Axel Schneider was born in Germany. Educated at Erlangen University, National Taiwan Cheng-chi University, and Bochum University he has taught at the Universities of Heidelberg (Germany), Leiden (The Netherlands), National Taiwan Cheng-chi University, and Beijing University. In 2009 he was appointed Professor of Modern China Studies at Göttingen University, where is currently also serving as Director of the Göttingen Centre for Modern East Asian Studies. Editor of the Leiden Series in Comparative Historiography, he has published widely in German, English, and Chinese on modern Chinese historical writing.
Daniel Woolf was born in England and grew up in Canada. Educated at Queen's University and Oxford, he has taught at several Canadian Universities including Dalhousie, McMaster, and the University of Alberta. In 2009 he was appointed Professor of History at Queen's University in Kingston, where he is currently also serving as Principal and Vice-Chancellor. General Editor of The Oxford History of Historical Writing, he is also the author or editor of several previous books and many articles and book chapters. He previously also edited the two volume Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing (1998).