Ezra Feivel Vogel was an American sociologist who wrote prolifically on modern Japan, China, and Korea, and worked both in academia and the public sphere.
19 Facts About Ezra Vogel
2.
Ezra Vogel was Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University.
3.
Ezra Vogel's 1978 book Japan as Number One: Lessons for America was a best-seller in both English and Japanese, and his 2011 book Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China won the Lionel Gelber Prize.
4.
Ezra Vogel was born to Joseph and Edith Vogel, a family of Jewish immigrants in 1930 in Delaware, Ohio.
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Ezra Vogel graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1950, and maintained close ties with his alma mater for the rest of his life, donating royalties from his books and returning to campus frequently.
6.
Ezra Vogel was drafted to serve two years in the US Army without seeing combat during the Korean War.
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Ezra Vogel was appointed as a Lecturer in 1964, later becoming a tenured professor; he remained at Harvard until his retirement.
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Ezra Vogel was involved with several research groups during his career.
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Ezra Vogel was the founding director of the Asia Center.
10.
Ezra Vogel was married to Charlotte Ikels, professor of anthropology at Case Western University.
11.
Ezra Vogel had three children with his first wife, Suzanne Hall Vogel: David, Steven, and Eve.
12.
Ezra Vogel died in Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on December 20,2020.
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Ezra Vogel headed the undergraduate East Asian Studies concentration at Harvard.
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Ezra Vogel studied Chinese language, read newspapers and documents, and conducted interviews in Hong Kong.
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Ezra Vogel co-translated Yu's memoir on China's economic reform, and used it as a roadmap to his thinking on Deng.
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Ezra Vogel continued publishing after his retirement: his last two books were Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China and China and Japan: Facing History.
17.
Ezra Vogel contributed his royalties from the Chinese translation of this Deng political biography to his alma mater, Ohio Wesleyan, to promote international study and travel.
18.
Ezra Vogel served as National Intelligence Officer for East Asia with the National Intelligence Council from 1993 to 1995.
19.
In 1999, when American forces bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Ezra Vogel was reported by The Guardian as saying that it was not credible that the embassy was bombed by mistake when the CIA used old maps.