The Making of Modern Japan

Posted on 06 July 2019 by Marius B. Jansen

Magisterial in vision, sweeping in scope, this monumental work presents a seamless account of Japanese society during the modern era, from 1600 to the present A distillation of than fifty years engagement with Japan and its history, it is the crowning work of our leading interpreter of the modern Japanese experience.Since 1600 Japan has undergone three periods of wrenching social and institutional change, following the imposition of hegemonic order on feudal society by the Tokugawa shogun the opening of Japan s ports by Commodore Perry and defeat in World War II The Making of Modern Japan charts these changes the social engineering begun with the founding of the shogunate in 1600, the emergence of village and castle towns with consumer populations, and the diffusion of samurai values in the culture.Marius Jansen covers the making of the modern state, the adaptation of Western models, growing international trade, the broadening opportunity in Japanese society with industrialization, and the postwar occupation reforms imposed by General MacArthur Throughout, the book gives voice to the individuals and views that have shaped the actions and beliefs of the Japanese, with writers, artists, and thinkers, as well as political leaders given their due.The story this book tells, though marked by profound changes, is also one of remarkable consistency, in which continuities outweigh upheavals in the development of society, and successive waves of outside influence have only served to strengthen a sense of what is unique and native to Japanese experience The Making of Modern Japan takes us to the core of this experience as it illuminates one of the contemporary world s most compelling transformations. Free Read [ The Making of Modern Japan ] Author [ Marius B. Jansen ] – kino-fada.fr A deep, insightful and let s face it long history of Japan from the beginnings of the Tokugawa Era to the turn of the millennium The book is stronger in its first half where Jansen takes us through the establishment of the Tokugawa state and how it functioned Jansen avoids the mistake of losing you in a long list of chronologically ordered events and instead chooses to focus on specific elements, with the chronological flow of history sitting atop to loosely guide things forward Once the book A deep, insightful and let s face it long history of Japan from the beginnings of the Tokugawa Era to the turn of the millennium The book is stronger in its first half where Jansen takes us through the establishment of the Tokugawa state and how it functioned Jansen avoids the mistake of losing you in a long list of chronologically ordered events and instead chooses to focus on specific elements, with the chronological flow of history sitting atop to loosely guide things forward Once the book moves into the Meiji Period, there s less of the insight and detail but the book still does an overall admirable job sketching out the way in which Japan rebuilt itself as a modern state and then descen...Very informative and well organized Also very dry Wildly dry Like California dry.This is a massive and comprehensive book on the major changes that took place in Japan between 1600 and 2000, with the focus on the 1800s and 1900s Unsurprisingly, it goes intodepth on political, economic, and international changes It does talk about social change, but this was ...Jansen s book is hefty and detailed but very enlightening on the political and social history of modern Japan, with asides on Japanese culture and even philosophy One gets a good insight into the many influences on Japan and Japan s responses.The writing is fluid but sometimes he over sprinkles the names If a person is important, fine, but occasionally or not so occasionally he ll mention a person who does little to help a non Japanese understand the history ...This is the definitive work of modern era Japan Jansen s work is a chronicle of not just the rise of railroads, of factories, the modern firearm, electricity and gas, the telegraph, milk , and other interesting developments of early modern Japan He gives background, history, cultural and political analysis, event and timeline breakdowns andAn expansive work that takes the reader through decades upon decades of Japanese development and progress that happened at break neck speeds, but can This is the definitive work of modern era Japan Jansen s work is a chronicle of not just the rise of railroads, of factories, the modern firearm, electricity and gas, the telegraph, milk , and other interesting developments of early modern Japan He gives background, history, cultural and political analysis, event and timeline breakdowns andAn expansive work that takes the reader through decades upon decades of Japanese development and progress that happened...A great brick of a book, but it is a seamless narrative of Japanese history from the end of the Sengoku era up to modern times.I think I never learned as much reading a book The density of information and it s such a different world Yet, I felt the writing was pretty good at least compare to other historians writing, better than I was expecting Very insightful on many aspects military, power organization, politics, economics, social cultural If like me you come without knowing close to nothing on this country history, this is a great overview of all aspects of Japan recent history four centuries lol There I think I never learned as much reading a book The density of information and it s such a different world Yet, I felt the writing was pretty good at least compare to other historians writing, better than I was expecting Very insightful on many aspects military, power organization, politics, economics, social cultural If like me you come without knowing close to nothing on this country history, this is a great overview of all aspects of Japan recent history four centuries lol There is no default I could see I liked how the parts are organized chronologically, but inside each part, the chapters are thematic.My main interest in reading this book was understanding how Japan could become so successful with the Meiji restoration O...It took me over a year to finish Marius Jansen s 765 page book on the history of Japan At times it was painful reading this book It went into such minute detail about politics that it was difficult to keep all of the...Very helpful to students of East Asian Studies and those interested in the subject Contains much of detailed informations The book is a recommendation from my prof If you approach it with concentration and some reading skills I m a non native speaker , Jansens book will be a real treasureFor someone who never reads history books, this was a perfect scope Felt thorough and unbiased enough while covering over 400 years of history in a reasonable length My only complaint is that the writing is full of garden path sentences and grammatical errors, which slowed down reading

English
06 July 2019

Marius B. Jansen