Remembering Ezra Vogel

Ezra F. Vogel was one of America’s foremost experts on Asia, mastering the Japanese and Chinese languages and contributing important scholarly works on both countries, and on their relationships with each other and with the world. Starting from modest roots in an immigrant family in a small town in Ohio, he came to Harvard in 1953 to train as a sociologist of the family. He then retooled himself and became a specialist on Asia, spending almost the entirety of his life at Harvard until his death at age 90 in 2020.

Vogel had a dramatic impact on the lives of many in countries around the world, not only through his scholarship and the students he trained, but through his friendship and mentoring of journalists, diplomats, business executives, and foreign leaders as well as through his public policy advice and devotion to institution building, at Harvard as well as nationally and internationally. Active until the end, the news of his sudden death provoked outpourings of gratitude and grief from countless people. The present volume, containing fond reminiscences from 155 diverse individuals, conveys what was so extraordinary about the character and life of Ezra Vogel.