Honest Brokers: Th e Politics of Expertise in the “Who Lost China?” Debate Owen Lattimore was one of the most widely admired and infl uential Sinologists in America in 1950 when he was attacked by Senator Joseph McCarthy. No complex social system can survive without knowledge specialists who provide information that political actors rely on to make decisions. But what happens when the advice is widely considered to be incorrect? Using the debate in the early 1950s over “Who Lost China?,” assigning responsibility for the fall of the Nationalist Chinese regime to the Communists, I examine the political battles that surrounded Lattimore’s reputation. Smears (a set of linked and critical claims) and degradation ceremonies (the institutional awarding of stigma) are central tools within contentious reputational politics, undercutting knowledge regimes through the exercise of institutional power. For an expert’s reputation to be preserved, the expert must be defi ned as competent (having an appropriate background), innocent (taking a neutral stance), and infl uential (providing relevant information)
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2019 ◽
pp. 142-154
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2017 ◽
Vol 85
(3)
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pp. 440-456
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