Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914 is a cultural and engineering history of railway building in Japan during the Meiji era. The importance of early railways in the industrialization of the United States and Europe is a fact all of us are familiar with. To witness the amazing parallel development of the railways in Japan, happening at much the same time as America was connecting its vast hinterland to the East and West coasts, is an eye-opening realization. Early Japanese Railways, tells the fascinating story of the rise of Japanese rail amidst a period of rapid modernization during Japan's Meiji era. Leaving behind centuries of stagnation and isolation, Japan would emerge into the 20th century as a leading modern industrialized state. The development of the railways was a significant factor in the cultural and technological development of Japan during this pivotal period. Free's rare photographic and historical materials concerning Japan's early railways, including a print showing the miniature steam engine brought to Japan by Admiral Perry aboard his "Black Ships" to demonstrate American superiority, combine to form a richly detailed account that will appeal to students of Japanese history and railway buffs alike. This one-of-a-kind book, Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914, illuminates for non-Japanese-speaking readers the early history of Japanese railroads and in the process the fascinating story of Japan's prewar industrial modernization. Anyone interested in train history or model trains will find this book a fascinating read.

From the outset, society in Japan has been shaped by its environmental context. The lush green mountainous archipelago of today, with its highly productive lowlands, supports a population of more than 127 million people and one of the most advanced economies in the world. How has this come about and at what environmental cost? Conrad Totman, one of the world's foremost scholars on Japanese, here provides a comprehensive and detailed account of the country's environmental history, from its beginnings to the present day. Professor Totman traces the country's development through successive historical phases, as early agricultural society based on non-intensive forms of cultivation gave way to more intensified forms. With each stage came greater utilisation of natural resources but a steady reduction in the richness of the indigenous biosystem. By the late seventeenth century the country was well on the way to ecological disaster. Yet Japan's isolation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries led to an unusually enlightened set of environmental policies, and the system of regenerative forestry brought in during the Tokugawa period prevented certain devastation of the country's forests. At the end of the nineteenth century, however, the country began to go to the opposite extreme, as industrialisation brought with it a period of unprecedented change. Growth and diversification led to a surge in environmental pollution as it became necessary to look beyond the country's domestic natural resources to meet the demand for foodstuffs, fossil fuels and the raw materials necessary to an advanced industrial economy. The population was particularly badly affected, and some of the problems that emerged, especially from the 1960s onwards, provided important test cases not just for Japan but worldwide. What makes the Japanese story particularly instructive is that the country's boundaries are uncommonly clear and the nature, timing, and extent of external influences on its history are unusually identifiable. The Japanese experience, therefore, not only yields important insights into the processes of environmental history, it offers important lessons for the wider environmental history of the planet and for our understanding of current global ecological problems. A work of immense erudition and reflecting a lifetime of scholarship, Japan: an Environmental History will be welcomed by all with an interest in environmental history and the historical development of Japan.

Modern Asian Design provides a comprehensive introduction to the development of Asian design in the modern period, both tracing historical threads and offering a theoretical framework within which to chart the history of design in Asia. Rather than a singular “Asian history”, this book presents a series of studies centred on trade routes, colonial relationships, regional networks and cross-cultural exchanges. Modern Asian Design builds on existing resources beyond design history in an effort to map the field, focusing particularly on relations between Asia and the West and also across Asian design cultures. Opening with a brief overview of trade and exchange networks in the 17th and 18th centuries, the bulk of this study comprises analysis of the development of modern design in Asia during the later 19th and early 20th centuries, a period of rapid modernisation. The book's final two chapters bring these central ideas into a contemporary and highly relevant context.

As editor Kenneth E. Hendrickson, III, notes in his introduction: “Since the end of the nineteenth-century, industrialization has become a global phenomenon. After the relative completion of the advanced industrial economies of the West after 1945, patterns of rapid economic change invaded societies beyond western Europe, North America, the Commonwealth, and Japan.” In The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History contributors survey the Industrial Revolution as a world historical phenomenon rather than through the traditional lens of a development largely restricted to Western society. The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History is a three-volume work of over 1,000 entries on the rise and spread of the Industrial Revolution across the world. Entries comprise accessible but scholarly explorations of topics from the “aerospace industry” to “zaibatsu.” Contributor articles not only address topics of technology and technical innovation but emphasize the individual human and social experience of industrialization. Entries include generous selections of biographical figures and human communities, with articles on entrepreneurs, working men and women, families, and organizations. They also cover legal developments, disasters, and the environmental impact of the Industrial Revolution. Each entry also includes cross-references and a brief list of suggested readings to alert readers to more detailed information. The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History includes over 300 illustrations, as well as artfully selected, extended quotations from key primary sources, from Thomas Malthus’ “Essay on the Principal of Population” to Arthur Young’s look at Birmingham, England in 1791. This work is the perfect reference work for anyone conducting research in the areas of technology, business, economics, and history on a world historical scale.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Notes on Dates, Transcription, and Format -- 1 Introduction -- PART ONE -- Chapter 1. Politics -- Chapter 2. Geography -- Chapter 3. Topography -- Chapter 4. Archaeology -- PART TWO -- Chapter 5. Construction -- Chapter 6. Hochbau -- Chapter 7. Monuments -- Chapter 8. Urbanism -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Illustration Credits -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z

The Russo-Japanese War was fought for 19 months (8 February 1904– 5 September 1905) between the empires of Japan and the Russia over the southern part of Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula. While essentially a colonial conflict, the war became a major engagement both in scale and innovation unseen until then. In recent years there has been a growing awareness that this event marks a historical juncture far more important than it was usually taken to be. This second edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War offers a major revision of the highly praised first edition, which, by all accounts, has been the standard work on this conflict in any language during the last decade. The book contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. Moreover, the dictionary section has some 800 new or fully revised cross-referenced entries on the battles, weaponry, and major personalities of the war, as well as various international events and conflicts, agreements, schemes, and projects that led to the war. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Russo-Japanese War.

This 4-volume collection is the first compilation of primary sources to historicize the cultural impact of railways on a global scale from their inception in Great Britain to the Great Depression. Gathered together are over 200 rare out-of-print published and unpublished materials from archival and digital repositories throughout the world. Organized by historical geography, this first volume covers the United Kingdom.

Despite the crucial role played by translation in the history of scientific ideas and the transmission of knowledge, historians of science have seldom been interested in the translation activity which enabled the spread of those ideas and exerted influence on structures and systems of knowledge. Translation scholars, too, have traditionally shown little interest in theorizing scientific translation. Recent conceptualizations of science as public culture, institution, narrative and rhetorical practice open the way for research on the translation of science to take conceptual and methodological inspiration from studies of discourse, rhetoric, the sociology of science, the history of science, the philosophy of science and other related fields. This special issue of The Translator foregrounds the work of researchers, within or on the periphery of translation studies, who have begun to interrogate the representation of scientific knowledge through translation. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines and models, contributors engage with different perspectives and approaches to help promote the visibility of scientific translation and shed light on its complex relationship with power and the construction of knowledge. Contributors: Brecht Algoet, Karen Bennett, Lidia Camara, Eva Espasa, Lieve Jooken, Monika Krein-Kühle, Min-Hsiu Liao, Ruselle Meade, Guy Rooryck, Dolores Sánchez, Hala Sharkas, Mark Shuttleworth, Richard Somerset, Liselotte Vandenbussche , Sonia Vandepitte

This book is the culmination of a lifetime of research into Chinese development, situated in a global historical context. The author explores the irreplaceable role of state capacity, state-owned-enterprises and five-year plan in China’s transformation from an agricultural state to an industrial state and then to the world's economic powerhouse, as well as the remarkable achievements of social policy to reduce the rural-urban gap and regional gap. This book will be of interest to China scholars, development economists, political activists, and general readers who would like to know more about China's growth miracle.

Can an imperial city survive, let alone thrive, without an emperor? Alice Y. Tseng answers this intriguing question in Modern Kyoto, a comprehensive study of the architectural and urban projects carried out in the old capital following Emperor Meiji’s move to Tokyo in 1868. Tseng contends that Kyoto—from the time of the relocation to the height of the Asia-Pacific War—remained critical to Japan’s emperor-centered national agenda as politicians, planners, historians, and architects mobilized the city’s historical connection to the imperial house to develop new public architecture, infrastructure, and urban spaces. Royal births, weddings, enthronements, and funerals throughout the period served as catalysts for fashioning a monumental modern city fit for hosting commemorative events for an eager domestic and international audience. Using a wide range of visual material (including architectural plans, postcards, commercial maps, and guidebooks), Tseng traces the development of four core areas of Kyoto: the palaces in the center, the Okazaki Park area in the east, the Kyoto Station area in the south, and the Kitayama district in the north. She offers an unprecedented framework that correlates nation building, civic boosterism, and emperor reverence to explore a diverse body of built works. Interlinking microhistories of the Imperial Garden, Heian Shrine, Lake Biwa Canal, the prefectural library, zoological and botanical gardens, main railway station, and municipal art museum, among others, her work asserts Kyoto’s vital position as a multifaceted center of culture and patriotism in the expanding Japanese empire. Richly illustrated with many never-before-published photographs and archival sources, Modern Kyoto challenges readers to look beyond Tokyo for signposts of Japan’s urban modernity and opens up the study of modern emperors to incorporate fully built environments and spatial practices dedicated in their name.