Japan in Crisis: Essays on Taisho Democracy (Michigan Classics in Japanese Studies) [Paperback]

Ann Waswo (Author), Bernard S. Silberman (Editor), H. D. Harootunian (Editor), Gail Bernstein (Editor), James B. Crowley (Editor), Akira Iriye (Editor), Shuichi Kato (Editor), Takayoshi Matsuo (Editor), Tetsuo Najita (Editor), James I. Nakamura (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 478 pages
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0939512971
• ISBN-13: 978-0939512973
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,114,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Big Trouble in Little Taisho, January 25, 2007

By 

Crazy Fox (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japan in Crisis: Essays on Taisho Democracy (Michigan Classics in Japanese Studies) (Paperback)

This book consists of a fine set of articles, kindly reprinted as-is from the rare 1974 edition by the good folks at the University of Michigan (hence the rather generic cover). The idea of treating the Taisho period as a time of crisis and upheaval, i.e. as an exciting time for historians to study, may seem unremarkable today, but at the time it was rather unusual, and so "Japan in Crisis" marks something of a turning point in the field of Japanese Studies. The articles themselves, while slightly uneven in quality at times, are mostly quite interesting and thought-provoking still, and approach the overall subject from a great variety of angles; historians of almost any bent (political, economic, intellectual, literary, and so on) should find something here in their own ballpark, as well as a fine sampling of other approaches. In short, this is a classic collection of academic articles which still retains a healthy freshness and relevancy, a "must" on any grad student's reading list and highly recommended to anyone else seriously interested in the subject.

The articles included are:

1. "Introduction: A Sense of an Ending and the Problem of Taisho" by Harry Harootunian

2. "Some Reflections on Idealism in the Political Thought of Yoshino Sakuzo" by Tetsuo Najita

3. "A Note on the Political Thought of Natsume Soseki in His Later Years" by Takayoshi Matsuo

4. "Kawakami Hajime: A Japanese Marxist in Search of the Way" by Gail Bernstein

5. "Between Politics and Culture: Authority and the Ambiguities of Intellectual Choice in Imperial Japan" by H.D. Harootunian

6. "Aspects of the Proletarian Literary Movement in Japan" by Yoshio Iwamoto

7. "The Bureaucratic Role in Japan, 1900-1945: The Bureaucrat as Politician" by Bernard S. Silberman

8. "Taisho Democracy as the Pre-Stage for Japanese Militarism" by Shuichi Kato

9. "The Failure of Economic Expansion: 1918-1931" by Akira Iriye

10. "A New Asian Order: Some Notes on Prewar Japanese Nationalism" by James B. Crowley

11. "The Japanese Economy, 1911-1930: Concentration, Conflicts, and Crises" by Kozo Yamamura

12. "Incentives, Productivity Gaps, and Agricultural Growth Rates in Prewar Japan, Taiwan and Korea" by James I. Nakamura

13. "The Origins of Tenant Unrest" by Ann Waswo

14. "Japanese Industrial Relations at the Crossroads: The Great Noda Strike of 1927-1928" by George O. Totten

15. "Conclusion: Taisho Japan and the Crisis of Secularism" by Bernard S. Silberman