Samurai Status, Class, and Bureaucracy: A Historiographical Essay

2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas R. Howland
Keyword(s):  
Class Conflict ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Public Office ◽  
Meiji Japan ◽  
Seminal Work ◽  
The Past ◽  
Meiji Restoration ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sociopolitical History ◽  
The 1950S

Historically, tokugawa Samurai were a legal creation that grew out of the landed warriors of the medieval age; they came to be defined by the Tokugawa shogunate in terms of hereditary status, a right to hold public office, a right to bear arms, and a “cultural superiority” upheld through educational preferment (Smith 1988, 134). With the prominent exception of Eiko Ikegami's recentThe Taming of the Samurai(1995), little has been written in English in the past two decades regarding the sociopolitical history of the samurai in Tokugawa and Meiji Japan. E. H. Norman's seminal work,Japan's Emergence as a Modern State, established the parameters of debate among American historians of Japan from the 1950s through the 1970s. Drawing on the Marxist historiography of prewar Japan, Norman interpreted the Meiji Restoration in terms of class conflict: a modified bourgeois revolution directed against a feudal Tokugawa regime, led by a coalition of lower samurai and merchants, and supported by a peasant militia (Norman [1940] 1975).

Fatal Optimism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danny Orbach
Keyword(s):  
Meiji Japan ◽  
Meiji Restoration ◽  
Japanese Military ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government

This chapter focuses on one episode in the history of Japanese military insubordination: the emergence of rebels and assassins in Meiji Japan. In October 1876, almost nine years after the Meiji Restoration, there were signs that people were unhappy and imminent rebellion seemed evident. As the Meiji reforms endangered and at times even destroyed the livelihood of many, they often encountered resistance from peasants, shizoku, and former shishi. The chapter examines early Meiji rebellions and conspiracies led by figures such as Takechi Kumakichi and Saigō Takamori in order to understand the patterns of escape to the front, reliance on the hazy center, and the optimism that gave rise to active rebellions. It also considers the failure of Shizoku rebellions and why this enabled the government to enjoy more than half of a century without further military uprisings.

Recognition, Deference, and Respect: Generalizing the Lessons of an Asymmetric Asian Order

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 105-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brantly Womack
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  
Meiji Japan ◽  
End Of History ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
History Of ◽  
World Economic ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractAs many distinguished academics and officials have pointed out, the current rise of China is not a completely new phenomenon, but rather the return of China to a position of regional centrality and world economic share that were considered normal less than two hundred years ago.1 This fact underlines the importance of history in putting the present into perspective, and at the same time, to the extent that all history is history of the present, it requires a reevaluation of the structure of China's traditional relationships. Hitherto, China's place in modern social science has been in an exotic corner, a failed oriental despotism. To be sure, traditional China did collapse, and today's China is a different China rising in a different world. We might assume that China is rising now precisely because of its differences from traditional China, that it is the last step toward the end of history rather than a resonance with the past. However, the convenience of such an assumption makes it suspect. If China is simply the latest avatar of Western modernity, then it requires of the West some readjustment, but not rethinking. However, the only certainty about China's rise is that it is a complex phenomenon, and the convenience of constructions such as China-as-Prussia or China-as-Meiji Japan derives from their preemption of open-ended study rather than from their insight into complexity. To the extent that China is China, both past and present require reconsideration.

COSTING PIONEERS: SOME LINKS WITH THE PAST*

1994 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Solomons
Keyword(s):  
Cost Accounting ◽  
Alexander Hamilton ◽  
Alphabetical Order ◽  
Biographical Information ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 1950S

When the author was working on the history of cost accounting at the beginning of the 1950s, he entered into correspondence with some of the pioneers who were developing the subject at the beginning of this century, or with men who had been personally associated with those pioneers. This paper places on record the more important biographical information that that correspondence gleaned about (in alphabetical order) Alexander Hamilton Church, Harrington Emerson, Emile Garcke and J. M. Fells, G. Charter Harrison, J. Slater Lewis, Sir John Mann and George P. Norton. It also comments briefly on their significance for the development of costing.

scholarly journals Expanding Earth and declining gravity: a chapter in the recent history of geophysics

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Kragh
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Gravitational Constant ◽  
Recent History ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of Geophysics ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Varying Gravitational Constant

Abstract. Although speculative ideas of an expanding Earth can be found before World War II, it was only in the 1950s and 1960s that the theory attracted serious attention among a minority of earth scientists. While some of the proponents of the expanding Earth adopted an empiricist attitude by disregarding the physical cause of the assumed expansion, others argued that the cause, either fully or in part, was of cosmological origin. They referred to the possibility that the gravitational constant was slowly decreasing in time, as first suggested by P. Dirac in 1937. As a result of a stronger gravitation in the past, the ancient Earth would have been smaller than today. The gravitational argument for an expanding Earth was proposed by P. Jordan and L. Egyed in the 1950s and during the next 2 decades it was discussed by several physicists, astronomers and earth scientists. Among those who for a period felt attracted by "gravitational expansionism" were A. Holmes, J. Tuzo Wilson and F. Hoyle. The paper examines the idea of a varying gravitational constant and its impact on geophysics in the period from about 1955 to the mid-1970s.

The Japanese Origin of the Chinggis Khan Legends

Inner Asia ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-34
Author(s):  
Junko Miyawaki–okada
Keyword(s):  
Japanese Version ◽  
Field Surveys ◽  
National Pride ◽  
The Past ◽  
Meiji Restoration ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mongol Empire ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Many ◽  
Imperial Family

AbstractMost members of the Japanese public today, when hearing the words Mongols or Mongolia, immediately think of three different tales: 1) That the forefathers of the Japanese Imperial Family were the horsemen of the Mongolian Plateau, who came through the Korean Peninsula to conquer Japan; 2) that Chinggis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire, was really Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a Japanese general; and 3) that the Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century failed because of a typhoon caused by a Divine Wind (kamikaze), which saved Japan from Mongolian subjugation. Each of these three stories emerged to fill the psychological requirements of national pride in the times after Japan experienced the modernisation process launched by the Meiji Restoration in 1868. These can be seen as a Japanese version of The Invention of Tradition famously described by Hobsbawm and Ranger. The second of these tales was also born in England. Kenchō Suyematsu, 1855–1920, was ordered to study in England at national expense in 1878–86. He wrote a book in English, The Identity of the great conqueror Genghis Khan with the Japanese hero Yoshitsune, An historical thesis, and published it in London in 1879. Suyemastu’s arguments for the identity of Chinggis Khan with Minamoto no Yoshitsune are all absurd. Nevertheless, in 1924 after the Japanese dispatch of troops to Siberia, there appeared a study by Mataichirō Oyabe entitled, Genghis Khan is Gen Gi–kei (Jingisu Kan wa Gen Gi–kei nari) packed with the abundant results of numerous field surveys, which became a runaway best seller. This paper aims to explain why the Japanese became so particularly interested in the Mongols, among the many Asian nations of the Asian Continent, and why they displayed such enthusiasm about the Mongols, but not the Chinese, in relating connections with the history of the past.

scholarly journals Hip Hip Hooray, ECT turns 80!

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-55
Author(s):  
Patrick Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Effective Treatment ◽  
Electroconvulsive Therapy ◽  
Severe Depression ◽  
The Past ◽  
Australian Context ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1950S

Objective: This paper reviews the history of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) with an emphasis on the Australian context over the past 30 years. The review includes data collection, the contribution of the RANZCP, and changes in legislation. Conclusion: ECT remains the most effective treatment for severe depression. Since the 1950s efforts have been made to make it more effective, tolerable and acceptable. Over the same period, significant social and political forces have acted to have the practice of ECT restricted or banned. Psychiatrists, through the RANZCP and other bodies, have the responsibility to promote quality ECT practice, advocate for patients, carers, and clinicians, counter inaccurate negative portrayals, and lobby for balanced legislation for ECT and other neurostimulation.

On The Possibility of an Autonomous History of Modern Southeast Asia

1961 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. W. Small
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of

It is generally accepted that history is an element of culture and the historian a member of society, thus, in Croce's aphorism, that the only true history is contemporary history. It follows from this that when there occur great changes in the contemporary scene, there must also be great changes in historiography, that the vision not merely of the present but also of the past must change.

Stellar Evolution

1962 ◽  
Vol 11 (02) ◽  
pp. 137-143
Author(s):  
M. Schwarzschild
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Stellar Evolution ◽  
Space Craft ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Substantial Body ◽  
Individual Stars ◽  
The Past ◽  
Evolution Of Galaxies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fast Flow

It is perhaps one of the most important characteristics of the past decade in astronomy that the evolution of some major classes of astronomical objects has become accessible to detailed research. The theory of the evolution of individual stars has developed into a substantial body of quantitative investigations. The evolution of galaxies, particularly of our own, has clearly become a subject for serious research. Even the history of the solar system, this close-by intriguing puzzle, may soon make the transition from being a subject of speculation to being a subject of detailed study in view of the fast flow of new data obtained with new techniques, including space-craft.

A 200-Year History of the Study of Childhood Language Disorders of Unknown Origin: Changes in Terminology

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Unknown Origin ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many

Purpose The current “specific language impairment” and “developmental language disorder” discussion might lead to important changes in how we refer to children with language disorders of unknown origin. The field has seen other changes in terminology. This article reviews many of these changes. Method A literature review of previous clinical labels was conducted, and possible reasons for the changes in labels were identified. Results References to children with significant yet unexplained deficits in language ability have been part of the scientific literature since, at least, the early 1800s. Terms have changed from those with a neurological emphasis to those that do not imply a cause for the language disorder. Diagnostic criteria have become more explicit but have become, at certain points, too narrow to represent the wider range of children with language disorders of unknown origin. Conclusions The field was not well served by the many changes in terminology that have transpired in the past. A new label at this point must be accompanied by strong efforts to recruit its adoption by clinical speech-language pathologists and the general public.

Suicidal Ideation Among Medical Students in Dammam, Saudi Arabia

Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Mohammed Madadin ◽  
Ritesh G. Menezes ◽  
Maha A. Alassaf ◽  
Abdulaziz M. Almulhim ◽  
Mahdi S. Abumadini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Suicidal Ideation ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Eastern Province ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Past ◽  
Depression Subscale ◽  
History Of

Abstract. Background: Medical students are at high risk of suicidal ideation. Aim: We aimed to obtain information on suicidal ideation among medical students in Dammam located in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the College of Medicine affiliated with Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Suicidal ideation in the past 12 months was assessed based on responses to four questions in the depression subscale of the General Health Questionnaire 28 (GHQ-28). In addition, data were collected to examine the association of suicidal ideation with various factors. Results: We found that 1 in 3 medical students in the study had suicidal ideation in the past 12 months, while around 40% had lifetime suicidal ideation. Suicidal ideation was associated with feelings of parental neglect, history of physical abuse, and dissatisfaction with academic performance. Limitations: The cross-sectional nature of this study limits its ability to determine causality regarding suicidal ideation. Conclusion: These rates are considerably high when compared with rates from studies in other countries around the world. This study provides a reference in the field of suicidology for this region of Saudi Arabia.

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