Japan in World History [Hardcover]

Japan in World History ranges from Japan's prehistoric interactions with Korea and China, to the Western challenge of the late 1500s, the partial isolation under the Tokugawa family (1600-1868), and the tumultuous interactions of more recent times, when Japan modernized ferociously, turned imperialist, lost a world war, then became the world's second largest economy--and its greatest foreign aid donor. Writing in a lively fashion, Huffman makes rich use of primary sources, illustrating events with comments by the people who lived through them: tellers of ancient myths, court women who dominated the early literary world, cynical priests who damned medieval materialism, travelers who marveled at indecent Western ballroom dancers in the mid-1800s, and the emperor who justified Pearl Harbor. Without ignoring standard political and military events, the book illuminates economic, social, and cultural factors; it also examines issues of gender as well as the roles of commoners, samurai, business leaders, novelists, and priests.

Editors' Preface
Preface

1. Before the Brush (to 645 CE)
2. Emperors and Aristocrats: Rule by Law and Taste (645-1160)
3. Warriors: The Long Rise (1160-1550)
4. Peace--And its Benefits (1550 to 1850)
5. The Nation Transformed (1850 to 1905)
6. Engaging the World, for Good and for Ill (1905 to 1945)
7. A New Kind of Power (After 1945)

Chronology
Notes
Further Reading
Websites
Acknowledgments
Index
Introduction
1. Japan's Emergence (to c. 600 c.e.)
2. The Aristocratic Era (600-1160)
3. Years of War (1160-1550)
4. Peace and Relative Isolation (1550-1868)
5. Entering the Modern World (1868-1912)
6. At War with the World (1912-1945)
7. Japan in the Postwar World (1945- )
Chronology
Notes
Further Reading
Web Sites
Index

Huffman manages to convey to the general reader a concise and clear sense of the sweep of Japanese history, from earliest recorded hilS�