Customer Reviews

Japan: A Modern History: College Edition

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The last few years have seen a spate of new histories covering the last three hundred years of Japanese history. From Herbert Bix's and John Dower's Pulitizer Prize-winning looks at Japan in the Twentieth Century to Marius Jansen and now James McClain's examinations of post-Sengoku ('Warring States') societal evolution, Japanese history is again attracting the attention of mainstream American readers.

McClain's new book takes us from Tokugawa Ieyasu's country-uniting victory at Sekigahara in 1600 (with a brief stop to quickly explain the millennium of history leading up to the battle) to Yoshiro Mori's cabinet of 2000-2001. It covers political history, governmental development, economic evolution, societal change, educational systems and intellectual debates through this entire span of time giving a very synthetic view of Japanese history.

If anything, McClain's book weighs in a bit more heavily on the economic and governmental development side of the equation, leaving political history to books that have covered it many times before. He shows all of modern Japanese history (defined as 1600 AD to the present) as dynamic, evolving and never quite fully under the control of any one person or group. A view that has gained a great deal of credence in modern years, it makes this history of Japan very timely.

Unsurprisingly, the past century of Japanese history takes up the lion's share of the book and he shows the tragic mistakes of the century in much the same way he showcases the triumphs. If any one thesis appears in his book, it is that Japan continues to evolve, hangs on to the past and appears to be at the cusp of a new societal evolution as the century ticks over. The first two are hardly news, and while the third may be a little controversial in some circles, these views merit reiteration in a historical retelling.

On the whole, McClain's book makes for a very necessary addition to the available reference works on Japanese history, especially given the economic and societal bent to his writing. His sources are impeccable and his work is conservative enough to stand as a good history while being just radical enough to push a few boundaries of intellectual thought about Japan. It doesn't hurt that the work is quite readable as well. If I ever teach a course on Japanese history, this book will serve as the core historical text.

McClain has fashioned a highly detailed, sophisticated, and complex history of Japan from 1603 to the present. The historiography is superb (he obviously is totally bilingual and is fluent in Japanese sources). The history is both descriptive (chronological, social, political, economic, family/personal) as well as analytic (how social structure affected the rise of industrial society, for example). The overall effect is to make Japanese history clear and comprehensible. The people of Japan stand out in distinct relief.

I was puzzled that the Boston Globe reviewer was much cooler toward this book than I think most readers are or will be. McClain's history will stand the test of time.

If you are looking for an excellent resource on the history of Japan in the past 4 centuries, I recommend this book highly. It does an excellent job in tracing the tortuous path that wove from Japan's feudal fiefdom society to the current modern parliamentary democracy. In addition to the governmental and military matters that are generally covered, there is notable space dedicated to the arts and the contributions of women, peasants and others not normally found in history books. The maps and illustrations are adequate, and do help to support the text. Highly Recommended.

Japan: A Modern History is a well written, informative and entertaining history of modern Japan. Mr. McClain's is a skilled analysis of the evolution of the Japanese polity. This book stands head and shoulders above its peers. My only question is: Why isn't this a NYT or Amazon.com bestseller?

This book is an absolutely stellar treatment for its genre: the generalized universal history of a country over a long period. Such topics are extremely difficult to do well, but McClain's book is pretty much the way such books should be.

The book is excellent for the following reasons:

1. All countries have stereotypes and clichéd account of the past; even if an historian makes an effort to avoid the ones about the subject of the book, other countries or historical periods will intrude with theirs. McClain never seems to do this. He successfully escapes the heavy hand of stereotypes about Japan, and also those of countries that played a prominent role in Japanese history (e.g., the USA, China, Russia, the UK). He also avoids the proverbial versions of famous events.

2. McClain's treatment of the characters shows analytical fairness. When he has the time to discuss the motives of historical actors, he does so with sympathy for each one's peculiar circumstances. In contrast, lesser histories tend to paint the characters with a few adjectives, and make them out to be slaves of an immutable nature.

3. He addresses very important social movements that are nearly always overlooked by historians. During each of the periods, including the Tokugawa epoch, he describes the evolving role and concerns of Japanese women; of "out groups" such as the Burakumin; and ethnic minorities such as resident Koreans and Ainu.

4. He clearly respects his subject and has compassion for the people he writes about.

On many of the events he describes, I've read other works that are quite excellent: Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (2000) and John G. Roberts Mitsui: Three Centuries of Japanese Business (1989); clearly, McClain had done his research assiduously and avoided many common mistakes.

McClain offers a holistic approach to Japanese history. In this book he explains how Japan got to where it is today by going through the various historical periods. For recent Japanese history, he concentrates on the social aspects as well as the political and economic ones. Readers gain a thorough understanding of Japan with this book.

This is a good summary of the history of Japan. It spans all topics and is quite balanced in social, political and economic issues. McClain's book takes quite an academic approach to Japan's history, (without exessive notes of course). It is well founded, he is precise, concise and avoids controversal or journalistic subjects and speculation (such as whether Roosevelt knew about the attac on pearl harbor). In this sense this book can be highly recommended for those readers who look for a no-nonsense textbook. However, this style makes the read a bit boring. Compared to other historical books I have read I found it hard to read and - as a non-english native speaker - it took me a long time. Because the writer never goes deep into one subject, the reader gets only a kind of the summary of an issue. The book is never really gripping and as a more casual reader it is probably not my the first choice. John Dower and David Nathan have left me more inspired.

I am not writing a review in fact. But I can't find anywhere else here to ask my question: What is the difference between the college edition and hardcover ed.? There is no info on this.