BOOKS

Asia Reoriented

Asia Reoriented

A New Conception of World History

Okamoto Takashi
Translated by Michael House

Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

History

¥2,800 + tax

ISBN 9784866582207
210 mm x 148 mm / 232 pp. / June 2022

Nomads, farmers, and trade: world history was born where these elements intersected. In this reconceptualized view, respected Japanese historian Okamoto Takashi locates history’s crucible in the boundary zones between settled agriculturists and nomadic peoples, where the Silk Road emerged as an early engine of trade and culture. Okamoto presents a new historical narrative which overturns Eurocentric perceptions of history, boldly and clearly reconfiguring the structure of world history in terms of economic ebbs and flows.

When Asian military forces took to horseback some three thousand years ago, commercial capital developed that linked remote regions, innovating technologies, increasing productivity, and eventually culminating in the Mongol Empire. Their control of the Silk Road connected them with Near Eastern empires at the road’s western terminus, enriching the Greek and Roman civilizations of the Mediterranean world. But as crucial trade routes moved from inland to the coast during the Age of Discovery, the center stage of history shifted to Europe, which evolved its own financial and navigational technologies to win the global economic game.

Looking anew at history from this perspective forces a reconsideration of accepted notions from “Greco-Roman civilization,” the “European miracle,” and the “Great Divergence” to “Japan’s modernization.” Through his unique overview of the whole of Eurasia and the maritime realm, from ancient times to the present, the author reorients our view of Asia’s role in global history.

OKAMOTO Takashi
Okamoto Takashi is professor in the Department of Historical Studies, Faculty of Letters, at Kyoto Prefectural University. Born in 1965, he graduated from Kobe University and obtained his Ph.D. in literature from Kyoto University. Okamoto served as associate professor at the University of Miyazaki before assuming his current position, where he specializes in East Asian and modern Asian history. He has published numerous books on modern Asian and Chinese history, of which three have won awards: Kindai Chugoku to kaikan [China and the Maritime Customs System in Modern Times] (Nagoya: University of Nagoya Press, 1999), recipient of the Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Prize; Zokkoku to jishu no aida: Kindai Shin-Kan kankei to Higashi Ajia no meiun [Between Dependency and Sovereignty: Modern Qing-Korean Relations and the Destiny of East Asia] (Nagoya: University of Nagoya Press, 2004), winner of the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities; and Chugoku no tanjo: Higashi Ajia no kindai gaiko to kokka keisei [The Birth of China: International Relations and the Formation of a Nation in Modern East Asia] (Nagoya: University of Nagoya Press, 2017), recipient of the Kashiyama Junzo Prize and the Asia-Pacific Prize. Other works available in English include A World History of Suzerainty: A Modern History of East and West Asia and Translated Concepts (Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, 2019), for which Okamoto was editor and contributor; and Contested Perceptions: Interactions and Relations between China, Korea, and Japan since the Seventeenth Century (Tokyo: Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture, 2022).

*information as of time of publication

History

Publisher:
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Hardcover
¥2,800 + tax
ISBN 9784866582207
210 mm x 148 mm / 232 pp. / June 2022

eBook
ISBN 9784866582238 (ePub)
ISBN 9784866582269 (PDF)
March 2022

Preface to the English Edition / Introduction: A Japanese Conception of World History / 1. Asian History and Ancient Civilizations / 2. Age of Mobilization / 3. The Formation of Early Modern Asia / 4. The Modern West / Conclusion: A View of Japanese and World History / Afterword / Principal References / Index / About the Author

西洋中心的な歴史観を覆し、「世界史の構造」を大胆かつ明快に語る新たな通史。遊牧・農耕・交易…三つの要素が交叉する場所で世界史は誕生した。東洋史の視座から歴史を俯瞰するとき、「ギリシア・ローマ文明」「ヨーロッパの奇跡」「大分岐」「日本の近代化」はどのように位置づけられるのか。ユーラシア全域と海洋世界を視野にいれ、古代から現代までを一望する。

岡本隆司
1965年生まれ。現在、京都府立大学文学部教授。『近代中国と海関』『属国と自主のあいだ』(いずれも名古屋大学出版会、前者で大平正芳記念賞、後者でサントリー学芸賞を受賞)、『世界史のなかの日清韓関係史』『中国「反日」の源流』(いずれも講談社メチエ選書)、『李鴻章』(岩波新書)、『ラザフォード・オルコック』(ウェッジ選書)などがある。

*著者略歴は書籍刊行時のものを表示しています。

Original Japanese Edition

世界史序説: アジア史から一望する

岡本隆司 著

筑摩書房 刊

2018/07/10

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