The rich holdings of the Collection stand as a challenge to traditional historiography. There is hardly any aspect of human activity that they do not cover, enabling the study of the modern history of China and Japan grounded in the methodology of the social and behavioral sciences. In East Asia, as elsewhere, war, revolution and peace are the ultimate parameters of history. Other Western-language material is located in the Main Collection in Hoover Tower and in the Stanford University Libraries. The Reading Room also displays selected current periodicals, newspapers, and recent acquisitions.
Serial holdings are unusually comprehensive.
Outstanding among the Chinese Collection are those dating from before 1949. These include government documents, statistical reports on commerce, and numerous periodicals.