Book Reviews : A History of Japan, 1334-1615. By GEORGE SANSOM. (Stanford: Stanford Uni versity Press, 1961. Pp. xix, 442. $8.25.)
| Author | John M. Maki |
| Date | 01 December 1961 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591296101400439 |
| Published date | 01 December 1961 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
994
it;
&dquo;an
election
by
emigration.&dquo;
It
is
imperative,
he
urges,
that
the
Western
allies
continue
to
occupy
West
Berlin.
As
long
as
it is
held,
the
peoples
of
the
Soviet
satellites
will
know
they
have
not
been
forgotten
by
the
West.
These
essays
are
scholarly,
informative,
moderate
and
judicious
in
tone.
Anyone
who
wants
to
understand
the
unique
situation
of
Berlin
in
the
cold
war
will
find
them
a
valuable
resource.
However,
this
reviewer
would
stress
-
as
indeed
a
number
of
these
writers
affirm
-
that
the
issue
is
not
Berlin,
but
Ger-
many,
and
as
long
as
this
is
the
case,
the
decisions
governing
the
future
of
the
city
will
necessarily
be
made
by
forces
outside
its
limits.
Furthermore,
even
grant-
ing
that
Berliners
are
more
democratic
than
their
fellow-Germans
elsewhere,
this
provides
no
assurance
that
a
democratic
Berlin
as
the
German
capital
would
exert
any
more
influence
on
the
conservative,
even
authoritarian,
German
body
politic
in
the
future
than
it
has
in
the
past.
Chico
State
College
CARL
E.
HEIN
A
History
of
Japan,
1334-1615.
By
GEORGE
SANSOM.
(Stanford:
Stanford
Uni-
versity
Press,
1961.
Pp.
xix,
442.
$8.25.)
This
is
the
second
volume
of
a
trilogy
which,
when
completed,
will
be
a
history
of
Japan
from
the
origins
of
the
country
to
the
middle
of
the
nineteenth
century.
The
first
volume,
A
History
of
Japan
to
1334,
appeared
in
1958
and
the
final
volume,
A
History
of
Japan,
1615-1854,
is
in
preparation.
Even
in
its
present
incomplete
state
the
trilogy
stands
as
a
great,
perhaps
the
greatest,
contribution
&dquo;―
of
Western
scholarship
to
the
study
of
the
societies
of
East
Asia.
The
author
concentrates
in
this
volume
on
the
military
and
political
history
of
the
rise
and
fall
of
the
Ashikaga
family
and
the
period
of
unification
which
covered
the
last
half
of
the
sixteenth
century.
Though
the
emphasis
is
on
military
and
political
developments,
there
is
also
much
on
economic
history,
the
develop-
ment
of
governmental
and
social
institutions,
and
the
shifting
relations
between
-
and
among
new
and
old
social
classes.
The
result
is
a
fascinating
and
enlighten-
ing
account
of
change
and
development
in
Japanese
society
toward
ever-increas-
ing
complexity
over
a
period
of
three
centuries.
That
the
author
has
succeeded
in
providing
us
with
such
a
clear
and
convincing
account
of
the
growth
of
a
society,
both
alien
in
kind
and
distant
in
time,
is
perhaps
the
best
measure
of
his
greatness
as
an
historian.
The
shortcomings
of
this
book
seem
to
me
to
be
few
and
minor.
The
num-
erous
and
detailed
accounts
of
battles
failed
to
capture
my
interest;
yet
I
cannot
hold
this
against
the
author
who
was
fully
aware
of
the
fact
that
he
dealt
&dquo;at
length&dquo;
and
in
seemingly
&dquo;tiresome
detail&dquo;
with
the
clash
of
arms
and
rightfully
observed
that
&dquo;they
are
a
necessary
part
of
any
study
of
a
society
in
which
war-
riors
compose
the
ruling
class.&dquo;
I
was
rather
surprised
and
disappointed
at
the
brevity
with
which
Tokugawa
leyasu
was
treated
in
comparison
with
his
pre-
decessors,
Oda
Nobunaga
and
Toyotomi
Hideyoshi.
The
three
men
are
com-
monly
credited
with
having
created
the
early
modern
Japanese
nation.
Perhaps
this
apparent
slighting
of
leyasu
will
be
remedied
by
a
return
to
that
great
leader
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