葛凱(Karl Gerth) 2000年獲哈佛大學曆史學博士學位，，師從著名的中國研究權威學者孔非力教授，專業方嚮為近現代中國史。現為英國牛津大學大學曆史係副教授。作者與中國的情緣始自1986年，當時他作為一個大學生在南京大學和北京大學學習中文。此後他幾乎每年都到訪中國，或遊學或研究。其間為研究民國史，他在颱灣生活瞭三年。此外，為完成博士論文，他還到日本東京大學專門學習、研究瞭兩年的中國近現代史。

葛凱主要研究現代中國的消費主義與消費文化，一方麵集中考察消費文化在20世紀中國的變遷；另一方麵則以1950年代為關注焦點，考察中國的城市市場文化在這一階段是如何被摧毀的，並揭示這一階段的國際冷戰如何反映在中國人的日常生活中。

他的第一本著作《製造中國：消費文化與民族國傢的創建》2003年在哈佛大學齣版之後，好評如潮，去年由北京大學齣版社齣版瞭中文版，受到瞭學界和讀者的一緻好評。目前他在繼續研究1950年代和1980年代以來中國的消費文化，從曆史的層麵考察在不同的曆史時期中國的消費文化與冷戰或全球化的關係。

In this revelatory examination of the most overlooked force that is changing the face of China, the Oxford historian and scholar of modern Asia Karl Gerth shows that as the Chinese consumer goes, so goes the world. While Americans and Europeans have become increasingly worried about China’s competition for manufacturing jobs and energy resources, they have overlooked an even bigger story: China’s rapid development of an American-style consumer culture, which is revolutionizing the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese and has the potential to reshape the world. This change is already well under way. China has become the world’s largest consumer of everything from automobiles to beer and has begun to adopt such consumer habits as living in large single-occupancy homes, shopping in gigantic malls, and eating meat-based diets served in fast-food outlets. Even rural Chinese, long the laggards of consumerism, have been buying refrigerators, televisions, mobile phones, and larger houses in unprecedented numbers. As China Goes, So Goes the World reveals why we should all care about the everyday choices made by ordinary Chinese. Taken together, these seemingly small changes are deeper and more profound than the headline-grabbing stories on military budgets, carbon emissions, or trade disputes.