In this major new study, Prasenjit Duara expands his influential theoretical framework to present circulatory, transnational histories as an alternative to nationalist history. Duara argues that the present day is defined by the intersection of three global changes: the rise of non-western powers, the crisis of environmental sustainability and the loss of authoritative sources of what he terms transcendence - the ideals, principles and ethics once found in religions or political ideologies. The physical salvation of the world is becoming - and must become - the transcendent goal of our times, but this goal must transcend national sovereignty if it is to succeed. Duara suggests that a viable foundation for sustainability might be found in the traditions of Asia, which offer different ways of understanding the relationship between the personal, ecological and universal. These traditions must be understood through the ways they have circulated and converged with contemporary developments.

《历史意识与国族认同:杜赞奇读本》内容简介：文化、权力、民族国家,是贯穿杜赞奇学术研究的关键词,他始终在探索这样的问题:现代国家如何构造新的文化？如何从历史的极权话语里找回被压抑者的声音,以及民间团体如何“抵抗”来自上面的“攻击”。 《历史意识与国族认同：杜赞奇读本》收录了五篇杜赞奇的代表性文章。其中，“复划符号：关帝的神话”一文，通过研究关帝神话的衰落和破灭过程、由清朝到共产主义革命的中国历史转型，揭示了在帝国政体中，神话与仪式作为一种交流手段的重要性；“中国与印度的现代性批评者”一文，通过将中国与印度的历史作对比，杜赞奇考察了另一种话语，在以现代性为导向的、西方的、启蒙主义的文明史语境之外，“小写”的文化及文明。尤其在“历史意识与国族认同”一文中，杜赞奇重点考察了中国如何从一个儒家、帝制社会转变成为一个现代民族国家，以及与其他非西方社会相对比，中华帝国拥有哪些能促成其转变的特点。

In this powerful and provocative book, Prasenjit Duara uses the case of Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet state in northeast China from 1932-1945, to explore how such antinomies as imperialism and nationalism, modernity and tradition, and governmentality and exploitation interacted in the post-World War I period. His study of Manchukuo, which had a population of 40 million and was three times the area of Japan, catalyzes a broader understanding of new global trends that characterized much of the twentieth century. Asking why Manchukuo so desperately sought to appear sovereign, Duara examines the cultural and political resources it mobilized to make claims of sovereignty. He argues that Manchukuo, as a transparently constructed "nation-state," offers a unique historical laboratory for examining the utilization and transformation of circulating global forces mediated by the "East Asian modern." Sovereignty and AUthenticity not only shows how Manchukuo drew technologies of modern nationbuilding from China and Japan, but it provides a window into how some of these techniques and processes were obscured or naturalized in the more successful East Asian nation-states. With its sweepingly original theoretical and comparative perspectives on nationalism and imperialism, this book will be essential reading for all those interested in contemporary history.

《从民族国家拯救历史:民族主义话语与中国现代史研究》着重研究20世纪初期的中国，探讨了民族国家、民族主义与线性进化史之间的密切关系。《从民族国家拯救历史:民族主义话语与中国现代史研究》分为两大部分：第一部分共两章，论述民族作为启蒙历史主体的理论问题；第二部分包括五个倚重文本的个案研究，是杜赞奇撰写复线历史的一系列尝试的成果，目的是要在民族进化历史的范畴和框架笼罩的阴影下闪烁出一星亮光。《从民族国家拯救历史:民族主义话语与中国现代史研究》视野宏阔而不失精深，既能以全球眼光审视近现代中国历史，又能从关键之点切入，洞察细微，把握要害，融世界与中国、历史与现实、思想文化与政治实践和政治制度等诸多因素于一体，是自20世纪七八十年代国际学术界“语言学转向”和美国汉学界“在中国发现历史”思潮出现以来较具代表性的学术著作之一。

本书对1900-1942年的华北乡村作了详细的个案研究。作者力图打通历史学与社会学的间隔，从“大众文化”的角度，提出了“权利的文化网络”等新概念，且详细论证了国家权力是如何通过种种渠道（诸如商业团体、经纪人、庙会组织、宗教、神话及象征性资源等）来深入社会底层的。