About Ross
Ross Terrill, a China specialist and Associate in Research at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, is the author of nine books. Raised in rural Australia, he graduated in history and political science from the University of Melbourne in 1962 and served in the Australian Army. He took a PH.D. in political science at Harvard in 1970, where his thesis on the philosophy of R. H. Tawney was awarded the Sumner Prize and was later published by Harvard University Press as Socialism As Fellowship.
While teaching at Harvard on political thought, Chinese politics, and international affairs, he wrote 800,000,000: The Real China, The Future of China: After Mao, Flowers on an Iron Tree: Five Cities of China, and the original edition of Mao. A decade a contributing editor of The Atlantic Monthly he won the National Magazine Award for Reporting Excellence and the George Polk Memorial Award for Outstanding Magazine Reporting for writings on China. In 1979 he became an American citizen.
He is a many-time contributor to the New York Times (Op-Ed, Book Review, Week in Review, Travel Section) and other newspapers, including Newsday, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and Washington Post. He has written 19 articles in Atlantic Monthly, and many in Foreign Affairs, New Republic, National Geographic, World Monitor and other magazines. Over recent years his books include The White Boned Demon: A Biography of Madame Mao and The Australians.
Terrill has moved within a triangle of academia, journalistic writing, and public life, testifying numerous times before committees of the United States Congress. He has been a special commentator for CBS News, four times on the “Today Show,” a number of times on ABC’s Nightline, a guest on Firing Line and a frequent commentator — often from China — on NPR’s All Things Considered.
Terrill has visited China almost every year for many years and within China his Mao in Chinese translation has sold more than 1.5 million copies. His Madame Mao has also appeared there in Chinese in a restricted edition. He spent the month of June, 1989 in Beijing, including the climactic night of June 3-4 in Tiananmen Square. In the 1990s he returned to China for research on China In Our Time.
Recently, he has been visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin and at Monash University in Australia. His last book, The New Chinese Empire, published by Basic Books, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
His latest book Breaking the Rules: The Intimate Diary of Ross Terrill published by Rattling Good Yarns Press the first volume of a personal and very intimate diary he kept for over forty-years. Terrill makes public that he was gay, and very sexually active. Something that he hid from his powerful and influential friends and acquaintances.
Ross Terrill, a China specialist and Associate in Research at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, is the author of nine books. Raised in rural Australia, he graduated in history and political science from the University of Melbourne in 1962 and served in the Australian Army. He took a PH.D. in political science at Harvard in 1970, where his thesis on the philosophy of R. H. Tawney was awarded the Sumner Prize and was later published by Harvard University Press as Socialism As Fellowship.
While teaching at Harvard on political thought, Chinese politics, and international affairs, he wrote 800,000,000: The Real China, The Future of China: After Mao, Flowers on an Iron Tree: Five Cities of China, and the original edition of Mao. A decade a contributing editor of The Atlantic Monthly he won the National Magazine Award for Reporting Excellence and the George Polk Memorial Award for Outstanding Magazine Reporting for writings on China. In 1979 he became an American citizen.
He is a many-time contributor to the New York Times (Op-Ed, Book Review, Week in Review, Travel Section) and other newspapers, including Newsday, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and Washington Post. He has written 19 articles in Atlantic Monthly, and many in Foreign Affairs, New Republic, National Geographic, World Monitor and other magazines. Over recent years his books include The White Boned Demon: A Biography of Madame Mao and The Australians.
Terrill has moved within a triangle of academia, journalistic writing, and public life, testifying numerous times before committees of the United States Congress. He has been a special commentator for CBS News, four times on the “Today Show,” a number of times on ABC’s Nightline, a guest on Firing Line and a frequent commentator — often from China — on NPR’s All Things Considered.
Terrill has visited China almost every year for many years and within China his Mao in Chinese translation has sold more than 1.5 million copies. His Madame Mao has also appeared there in Chinese in a restricted edition. He spent the month of June, 1989 in Beijing, including the climactic night of June 3-4 in Tiananmen Square. In the 1990s he returned to China for research on China In Our Time.
Recently, he has been visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin and at Monash University in Australia. His last book, The New Chinese Empire, published by Basic Books, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
His latest book Breaking the Rules: The Intimate Diary of Ross Terrill published by Rattling Good Yarns Press the first volume of a personal and very intimate diary he kept for over forty-years. Terrill makes public that he was gay, and very sexually active. Something that he hid from his powerful and influential friends and acquaintances.
Books by Ross Terrill Available from Rattling Good Yarns Press
Breaking the Rules: The Intimate Diary of Ross Terrill
Ross Terrill traveled in high circles, friends with Rupert Murdock, prime ministers, US senators, and other politically powerful and well-connected men and women. He was a well-respected political scientist and historian. As a leading expert on China and the author of several award-winning books, he influenced how Americans came to see China and its importance. Henry Kissinger used Ross's Atlantic articles to brief President Richard Nixon for his historic visit to China in 1972. Ross testified numerous times before the United States Congress. He was a special commentator for CBS News, appeared multiple times on the Today Show, ABC's Nightline, and Firing Line, and was frequently a commentator—often from China—on NPR's All Things Considered. He was an eye-witness reporter during the harrowing days of the Tiananmen Square uprising.
But Ross had a secret. Nobody knew he was gay and sexually very active, a life he wrote about for over 40 years in an extremely intimate diary. Breaking the Rules is the first volume of Ross’s frank and raw diary. Sexually explicit, it reveals how this talented, influential man juggled his life between a high-powered career and his sexual exploits.
The diary may shock some; it certainly will fascinate and entice many others. It is a guilty pleasure that allows us to look through a keyhole to see the life of an extraordinary man. Ross Terrill flew high in the spotlight while exploring excesses and delights in the shadows. He lived life to its fullest. His diary is both an engaging read and an exceptional peek into LGBTQ history.
$29.95