China scholar Paul A. Cohen will give a talk titled ?A King for All Seasons: The Goujian Story in 20th Century China? on Monday, Jan. 16 at 4:30 p.m. in Leighton Hall, Room 305. The event is free and open to the public.

One of China?s best known and most heroic leaders, King Goujian ascended the State of Yue (now the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces) throne in 496 B.C.E. Although the kingdom lasted just two centuries, Goujian himself has been immortalized for his legendary bronze sword and the tenacity that enabled him to defeat countless enemies.

Cohen is the Edith Stix Wasserman Professor Emeritus of History at Wellesley College and an associate of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University. His books include ?Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past? (1984) and ?History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth? (1997). The latter won the New England Historical Association Book Award and the American Historical Association?s John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History. Cohen?s work has been translated into both Chinese and Japanese. He is currently researching the theme of national humiliation in 20th century China.

The Herbert P. Lefler Endowment for Visiting Speakers in History, created by a Carleton parent, brings to campus prominent historians who have recently raised important conceptual questions relevant to the discipline of history.

For more information and disability accommodations, call the Carleton history department at (507) 646-4217.

Added by carlmedr on December 15, 2005

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