A historian of late imperial and northeast Asian military history presented the culmination of his sabbatical findings to a room full of students and colleagues Wednesday afternoon.
Kenneth Swope, associate professor of history, gave students and fellow professors the opportunity to learn more about the Ming Dynasty.
Swope's research was a self-described overview of the book he wrote, which will be published at the end of this year.
Swope had planned to have the book published sooner, but by "happy coincidence," he ran into the problem of having more primary sources than he had hoped for while on sabbatical in China.
"A lot of Chinese primary documents out of the archives in Beijing or Nanjing — where the two main archives are — are still published in hardcopy," Swope said. "They're not up on the internet or published digitally."
One collection Swope used for his research was a collection of 102 volumes, about 500 pages each, of copies of handwritten documents from the Ming Dynasty.
The collection is estimated at $20,000-$25,000.
Swope said he read about 48 of the volumes for his sabbatical research.
"With reduced budgets and things, universities libraries aren't able to buy these things," Swope said. "So you still have to go there to do research."
The book, entitled "The Military Collapse of China's Ming Dynasty," is the result of several years of work and research by Swope.
Beginning with an introduction from department chair Kevin Smith, Swope talked about the collapse of the Ming dynasty.
Attributing the fall of the Ming Dynasty to Emperor Wanli, Swope made a connection between the dynasty and American politics.
Swope provided reasons for the fall of the ancient power with significant reasons being economic and political factors.
"The first problem was economics, money problems," Swope said. "Again, this is something we can identify with given the fiscal problems of our own government."
With the Ming Dynasty, they had large amounts of physical wealth and were far more advanced than many other places in the world because their wealth had increased due to the finding of America.
Citing land taxes as the base of revenue, Swope connected the rich of the Ming Dynasty to part of the country's economic problems.
"The rich found ways to dodge taxes," Swope said. "The upper one percent of the Ming Dynasty were dodging all the taxes."
Read More
Indiana Capital Chronicle: All 92 counties opt in for 2025 public health funding
By Indiana Capital Chronicle / 9 hours agoEvery county in Indiana seems to have signed onto a state effort to provide $150 million in enhanced funding for public health departments in the coming year in exchange for providing “core” public health services.
AP: Biden tells Morehouse graduates that scenes in Gaza from the Israel-Hamas war break his heart, too
By Associated Press / 2 days agoPresident Joe Biden on Sunday offered his most direct recognition of U.S. students' anguish over the Israel-Hamas war, telling graduates of historically Black Morehouse College that he heard their voices of protest and that scenes from the conflict in Gaza break his heart, too.
AP: Biden's upcoming graduation speech roils Morehouse College, a center of Black politics and culture
By The Associated Press / 5 days agoWhen he gives the commencement address at Morehouse College, President Joe Biden will have his most direct engagement with college students since the start of the Israel-Hamas war at a center of Black politics and culture.
