John K. Fairbank Prize


The John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History is offered annually for an outstanding book in the history of China proper, Vietnam, Chinese Central Asia, Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, or Japan, substantially after 1800. It honors the late John K. Fairbank, Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History and director of the East Asian Research Center at Harvard University, and president of the American Historical Association in 1968. Only books of high scholarly and literary merit will be considered. Anthologies, edited works, and pamphlets are ineligible for the competition.

List of prizes

YearRecipientTitlePublisher
1969Harold Z. SchiffrinSun Yat-Sen and the Origins of the Chinese RevolutionUniversity of California Press
1969Tetsuo NajitaHara Kei in the Politics of Compromise, 1905-1915Harvard University Press
1971Jerome B. GriederHu Shih and the Chinese Renaissance: Liberalism in the Chinese Revolution, 1917-37Harvard University Press
1973William G. BeasleyThe Meiji RestorationStanford University Press
1975Yu-wen JenThe Taiping Revolutionary MovementYale University Press
1977Gail Lee BernsteinJapanese Marxist: A Portrait of Kawakami Hajime, 1879-1946Harvard University Press
1979Guy S. AlittoThe Last Confucian: Liang Shu-ming and the Chinese Dilemma of ModernityUniversity of California Press
1981Conrad TotmanThe Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1862-1868University of Hawaii Press
1983Bruce CumingsThe Origins of the Korean War: Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945-47Princeton University Press
1985Philip C. HuangThe Peasant Economy and Social Change in North ChinaStanford University Press
1986Carol GluckJapan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji PeriodPrinceton University Press
1987Joseph W. EsherickThe Origins of the Boxer UprisingUniversity of California Press
1988Sheldon GaronThe State and Labor in Modern JapanUniversity of California Press
1989Prasenjit DuaraCulture, Power, and the State: Rural North China, 1900-1942Stanford University Press
1990Miriam SilverbergChanging Song: The Marxist Manifestos of Nakano ShigeharuPrinceton University Press
1991Andrew GordonLabor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar JapanUniversity of California Press
1992Carter J. EckertOffspring of Empire: The Ko-ch'ang Kims and the Colonial Origins of Korean Capitalism, 1876-1945University of Washington Press
1992Kathryn BernhardtRents, Taxes, and Peasant Resistance: The Lower Yangzi Region, 1840-1950Stanford University Press
1993Elizabeth J. PerryShanghai on Strike: The Politics of Chinese LaborStanford University Press
1993Stefan TanakaJapan's Orient: Rendering Pasts into HistoryUniversity of California Press
1994Kenneth PomeranzThe Making of a Hinterland: State, Society, and Economy in Inland North China, 1853-1937University of California Press
1995Kären WigenThe Making of Japanese Periphery, 1750-1920University of California Press
1996David G. MarrVietnam 1945: The Quest for PowerUniversity of California Press
1997Paul A. CohenHistory in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and MythColumbia University Press
1998Louise YoungJapan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime ImperialismUniversity of California Press
1999John W. DowerW.W. Norton & Co./New Press
2000Kenneth PomeranzThe Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World EconomyPrinceton University Press
2001Peter ZinomanThe Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940University of California Press
2002Julia Adeney ThomasReconfiguring Modernity: Concepts of Nature in Japanese Political IdeologyUniversity of California Press
2003Norman J. GirardotThe Victorian Translation of China: James Legge's Oriental PilgrimageUniversity of California Press
2004Jordan SandHouse and Home in Modern Japan: Architecture, Domestic Space, and Bourgeois Culture, 1880-1930Harvard University Asia Center
2005Ruth RogaskiHygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-port ChinaUniversity of California Press
2006Madeleine ZelinThe Merchants of Zigong: Industrial Entrepreneurship in Early Modern ChinaColumbia University Press
2007Eugenia LeanPublic Passions: The Trial of Shi Jianqiao and the rise of Popular Sympathy in Republican ChinaUniversity of California Press
2008Susan L. MannThe Talented Women of the Zhang FamilyUniversity of California Press
2009Klaus MühlhahnCriminal Justice in China: A HistoryHarvard University Press
2010James C. ScottYale University Press
2011Carol A. BenedictGolden-Silk Smoke: A History of Tobacco in China, 1550-2010University of California Press
2012Jun UchidaBrokers of Empire: Japanese Settler Colonialism in Korea, 1876-1945Harvard East Asian Monographs
2013Barbara MittlerA Continuous Revolution : Making Sense of Cultural Revolution CultureHarvard University Asia Center
2014Charles K. ArmstrongTyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World, 1950-1992Cornell University Press
2015Rian ThumThe Sacred Routes of Uyghur HistoryHarvard University Press
2016Barak KushnerMen to Devils, Devils to Men: Japanese War Crimes and Chinese JusticeHarvard University Press
2017Christopher GoschaVietnam: A New HistoryBasic Books
2018Thomas MullaneyThe Chinese Typewriter: A HistoryMIT Press
2019Chris CourtneyThe Nature of Disaster in China: The 1931 Yangzi River FloodCambridge University Press