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Title details for Japan by Patrick Smith - Available

Japan

by Patrick Smith
ebook
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The Japanese are in the process of re-creating themselves—an endeavor they have undertaken at intervals throughout history, always prompted by a combination of domestic and global forces. In this landmark book, Patrick Smith asserts that a variety of forces—the achievement of material affluence, the Cold War's end, and the death of Emperor Hirohito—are now spurring Japan once again toward a fundamental redefinition of itself.  
As Smith argues, this requires of the West an equally thorough reevaluation of the picture we have held of Japan over the past half-century. He reveals how economic overdevelopment conceals profound political, social, and psychological under-development. And by refocusing on "internal history"  and the Japanese character, Smith offers a new framework for understanding Japan and the Japanese as they really are. The Japanese, he says, are now seeking to alter the very thing we believe distinguishes them: the relationship between the individual and society.
Timely, measured, and authoritative, this book illuminates a new Japan, a nation preparing to drop the mask it holds up to the West and to steer a course of its own in the world.
Jacket image: The Great Wave of Kanagawa, from 36 Views of Mount Fuji (detail) by Katsushika Hokusai. Private collection.
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Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Kindle Book

  • Release date: March 30, 2011

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9780307789723
  • Release date: March 30, 2011

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9780307789723
  • File size: 2466 KB
  • Release date: March 30, 2011
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Formats

Kindle Book
OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

subjects

History Travel Nonfiction

Languages

English

The Japanese are in the process of re-creating themselves—an endeavor they have undertaken at intervals throughout history, always prompted by a combination of domestic and global forces. In this landmark book, Patrick Smith asserts that a variety of forces—the achievement of material affluence, the Cold War's end, and the death of Emperor Hirohito—are now spurring Japan once again toward a fundamental redefinition of itself.  
As Smith argues, this requires of the West an equally thorough reevaluation of the picture we have held of Japan over the past half-century. He reveals how economic overdevelopment conceals profound political, social, and psychological under-development. And by refocusing on "internal history"  and the Japanese character, Smith offers a new framework for understanding Japan and the Japanese as they really are. The Japanese, he says, are now seeking to alter the very thing we believe distinguishes them: the relationship between the individual and society.
Timely, measured, and authoritative, this book illuminates a new Japan, a nation preparing to drop the mask it holds up to the West and to steer a course of its own in the world.
Jacket image: The Great Wave of Kanagawa, from 36 Views of Mount Fuji (detail) by Katsushika Hokusai. Private collection.
Expand title description text
History Travel Nonfiction