"This book, a translation of Irokawa's 1969 classic Meiji no Bunka, is best described as an analysis of popular political consciousness in the Meiji period and its corruption by the Emperor System... the translation is lucid and seamless, a remarkable achievement given the number of contributors who worked on it."--L. L. Cornell, Pacific Affairs "A fascinating account of aspects of Japanese culture between 1868 and the early twentieth century... Irokawa Daikichi is an indefatigable researcher, and the fruits of his own and others' labors on back roads and in old storehouses are amply represented here. Moreover, he has discovered materials untouched since the Meiji period, and he is able to interpret them in fresh, provocative ways. He makes excellent use of poetry, letters, diaries, and songs to probe the mentality of peasants and rustic intellectuals, and he interprets his findings in a way that challenges major post-World War II trends in historiography."--J. Victor Koschmann, Journal of Asian Studies
