As textbooks go, this one did a good job of showing multiple sides of the situation at any given time period. Their stories present a counterweight to the prevailing stereotypes, providing students with depictions of, This anthology is the first to survey the full range of modern Japanese drama and make available Japan's best and most representative twentieth- and early-twenty-first-century works in one volume. Your email address will not be published. I feel that this is absolutely relevant when examining the role of women. It takes students from the days of the shogunate--the feudal overlordship of the Tokugawa family--through the modernizing revolution launched by midlevel samurai in the late nineteenth century; the adoption of … I’ve been in awe of the place ever since I was a kid, consuming its anime and video games, and eating its food whenever I could. Japan: A Modern History By James L. McClain that you actually describe obtain. In a perfect world would get a 3.5 but I'll bump to 4 Very information packed book about the history of Japan from appx. Gordon then further subdivides each time period to specifically address general history, specific political landscape, economic development and social and cultural events and movements. I used it the whole semester as one of the mandatory textbook (along with other Andrew Gordon's book) and I feel like this perfectly sums up all the important milestone of Japan's history. Something that I was not quite happy with was the too-small focus on some large events in Japanese history. An Electronic Book or eBook as they are universally known is a text-based publication in digital form. Good introduction, but with only one chapter on each topic and time period, there was a lot that wasn't Used as a textbook for many classes, this is a detailed overview of the history of Japan starting in 1600s and going thru 2013. Powered By ebooksearch.us, We use cookies to give you the best online experience. Does a great job of taking you era by era through Japan's many social, political, and economic changes (and lack thereof in some cases). I suppose I'd like to see more from the history-of-ideas perspective, namely how waves of thought and aesthetics changed over this time period, alongside the excellent descriptions of how gender and labor relations changed. The book details some important social events in Japan’s history that most other historians overlooked. He skips over the Tokugawa history of Japan. Based on other books that I have read covering the empire building and I read four chapters of A Modern History as an assignment for a course on the Japanese Empire which I am auditing. To me, the dream spot is Japan. The earliest written work of history to mention Japan, the Book of Han completed around 82 AD, states that Japan, referred to as Wa, was divided into one hundred kingdoms. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read A History of Japan: From Stone Age to … One must shrug off western perspective and understand that Japanese women are revered for the successful upbringing of their children and the care they give to their husbands. Long, academic, and medium-dry, this probably isn't the book for casual interest. He spent a good amount of time discussing the 3.11 disaster, but I felt that the Rape of Nanking and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not receive enough attention. But it's readable and well researched. A modern history of Japan : from Tokugawa times to the present. Pay attention to the author's doubts of Japan's national character myth, I believe this can apply to most other cultures: national character changes, there's no certain "essence" of a people's nature. It would be nice for this book to get updated, and if it does, I’m willing to bet I’ll be up for rereading the entire thing. bubble burst 90's, corruption and authoritarian power) or the outright atrocities that they committed (ie. And he made prudent use of photographs as well as paintings or drawings which illustrated the points he was trying to make. To be clear, this is in no way an apologistic approach to Japanese history. The truth is that Japanese women control the household, and are considered the driving force behind a man's success in the workplace. the author is biased positively toward Japan. But it might have been better had he included more. I find that its style also encourages thought and questioning on part of the Andrew Gordon's work is a wonderful read for those interested in studying modern Japan, as he traces its creation and development, as well as the major domestic and global changes and challenges faced by Japan. I felt Professor Gordon wrote a useful, concise modern history of Japan. Why I started this book: I wanted to understand more about this amazing and foreign country that I'm living in. The book examines Japan's struggles to define the meaning of its modernization, from villages and urban neighborhoods, to factory floors and middle managers' offices, to the imperial court. Modernized early, civilized early, though its society has apparent flaws like attitude towards women. Japan is more or less successful as an Asian country. In a perfect world would get a 3.5 but I'll bump to 4 since it really was that informative. Download Modern Japanese Art and the Meiji State Books now!Available in PDF, EPUB, Mobi Format. When you ask people about their dream vacations, most will say the same old thing like Italy or backpacking through Europe. This book marks the first attempt to establish the contours of this new field, bringing together seminal works of Japanese scholarship and criticism with cutting-edge, This cultural, historical, and scientific exploration of sleeplessness by Eluned Summers-Bremner begins with the literature of ancient times, and finds its sufferers in prominent texts such as the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Mesopotamian epic Gilgamesh, and the Bible. I much preferred Jonathan Spences modern history of China, by comparison a much easier read. Excellent statistics accompany this narrative to give the reader an in depth look at how Japan's economy fared in comparison to other nations in the world. Japan's Modern History: An Outline of the Period: Modern Japanese history can be divided into four periods: 1600-1868: The period of the Tokugawa shôguns; feudal political order with economic and social change occurring in a gradual manner. I can't complain much about Gordon's text, which truly highlights the "miracle" that is Japan, emerging from that of an almost "backwards" nation to that of an industrialized titan in the mere span of a few decades. Beginning with the financial crisis of 2008, it takes readers up to the traumatic events of 3/11/11, and through the aftermath of this disaster. Why I finished it: This book was great but more of a slog than I was anticipating. Here, getting the soft documents of guide Japan: A Modern History By James L. McClain can be done effortlessly by downloading in the link page that we provide right here. If you want a four hundred page rundown of the results of every Japanese parliamentary election since SCAP closed down, LOOK NO FURTHER. It is only outside the home when men are given the superior advantage. Moving to Romantic and Gothic literature, she shows how sleeplessness continued to. Fourth edition : ... eBook: Document: English. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present, Third Edition, paints a richly nuanced and strikingly original portrait of the last two centuries of Japanese history. Thus, it might be the kind of book one reads in smaller chunks of 10-20 pages at a time. As introductory textbooks go AMH seems to be better than most I have read about the modern era in Japan. Maybe it deserves a 4.5 rating. While this is only about 25% of the book, I decided to review it because it seems like a representative sample. It highlights key themes, including the emergence of a modern nation-state, the rise and fall of the Japanese Empire, the development of mass consumer culture and the middle class, and the continued importance of … One of the upsides of the book is that it includes analytica… Download New Times In Modern Japan books, New Times in Modern Japan concerns the transformation of … The 24 Elders - The First World. Outstanding telling of the History of Japan from the Meiji restoration until the early 2000s. I understand that publishing maps is costly. While this is only about 25% of the book, I decided to review it because it seems like a representative sample. This book has many strengths. Format: … Gordon's history of Japan from the end of the shogun era to the present day is an interesting read. For example, since 1945, Japan has had 35 Prime Ministers; these names flowed past I felt Professor Gordon wrote a useful, concise modern history of Japan. A Modern History of Japan by Andrew Gordon, 9780190920555, available at Book Depository with free delivery worldwide. Great insight into Japan's last two centuries. It shows the evolution of what was once a very divided set of Daimyo lands, under the tutelage of a puppet Emperor and a powerful Shogun ruler. Maybe…. This was my textbook for a college course, "Modern Japan," a history class that I took for my Japanese major. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in gaining an outline of Japan. That being said has some very interesting insights into the treatment of women and minorities throughout this time period and does a good job explaining the political, economic and social movements/phases in Japan. Gorden organises these ideas in rough chronological order, but as one would expect, he does need to backtrack a bit in order to fully cover details from the many subjects this text covers. This is the perfect sequel for the Sansom books. Required fields are marked *, A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. A Modern History of Japan takes students from the days of the shogunate to the aftermath of the 2008 tsunami. He also examined gender roles which had been something I had been very curious about and very grateful that he did not neglect it. This can sometimes be a bit confusing, and personally, I thought he skipped the importance of Japan's WWI territorial gains and the 1914-1918 era in general. Interestingly only one single paragraph is dedicated to the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. still no bill wurtz - history of japan though. “modern.” This book is called A Modern History of Japan in order to shift the balance between Japanese-ness and modernity. I find that its style also encourages thought and questioning on part of the reader, which is quite fantastic. The whole wars are explained under the titles such as 'economy' etc, which means it is very hard to find, if you're looking, for these specific information. It is a refreshing and unbiased look at Japanese history, with none of the ideological or nationalistic hysteria that often surrounds popular texts on the World War periods. This course surveys Japanese history from the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603 to the present and explores the local and global nature of modernity in Japan. Yes, women's suffrage was a clear issue, as well as women's subordination to men (their husbands in particular). He presents the Japanese side of the argument, but does not fail to gloss over or lessen the impact of their failures (ie. Author: Morris Low Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 9781403968326 Size: 53.33 MB Format: PDF, ePub, Docs View: 6659 Get Books. They might even be helpful to someone looking to do a little more reading into modern Japanese history, so I'll list them here (with the authors' names written in Lastname Firstname format in accordance with the customs of China and Japan): i'll admit i skimmed through some parts (mostly those centered around political parties - not that it's not interesting, i just had trouble feeling involved) but others were really surprising and i definitely learned a whole lot. That there is little discussed by way of individual people here is maybe reflective of Japan anyway. Gordon would talk for awhile about the prosperity of the Japanese people, but then he would address the groups that weren't so prosperous. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present, Third Edition, paints a richly nuanced and strikingly original portrait of the last two centuries of Japanese history. Of course, Japan is much older than that- this is a country that claims its beginnings in the year 660 BC with the ascension of Emperor Jimmu. In a brilliant history of Japan drawn from the top down and the bottom up, one of our best young historians conveys the turbulent political, economic, and social change that over four centuries positioned Japan as a modern world power. Still, A Modern History of Japan is a very good book that helps understand where the Japanese are coming from and how they’ve been a country pushing for modernization yet proud of their history and culture. In The Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present, Andrew Gordon paints a richly nuanced and strikingly original portrait of the last two centuries of Japanese history. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche by Murakami Haruki. The text is quite accessible, and at this stage it is reasonably up to date on current events (although 5 years of new developments is quite significant, as a period of time, in which the book should be updated). It is divided into four time periods: Late Feudal Period under the Tokugawa Regime (more specifically the Edo period), Meiji era (1868-1905), Modern era including Taisho era (1905 - 1951), and finally Post WWII contemporary Japan (1952-2000). --Max Ward, Middlebury College "Beautifully written and argued by one of the eminent minds and stylists in the field. The author provides a detailed study of Shiga Naoya’s nature-inspired literature as an example of Japanese people’s engagement with nature. A decent introductory survey of modern Japanese history, although it is written in a textbook style so the prose is often dry or stilted. I would definitely recommend this text to those interested in Japanese history and society. Although there are not as many footnotes as one might expect in a college level textbook published by an academic press like Oxford, it still seemed quite comprehensive. He also does an excellent job of laying out the big picture and elegantly does it despite it being a huge undertaking. This is an academic book. This is another comprehensive book on Japanese history, covering political, social, cultural, and economic events from the Tokugawa times in the 1600s to present day. Of course, keep in mind that this is a textbook, and textbooks are notorious for not being the most energetic of literary achievements. Andrew Gordon is clearly versed in Japanese culture, as well, for he exemplifies his knowledge in the examination of critical movements and the slow shift from traditional to that of western modernity. Again, however, western perspective claims otherwise. I’ve done my homework, scoured my go-to spots, learned some very basic conversational Japanese, and of course, tried boning up on Japanese history. Even so, the text is well written and laid out, and not confusing in its intellectual layout. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present, Third Edition, paints a richly nuanced and strikingly original portrait of the last two centuries of Japanese history. Beautifully written and clearly organized, making the complexities of Japan has been inseparable from larger! About this amazing and foreign country that I was anticipating a slog than was! Little knowledge of Japanese history to discuss how accurate it is a good in-depth of! Definitely recommend this text was dense, the spread of popular education and the Meiji state books now! in., making the complexities of Japan the web, there was perhaps more discussion. The content side, this one did a good job of laying out big! 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