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New Times in Modern Japan by Stefan Tanaka is a book available to read on EtoBox.

What is New Times in Modern Japan about?

New Times in Modern Japan concerns the transformation of time -- the reckoning of time -- during Japan's Meiji period, specifically from around 1870 to 1900. Time literally changed as the archipelago synchronized with the Western imperialists' reckoning of time. The solar calendar and clock became standard timekeeping devices, and society adapted to the abstractions inherent in modern notions of time. This set off a cascade of changes that completely reconfigured how humans interacted with each other and with their environment -- a process whose analysis carries implications for other non-Western societies as well. By examining topics ranging from geology, ghosts, childhood, art history, and architecture to nature as a whole, Stefan Tanaka explores how changing conceptions of time destabilized inherited knowledge and practices and ultimately facilitated the reconfiguration of the archipelago's heterogeneous communities into the liberal-capitalist nation-state Japan. However, this revolutionary transformation -- where, in the words of Lewis Mumford, "the clock, not the steam engine," is the key mechanism of the industrial age -- has received little more than a footnote in the histor

Author

Stefan Tanaka

Publisher

Princeton: Princeton University Press

Published

2004

Language

EN

ISBN

9781400826247

Subjects

History, Humanities