American historian
Valerie Hansen
Alma mater Harvard University University of Pennsylvania Occupation(s) Professor, historian, author Website
valerie-hansen .com
Valerie Hansen is an
American
historian .
[1]
Career
After graduating from
Kent School in 1975,
Harvard University in 1979 and receiving her doctorate from the
University of Pennsylvania in 1987, she joined Yale University in 1988 as assistant professor and became a professor in 1998. Hansen spent one year in
Shanghai on a
Fulbright grant from 2005–06; 2008–09 and 2011–12, teaching at Yale's joint undergraduate program with
Peking University ; and fall semester 2015 teaching at Yale-NUS college in
Singapore .
[2]
Valerie Hansen became the Stanley Woodward Professor of History in 2017.
[3] At Yale, she teaches History of Traditional China, The History of World History, and seminars on
Silk Road history.
[4]
Works
Hansen's first book was Changing Gods in Medieval China, 1127-1279 , which was published in 1990.
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9] Her second book, Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China, 600-1400 , appeared in 1995.
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
In 2000, she published, The Open Empire . A second edition of the book was published in 2015. The book argues, contrary to the widespread view that no outsiders ever influenced traditional China, that Indian Buddhists and northern nomadic peoples shaped traditional China throughout its long history.
[17]
[18]
In 2012, Hansen published The Silk Road: A New History , which argued that the Silk Road trade was small-scale and usually involved local goods.
[19] The book received positive reviews from critics.
[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
In April 2020, The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began was published to mostly favorable reviews.
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30] In a review in
Early Medieval Europe Søren Michael Sindbæk wrote that she "expends five pages pursuing a paper-thin case for Maya reliefs showing Norse captives. Hansen is a conscientious scholar, and admits to alternative interpretations; yet she opts to promote the one story that fits the book’s vision of globalization, knowing that it is a fringe theory. The fleeting moment of Norse explorations in North America is thus emphasized out of all proportion.
[31]
Bibliography
Changing Gods in Medieval China, 1127-1279 (1990)
ISBN
978-0691608631
Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China (1995)
ISBN
978-0300060638
The Silk Road: A New History (2012)
ISBN
978-0190218423
The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600 (2000)
ISBN
978-1111352332
Voyages in World History (co-authored with Kenneth R. Curtis)
First Edition (2005)
Second Edition (2008)
Third Edition (2015)
The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began (2020) ISBN 978-1-5011-9410-8
Awards and honors
2013 - Gustav Ranis International Book Prize, co-winner, for the best book on an international subject by a member of the Yale University faculty
[32]
2013 - International Convention of Asia Scholars Book Prize Reading Committee Accolade for the best teaching tool in the Humanities
[33]
2021 - Elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
[34]
Here is Hansen signing the Book of Members at an Induction Ceremony, which celebrated elected artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors, for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
[35]
References
^
"China's Great Game: Road to a new empire" . Financial Times.
^
"The Silk Road" .
^
"Valerie Hansen | Department of History" . history.yale.edu . Retrieved 2023-01-07 .
^
"Valerie Hansen" .
^ Teiser, Stephen F. (1997).
"Review of Changing Gods in Medieval China, 1127-1276" . Journal of Song-Yuan Studies (27): 137–147.
ISSN
1059-3152 .
JSTOR
23495573 .
^ Waltner, Ann (1992-12-01).
"Valerie Hansen. Changing Gods in Medieval China, 1127–1276. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1990. Pp. xii, 256. $37.50" . The American Historical Review . 97 (5): 1574–1575.
doi :
10.1086/ahr/97.5.1574-a .
ISSN
0002-8762 .
^ von Glahn, Richard (1993).
"Review of Changing Gods in Medieval China, 1127-1276" . Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies . 53 (2): 616–642.
doi :
10.2307/2719463 .
ISSN
0073-0548 .
JSTOR
2719463 .
^ Haar, Barend J. ter (1996).
"Review of Changing Gods in Medieval China, 1127-1276" . T'oung Pao . 82 (1/3): 184–194.
ISSN
0082-5433 .
JSTOR
4528691 .
^ Ebrey, Patricia (1991).
"Review of Changing Gods in Medieval China, 1127-1276" . The Journal of Asian Studies . 50 (4): 909–910.
doi :
10.2307/2058566 .
ISSN
0021-9118 .
JSTOR
2058566 .
^ Zelin, Madeleine (1997).
"Review of Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary People Used Contracts, 600-1400" . The Journal of Interdisciplinary History . 28 (1): 173–175.
doi :
10.2307/206226 .
ISSN
0022-1953 .
JSTOR
206226 .
^ Lamouroux, Christian (1996).
"Review of Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China — How Ordinary People Used Contracts 600-1400" . Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient . 83 : 462–465.
ISSN
0336-1519 .
JSTOR
43731443 .
^ McDermott, Joseph P. (1998).
"Review of Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary People Used Contracts, 600-1400" . Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies . 58 (1): 282–287.
doi :
10.2307/2652656 .
ISSN
0073-0548 .
JSTOR
2652656 .
^ Buoy, Thomas (1998).
"Review of Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary People Used Contracts 600-1400" . The Historian . 60 (2): 411–412.
ISSN
0018-2370 .
JSTOR
24451772 .
^ McKnight, Brian E. (1997).
"Review of Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary People Used Contracts 600-1400" . The American Historical Review . 102 (4): 1204–1205.
doi :
10.2307/2170739 .
ISSN
0002-8762 .
JSTOR
2170739 .
^ Jay, Jennifer W. (1996).
"Review of Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary People Used Contracts, 600-1400" . The Journal of Asian Studies . 55 (3): 718–719.
doi :
10.2307/2646465 .
ISSN
0021-9118 .
JSTOR
2646465 .
S2CID
147198348 .
^ Werblowsky, R. J. Zwi (1996).
"Review of Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary People Used Contracts" . Numen . 43 (3): 323.
doi :
10.1163/1568527962598881 .
ISSN
0029-5973 .
JSTOR
3270373 .
^ Hansen, Valerie (2015). The Open Empire: A History of China to 1800 (Second ed.). New York City: W. W. Norton & Company.
ISBN
978-0-393-93877-7 .
^ Murck, Alfreda (2003).
"Review of The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600" . Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society . 13 (2): 269–272.
ISSN
1356-1863 .
JSTOR
25188376 .
^
"Why A Rules-Based Multilateral Trade Régime Is Crucial To Growth And Peace -- Part I" . Forbes .
^
"The Silk Road: A New History" . Library Journal.
^
"The Silk Road: A New History" .
^ Elverskog, Johan (2015-04-01).
"Book Review: Valerie Hansen, The Silk Road: A New History" . The Medieval History Journal . 18 (1): 166–169.
doi :
10.1177/0971945814565731 .
ISSN
0971-9458 .
S2CID
163940202 .
^ Assandri, Friederike (2016).
"Review of The Silk Road: A New History" . Journal of Asian History . 50 (2): 329–334.
doi :
10.13173/jasiahist.50.2.0329 .
ISSN
0021-910X .
JSTOR
10.13173/jasiahist.50.2.0329 .
^ GROSHOLZ, EMILY (2013). Hessler, Peter; Mahoney, Rosemary; Albinia, Alice; Hansen, Valerie (eds.).
"Painting the Rivers: Travel Books about the Yangtze, Nile and Indus" . The Hudson Review . 66 (1): 175–182.
ISSN
0018-702X .
JSTOR
43488689 .
^ Rose, Jenny (2013).
"Review of The Silk Road: A New History with Documents" . Bulletin of the Asia Institute . 27 : 163–164.
ISSN
0890-4464 .
JSTOR
44758612 .
^ Liu, Xinru (2013).
"Review of Silk Road: A New History" . The Journal of Asian Studies . 72 (4): 993–995.
doi :
10.1017/S0021911813001356 .
ISSN
0021-9118 .
JSTOR
43553258 .
S2CID
162459295 .
^ Bird, Christiane (2020-04-14).
"When Globalization Really Began" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-12-11 .
^ Altenberg, Karin (2020-05-22).
" 'The Year 1000' Review: Setting the Globe Spinning" . Wall Street Journal .
ISSN
0099-9660 . Retrieved 2020-12-11 .
^
"The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began by Valerie Hansen" . www.publishersweekly.com . Retrieved 2023-01-05 .
^ Gulliver, Katrina (2020-04-09).
"Globalisation is scarcely new: it dates back to the year 1000" . The Spectator . Retrieved 2023-01-07 .
^ Sindbæk, Søren Michael (November 2022).
"The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World – and Globalization Began. By ValerieHansen. [s.l.]: Viking. 320 pp. £20. ISBN 024135126X" . Early Medieval Europe . 30 (4): 645–647.
doi :
10.1111/emed.12589 .
ISSN
0963-9462 .
^
"Four faculty awarded international book prizes" .
^
"ICAS 8 READING COMMITTEE ACCOLADES" (PDF) .
^
"Valerie Hansen" . American Academy of Arts & Sciences . Retrieved 2023-01-05 .
^
"American Academy of Arts and Sciences" . www.amacad.org . Retrieved 2023-01-08 .
International National Academics Other