Rana Mitter

{{Infobox academic

| name = Rana Mitter

| image = Rana Mitter.jpg

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| caption = Mitter in 2013

| birth_name = Rana Shantashil Rajyeswar Mitter

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1969|08|11|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Cambridge, United Kingdom

| nationality = British

| fields =

| workplaces = Harvard University

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| education = King's College, Cambridge (BA, MA, PhD)

| thesis_title = The Japanese occupation of Manchuria

| thesis_url = http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk/?itemid=%7Cmanuscrpdb%7C17215

| thesis_year = 1996

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| known_for = Chinese history in the Republican era, contemporary Chinese politics

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| website = {{URL| https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/rana-mitter}}

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}}

Rana Shantashil Rajyeswar Mitter {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE|FBA}} (born 11 August 1969) is a British historian and political scientist of Indian descent who specialises in the History of the People's Republic of China. He is ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School.{{Cite web |date=2023-10-27 |title=Rana Mitter |url=https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/rana-mitter |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=www.hks.harvard.edu |language=en}}

Early life and education

Mitter, of Indian Bengali heritage,{{cite web |title=Rana Mitter |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/rana-mitter/288274}} was born in Cambridge{{cite magazine|last=Rivington|first=James|date=2018|title=The Interview: Rana Mitter|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/345/BAR34-14-Mitter.pdf|magazine=British Academy Review|publisher=British Academy|access-date=2023-05-23}} and grew up on the south coast of England, near Brighton.{{Cite web |date=2021-05-18 |title=Rana Mitter, the historian teaching China's next generation |url=https://qz.com/2007078/rana-mitter-the-historian-teaching-chinas-next-generation/ |access-date=2022-08-27 |website=Quartz |language=en}} His parents were both academics; his father, Partha Mitter, taught art history at the University of Sussex and his mother, Swasti Mitter, was a professor at the University of Brighton.{{Cite web|url=http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/weekly/2012-11/02/content_15867269.htm|title=Oxford aims for China excellence|work=China Daily|first=Andrew|last=Moody|accessdate=31 August 2024}} Mitter was educated at Lancing College and King's College, Cambridge, where he received BA (1992), MPhil (1993), and PhD (1996); in 1991 he was elected President of the Cambridge Union. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University.{{Cite web |title=RANA SHANTASHIL RAJYESWAR MITTER OBE FBA |url=https://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2023-01/Rana%20Mitter%20-%20CV.pdf |website=Oxford}}

Academic career

Until 2023 he was Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford, formerly director of Oxford's China Centre, and a Fellow and Vice-Master of St Cross College.{{cite web |title=Rana Mitter |url=http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/staff/ea/chinese/rmitter.html}}{{cite news |last=Datta |first=Kanika |date=30 August 2013 |title=Virtual Coffee with BS: Rana Mitter |url=http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/virtual-coffee-with-bs-rana-mitter-113083000886_1.html |access-date=30 January 2022 |work=Business Standard}} His 2013 book China's War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival (titled Forgotten Ally: China's War with Japan, 1937-45 for publication in the US), about the Second Sino-Japanese War, was well received by critics.{{cite web |last=Overy |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Overy |date=6 June 2013 |title=China's War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival by Rana Mitter – review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/06/china-war-japan-rana-mitter-review |access-date=30 January 2022 |work=The Guardian}}{{cite web |last=Moore |first=Aaron |title=China's War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival |url=http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1548 |access-date=30 January 2022 |work=Reviews in History}}{{cite news |date=22 June 2013 |title=The start of history |url=https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21579797-how-struggle-against-japans-brutal-occupation-shaped-modern-china-start-history |access-date=30 January 2022 |newspaper=The Economist}}{{cite web |last=Lovell |first=Julia |author-link=Julia Lovell |date=18 July 2013 |title=China's war With Japan 1937-1945: the struggle for survival, by Rana Mitter, review |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10182755/Chinas-war-With-Japan-1937-1945-the-struggle-for-survival-by-Rana-Mitter-review.html |access-date=30 January 2022 |work=The Telegraph}}{{Commons category|Rana Mitter}}

On 16 July 2015, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA).{{cite web|title=British Academy Fellowship reaches 1,000 as 42 new UK Fellows are welcomed|url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/news/news.cfm/newsid/1292|website=British Academy|access-date=17 July 2015|date=16 July 2015}}

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to education.{{London Gazette|issue=62666|supp=y|page=B13|date=8 June 2019}}

He has published several op-eds for The Guardian on contemporary China politics.{{Cite web |title=Rana Mitter {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rana-mitter |access-date=2022-08-27 |website=the Guardian |language=en}} He is also a regular presenter for Night Waves (now known as Free Thinking) on BBC Radio.{{cite web |title=BBC Radio 3 - Night Waves - Rana Mitter |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/HHspypGt9d5JSLY84QQdzT/rana-mitter |work=BBC}}

Publications

= Books =

{{cite book |author=Mitter, Rana |title=The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, resistance and collaboration in modern China|location= Berkeley and Los Angeles|publisher= University of California Press|year= 2000|isbn=0520221117}}
{{cite book|author= Mitter, Rana|title= A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World|location= Oxford|publisher= Oxford University Press|year= 2004|isbn= 0192803417|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/bitterrevolution00mitt_0}}
{{cite book |author=Mitter, Rana |title=China's War with Japan, 1937-1945 : The Struggle for Survival|location=London |publisher=Allen Lane |year=2013|isbn=978-0141031453}}
{{cite book |author=Mitter, Rana |title=China's Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press |year=2020|isbn=978-0674984264}}

=Critical studies, reviews and biography=

{{cite journal |author=Kushner, Barak |date=November 2013 |title=[Review of China's war with Japan] |department=Reviews |journal=History Today |volume=63 |issue=11 |pages=62 }}
{{cite journal |author=Bickers, Robert |date=December 7, 2017 |title=Barbarians Out! |journal=The New York Review of Books |volume=64 |issue=19 |pages=42–44}} Review of Out of China: How the Chinese Ended the Era of Western Domination.

= Articles =

The Real Roots of Xi Jinping Thought, Foreign Affairs, February 20, 2024{{Cite news |last=Mitter |first=Rana |date=2024-02-20 |title=The Real Roots of Xi Jinping Thought |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/china-real-roots-xi-jinping-thought |access-date=2024-02-21 |work=Foreign Affairs |language=en-US |issue=March/April 2024 |issn=0015-7120}}