Reasonable Men, Powerful Words: Political Culture and Expertise in Twentieth Century Japan (Volume 16)

Twentieth Century Japan: The Emergence of a World Power #16

by Laura Hein, Joseph Brinley (Primary Contributor)

Reasonable Men, Powerful Words traces the development of political culture in twentieth-century Japan through a social and intellectual biography of six Japanese economists who influenced national political life in significant ways. The global ascendance of social scientists is one of the defining characteristics of modernity. They dedicated themselves to an extraordinary range of public policies, including eliminating poverty, reducing disparities of wealth, reshaping the relationship between government and citizen, building a strong economy devoid of a military component, and creating an educated and politically active populace in Japan.

Genres: History, Japan

345 pages, Hardcover

First published December 25, 2004

Reviews

[Tobias · Rating 3 out of 5]

History of the economists who inspired Japan's postwar developmental state. Decent narrative, but unfortunately the analysis was very thin in the body of the text. There is a hugely interesting argument to be made about how a group of self-described socialist economists basically crippled the Japanese left and enabled the LDP to hold on to power. She makes it here and there, but not nearly as strongly as she could have.

[Benemint]

Only skimmed. It got good reviews.