Liu Zuo Chang Comprehensive Study Of American History

Liu Zuochang(1921-2006)is a famous historian, mainly on the history of the War of Independence of the United States, the history of the American Civil War, Jefferson and so on. His writings are rich and famous. However, there is no rounded academic research about his writings. There have been some articles about his writings, and the articles have certain value and significance, but these articles tend to focus on certain aspects, which makes the research relatively dispersed. Few scholars have made an integral summary and evaluation from the overall historical research on his writings.The author attempts to study his writings and articles, including the textbooks, the history of war, character history and so on. The author tries learing his academic achievement and contribution, historical thought and characteristics and summarizing his historical research methods. In a word, the author tries best to learn all the aspects of his writings in order to provide a useful reference and inspiration for the contemporary academic research.This paper has five chapters:three major elements, a conclusion and a Introduction. The main contents are as follows:Introduction, his paper narrate briefly the reason to write this article and the situation of the academic research. Writing reasons include:academic background, academic value, the real value, the research basis:academic research situation includes the other’s research articles about the writings of Liu Zuochang and the shortcomings of the writings of Liu Zuochang.The first chapter" Liu Zuochang’s life and academic process" introduces his life, his writings, his academic origins, development and the people who influence him.The second chapter"Liu Zuochang’historical achievement" mainly describes Liu Zuochang’s several books of historical achievements, including:A Brief History of the War of Independence, The History of the American Civil War, Jefferson’s Biography, Jefferson’s Full Biography, World History-Modern History and so on. And there are more than30papers about American History. These writings and papers not only informative, but also have their own unique perspective. This chapter has a comprehensive introduction to these writings, including the status of these writings, main content, compilation features, horizontal and vertical comparison, contention of some of the points and the insufficiences.The third chapter"Historical thought" briefly describes he purpose of Liu Zuochang’s writings, his understanding of history, historical, historian and his view of history.The fourth chapter"Liu Zuochang, historical method and innovation" introduces his historical research method:prehistoric history research method, comparative research method and mathematical statistics method and so on. It also introduces the innovation of his writings: topics perspective, historical documents, research methods. What’s more, it introduces how to collect historical material and the compiling principle and method.Conclusions, this part gives a summary and evaluation about Liu Zuochang’s research. To generalize his academic background and academic career, historical thought, historical method, historical achievement and the insufficiences.