Lost Modernities: China, Vietnam, Korea, and the Hazards of World History Contributor(s): Woodside, Alexander (Author) |
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ISBN: 0674022173 ISBN-13: 9780674022171 Publisher: Harvard University Press OUR PRICE: $41.58 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 2006 Annotation: Eurocentric understanding and offers a unique new perspective on the transnational nature of Asian history and on global historical time. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | Asia - China - History | Asia - Korea - History | Asia - Southeast Asia |
Dewey: 320.951 |
LCCN: 2005056710 |
Series: Edwin O. Reischauer Lectures |
Physical Information: 0.68" H x 6.38" W x 9.56" (0.87 lbs) 160 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - Chinese - Cultural Region - Asian - Cultural Region - Southeast Asian |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: In Lost Modernities Alexander Woodside offers a probing revisionist overview of the bureaucratic politics of preindustrial China, Vietnam, and Korea. He focuses on the political and administrative theory of the three mandarinates and their long experimentation with governments recruited in part through meritocratic civil service examinations remarkable for their transparent procedures. The quest for merit-based bureaucracy stemmed from the idea that good politics could be established through the development of people--the training of people to be politically useful. Centuries before civil service examinations emerged in the Western world, these three Asian countries were basing bureaucratic advancement on examinations in addition to patronage. But the evolution of the mandarinates cannot be accommodated by our usual timetables of what is modern. The history of China, Vietnam, and Korea suggests that the rationalization processes we think of as modern may occur independently of one another and separate from such landmarks as the growth of capitalism or the industrial revolution. A sophisticated examination of Asian political traditions, both their achievements and the associated risks, this book removes modernity from a standard Eurocentric understanding and offers a unique new perspective on the transnational nature of Asian history and on global historical time. |
Contributor Bio(s): Woodside, Alexander: - Alexander Woodside is Professor of Chinese and Southeast Asian History at the University of British Columbia. |