Director of the Contemporary Tibetan Studies Program at the University of British Columbia's Institute of Asian Research. ^[8] He was elected President of the Association for Asian Studies 2015.

Selected honors

• 2023 Distinguished Contributions to China Studies Award, World Forum on China Studies ^[9]
• 2010 D.Litt., honoris causa, University of Warwick
• 2010 Prix Auguste Pavie, Académie des sciences d'outre-mer, Paris, for Le Chapeau de Vermeer
• 2009 Mark Lynton Prize in History, Columbia University School of Journalism and Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, for Vermeer's Hat
• 2009 Wallace K. Ferguson Prize, Canadian Historical Association, for Death by a Thousand Cuts
• 2006 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
• 2005 François-Xavier Garneau Medal, Canadian Historical Association., for The Confusions of Pleasure
• 2000 Joseph Levenson Prize, Association for Asian Studies, for The Confusions of Pleasure

Editorial positions

American Historical Review, 2012--; Handbook of Oriental Studies, Brill, Leiden; Studies in Comparative Early Modern History, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; International Journal of Asian Studies, University of Tokyo; Journal of Ming Studies, Taipei; Ming Studies, Society for Ming Studies, New Mexico State University; Shilin 史林 (Historical studies), Shanghai. Since 2008, he has been Editor-in-chief of The History of Imperial China, a six-volume series published by Harvard University Press. ^[10]

Publications

Brook's scholarly publications in the fields of Asian social, economic and legal history and international trade include:

Books written

• Geographical Sources of Ming-Qing History. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1988. Second expanded edition, 2002.
• Quelling the People: The Military Suppression of the Beijing Democracy Movement . New York: Oxford University Press, Toronto: Lester Publishing, 1992; Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. ^{[11] [12] [13] [14] [15]}
• Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China . Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1993. ^{[16] [17] [18] [19]}
  • (in Chinese)Wei quanli qidao: fojiao yu wan Ming Zhongguo shishen shehui de xingcheng. Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 2005. ^[10]
• The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Winner of the Joseph Levenson Book Prize of 2000. ^[20]
  • (in Czech)Čtvero ročních dob dynastie Ming: Čína v období 1368–1644. Prague: Vyšehrad, 2003.
  • (in Chinese)Zongle de kunhuo: Mingdai de shangye yu wenhua. Beijing: Sanlian, Taipei: Linking, 2004.
  • (in Korean)K'waerak ŭi hondon: Chungguk Myŏngdaeŭi sangŏp kwa munhwa. Seoul: Yeesan, 2005. ^[10]
• Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2005. ^{[21] [22] [23] [24] [25]}
• The Chinese State in Ming Society . London: Routledge Curzon, 2005. ^{[26] [27]}
• Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World . New York: Bloomsbury; Toronto: Penguin; London: Profile, 2008. ^{[3] [4]}
  • (in French)Le chapeau de Vermeer : Le XVIIe siècle à l'aube de la mondialisation. France: Payot, 2010.
  • (in Italian)Il cappello di Vermeer : il Seicento e la nascita del mondo globalizzato. Turin: Einaudi, 2015.
• Death by a Thousand Cuts , with Jérôme Bourgon and Gregory Blue. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2008. ^{[28] [29]}
• The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press, 2013. ^{[30] [31] [32]}
• Mr. Selden's Map of China. Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer. New York, Bloomsbury, 2013. ISBN   978-1-62040-143-9
  • (in Italian)La mappa della Cina del signor Selden : il commercio delle spezie, una carta perduta e il Mar Cinese Meridionale. Turin: Einaudi, 2016.
• Great State: China and the World . London, Profile Books, 2019. ISBN   978-1-78125-828-6 <https://profilebooks.com/great-state.html>

Books edited

• The Asiatic Mode of Production in China. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1989.
• National Polity and Local Power: The Transformation of Late Imperial China, by Min Tu-ki. Co- edited with Philip Kuhn. Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1989.
• Culture and Economy: The Shaping of Capitalism in Eastern Asia. Co-edited with Hy Van Luong. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.
• Civil Society in China. Co-edited with B. Michael Frolic. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1997.
• China and Historical Capitalism: Genealogies of Sinological Knowledge. Co-edited with Gregory Blue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
  • (in Chinese)Zhongguo yu lishi zibenzhuyi: hanxue zhishi de xipuxue. Taipei: Chu liu tushu gongsi, 2004. Simplified character edition: Shanghai: Xinxing chubanshe, 2005.
• Documents on the Rape of Nanking. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999.
  • (in Chinese) Expanded Chinese translation: Nanjing datusha yingwen shiliao ji. Taipei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2007. ^[10]
• Nation Work: Asian Elites and National Identities. Co-edited with Andre Schmid. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000.
  • (in Chinese)Minzu de goujian: Yazhou jingying ji qi minzu rentong, 2008. ^[10]
• Opium Regimes: China, Britain, and Japan, 1839–1952. Co-edited with Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
• The History of Imperial China (6 vols). Cambridge: Harvard University Press (2008-). Editor-in-chief from 2008 to date. ^[10]

Awards

In 2009, Vermeer's Hat won Brook the Mark Lynton History Prize from Columbia University in New York, worth $10,000 (U.S.). The prize is one of the Lukas Prize Project awards. ^{[5] [33]} The book was described as a "bold, original and compulsively readable work of history." ^[5]

Death by a Thousand Cuts was a finalist and received an honourable mention for the Professional/Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division of the Association of American Publishers 2008 PROSE Award, in the World History and Biography/Autobiography category. ^{[34] [35]}

References

1. Staff (16 December 2007). "Biography - Brook, Timothy (James) (1951-): An article from: Contemporary Authors". Thomson Gale. Archived from the original on 3 June 2008. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
2. Lumley, Elizabeth (May 2003). Canadian Who's Who 2003, Volume 38 (28th ed.). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press. p. 172. ISBN   978-0-8020-8867-3 . Retrieved 2010-01-27.
3. Conrad, Peter (29 June 2008). "A time when every picture told a story". The Observer . Archived from the original on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
4. Dirda, Michael (27 January 2008). "Painting the World: How a hunger for tea and tobacco created global trade". Washington Post . Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
5. Staff (1 April 2009). "Vancouver writer Timothy Brook wins U.S. nonfiction prize". CBC News. Archived from the original on 2 April 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
6. Staff (October 2004). "Timothy James Brook (profile)". St. John's College, University of British Columbia. Archived from the original on 2010-02-04. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
7. Staff (14 May 2008). "New Oxford China Centre launched". University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 9 June 2011. Retrieved 2010-01-28.
8. Staff (2008). "Death by a Thousand Cuts". Harvard University Press. Archived from the original on 2010-02-04. Retrieved 2010-01-23.
9. Yuan, Shenggao. "Foreigners awarded for Chinese studies". China Daily . Retrieved 2025-01-06.
10. Staff (c. 2015). "Timothy James Brook". University of British Columbia. Archived from the original on 2015-02-07. Retrieved 2015-03-31.
11. Mulvenon, James (February 2000). "Quelling the People: The Military Suppression of the Beijing Democracy Movement by Timothy Brook". The Journal of Asian Studies. 59 (1). Association for Asian Studies: 145–146. doi:10.2307/2658599. JSTOR   2658599. S2CID   159711035.
12. Wortzel, Larry M. (January 1994). "Quelling the People: The Military Suppression of the Beijing Democracy Movement by Timothy Brook". Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs . 31 (31). Contemporary China Center, Australian National University: 123–126. doi:10.2307/2949905. JSTOR   2949905. Volume or issue is simply shown as "No. 31".
13. Staff (11 December 2005). "FRONTLINE: The Tank Man: Interviews: Timothy Brook (edited transcript)". Public Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
14. Dreyer, June Teufel (December 1993). "Quelling the People: The Military Suppression of the Beijing Democracy Movement by Timothy Brook". The China Quarterly (136 (Special Issue: Greater China)). Cambridge University Press on behalf of the School of Oriental and African Studies: 988–989. doi:10.1017/S0305741000032446. JSTOR   655602. S2CID   155061305.
15. Saich, Tony; Brook, Timothy (Winter 1993–1994). "Quelling the People: The Military Suppression of the Beijing Democracy Movement by Timothy Brook". Pacific Affairs . 66 (4). Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia: 573–574. doi:10.2307/2760686. JSTOR   2760686.
16. Barrett, T. H. (December 1994). "Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China by Timothy Brook". International Journal of Asian Studies. 140. Cambridge University Press: 1151–1153. doi:10.1017/S0305741000053029. S2CID   154856830. Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
17. Naquin, Susan; Brook, Timothy (December 1995). "Praying for Power: Buddhism and The Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China by Timothy Brook". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies . 55 (2). Harvard-Yenching Institute: 556–568. doi:10.2307/2719353. JSTOR   2719353.
18. Struve, Lynn; Brook, Timothy (June 1995). "Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late- Ming China by Timothy Brook". The American Historical Review. 100 (3). American Historical Association: 930–931. doi:10.2307/2168690. JSTOR   2168690.
19. ter Haar, Barend J. (1999). "Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China by Timothy Brook". T'oung Pao . 85 (4/5). BRILL: 515–520. doi:10.1163/1568532992642413. JSTOR   4528819. Citation reads: "Second Series, Vol. 85, Fasc. 4/5 (1999)".
20. Yee, Danny (2005). "The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China". dannyreviews.com. Archived from the original on 2010-01-03. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
21. Pye, Lucian W. (June 2005). "Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China" . Foreign Affairs. 84 (3). Council on Foreign Relations: Foreign Affairs: 149. doi:10.2307/20034400. JSTOR   20034400. Archived from the original on 2012-09-25. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
22. Barrett, David P. (Fall 2005). "Timothy Brook. Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China" (PDF). The Chinese Historical Review. 12 (2). The Chinese Historians in the United States, Inc.: 339–342. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2010-01-29. The PDF shows a listing of contents for volume 12, No.2, General Issue Number 21. See CHR web site Archived 2009-09-15 at the Wayback Machine .
23. Schoppa, R. Keith (December 2005). "Timothy Brook. Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China". The American Historical Review. 110 (5). American Historical Association: 1501–1502. doi:10.1086/ahr.110.5.1501.
24. Mitter, Rana (2006). "Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China" (PDF). The International History Review. 28. Routledge: 426. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-14. Retrieved 2010-01-29.
25. Duara, Prasenjit (January 2008). "Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China" (PDF). The China Journal (59). Contemporary China Center, Australian National University: 142–143. doi:10.1086/tcj.59.20066387. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 5, 2008. Retrieved 2010-01-29.
26. Nakajima, Gakusho; Brook, Timothy (January 2006). "The Chinese State in Ming Society by Timothy Brook". International Journal of Asian Studies. 3 (1). Association for Asian Studies: 143–147. doi:10.1017/S1479591405280257. S2CID   144121735. Archived from the original on 2008-10-13. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
27. Soulliere, Ellen (June 2006). "Timothy Brook, The Chinese State in Ming Society" (PDF). New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies . 8 (1). New Zealand Asian Studies Society: 168–171. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2010-05-26. Retrieved 2010-01-28.
28. Staff (8 May 2008). "Death by a Thousand Cuts". The Times Higher Education. Archived from the original on 20 August 2012. Retrieved 2010-01-23.
29. Staff (5 May 2008). "Death by a Thousand Cuts". The New Yorker . Archived from the original on 10 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-23.
30. Waltner, Ann (2010). "Timothy Brook: The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. By Timothy Brook". The Journal of Asian Studies . 69 (4, November 2010). Cambridge University Press: 1179–1181. doi:10.1017/S0021911810002159. S2CID   163821333.
31. Bol, Peter (2011). "The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties (review)" (PDF). Journal of Song-Yuan Studies . 41. Project MUSE: 405–410. doi:10.1353/sys.2011.0014. S2CID   162226951. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-08-14. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
32. Maire, Stephen (11 February 2012). "The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties by Timothy Brook". Asian Review of Books. Cheshta Infotech Pvt Ltd. Archived from the original on 14 February 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
33. Hoffmann, Jackie (29 May 2009). "UBC Professor Wins Prestigious History Prize". Faculty of Arts, University of British Columbia. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 2010-01-29.
34. Staff (2008). "Death by a Thousand Cuts: Timothy Brook, Jérôme Bourgon and Gregory Blue". Harvard University Press. Archived from the original on 2010-02-04. Retrieved 2010-01-28.
35. Staff (5 February 2009). "Association of American Publishers Announces 2008 PROSE Award Winners". Association of American Publishers. Archived from the original on 2011-06-09. Retrieved 2010-01-28.

External links

• Staff (11 December 2005). "FRONTLINE: The Tank Man: Interviews: Timothy Brook (edited transcript)". Public Broadcasting Service . Retrieved 2010-01-24.
• Nappi, Carla (24 February 2012). "Timothy Brook: The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties". New Books in East Asian Studies. New Books Network. Archived from the original (audio) on 23 May 2013. Retrieved 2012-10-23.
• Roberts, Russ (February 19, 2008). "Brook on Vermeer's Hat and the Dawn of Global Trade". EconTalk . Library of Economics and Liberty.