Revising history: Brief notes
Quick hits: It’s one of the most difficult periods of modern history to teach, and I love using primary sources for the tough times, so I’m always g...
Category: General
Passing of Professor Mikhail Nikolaevich Pak (1918-2009)
On April 16 this year, my teacher and the man who basically created the Korean history studies in the former USSR, Mikhail Nikolaevich Pak, has passed away. His...
History Carnival #75: Semisesquicentennial! Terquasquigenary! Septuagesiquintennial!
Note: The History Carnival is still looking for a May 1st host, as well as hosts for the summer and beyond. Contact Sharon Howard (sharon$@$earlymodernweb$.$org...
George O. Totten III (1922-2009)
George O. Totten III passed away at the beginning of this month; I just saw the obituary on H-Japan. Though I knew Totten mostly through his scholarship on the ...
Dokdo is Korean for “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!”
Apparently inspired by the success of other international publicity campaigns around disputed lands — Tibetan independence, Pakistani claims to Kashmir, t...
The Teahouse Fire: Painstaking
I don’t often get unsolicited books with handwritten notes from the authors, unless I worked with them in some way. What was even more surprising is that ...
Sumo and tradition
The NYTimes Lede blog [thanks, Mom!] linked Michael Phelps’ marijuana scandal to a scandal in Japanese sumo1 which has resulted in four retirements. They ...
When translating, leave currency in the original units
I’m using Ivan Morris’ translation of Saikaku’s The Life of an Amorous Woman and other Writings this semester1, but one thing which is bugging...
Japanology….
One of my general exam advisor/examiners has passed away: Donald Fleming who was Harvard’s preeminent intellectual historian for many years. I studied Eur...
North Korea’s engagement with the world
I remember the shocked look on my students’ faces fifteen years ago when I told them that we actually had no idea how decisions were made or leaders picke...
Dutch Futurists
Alan Baumler pointed me to peacay’s recent post of Dutch images of 17th century Japan. Some of them are quite accurate — the images of samurai, in p...
December 2008 History Carnival
“In retrospect, historians are usually right.” — Der Spiegel interviewer (11-11-08). This has been a lively month for history blogging, for so...
Any reaction? Land of the Sinking Sun
Guardian reporter Justin McCurry weighs in with an interesting commentary on Japan’s role in the financial turmoil currently roiling across the globe.
A disappointment
I’ve been enjoying the textbook I’m using for World History this fall: Felipe Fernandez-Armesto’s The World: A History. It covers the entire w...
Asian History Carnival Pt II is Up
Leanne Ogasawara has posted Pt II of the 21st Asian History Carnival at her Tang Dynasty Times. Although she complains that the blogosphere is in a depression a...