Japanese Civilization
Subtitle: A Comparative View
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; The University of Chicago Press
Published: January 15, 1997
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 596
ISBN-13: 9780226195575
Subjects: Asian / Middle Eastern history; Cultural studies; Sociology, Social Studies; Japan; General; Japan - History; Sociology; Civilization
First sentence: The Enigma of Japanese Power is the title of a recent influential-and controversial-book on Japan by the Dutch journalist Karel van Wolferen.
Description: The Western world has long been intrigued by the apparent exoticism and uniqueness of Japanese civilization. Now, one of the world's leading social theorists provides a monumental synthesis of Japanese history, religion, culture, and social organization. Equipped with a dazzling command of the literature, Eisenstadt explores the Japanese historical legacy and its impact on the Japanese experience of modernity.

Eschewing the polemicism of structuralist or culturalist approaches, he expands his investigative framework to include a keenly systematic, broadly comparative analysis. What emerges is an innovative new approach, focusing on the nonideological character of Japanese civilization as well as its infinite capacity to recreate community through an ongoing past.