Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2019 - Social & Behavioral Sciences — History, Geography & Area Studies — Africa

In what is by far one of the best books on nation building and democratization, Miller provides a superbly written study of the promises and perils of democratization through nation building with excellent pre- and post-chapter synopses. Her study of how the US and Japan grappled with the paradoxes of democracy moves through expert blending of archival, interview, and secondary sources revealing the importance of the periphery to Cold War planning. The intertwining of constitutional and extra-constitutional actors, internally and externally, reveals the multi-faceted relationship necessary to understand foreign policy making as a struggle for global civil enhancement and credibility. Walking readers from democracy as a state of mind through rigid constructs, protests, and a re-envisioning of the method of democratization, Miller astutely forces readers to confront the liberatory and universal nature of democracy with the potential of militarization and violence. Her narrative culminates with lingering questions of the exportability of American democracy, the role of the state in empowering its citizenry, and the significance of alliance networks as models of cooperation and bulwarks against threats. Miller's narrative style reminds this reviewer of a Puccini opera with emotional connectivity demanding readers' continued engagement, no matter the direction, to a finish that is both expected and surprising.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

If Americans know anything about the history of Dien Bien Phu, it either comes from Bernard Fall's Hell in a Very Small Place (1966) or Ted Morgan's Valley of Death (2010). Now, Lentz (UNC) examines Dien Bien Phu in Contested Territory. Far too many scholars view the titanic event through the prism of the tragic battle and forget that Dien Bien Phu, as Lentz reminds us, was more than a battle, it was a place. Lentz's lasting achievement is in constructing a new geopolitical account of how the Black River borderland became integrated into the new Democratic Republic of Vietnam. For the Vietnamese, it was no simple task, as Lentz notes, because the indigenous people had more in common with Laotians and the Chinese than with the Vietnamese. Integrating the inhabitants of the borderlands was just as significant for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as contesting the region with the French, who had established an ill-advised military post there. Contested Territory is a major addition to our understanding of the making of Vietnam and a must for any academic library.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Recent scholarship has overturned many assumptions about wartime Japan, and this study is a breath fresh air for this area of study. Uchiyama (history, USC) employs Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of carnival to show flashes of resistance, intentional or not, against wartime ideology and government expectations. "Carnival kings" such as munitions factory workers, war correspondents, actors, and even soldiers were targets of criticism as they pushed back against notions of unquestioned patriotism, obedience, and support for the war. The many counterintuitive examples make for fascinating reading. For example, young men working in munitions factories garnered decent wages (given the relative dearth of male factory labor), and spent those wages lavishly as young men are wont to do, earning the ire of conservative pundits who expected frugality. Kamikaze pilots, often depicted as well educated, were in fact not, and many were hardly enthusiastic. Nor were veterans, who complained about the war after returning to Japan. This is the rare book that is both an impressive scholarly achievement and a fascinating read.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

Chatani (history, National Univ. of Singapore) has written a groundbreaking study of how and why young men in rural areas of Japan and its then-colonies, Taiwan and Korea, became emotionally invested in the project of Japanese nationalism and militarism. Focusing on youth mobilization across the Japanese empire, the author presents detailed case studies of rural villages in Japan and its colonies to unearth what motivated farm youth to join official "village youth associations" and to actively participate in Japanese imperial and wartime programs, including volunteering as Japanese soldiers. Chatani highlights the social dynamics of the creation and mobilization of rural youth in each locale. At the core of this book is an original revelation about how and why tens of thousands of Taiwanese and Korean rural youth were swept up in "volunteer fever" to become soldiers in the Japanese army. Providing a new perspective on the emotional attraction of the Japanese Empire and the opportunities it provided to the youth in the colonies, this superb study will be required reading for those interested in modern Japanese history, Japanese empire-building, and imperialism and colonialism.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Wang (Univ. of Delaware) offers an important contribution to Asian Studies that reminds us of the little- mentioned or purposely forgotten story of Manchu-Korean relations. To complicate the picture of Qing imperialism, this book provides a unique perspective for observing how the Manchu court used a Confucian ideological tool, the "Zongfanism," to incorporate Korea in the Chinese world order. Zongfanism, different from the familiar tributary, is a "Chinese system of political and diplomatic communication" conducted between a civilized center and its periphery with their shared politico-cultural norms. The indigenous Zongfan perspective helps our understanding of Sino-foreign relations with neighboring polities as well as Qing China's difficult encounters with European powers. Chronologically, this book includes two parts. Part 1 covers how the Manchu court established the Zongfan relation with Korea and used Korea as a model for Qing's relationship with other Asian polities. Part 2 sets the dilemma of Manchu-Korean relations into the multilateral treaty negotiations with Europe America, and Japan. Deftly drawing his evidences from Manchu, Korean, and Chinese sources, the author successfully presents a complicated picture of the "age-honored China and Korea relations." This is a must-read for historians of China and Korea as well as for anyone interested in international relations.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Harootunian (emer., Univ. of Chicago) is one of the doyens of Japanese intellectual and cultural history, having written on early modern and modern Japan for half a century, and of Karl Marx. He is also considered by many to be one of the most controversial. During the 1960s and 1970s, when many, if not most, Japanese historians snubbed Marxian analysis and critical theory and largely ignored Japan's fascist era, Harootunian pushed ahead with theory-based analysis of Japan's history. This included 19th-century intellectual history and, later, analysis of everyday life and its connections to fascism. He was also a critic of Asian studies, and "area studies" more generally, because of the connection between scholars and politicians who wanted to use knowledge about Asia for geopolitical purposes. This volume is a collection of his most influential essays, which cover his career from the 1970s to the present. The text is a must read for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars working in Japanese or Asian history; Harootunian's ideas have aged well.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates and above.