1. Maurice Meisner studied the Chinese Communist Revolution and the People's Republic and held a strong interest in socialist ideology, Marxism, and Maoism in particular.
17 Facts About Maurice Meisner
1. 2.
Maurice Meisner authored a number of books including Mao's China: A History of the People's Republic which became a standard academic text for scholars in the field.
3.
Maurice Meisner was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1931 to Isadore Meisner and Leah Pergament, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.
4.
Maurice Meisner grew up during Great Depression and World War II, but reached adulthood during the post-war boom in which Detroit had become a center of culture and industry.
5.
Maurice Meisner remained in Detroit for his undergraduate studies, enrolling at Wayne State University.
6.
An outstanding student, Meisner was admitted to a graduate program there after only two years of college.
7.
Maurice Meisner had two marriages each lasting about 30 years, first to Lorraine Faxon Meisner and subsequently to Lynn Lubkeman.
8.
Maurice Meisner had three children from the first marriage and one child from the second.
9.
Maurice Meisner undertook to study Chinese history at a time when this would be considered an obscure choice, but where the emerging significance of China might be discerned in the wake of the 1949 revolution and role of China in the Korean War.
10.
Maurice Meisner completed his master's thesis on The agrarian economy in China in the nineteenth century in 1955.
11.
Maurice Meisner studied in it the original contributions to Chinese revolutionary theory by the co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party, Li Dazhao, to show that the adaptation of Marxism to China which had been attributed to Mao Zedong had actually been accomplished by Li.
12.
Maurice Meisner was an early member of the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars.
13.
Maurice Meisner wrote for their publication, the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, and at the time of his death in 2012 he was still listed on the advisory board of the journal.
14.
Maurice Meisner took sabbaticals at the Woodrow Wilson Center and at the London School of Economics.
15.
Maurice Meisner was himself in Beijing in 1989 up until a week before the crackdown on the democracy movement.
16.
Maurice Meisner assumed the title of Harvey Goldberg Professor of History for the remainder of his university career.
17.
Maurice Meisner died at his home in Madison, Wisconsin in 2012.