Episode 65: Dr. James Carter: The Downtown Writers Jam Podcast is staying on the history train with author Dr. James (he goes by Jay, though) Carter (Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai), who spent his life unpacking how he looks at the world. In this episode, Jay and Brad talk about how he does that using curiosity, writing, and (professionally) through examining the United States’ relationship with China.
About James Carter
James Carter is a writer and historian of modern China. He earned her PhD from Yale University under the direction of Jonathan Spence, and has taught since 1999 at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. His new book is Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai, coming in June from W.W. Norton. In it, Carter describes the many worlds of Shanghai on the eve of World War II, centered on the city’s celebrated race track just weeks before Pearl Harbor.
Dr. Carter is the author of two previous books: Heart of Buddha, Heart of China: The Life of Tanxu, a 20th-century Monk (Oxford, 2010) and Creating a Chinese Harbin: Nationalism in an International City, 1916-1932 (Cornell, 2002).
He has also written about China’s modern history and its relations with the West for the Times Literary Supplement, the Washington Post Monkey Cage blog, ChinaFile, the Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel, and numerous scholarly publications.
More information about Dr Carter’s speaking and publications can be found at his website.
