Description: First single-authored and accessibly written book that sets out comparisons and contrasts between the ways that the empires of ancient Rome and China faced their problems and sought to solve them.
Brief description: Michael Loewe is Professor Emeritus of Chinese Studies at the University of Cambridge, UK. Trained initially in Classics, he is one of the most prominent scholars of Chinese history and culture. Loewe has also served as the Director of the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge, UK, which is devoted to the study of the history of East-Asian science and technology. He is author of a dozen books on early China, and the co-editor of China's Early Empires: A Reappraisal (2010) and The Cambridge History of Ancient China (1986).
Review Quotes:
"A legendary scholar and centenarian, Michael Loewe invites us to a new saeculum of comparative history." --Zilong Guo, Professor of Classics, Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations, Northeast Normal University, China
"A magisterial comparative synthesis of the governing institutions of the Han and Roman empires, written by the world's leading scholar of China's early empires." --Carlos F. Noreña, Professor of History, University of California-Berkeley, USA "Imperial Institutions in Ancient Rome and Early China is a valuable addition to the growing number of works devoted to the comparative study of the Roman and Han Empires ... [Loewe's] observation that military success was differently valued in the two empires is illuminating." --CHOICE "It is encouraging to see that a scholar of Loewe's stature was drawn, in the last years of his life, to engage in this exciting new field of research ... The book allows future research to draw inspiration from his ideas and to critically examine them." --Bryn Mawr Classical Review