The Heritage of Japanese Civilization

For survey courses in the History of Asia and the History of Japan.   This brief survey of the long and rich history of Japan, written by one of the world's leading scholars in the field, provides an overall framework for understanding this great nation from its origins to the present day. The book explores the arts and literature, political change, economic advancement, and developments in society, commerce, and culture.

Table of Contents:
Maps Documents  Preface    Chapter 1        Japanese History: Origins to the Twelfth Century  Beginnings             Jomon Culture The Yayoi Revolution             The Spread of Yayoi Culture             Tomb Culture, the Yamato State, and Korea             Religion in Early Japan Nara and Heian Japan             Seventh Century Developments             Nara and Early Heian Government A Japanese Pattern of Government             People, Land and Taxes             Rise of the Samurai Aristocratic Culture and Buddhism             Chinese Tradition in Japan             Birth of Japanese Literature             Nara and Heian Buddhism Early Japanese History in Historical Perspective   Chapter 2        Medieval Japan: The Twelfth to Sixteenth Centuries Military Rule by the Taira, Minamoto, and Ashikaga             The Taira at the Kyoto Court             Rise of Minamoto Yoritomo             The Question of Feudalism in Twelfth Century Japan             Kamakura Rule After Yoritomo             Women in Warrior Society             The Ashikaga Era             Agriculture, Commerce, and Medieval Guilds Warring States Era             War of All Against All             Foot Soldier Revolution             Piracy, Trade, and Foreign Relations Buddhism and Medieval Culture             Japanese Pietism: Pure Land and Nichiren Buddhism             Zen Buddhism             No Plays Medieval Japan in Historical Perspective   Chapter 3        The Era of Tokugawa Rule (1600—1868) Early Unifiers: Nobunaga and Hideyoshi The Seventeenth Century             Political Engineering by Tokugawa Ieyasu             Economic and Social Change The Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries             The Forty-Seven Ronin             Cycles of Reform             Bureaucratization             The Later Tokugawa Economy Tokugawa Culture             Literature and Drama             Confucian Thought             Other Developments in Thought Late Traditional Japan in Historical Perspective   Chapter 4        Modern Japan, 1853-1945 Overthrow of the Tokugawa Bakufu (1853—1868)             The Setting             The Politics of Restoration Building the Meiji State (1868—1890)             Centralization and Reforms             New Ideas             Birth of the Political Parties             The Meiji Constitution Growth of a Modern Economy             First Phase: Model Industries, the 1870s Second Phase: Private Entrepreneurs, the1880s and 1890s             Third Phase: Sustained Growth, 1905-1929             Fourth Phase: Depression and Recovery Meiji Imperialism and the International Order Education, Urbanization, and Modern Ideas The Politics of Imperial Japan (1890—1927)             The First Decade of Diet Politics (1890—1900)             The Taisho Political Crisis, 1912-1913 The Hara Cabinet, 1918-1921 The Kato Cabinet 1924-1926 Militarism and War (1927—1945)             A Crisis in Manchuria             The Great Depression             The Radical Right and the Military             The Pacific War             Japanese Militarism and German Naziism Modern Japan in Historical Perspective   Chapter 5        Japan, the Recent Decades  The Postwar Occupation and Yoshida, 1945-1954             The American Occupation             Yoshida Shigeru and Japan’s Postwar Policy The Cold War and the Japanese Transformation, 1955-1989             Double Digit Economic Growth             Society and Culture             Politics: The One and a Half Party System The History of the Present: After 1990             The Economy Society and Culture: Problems and Prospects             A New Age of Politics             International Relations Japan’s Future in Historical Perspective   Index   

About the Author :
Albert M. Craig is the Harvard-Yenching Research Professor of History Emeritus at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1959. A graduate of Northwestern University, he received his Ph.D. at Harvard University. He has studied at Strasbourg University and at Kyoto, Keio, and Tokyo universities in Japan. He is the author of Choshu in the Meiji Restoration  (1961), The Heritage of Japanese Civilization (2011), and, with others, of East Asia, Tradition and Transformation (1989). He is the editor of Japan, A Comparative View (1973) and co-editor of Personality in Japanese History (1970), Civilization and Enlightnment: the Early Thought of Fukuzawa Yukichi  (2009). He was the director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. He has also been a visiting professor at Kyoto and Tokyo universities. He has received Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Japan Foundation Fellowships. In 1988 he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government.