Review: Asia: Japan and the Wider World from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the Present
| Date | 01 September 1998 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209805300322 |
| Published date | 01 September 1998 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
ing
unity
in
the
1950s
and
1960s.
traders
and
imperialist
powers
The author
argues
that
one
of
the
(Spanish,
Dutch,
and
British)
country's
major
challenges
today
is
quickly
recognized
their
usefulness
to
construct
a
national
history
in
opening
the
region
to
interna-
which
will
facilitate
the
develop-
tional trade.
Strangers
in
their
soci-
ment
of
an
inclusive
Laotian
identi-
eties,
the
conjoint
communities
all
ty,
one which
is
sensitive
to
the
possessed
dual
or
multiple identities
nation's
multi-ethnic communities.
and
never
accepted
the
dominant
This book
is
a
product
of
concern culture.
for
the
people
the
author
writes
According
to
Dobbin,
'the spirit
about.
It
makes
a
significant
contri-
of
capitalism
in
South
and South-
bution
to
our
understanding
of
the
east
Asia
can
be
discovered
in
as
tumultuous
history
of
modern
Laos.
many
spiritual
sources
as
make
up
an
identity,
under
condition
of
ASIAN
ENTREPRENEURIAL
stranger
status.
Where
more
than
MINORITIES
one spiritual
source
makes
up
an
Conjoint
communities
in
the
mak-
identity,
economic creativity
would
ing
of
the
world
economy, appear
to
be
heightened'
(p
200).
1570-1940
She suggests
that
Asia
was
not
Christine
Dobbin
unique and
that
conjoint communi-
Richmond,
Surrey:
Curzon
Press,
1996,
ties
were
important
in
the
rise
of
24 6
pp, £45.00
cloth,
£16.99
paper
capitalism
in
Europe.
The
author's
original
and
thought-provoking
This
wonderfully
conceived
and
arguments
have
significant
philo-
imaginative
book
examines
the
role
sophical
and
sociological
impor-
that
Asian
minorities
played
in
tance,
and
this
book
should
be
building
a
global
economy
over
four
widely
read
and
discussed.
centuries
of
international com-
merce.
The
author
selected
as
her
JAPAN
AND
THE
WIDER
WORLD
FROM
study
five
'conjoint' communities
in
THE
MID-NINETEENTH
CENTURY
TO
Asia
-
the Chinese
Mestizo
in
the
THE
PRESENT
Philippines and
the
Peranakan
Chi-
Akira
Iriye
nese
in
Indonesia;
the
Parsis
in
New
York:
Longman,
1997,
213pp,
western
India;
and
two
Indian
com-
$28.95
munities
in
East
Africa
and
Burma,
the
Ismaili
and
the
Nattukottai
Anyone
looking
for
an
introduction
Chettiars.
In
each
case
the
group
to
post-Meiji
Japan's place in
the
constituted
a
tiny
minority within international
system
would
do
well
the
larger
society,
and
foreign
to
begin
here.
Iriye
is
one
of
Ameri-
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Summer
1998 591
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