(no subject)
Tetsuo Najita, Japan: The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974).
If I'm not mistaken, this was intended to be a textbook of sorts; I'm not sure how successful it is from that perspective, but as a concise 'fill in the gaps' type refresher, it was really good. Not the most thrilling or scintillating of topics, but it is important.
Not much to say on this one, other than it would've been useful to read in conjunction with some of our 'heavy lifting' we did over the course of the year; Najita doesn't go into the depth that those books/articles did, but a clear and (reasonably) simple explanation of rather complex intellectual and political ideas is really useful to have.
I have marked this up and turned down pages & have filed it away as a good 'quick reference,' but not a stand alone book.
If I'm not mistaken, this was intended to be a textbook of sorts; I'm not sure how successful it is from that perspective, but as a concise 'fill in the gaps' type refresher, it was really good. Not the most thrilling or scintillating of topics, but it is important.
Not much to say on this one, other than it would've been useful to read in conjunction with some of our 'heavy lifting' we did over the course of the year; Najita doesn't go into the depth that those books/articles did, but a clear and (reasonably) simple explanation of rather complex intellectual and political ideas is really useful to have.
I have marked this up and turned down pages & have filed it away as a good 'quick reference,' but not a stand alone book.