“The cause of this transformation, effected by the Meiji Restoration from 1868 onward, was the determination of influential members of the Japanese elite to avoid being dominated and colonized by the West, as seemed to be happening elsewhere in Asia, even if the reform measures to be taken involved the scrapping of the feudal order and the bitter opposition of the samurai clans.39 Japan had to be modernized not because individual entrepreneurs wished it, but because the “state” needed it. After”
― The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
― The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
“Conquest has made me what I am and only conquest can enable me to hold my position.”
― The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
― The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
“Omnidirectional peaceful diplomacy” is all very well for the present, but how useful will it be if an overextended United States does withdraw from its Asian commitments, or finds it impossible to protect the flow of oil from Arabia to Yokohama? How useful if there is another Korean war? How useful if China begins to dominate the region? How”
― The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
― The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
“the beginning of wisdom in human as well as international affairs was knowing when to stop.”
― The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
― The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
Kevin’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Kevin’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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