China’s history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has often been framed as a long coda of imperial decline, played out during its last dynasty, the Qing (1644-1912). Quest for Power presents a sweeping reappraisal of this narrative. Stephen Halsey traces the origins of China’s great-power status in the twentieth century to this era of supposed decadence and decay. Threats from European and Japanese imperialism and the growing prospect of war triggered China’s most innovative state-building efforts since the Qing dynasty’s founding.
Stephen Halsey is Associate Professor of History at the University of Miami. His research and teaching focus on modern China but also engage the fields of environmental history, economic history, comparative colonialism, and global history. He completed his doctoral work at the University of Chicago and has also studied at National Taiwan University and Beijing University. Before coming to Miami, he held the Alice Kaplan Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities at Northwestern University and participated in an interdisciplinary teaching program called “The Great Society.” Halsey has held fellowships with the Fulbright-Hays program, the Blakemore Foundation, FLAS, and the Earhart Foundation.
