Dimensions
130 x 197 x 20mm
Political, Economic and Social Change Since 1850.
Revised Edition.
"Naiyu-gaikan - troubles at home, dangers from abroad . . ."
In the mid-nineteenth century this Chinese proverb seemed to the Japanese to sum up their situation. It was a familiar feeling, one that had lead to Japan being closed to the world for the past 200 years. But now the time had come for change: curiosity about developments in the West had begun to overcome suspicion . . .
Less than a generation later, Japanese society had metamorphosed from late feudal patterns of life into one of the world's most highly industrialised peoples. It was a disturbing experience of the majority; leaving behind the familiar traditions of Asia and moving towards the unfamiliar mores of the modern West.
W G Beasley's classic work, first published almost forty years ago, has been fully updated and revised for this new edition, charting the last years of the twentieth century. From the turbulent 1930s to the Empire won and lost between 1937 and 1945, and the astonishing postwar economic boom which ended dramatically in the recession and political upheavals of the 90s, this is a clear and authoritative history of a nation.
