Description: Stefan Tanaka examines how late nineteenth and early twentieth century Japanese historians created the equivalent of an "Orient" for their new nation state. He argues that the Japanese attempted to use a variety of pasts--Chinese, Indian, and proto-historic Japanese--to construct an identity that was both modern and Asian.
Review Quotes: "Fascinating. . . . Tanaka has provided a rich account of the ways in which Japanese historians adopted and adapted European ideas of progress and cultural identity in order to reformulate their ideological relationship to China. An impressive work of scholarship."--Talal Asad, "New School for Social Research