20th–21st Century (1919–2017) · Modern Academia/Intellectual History
Wm. Theodore de Bary (1919–2017) was a preeminent American sinologist and intellectual historian at Columbia University, where he spent his entire academic career. He is best known for championing Neo-Confucian studies in the West, compiling the influential 'Sources of Chinese Tradition' and 'Sources of Japanese Tradition,' and advocating for a cross-cultural understanding of human rights and liberal education rooted in global traditions.