A master of his craft, he allows the Meiji reformers, their opponents and foreign observers of that day to tell the story. Ian Buruman Los Angeles Times Book Review 20001119 Now in a magisterial book that's also highly readable, Marius Jansen has told the story of Meiji and with it the creation of modern Japan.Jansen takes the reader by the hand to show what happened and why in those intense, formative years. Authoritarianism and war were never inevitable consequences of some deep Japanese warrior instinct when given the opportunity, the Japanese, like the rest of us, want to be free and live in peace. He also goes out of his way to show how liberalism in Japan always had a chance. He refuses to see Japan in isolation, as a kind of sealed-off island of uniqueness.Indeed, he argues that political developments in Japan were almost always responses to events outside: Perry's ships, Western colonialism, Russian and later Soviet expansion, the world stock market crash of 1929 and so on. strives valiantly to explain the foundations of modern Japanese history and culture in this richly detailed, smooth-flowing narrative of the past four centuries of Japanese development.A greatly rewarding examination of an admirable but enigmatic and ancient land." - Jay Freeman Booklist 20001015 Jansen's view of modern Japanese history has two particular merits.
Hayford Library Journal Despite our deep national involvement with the Japanese people since the end of World War II, this still frustratingly insular nation remains a puzzle for Americans and other westerners.
All in all, it would be hard to find a better general volume. Publishers Weekly Words that spring to mind are magisterial, elegant, absorbing, and essential.Political military narrative is complemented by sketches of personalities, the arts, and society, with judicious assessments of controversies in historical interpretation and generous references to further reading. Kirkus Reviews Jansen conducts his readers through the labyrinthine path taken by Japan over the last 400 years.For Westerners the most fascinating aspect of this monumental work will be Japan's always uneasy, sometimes violent relationship with the outside world.Besides politics, he ventures into economics, military affairs, literature, education, social organization and both high and popular culture. Jansen shows how the country at first reluctantly, and then enthusiastically, benefited from the changes of the modern era.Jansen weaves social and political history together while narrating this course of events.A master work that will prove to be the definitive history of a dynamic society. A tremendous history of the upheavals that transformed Japan into the world's most successful of non-Western countries.
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