TestLectureTranscript

This is a history class. It's a class in contemporary history↗. But it is a history class. I'm a historian and as such I would like to start the class with an historical anecdote

So I'm going to take you back to May 1972. Richard Nixon↗ has landed in China↗ the first American president ever to visit the People's Republic.

He meets, besides meeting with Chairman Mao↗, with Premier Zhou Enlai↗ the effective Prime Minister of China.

Nixon, as those of you know anything about him may know, was a really socially awkward and inept personality in some respects. He found it very difficult to make small talk. But he had been told by his advisors that Zhou Enlai was really interested in French history. So Nixon said, as you might in that situation, what do you think about the French Revolution↗? Zhou famously replied, "it's too soon to tell".

This anecdote is a suitable place to begin a history of recent world affairs. Zhou Enlai's reply might warn us against passing premature historical judgments. It's too soon to tell.

The episode I would suggest is cautionary in a different direction. It ought to caution us to get our facts right. Because Zhou Enlai was not referring to the French Revolution which you think of when we talk about the French Revolution (the Revolution of 1789) he was, according to Nixon's translator, referring to the revolution of 1968↗.