Charles Argon is a historian of Chinese politics between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. His research sits at the intersection of intellectual and imperial history, and he is part of a group of scholars writing a new, global history of political thought. Many of his colleagues in this project are Chinese, so he presents and publishes in Chinese as well as English. His own research takes a broad approach to politics, highlighting how environmental change, economic pressure, legal norms, and popular culture influenced imperial statecraft.
Charles’s dissertation is a history of baojia community policing in the long eighteenth century. Using official archives, varied unofficial sources, and three large databases, the dissertation recasts baojia as a site where emperors, bureaucrats, intellectuals, elites, and common people contested the boundaries of political community. In the eighteenth century, baojia became an imperial policy. The dissertation explains how that happened and then traces its influence on local political practice. Through a case study of Jiangxi province, it offers a data-driven perspective on Qing governance. And through a wide reading in private writings, it shows how Qing thinkers understood the limits of their state. In short, it shows how the Qing transformed a utopian vision of community harmony into a tool of imperial policing. The dissertation contributes to our understanding of Qing policymaking as well as the global history of policing and surveillance.
Beyond the dissertation, Charles has pursued the lives of ideas in other parts of the Qing state. His M.A. thesis explored the commodification of horses in the cavalry, and his B.A. thesis examined the making of imperial intermediaries in a treaty port. A recent article offers an intellectual biography of a bureaucrat to show how statecraft ideas influenced imperial governance.
Charles holds a B.A. summa cum laude in East Asian Studies and an M.A. in History from Princeton. In 2021, he completed a Chinese-taught M.A. in Chinese History at Tsinghua University. In 2017, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to China.
Charles welcomes inquiries from students interested in Chinese governance or applying to Princeton.
Selected Publications
“Dai Zhaochen Learns to be an Official: Statecraft Ideas and Local Governance in Late Qing China.” The Journal of Chinese History (2025): 1-22.
(In Chinese) “Horse Provisioning for Qianlong’s War in Burma: the problem of ‘horsepower.’” Proceedings of the Central China Normal University History Forum 8 (2021): 104-120.
“The Problem of China: Orientalism, ‘Young China’, and Russell’s Western Audience.” Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies 35, no. 2 (2015): 154-176.