What forces were behind Japan's emergence as the first non-Western colonial power at the turn of the twentieth century? Peter Duus brings a new perspective to Meiji expansionism in this pathbreaking study of Japan's acquisition of Korea, the largest of its colonial possessions. He shows how Japan's drive for empire was part of a larger goal to become the economic, diplomatic, a...(展开全部)

This book takes three social groups—literati, scholar-officials, and merchants—as the framework for discussing the political, socioeconomic, and cultural forces that coalesced and reinforced one another to influence and facilitate change in Ming China’s lower Yangzi delta. It follows the region’s political ties with the state and commercial links with external markets. The boo...(展开全部)