A specialist on the modern and contemporary geopolitics, political economy and history of China, Japan and the Asia Pacific, his work has addressed themes of war and revolution, inequality, development, regional and world social change, and historical memory.
Selden's works include:
A Chinese Rebel Beyond the Great Wall: The Cultural Revolution and Ethnic Pogrom in Inner Mongolia, co-authored with TJ Cheng and Uradyn E. Bulag. 2023.
Dying for an iPhone: Apple, Foxconn and the Lives of China's Workers, co-authored with Jenny Chan and Pun Ngai. 2020.
Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance co-edited with Elizabeth J. Perry, 2009 (3rd edition).
China, East Asia and the Global Economy co-authored with Takeshi Hamashita [fr] and Linda Grove, 2008.
Revolution, Resistance and Reform in Village China co-authored with Edward Friedman and Paul Pickowicz [no], 2007.
War and State Terrorism: The United States, Japan, and the Asia-Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century co-authored with Alvin Y. So, 2003.[4]
The Resurgence of East Asia: 500, 150 and 50 Year Perspectives] co-edited with Giovanni Arrighi and Takeshi Hamashita, 2003.
Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, China and the United States co-edited with Laura Hein, 2000. ISBN978-0-7656-0447-7
The Atomic Bomb: Voices From Hiroshima and Nagasaki Co-edited with Kyoko Selden and Robert J. Lifton, 1997.
China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited, 1995 (2nd edition), ISBN978-1-56324-555-8