Pye, Lucian W. 1921-2008 (Lucian Wilmot Pye)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born October 21, 1921, in Fenzhou, China; died of pneumonia, September 5, 2008, in Boston, MA. Politi- cal scientist, Sinologist, educator, consultant, and author. Pye was known for looking beyond the theories of political science to discover why the political cultures of some nations develop differently than others, particularly in Asia. His conclusions were often challenged by the experts who had been taught to think in theoretical terms and reach for universal answers, but Pye was able to offer explanations for political developments that defied the theories. Pye was born in China to American missionaries and spent his earliest years there. China became the focus of his doctoral study at Yale University, and Asia became the core of the curriculum he taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for more than thirty years, beginning in 1956. He became a sought-after advisor to presidents and federal agencies, including the National Security Council and the National Committee on United States-China Relations. He was a prominent leader of professional organizations, such as the American Political Science Association and the Council on Foreign Relations. Pye's intellectual curiosity led him to the study of political systems throughout the developing Asian world. He attempted to determine not what they had in common but what made each nation unique. He published at least thirty books on subjects ranging from guerrilla communism in Malaya to the psychological underpinnings of the political system of Burma (now Myanmar). He explored the differences between warlord rule in precommunist China to the dynamics of politics under Mao Zedong. In what might have seemed like a reversal of approach, his 1985 book Asian Power and Politics: The Cultural Dimensions of Authority focused on similarities rather than differences. In all his research, however, Pye looked at Asian countries as individual nation-states, each shaped by its history, culture, and human leadership into a polity that cannot be explained by theory alone. His writings include Politics, Personality, and Nation-Building: Burma's Search for Identity (1962), The Spirit of Chinese Politics: A Psychocultural Study of the Authority Crisis in Political Development (1968), Mao Tse-tung: The Man in the Leader (1976), and Redefining American Policy in Southeast Asia (1982).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Samuels, Richard J., and Myron Weiner, editors, The Political Culture of Foreign Area and International Studies: Essays in Honor of Lucian W. Pye, Brassey's (Washington, DC), 1992.

PERIODICALS

New York Times, September 12, 2008, p. C17.