Asian Studies 331MR - The Meiji Revolution

A research seminar on the late nineteenth-century transformation of Japan from a feudal state ruled by hereditary warriors into a modern nation-state ruled by a cabinet, a legislature, and a professionalized bureaucracy under the symbolic sovereignty of a sacred monarch. A turning point in East Asia's modern history, this revolution shaped the following century throughout the region and remains a subject of intense scholarly and popular interest. We will begin with secondary readings--social and political history, biography, and cultural history--then each student will identify a research question, discover her own sources to answer it in a 20-page final essay.