Book Review: Far East: The Modern History of Japan
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000127 |
| Published date | 01 March 1965 |
| Author | Gilles Lalande |
| Date | 01 March 1965 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
134
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Dr.
Zsoldos
points
out
that
in
Hungary,
unlike
the
Soviet
Union,
foreign
trade
plays
a
vital
role, and
therefore her
economic
life
has
been
affected
by
structural
economic
changes
in
the
West
and
the
Bloc
countries, and
by
the
changes
which
have
taken
place
in
the
composition
of
its
domestic
output.
Among
the
reasons
for
the
poor
performance
in
trade
were
the
slow
recovery
of
agriculture, the
inefficiencies
of
the
country's
foreign
trade
organization
and
the
domestic
economic policies
of
the
regime with
their
bias
in
favour
of
heavy
industry.
Dr.
Zsoldos' book
does
a
good
job
of
analyzing
the
magnitude,
direction
and
composition
of
Hungary's
foreign
trade.
Adequate
at-
tention
is
given
to
the
structural
changes
that
have
taken
place
in
Hungary's
foreign
trade
and
to
its
role
in
the
development
of
the
national
economy.
Unfortunately the
analysis
of
the
integration
ques-
tion
is
not
as
conclusive
as
one
would
have
hoped.
It is
not
the
lack
of
material
but
rather
the
organization
of
it
that
prevented
the
author
from
treating
this
question
satisfactorily.
MeMaster
University
ISAIAH
A.
LITVAK
Far
East
THE
MODERN
HISTORY
OF
JAPAN.
By
W.
G.
Beasley.
1963.
(New
York:
Frederick
A.
Praeger.
Toronto:
Ryerson
Press.
xi,
352pp.
$8.25)
W.
G.
Beasley,
professor
of
Far
Eastern
history
at
the
University
of
London,
and
author
of
Great
Britain
and
the
Opening
of
Japan
(1951),
Select Documents
of
Japanese
Foreign
Policy
(1955),
and
Historians
of
China
and
Japan
(1961),
the
latter
in
collaboration
with
Professor
E.
G.
Pulleyblank, has
now
produced
what
can
be
regarded
as
a
masterly
synthesis
of
the
history
of
Japan
from
the
early
nine-
teenth
century to
the
present
day. Moreover,
he
has
done
it in an
supremely readable
form.
"The
Modern
History
of
Japan"
is
divided
into
fifteen
chapters
of
approximately
equal
length.
Each
of
these
chapters
centres
around
a
specific
theme,
such
as
economics,
international
politics,
government
and
politics,
which
the
author
blends
into
the
general
social, political
and
economic
picture
of
the particular
period
under
review.
The
part
of
the
book
dealing with
the
latter
half
of
the
nineteenth
century,
that
is
from
1853
up
to
the
Sino-Japanese
War
(1894-95),
is
by
far
the
most
penetrating.
It
traces,
in a
manner
which
this
reviewer
has
not
encountered
elsewhere,
the
advance
of
Japan
into
the
modern
world.
In
Chapter
IV,
"Treaties
and
Politics,
1853-1860,"
in
particular,
the
author
brings
out
vividly
the
determining
influence
of
higher
officials
of
the
Council
of
State
under
the
Shogoun
administration.
Professor
Beasley
also
describes well
in
Chapter
V,
"New
Men
and
New
Methods,
1868-1873,"
the
establishment
of
the
Meiji
oligarchy
and
the important
fact
that
"the
Meiji
leaders
were
from
the
start
engaged
in
building
a
new
Japan,
not merely
a
new
regime."
(p.
111)
But
other
chapters
are
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