The book "Three Tones of History: The Boxer Rebellion as Event, Experience, and Myth (Collector's Edition)" won the 1997 American Historical Association Fairbank Award for East Asian History and the 1997 New England Historical Association Book Award. The book uses the Boxer Rebellion as an example to explain three different ways of understanding history, namely the three tones of history: event, experience, and myth. The main purpose of this book is not to tell the history of the Boxer Rebellion, but to explore a series of issues related to historical writing. "The Boxer Rebellion is just a 'supporting role' in this work." Therefore, this book is also a theoretical work of historical studies to some extent, which provides us with a new way to think about history.

Paul A. Cohen, also known as Paul A. Cohen and Kong Baorong, is an American male who was born in New York, USA in June 1934. He is a professor at the Center for Asian Studies at Wellesley College and a researcher at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. In 1953, he entered the University of Chicago for undergraduate education. After graduation in 1955, he entered Harvard University and studied under Professor John K. Fairbanks and Professor Benjamin I. Schwartz. He began to devote himself to the study of Chinese intellectual history and Sino-Western relations history, and obtained a master's degree and a doctorate degree. From 1962 to 1965, he taught at the University of Michigan and Amherst College. In 1965, he went to Wellesley College in Massachusetts as a professor of Asian studies and history, and also served as a researcher at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University. He was once the head of the History Department of Wellesley College and put most of his energy into teaching.