Schwartz's early works studied the relations between political thought and action. His first book was
Chinese Communism and the Rise of Mao published by Harvard's Russian Research Center in 1951. The Introduction says he will investigate the movement's “ideas, intentions, and ambitions” over a "limited period,” from 1918 to 1933, and only “in terms of its doctrinal frame of reference and of its internal political relations,” not “the ‘objective’ social and political conditions which have encouraged its growth or in terms of its effect on the masses.” The Communists came to power “on the crest of a popular movement” but this did not mean that they were the “mystic embodiment of the popular will.” Future decisions “will be made by the political leaders and not by the surging masses.” To say that leaders would automatically continue to express the needs and aspirations of the masses would be to “construct a myth designed to sanction in advance all their future activities.” In the text, Schwartz coined the English term "
Maoism", which he used to refer to Mao's pragmatic strategy of revolution that adapted elements of Marxism-Leninism, particularly a disciplined and hierarchical Communist Party, onto a mobilized peasant mass base. His second monograph,
In Search of Wealth and Power, turned to the relations between tradition, modernity, and identity seen in the work of
Yan Fu (1854-1921), best known as the translator and interpreter of
John Stuart Mill,
Charles Darwin, and
Herbert Spencer. Earlier scholars had not thought Yan of interest, assuming that he had simply misunderstood these influential thinkers and their late 19th-century liberalism and individualism. But Schwartz used the choices that Yan Fu made in his translations to reflect on the ways in which the pursuit of wealth and power in the West had subverted individual values, even within its own liberal tradition. In 1968 he published a collection of essays following developments of the 1950s and 1960s:
Communism and China; ideology in flux (Harvard University Press). He edited the symposium
Reflections on the May Fourth movement: a symposium. (East Asian Research Center, Harvard University; distributed by Harvard University Press, 1972).
China and Other Matters (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press ) collected essays from later years. He also wrote on earlier periods. His 1985 book
The World of Thought in Ancient China was published by Harvard University Press, and is held in 850 libraries, according to WorldCat. It was reviewed in
The American Historical Review,
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies,
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies,
China Quarterly,
The Journal of Asian Studies,
Philosophy East and West,
Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, and
The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs. ==Selected works==