Historical (mid-20th century) · Sinology, diplomatic history
John King Fairbank (1907-1991) was the preeminent American historian of modern China in the mid-20th century, founding the field of modern Chinese studies in the United States. As a professor at Harvard University, he trained generations of scholars and shaped American understanding of China through his scholarship on China's response to Western imperialism and its revolutionary transformation. His work combined diplomatic history with deep cultural analysis, establishing the 'Harvard School' of Sinology.