EBOOK
About
The nation state as we know it is a mere four or five hundred years old. Remarkably, a central government with vast territorial control emerged in Japan at around the same time as it did in Europe, through the process of mobilizing fiscal resources and manpower for bloody wars between the 16th and 17th centuries. This book, which brings Japan's case into conversation with the history of state building in Europe, points to similar factors that were present in both places: population growth eroded clientelistic relationships between farmers and estate holders, creating conditions for intense competition over territory; and in the ensuing instability and violence, farmers were driven to make Hobbesian bargains of taxes in exchange for physical security.
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Reviews
"Centralized states supposedly arose out of the mobilization of large armies. War and State Building in Medieval Japan rethinks this important claim by analyzing what happened in Japan. By forcing historians and social scientists to cast aside conventional wisdom, the book will reshape the literature on state formation."
California Institute of Technology
"The book offers fresh rationale for Japan's transformation from medieval to early modern times, utilizing comparative historical and political theories of European origin…Food for thought to specialists overly reliant on top-down or at least warrior-centric approaches to Japan's political history. Additionally, the individual essays offer valuable perspectives on local samurai and village society
Journal of Japanese Studies
"War and State Building brilliantly blends theory with history. Together with their talented corps of authors, Frances Rosenbluth and John Ferejohn integrate modern social scientific theory with a close historical analysis of the wars of unification and resistance in medieval Japan. The result is a study of exceptional intelligence and originality."
Harvard Law School