The title page of a 1912 English-language biography reads Sun Yat Sen and the Awakening of China in large black type above the authors’ names and the publisher’s device.

1912 · Illustrated biography, digitised title page

Sun Yat Sen and the Awakening of China

James Cantlie and Charles Sheridan Jones

Why it matters

The book made the new republic intelligible through a familiar temporal metaphor. Its title casts China as a sleeping civilisation awakened by a singular revolutionary leader, recognising political change while preserving the Western observer’s authority to name the stage of development.

Publication
Fleming H. Revell Company
Holding institution
Library of Congress General Collections
Shelfmark
DS773 .C32; LCCN 12026223
Rights
Public domain; free to use and reuse

Cantlie, James, and Charles Sheridan Jones. Sun Yat Sen and the Awakening of China. New York and Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1912. Library of Congress, DS773 .C32.