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February 17
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Jared
marked as to-read:
Love and Revolution: A Novel About Song Qingling and Sun Yat-sen (Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan)
by
Ping Lu
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
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Jared
marked as to-read:
Beijing: From Imperial Capital to Olympic City (Paperback)
by
Lillian M. Li
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
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Jared
marked as to-read:
Selections from the Prison Notebooks (Paperback)
by
Antonio Gramsci
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
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Jared
marked as to-read:
The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (Vintage)
by
Michel Foucault
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
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Jared
marked as to-read:
Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China (Hardcover)
by
Leslie T. Chang
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
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November 11, 2008
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Jared
gave  to:
The Return of Martin Guerre (Paperback)
by
Natalie Zemon Davis
bookshelves:
history
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my rating:
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read in November, 2008
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November 05, 2008
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Jared
gave  to:
Mao's China and the Cold War (The New Cold War History)
by
Chen Jian
bookshelves:
china,
cold-war,
history,
politics
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my rating:
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read in October, 2008
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Jared
gave to:
Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan (Twentieth Century Japan : the Emergence of a World Power, No 1)
by
Andrew Gordon
bookshelves:
history,
japan
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my rating:
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read in October, 2008
Jared said:
"Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan seeks to recast the period of "Taisho democracy" as "imperial democracy" in a way that creates a more logical flow from the imperial bureaucracy of the Meiji era to the imperial fascism...more
Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan seeks to recast the period of "Taisho democracy" as "imperial democracy" in a way that creates a more logical flow from the imperial bureaucracy of the Meiji era to the imperial fascism of the 1930s and 40s. Taisho democracy is unsuitable both in its chronological inaccuracy (not being aligned with the actual reign of the Taisho emperor) and as an analytical framework. Rather than highlight the shallow or limited nature of the prewar democratic movement, Gordon introduces imperial democracy to understand the era in a way more consistent with the way it was seen by the people who lived it. That's not to say, as a historian, he does not find contradictions (for example, between agitation for individual rights at home and a more muscular imperialism abroad). Still, he places those contradictions in the context of an overarching ideology that values loyalty to the emperor as well as kokumin (the people). As his narrative moves from the free-flowing social movement at Hibiya Park to the New Order authoritarianism at Mukden, the idea of imperial democracy holds the story together in a way that helps make sense of the turbulent prewar period.(less)
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Jared
gave  to:
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (Paperback)
by
John W. Dower
bookshelves:
history,
japan
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my rating:
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read in November, 2008
Jared said:
"John Dower's Embracing Defeat is masterful both stylistically (particularly in its prose) and in its ability to synthesize so many strands of historical inquiry. He moves seamlessly from detailing economic inflation figures to analyzing the culture ...more
John Dower's Embracing Defeat is masterful both stylistically (particularly in its prose) and in its ability to synthesize so many strands of historical inquiry. He moves seamlessly from detailing economic inflation figures to analyzing the culture of sexual servitude. This breadth comes nearly as close as one could hope to capturing a full snapshot of the origins of postwar Japan. Two things jump out about his portrait. The first is that 1945-52 is fascinating as a period self-consciously peering over the edge of history. Rupture is ubiquitous. In his words, "liberation" was "not political but psychological." At once, all was reborn. The emperor spoke aloud. "Democracy" was proclaimed. State Shinto was abolished. Tension that had built up gradually over a decade and a half—sometimes stretching back to the turn of the century or earlier—was suddenly released. An entire paragraph is dedicated to detailing the neologisms: new history, new labor, new life, new women, etc. Though, almost equally compelling is the ways Japanese adapted and endured. The initial Allied hands-off economic approach paved the way for a vibrant, if unsettling black market. The urban gardens that sprung up in bombed-out lots to supplement insufficient rations. If any one theme ties together Dower's work, it is that the imposition of democracy from a foreign power had to be negotiated through an uncertain cultural milieu and an apprehensive populace, and that success was always contingent on Japanese receptiveness—actually and psychologically.(less)
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