Talk by Timothy Brook (University of British Columbia) on 'Great State: An Old Concept for a New History of Eurasia'

Cambridge Central Asia Forum invites you to a talk by

with

Timothy Brook (University of British Columbia)

on

Great State: An Old Concept for a New History of Eurasia

Date: 7 June

Time: 5pm (Please note time change)

Venue: Room S2, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DT 

Zoom Registration: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItcuygpzsjHdGAFqamlTdoaGwVKuIh8yaD 

Abstract: In the course of writing a broad history of China in the world since the thirteenth century, I came upon the need for a concept to characterize Mongol political culture that would reflect how it has shaped the history of Asia since the time when China was absorbed into the Mongol empire. I also wanted a concept that did not fall back on the European term of empire. That concept is Great State (yeke ulus). Most of my colleagues in China studies have not been persuaded to take up the concept, yet without it I feel that we cannot see clearly what has been happening in Eurasian culture since the thirteenth century with analytical clarity.

Biography: Timothy Brook is a historian of China as seen in its global context. After a career that has taken him to Toronto, Stanford, and Oxford, he has now retired from teaching at the University of British Columbia. Better known among his books are The Confusions of Pleasure, Vermeer's Hat, and Great State: China and the World.

Everyone is welcome.