China Scholar Merle Goldman Dies
CAS professor Emerita "combined principled tenacity with personal warmth"
Merle Goldman was a BU faculty member for almost three decades. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky
China Scholar Merle Goldman Dies
CAS professor emerita “combined principled tenacity with personal warmth”
Merle Goldman, a College of Arts & Sciences professor emerita of history and an eminent scholar of modern Chinese history, died on November 16, 2023. She was 92.
Goldman was born on March 12, 1931. She earned a BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 1953, an MA from Radcliffe College in 1957, and a PhD in history and Far Eastern languages from Harvard in 1964.
“Despite growing up at a time when most women did not pursue careers, Goldman proceeded to distinguish herself as an academic heavyweight and powerful human rights advocate,” her obituary reads. “She lived life with an eternal optimism and joy that seemed to prevent her from seeing barriers, a trait that was particularly valuable for a woman of her generation.”
She joined the BU history faculty in 1972. She was “a powerful and inspiring presence” who “combined principled tenacity with personal warmth and generosity,” according to the history department’s December 2023 newsletter. “Her commitment to fostering community in the department was always clear, and her support of younger colleagues was especially valuable.” She retired from BU in 2001.
Goldman was also an associate at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Her research interests on modern Chinese history included political reform and the struggle for political rights in reform-era China and the history of Chinese intellectuals and literary dissent.
During her career, Goldman met with US presidents and Chinese leaders, including Deng Xiaoping. In 1974, she accompanied a delegation of American university presidents to China and, according to the Boston Globe, President Bill Clinton sought her advice before his 1998 summit in China. “In numerous articles and in books she wrote, cowrote, or edited, Dr. Goldman charted the history of how China changed after the Communist revolution of 1949, and the fate endured by dissidents seeking reforms,” according to the Globe.
Goldman was the author of several books on modern Chinese history and culture, all from Harvard University Press, including China’s Intellectuals: Advise and Dissent (1981), Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China: Political Reform in the Deng Xiaoping Era (1994), China: A New History (1998), coauthored with John K. Fairbank, and From Comrade to Citizen: The Struggle for Political Rights in China (2005). The New York Times Book Review selected two as notable books: China’s Intellectuals, in 1981, and Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China, in 1994. The latter book was selected by the Association of American Publishers, professional and scholarly publishing division, as the best book on government published in 1994.
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