Dr Karl Gerth
Position:
University Lecturer in Modern Chinese History; Tutorial Fellow, Merton College
Faculty / College Address:
Oriental Institute / Merton College
Email:
Research Interests:
- History of Chinese consumerism & environmentalism since 1900
- Comparative Cold War urban social and cultural history
Current Projects:
- The history of contemporary Chinese consumerism and its global implications
- The everyday experience of Communism in China and in comparative perspective since 1949
Courses Taught:
- China in War and Revolution, 1890-1949 (Modern History)
- Imperial & Global History, 1750-1914 (Modern History)
- World History 1914-1945 & 1941-1973 (Modern History)
- Modern East Asia: China, Korea & Japan (Oriental Studies)
- Modern Chinese history (M Phil in Modern Chinese Studies)
Recent Publications:
Book:
- China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation (Harvard, 2004) http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/GERNAC.html. 制造中国：消费文化与民族国家的创建 (Zhizao Zhongguo: Xiaofei wenhua yu minzu guojia de chuangjian). Beijing: Peking University Press, 2007.
Chapters in edited volumes:
- “Consumption and Politics in Twentieth-Century China,” in Kate Soper and Frank Trentmann, eds., Citizenship and Consumption, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
- “Shanghai Fashion: Merchants and Business as Agents of Urban Vision.” In Sherman Cochran, David Strand, and Wen-hsin Yeh, eds., Cities in Motion, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007
- “Commodifying Anti-Imperialism: MSG and the Flavor of Patriotic Production” in Susan Strasser, ed., Commodifying Everything: Relationships of the Market, Routledge, 2003
- “Consumption as Resistance: The National Products Movement and Anti-Japanese Boycotts in Modern China.” In Harald Fuess, ed., The Japanese Empire in East Asia and its Postwar Legacy. Munich: iudicium, 1998
- “Consumer Society” in Akira Iriye and Pierre-Yves Saunier, eds., Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History. Palgrave Macmillan (Forthcoming 2009)
- “Consumption and Consumerism in East Asia” in Peter Stearns, ed., Encyclopedia of the Modern World. Oxford University Press (Forthcoming 2008)
Further Info:
- Winner, 2008-2010, British Academy Grant for research project, “Chinese Consumerism in Modern Times”
- Winner, 2008-2010, John Fell Foundation Grant for research project, “Chinese Consumerism in Modern Times”
- Judge, 2007-2010, American Historical Association, John King Fairbank Prize