Japan: History and Culture from Classical to Cool

Abstract

Nancy K. Stalker’s <i>Japan: History and Culture from Classical to Cool</i> is a tertiary-level history textbook of Japan, bridging the premodern to modern periods. As a teacher of Japanese history, I know that finding a suitable textbook for the history teacher in the tertiary sector is not always easy. See, for example, Marius Jansen’s <i>The Making of Modern Japan</i> (2000), or Hall’s <i>The Cambridge History of Japan</i> (1991). The former is only concerned with modern Japan, focusing on politics and influencers, while the latter is in six volumes, making it inappropriate as a textbook. Whereas many history textbooks tend to treat culture, gender and aesthetics as an afterthought, the author of <i>Japan: History and Culture</i> asserts their integral importance to Japanese history (p. vii)—a perspective arguably in keeping with her expertise as Professor in Cultural and Gender Studies (20th Century) at the University of Hawaii. Her argument in this book is that by paying careful attention to the currents of literature, culture, religion, gender and art, the context and background for understanding Japanese history will come alive for students.