
Beyond the Metropolis
Second Cities and Modern Life in Interwar Japan
Louise Young(Author)
University of California Press
1st Edition
Published on 15. April 2013
Book
Hardback
326 pages
978-0-520-27520-1 (ISBN)
Description
In "Beyond the Metropolis", Louise Young looks at the emergence of urbanism in the interwar period, a global moment when the material and ideological structures that constitute "the city" took their characteristic modern shape. In Japan, as elsewhere, cities became the staging ground for wide ranging social, cultural, economic, and political transformations. The rise of social problems, the formation of a consumer marketplace, the proliferation of streetcars and streetcar suburbs, and the cascade of investments in urban development reinvented the city as both socio-spatial form and set of ideas. Young tells this story through the optic of the provincial city, examining four second-tier cities: Sapporo, Kanazawa, Niigata, and Okayama. As prefectural capitals, these cities constituted centers of their respective regions. All four grew at an enormous rate in the interwar decades, much as the metropolitan giants did. In spite of their commonalities, local conditions meant that policies of national development and the vagaries of the business cycle affected individual cities in diverse ways.
As their differences reveal, there is no single master narrative of twentieth century modernization. By engaging urban culture beyond the metropolis, this study shows that Japanese modernity was not made in Tokyo and exported to the provinces, but rather co-constituted through the circulation and exchange of people and ideas throughout the country and beyond.
As their differences reveal, there is no single master narrative of twentieth century modernization. By engaging urban culture beyond the metropolis, this study shows that Japanese modernity was not made in Tokyo and exported to the provinces, but rather co-constituted through the circulation and exchange of people and ideas throughout the country and beyond.
Reviews / Votes
"[A] fascinating and wide-ranging study... An enlightening message." -- Alexander Jacoby The Times Literary Supplement "Young's deeply layered work combining cultural and urban history is a remarkable achievement." American Historical Review "Stimulating... finely argued." -- Lori Watt Journal of Japanese Studies "Through clearly formulated and detaield discussions... [Young's] line of argument takes [her] to the edges of profound and highly contested dynamics in the historiography of twentieth-century Japan... illuminating work..." Pacific Affairs Book Review "Beyond the Metropolis offers the most thought-provoking and consequential treatment of Japanese urbanism in well over a decade." Monumenta NipponicaMore details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
4 maps, 1 table
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
590 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-27520-1 (9780520275201)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
04/2013
1st Edition
University of California Press
€83.49
Available for download
Person
Louise Young is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism (UC Press, 1998).
Content
Acknowledgments Part One. Contexts Introduction: Urbanism and Japanese Modern 1. World War One and the City Idea Part Two. Geo-Power and Urban-Centrism 2. The Ideology of the Metropolis 3. Colonizing the Country Part Three. Modern Times and the City Idea 4. The Past in the Present 5. The Cult of the New Epilogue: Urbanism and Twentieth-Century Japan Notes Bibliography Index