William G. Beasley

William Gerald Beasley CBE FBA (22 December 1919 – 19 November 2006) was a British academic, author, editor, translator and Japanologist. He was Emeritus Professor of the History of the Far East at the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University.^[1]

Career

In 1947 Beasley was appointed Lecturer in Far Eastern History at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He became Professor of the History of the Far East in 1954, a post he held until 1983.^[1]

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about William G. Beasley, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 80+ works in 300+ publications in 8 languages and 11,000+ library holdings .^[2]

• Great Britain and the Opening of Japan, 1834-1858 (1951)
• Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853-1868 (1955)
• Historians of China and Japan (1961)
• The modern history of Japan (1963)
• The Meiji Restoration (1972). Winner John K. Fairbank Prize
• Modern Japan: Aspects of History, Literature, and Society (1975)
• Japanese Imperialism, 1894-1945 (1987)
• The Rise of Modern Japan (1989)
• Japan Encounters the Barbarian: Japanese Travellers in America and Europe (1995)
• The Japanese experience : a short history of Japan (1999)

Honours and awards

• British Academy, 1967.^[3]
• American Historical Association, John K. Fairbank Prize, 1972.^[3]
• Order of the British Empire, Commander (CBE), 1980.^[3]
• Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, 1983.^[1]
• Japan Academy, honorary member, 1984.^[3]
• Japan Foundation Award, 2001.^[4]

Notes