Lawrence K. Rosinger's papers document his research interest in far eastern studies in the 1940s and early 1950s, his two trips to China (in 1946 and 1973), as well as his activities during the McCarthy era.
Lawrence K. Rosinger was born in New York City on October 5, 1915. He received his B.A. in history from the City College of New York in 1932 and a master's degree in Far Eastern studies from Columbia University in 1936. From 1937 to 1941, Rosinger taught history and civilizations courses in New York high schools, and from 1941 to 1942, he worked as assistant to the India Government Trade Commissioner. Rosinger worked as a research associate with the Foreign Policy Association from 1941 to 1942. During this same period, he was awarded two visiting lectureships by Columbia and the University of California-Berkeley.
In 1946, Rosinger made his first trip to China. Traveling as a correspondent for the Foreign Policy Association and also representing several other American publications, he had an excellent opportunity to gather firsthand information. During his trip, he traveled some 5,000 miles by train, car, ship and even on horseback within China. He visited Shanghai, Peiping (Beijing), Yenan, the Yellow River area, and Manchuria. He interviewed more than two dozen Chinese Communist leaders and some third-party spokesmen, as well as high-ranking officials of the Nationalist Party. By the late 1940s, he had established himself as an expert in the field of Far Eastern studies. In 1948 he began to work as a research associate for the American Institute of Pacific Relations.
Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, Rosinger was a highly respected expert in Far Eastern studies. He was consulted regularly by the U.S. State Department regarding China and Far Eastern policies. He was a prolific writer. Besides six books, four on China, and two on India, he also wrote more than one hundred articles, book reviews, and radio broadcasts. He was also a very active public speaker. While working for the American Foreign Policy Association and the American Institute for Pacific Relations, he gave numerous talks to organizations each year.
After the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949, and especially after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, Rosinger came under attack from right-wing supporters of Senator Joseph McCarthy in Congress for his allegedly pro-Communist views. In testimony before the McCarran Committee, a subcommittee in charge of investigating pro-Communist activities, Rosinger defended his position as a scholar of Chinese studies and his work with the American Institute of Pacific Relations.
In 1952, to remove himself from further political persecution, Rosinger moved to Detroit, Michigan. He first worked as a hardware store manager in Detroit and then taught at Henry Ford Community College for over twenty years. In 1973, Rosinger made his second trip to China with his wife Lillian Rosinger and five other Americans. For twenty-five days, they traveled as tourists, visiting such places as Canton (Guangzhou), Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengzhou, Sian, Yenan and Beijing. In Beijing, Rosinger interviewed Marshall Ye Jianying, head of China's armed forces and one of the six top leaders of the country.
Rosinger retired in the early 1980s and died in 1994. He was survived by his wife, Lillian Rosinger, his son and daughter.
