A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present by Andrew Gordon

Description

A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present, Fourth Edition, paints a richly nuanced and strikingly original portrait of the last two centuries of Japanese history. It takes students from the days of the shogunate--the feudal overlordship of the Tokugawa family--through the modernizing revolution launched by midlevel samurai in the late nineteenth century; the adoption of Western hairstyles, clothing, and military organization; and the nation's first experiments with mass show more democracy after World War I. Author Andrew Gordon offers the finest synthesis to date of Japan's passage through militarism, World War II, the American occupation, and the subsequent economic rollercoaster.-- show less

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ejerig 156 reviews

An extremely dense, generally unpleasant read when forced to read a chapter a week multiple times. There were some very important parts of Japanese history that were left out, but I'll be generous and only cut one star for that since covering the entire history of modern Japan in less than 400 pages is a tough task.

Oct 25, 2023

gottfried_leibniz 327 reviews

A thorough well written book on Japan from Tokugawa Shogunate until 1990s. I think I was surprised by the amount of change in Japan from 1860's - 1880's. Japan transformed from Feudal state into Modern nation.

This is an academic book. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in gaining an outline of Japan.

Deus Vult,
Gottfried

Oct 4, 2019