Publications

Dreams of a Young Republic

My second book, out in October 2025, looks at a community of American Catholic missionaries - the American Vincentians - who lived in southeast China from 1921 to the early 1950s. They were present for the unification of China by Chiang Kai-shek in 1927 and his efforts to consolidate the political infrastructure of the Republic of China in the years following, Japanese invasion in 1937, and Communist revolution in 1949.

The Vincentians were heavily invested in the idea of a successful Chinese republic that would reflect their own values and make possible the continued spread of their faith in Chinese communities. Their dreams were crushed by the 1949 revolution, an excellent example of how history compresses our experiences: it is so blindingly obvious now that the American Vincentian project could never have worked, but for the American missionaries working in 1930s and 1940s China this outcome was unthinkable.

Dreams of a Young Republic: The American Vincentians in China is published by the University of Nebraska Press.

Empire of Infields

My first book, published in 2019, took shape out of my doctoral dissertation, which examined the differences between baseball in Taiwan and Gaelic Games in Ireland as examples of postcolonial sporting experiences.

Many Americans in particular are surprised to hear that it was Japan that introduced baseball to Taiwan, and not the United States. The sport arrived in Taiwan following its colonization by the Empire of Japan in 1895.

The major historiographical question that emerges is how to understand baseball as an expression, mechanism, or engine of Taiwanese nationalism. I argue that although after 1968 baseball indeed assumes the classic post-colonial mantle of a vessel of nationalist culture, prior to that the sport is better understood as a cultural phenomenon led by Japanese imperialism. In fact, for years after World War II baseball persisted as evidence of a cultural experience shared between Japan and Taiwan.

Other opinions are available, and if you are interested in the history of Taiwanese baseball some excellent work has been done. I recommend Andrew Morris and Yu Junwei.

Empire of Infields: Baseball in Taiwan and Cultural Identity, 1895-1968 is published by the University of Nebraska Press.