He received his BA in history in 1959, studying at Clare College, Cambridge. He then spent two years in the British Army and was deployed in Germany during this period. Spence was educated first at Winchester College, graduating in 1954. His mother was a French researcher while his father worked at an art gallery and a publishing house. Spence was born on 11 August 1936 to Muriel ( née Crailsham) and Dermot Spence in Surrey in England. Another common theme is the efforts of both Westerners and Chinese "to change China", and how such efforts were frustrated. Spence frequently used biographies to examine cultural and political history. Spence's major interest was modern China, especially the Qing dynasty, and relations between China and the West. A prolific author, reviewer, and essayist, he published more than a dozen books on China. His most widely read book is The Search for Modern China, a survey of the last several hundred years of Chinese history based on his popular course at Yale.
He was Sterling Professor of History at Yale University from 1993 to 2008. Jonathan Dermot Spence CMG (11 August 1936 – 25 December 2021) was an English-born American historian, sinologist, and writer who specialized in Chinese history. Recorded June 2008 from the BBC Radio 4 programme the Reith Lectures
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