From the Margins: There Must Be More to History than Logic

Abstract

Abstract This review opens a conversation with Japan's Russia on hierarchy and hegemony in modern history. The goal declared in the volume's subtitle is ambitious: to challenge the East-West paradigm. The East-West binary is an old one and has been subject to many important and sophisticated critiques. But unlike most, which have focused on the problem of some East and the hegemony of the West, this volume brings two marginalized places, two Easts, into interaction. By doing so, these essays destabilize the grounding of modern history in absolute time and absolute space. Time, space, and the document have been foundational elements in modern history, especially in the marginalization of various peoples. By expanding the past to pasts and focusing on interactions, times, and permeable boundaries, this collection shows the potential of those margins for a more heterogeneous (and less hegemonic) history.