Sheldon GARON

Biography

Sheldon Garon is the Nissan Professor of History and East Asian Studies at Princeton University.  A specialist in modern Japanese history, he also writes transnational history that spotlights the flow of ideas and institutions among the U.S., Japan, and European and Asian countries. His new book, Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves, examines what Americans might learn from European and East Asian nations whose public policies have vigorously encouraged citizens to save over the past two centuries.  The book has received media attention from NPR, BBC, New York Times, The Guardian, Financial Times Deutschland, Asahi Shinbun, and The Australian.  He has spoken recently at events hosted by the OECD, Federal Reserve Bank, JP Morgan Chase, European Savings Banks Group, and Center for Financial Studies (Frankfurt).  Previous publications include The State and Labor in Modern Japan; Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life; and The Ambivalent Consumer: Questioning Consumption in East Asia and the West.  He is currently writing a transnational history of “home fronts” in Japan, Germany, Britain, and the United States in World War II.

Curriculum Vitae

Nissan Professor of History and East Asian Studies, Department of History, Princeton University
Email: garon@princeton.edu

EDUCATION:

Ph.D., History, Yale University, 1981
A.M., East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1975
B.A., History, University of Minnesota, 1973

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

Professor, Departments of History and East Asian Studies,Princeton University, 1994- (associate professor, 1988-
94; assistant professor, 1982-88)

Assistant Professor/Instructor, Department of History, Pomona College, 1980-1982.

CURRENT RESEARCH:

“Home Fronts: A Transnational Study of Japan, Germany,
Britain, and the United States in World War II”

AWARDS AND HONORS:

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Fellowship, Washington, DC, 2009-10.
Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, 2009-10 (declined).

Smith Richardson Foundation grant, 2007-8

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2005-6

Honorific Fellowship, Princeton University, 2005-2006

Abe Fellowship (Japanese Gov’t), 2000-2002

Social Science Research Council and American Council of Learned Societies, research grant, 1996-97

Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Grant, 1992 (in Tokyo)

Japan Foundation Professional Fellowship, 1992 (declined)

John K. Fairbank Prize (American Historical Association)

in East Asian History, 1988, for book, The State and Labor in Modern Japan Social Science Research Council and American Council of Learned Societies, research grant, 1988 (in Tokyo)

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers, February 1988-January 1989

Invitation to Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Studies, Stanford, unscheduled at present Mellon Preceptorship, Princeton University (unsolicited award of one-semester paid leave), autumn 1985

Japan Foundation Professional Fellowship, summer 1984

Japan Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, 1977-1979 (in Tokyo) Social Science Research Council Dissertation Fellowship, 1977-1978 (in Tokyo)

Sumitomo Prize Fellowship, Yale University, 1975-1977, 1979-1980

National Defense Foreign Language Fellowship, Harvard University, 1973-1975

Summa Cum Laude, History, University of Minnesota, 1973

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE:

External Review Committee, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University, May 2005.

Chair, Task Force on International Studies, Princeton University, 2002-3.

Editorial Board, Journal of Japanese Studies, 1999- .

Board of Trustees, Society for Japanese Studies, 1996-

Editorial Advisory Board, Japanese Studies (Aus.), 1997-

Japan Project Advisory Committee, North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources, 2004-5.

Prize Committee, John K. Fairbank Prize for book in East Asian History, American Historical Association, 1995-96.

Advisory Board, Journal of Japanese Studies, 1993-98.

Editor for Japan manuscripts, Journal of Asian Studies, 1990-92.

Associate Editor, World Politics, 1989-90.