An autodidact with no university degree, Tsao is a meticulous student of Taiwan's obscure early history. His work looks at Taiwanese history from a variety of international standpoints and has given Taiwanese a new perspective on their past and on their identity.
曹永和沒有大學文憑、全靠苦讀自學，將冷僻的台灣早期史透徹鑽研，並提出以國際多元觀點來看待台灣的新視角，開啟了國人的新史觀與對自我的新認同。