You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
This comprehensive work surveys the historical events and developments in Japan's polity, economy, society and culture.
Aizawa Kikutarõ (1866-1963) was born into the wealthiest family in Hashimoto, a small agricultural village specializing in wheat and silk. By 1925, the village was undergoing rapid commercial development, residents were commuting to factory and office jobs in cities, and, after serving as mayor for almost twenty years, Aizawa was working as a bank manager. Taking the biography of this leading villager as its central focus and incorporating intimate details of life drawn from Aizawa's diary, The Mayor of Aihara chronicles the extraordinary transformation of Hashimoto against the background of Japan's rapid industrialization. By portraying history as it was actually lived by ordinary people, the book offers a rich and compelling perspective on the modernization of Japan.
This study of Japan’s transformation by the economic crises of the 1930s focuses on efforts to overcome the effects of the Great Depression in rural areas, particularly the activities of local activists and policymakers in Tokyo. The reactions of inhabitants of rural areas to the depression shed new light on how average Japanese responded to the problems of modernization and how they re-created the countryside.
This book explores the reactions to the Manchurian crisis of different sections of the state, and of a number of different groups in Japanese society, particularly rural groups, women's organizations and business associations. It thus seeks to avoid a generalized account of public relations to the military and diplomatic events of the early 1930s, offering instead a nuanced account of the shifts in public and popular opinion in this crucial period.
Explains the role of property law in growth and development over five centuries and across several different countries and cultures.
The social history of Japan between the First and Second World Wars is a neglected area of study. The contributors to this volume consider factors such as nationalism, class, gender and race. They also explore the ideas and activities of a number of new social and political groups, such as the urban white collar class (including middle class working women), socialists, industrial workers and emigrants. The book questions the myth of Japanese homogeneity, and gives an emphasis to the diversity, cross-currents and socio-political tensions that characterised the 1920s and 1930s.
The recent revival of democracy across much of the globe, and the fragility of many of the new regimes, have inspired renewed interest in the origins of dictatorship and democracy in modern times. This book assembles renowned specialists on Eastern and Western Europe, the U.S., Latin America, and Japan to explore why democracies have succeeded and why they have failed over the past 100 years.