It is now generally recognized that Japan has been much the most successful of the countries outside Europe and North America in achieving modernization. The transformation from a feudal society with a Confucian ethic to a ‘modern, Western style economy’ is charted in this book (originally published in 1990) which follows the political, economic and social changes from the decline of the Tokugawa in the 1860s all the way through to the death of Emperor Hirohito and the end of the Showa era in 1989.
1. The Tokugawa Legacy 2. Western Challenge, Japanese Response 3. The Overthrow of the Tokugawa, 1860-1868 4. Building a Modern State, 1868-1894 5. The Meiji Emperor and the Meiji Constitution, 1873-1904 6. Cultural Borrowing, 1860-1912 7. Industrialization: the First Phase, 1860-1930 8. Capitalism and Domestic Politics, 1890-1930 9. Independence and Empire, 1873-1919 10. Soldiers and Patriots, 1918-1933 11. The New Order in Japan, 1931-1945 12. An Empire Won and Lost, 1937-1945 13. Military Occupation, 1945-1952 14. Conservative Democracy and the American Alliance, 1951-1972 15. The Economic Miracle 16. The End of the Showa Era, 1971-1989
Biography
William Beasley
