Browse Hierarchy JPNS5008: The Making of Modern Japan

This module studies the trajectory of Japan's extraordinary rise from a feudal, resource-poor nation in the 1850s to the world's second largest economy in the early twenty-first century. We will examine the social, economic and political changes of this period through primary source materials, secondary scholarship by both Western and Japanese scholars (in translation), literature and films. In so doing, students will acquire a firm grasp of the research tools and methods needed to pursue further interest in the study of Japanese history.