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Comparative Studies of East Asian and Western History: Some Topics and Problems*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

George Pasti Jr
Affiliation:
East Carolina College

Extract

The field of inquiry in comparative history, wrote Marc Bloch, may be either societies that are neighbors and contemporaries or societies that are remote from each other in time and space. Western and East Asian history as a field in connoarative studies includes both types of comparisons. Focus on such a field has a number of advantages. Among these are the wide range of similar phenomena from feudalism to imperialism, the significant number of population involved, and the variety within each culture area to make possible regional comparisons and checks. Although the inclusion of additional societies might enable statistical study, the narrower gauge provides an opportunity for more depth. The range is sufficient to avoid the pitfalls arising from knowing only one other society.

Type
Comparative Study in Teaching
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1964

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References

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11 Sansom, Japan in World History, 30–76. Sansom asked Toynbee where in world history he might find an attempt comparable to the Tokugawa failure to resist change. Toynbee suggested the Roman Empire after Diocletian. Sansom felt this was a “long way to go back”. However, recently in searching for a means to compare the ruthlessness and brutality of Hideyoshi and Nobunaga, he turns to the Caesars of the Julian house and concludes that they “could not match the infamies of Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero”. A History of Japan, 1334–1615 (Stanford, 1961), 371.Google Scholar

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