‘A timely intervention: this book portrays the Meiji Restoration as being at the crossroads of international trade and the world economy, and as part of the violent 1860s that remade the world. As a result, we are beginning to understand the Restoration on a truly global stage.'
Sebastian Conrad - Freie Universität Berlin
‘Viewing the Meiji Restoration through the prism of ‘global intersections', these arresting essays illuminate the interfusion of transnational and national elements in the creation – and stabilization – of the modern Japanese nation-state and the society on which it depended. A varied collection that provides new perspectives on old questions.'
Carol Gluck - Colombia University, New York
‘To widen the lens is to alter the picture. By refocusing the Restoration within a global frame, the sharp-eyed historians featured here manage to disclose both temporal rhythms and spatial patterns that have largely eluded us until now. The early Meiji landscape will never look quite the same.'
Kären Wigen - Stanford University, California
‘… this is a significant contribution to the understanding of the Restoration through its connection to international and global events, as articulated in Mark Metzler’s opening essay, and to regional histories outside of the shogunate, imperial house, or Sat-Chō alliance.’
M. Chaiklin
Source: Choice
‘scholars with a research interest in the nineteenth century will find a great deal of value in the chapters of this volume, as will those seeking to spruce up their survey lectures on modern Japanese history with new insights and discoveries, … the chapters offer ample evidence of the value of foregrounding the global forces that helped shape Japan’s emergence as a modern nation/empire.’
Daniel Botsman
Source: Monumenta Nipponica
