Needham at the crossroads
History, politics and international science in wartime China (1942–1946)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8395646 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thomas Mougey (0000-0001-7262-4275, Maastricht University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 83-109 |
| Publication date | 2017-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The British Journal for the History of Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-0874 • E-ISSN: 1474-001X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0007087417000036 |
| PMID | 28219473 |
| OpenAlex | W2591110096 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 33 |
In 1946, the British biochemist Joseph Needham returned from a four-year stay in China. Needham scholars have considered this visit as a revelatory period that paved the way for his famous book series Science and Civilization in China ( SCC ). Surprisingly, however, Needham's actual time in China has remained largely unstudied over the last seventy years. As director of the Sino-British Scientific Cooperation Office, Needham travelled throughout Free China to promote cooperation between British and Chinese scientists to contain the Japanese invasion during the Second World War. By rediscovering Needham's peregrinations, this paper re-examines the origins of his fascination for China. First, it contests the widely held idea that this Chinese episode is quite separate and different from Needham's first half-life as a leftist scientist. Second, it demonstrates how the political and philosophical commitments he inherited from the social relations of science movement, and his biochemical research, shaped his interest in China's past. Finally, this paper recounts these forgotten years to reveal their implications for his later pursuits as historian of science and as director of the natural-science division of UNESCO. It highlights how, while in China, Needham co-constituted the philosophical tenets of his scientific programme at UNESCO and the conceptual foundations of his SCC
Ancient history · China · Civilization · Epistemology · History of science · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Classics · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · History of Science and Medicine · History of Science and Natural History · Law · Philosophy
A bitter revolution
The grand titration
Time
Die soziale Funktion der Wissenschaft
China, the West, and World History in Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China
Chinese Intellectuals and the West, 1872-1949
Scientific Internationalism and the Weimar Physicists
China and Historical Capitalism
Nation, Knowledge, and Imagined Futures
Research Note Changed by War
To Win the Peace
The Fall and Rise of the Asiatic Mode of Production
Joseph Needham, Heterodox Marxism and the Social Background to Chinese Science
Allies of a Kind
A History of Universalism
Science and neutrality
The Cambridge history of China. Vol. 13
Changing Perspectives in the History of Science. Essays in Honour of Joseph Needham
The Sinology of Joseph Needham
Civilization East and West
The Work of Joseph Needham
Saving China through Science
Eloge
Transnational Science during the Cold War
Imperialism, Transnationalism, and the Reconstruction of Post-war China
Science and Civilization in China. Joseph Needham
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,56 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2025 (9) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |