Reviews for The Japanese Civil Service and Economic Development: Catalysts of Change

The average rating for The Japanese Civil Service and Economic Development: Catalysts of Change based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-01-05 00:00:00 Stefanny Royer The author merits kudos on many counts for a fine piece of scholarship covering what is called the Edo Period (1600-1865). First, it is an extremely comprehensive review of the political, social, cultural, intellectual, and economic/ecological trends which marked those 265 years. The info on the significance of the role of ecological issues during this period, for example, is not something most other scholars have written about. Most note that the country's limited natural resources were important. Totman demonstrates in great depth just how that affected how people lived and the ways in which the country developed. Second, he integrates information from hundreds of primary and secondary sources in both Japanese and English into very well organized chapters. Each of these covers a particular period of time and summarizes one or more of the areas noted above. After a brief introduction each chapter is broken down into subsections about more specific related issues. Third, all of this is done for the most part in a direct, narrative style of prose. Thus, it reads pretty well, save for the proviso noted below. Fourth, Totman provides a number of maps, a smattering of visual examples of the art, and some charts to demonstrate ecological and population trends. All of these helps the reader to grasp more thoroughly what the text is describing. Fifth, at the end of the book there are summaries of suggested readings in English on various topics. Thus, help is provided for those who wish to follow up on a wide range of topics. The only criticism I have of the book is its density: since it is so thorough and comprehensive it is challenging to assimilate, let alone to retain, all the information which Totman is providing. Many times I had to limit myself to reading 8-10, maybe 12 pages. By that point it was becoming a case of TMI. Ie, in some respects EMJ is a victim of its own scholarly success! This, plus the fact that I had to try to fit it into my other reading, was the main reason why it took me 7 weeks to complete the 500 page book. I would still recommend it highly for anyone wanting a serious exposition on this very interesting and important period in Japan's history. I plan to keep it as a reference to which I will return in the future should I want to review some particular aspect of those 265 years. Totman has written a number of other books on the Edo Period. I plan to read some of those in the coming months as my time permits. One cannot recommend an author any more highly than that.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-05-08 00:00:00 Marco Hartog Whatever issues I may have with Totman - his unexamined use of words such as "early modern," "japan," and "venture capital" - I admire his attention to ecological history, and his complication of the terms of the stagnation of the Tokugawa era. Someone could really do some interesting work using his sort of hints about the different temporalities involved in using different resources, such as old growth forests, commercial fertilizer, etc.