National History and the World of Nations: Capital, State, and the Rhetoric of History in Japan, France, and the United States (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: National History and the World of Nations: Capital, State, and the Rhetoric of History in Japan, France, and the United States Sheldon Garon (bio) National History and the World of Nations: Capital, State, and the Rhetoric of History in Japan, France, and the United States. By Christopher L. Hill. Duke University Press, Durham, N.C., 2008. xvi, 351 pages. $89.95, cloth; $24.95, paper. This is an extraordinary book. One of the hottest fields of history recently has been global or transnational history. Scholars are keen to transcend national histories to chart the movements of peoples, ideas, and institutions across national boundaries. For the most part, these efforts have yet to realize their promise. In particular, attempts to insert the United States into global history generally suffer from the unwillingness to master the [End Page 427] languages and historiographies necessary to study interactions with other peoples and countries. Spatially, transnational history remains centered on the world of the North Atlantic, with some additional work on relationships between Western nations and their colonies. The exclusion of East Asia, especially Japan, from most global histories has been a glaring gap. Japan, after all, emerged as one of the world's most dynamic nation-states during the late nineteenth century and achieved great-power status after 1900. Japanese moreover became transnational learners par excellence, energetically engaging in the study of Western texts and practices—and, after the Russo-Japanese War, furnishing models of "national efficiency" to Westerners and Asians alike. If we wish the field of transnational history to be truly global, scholars of Japan should not wait for historians of the West to include Japan. We should exploit our "comparative advantage"—our mastery of a difficult language and a lesser-known history—while utilizing our native tongue and knowledge of at least one European language to broaden discussions of global interactions and other histories. Christopher Hill has done just that in this magisterial study of the emergence of national histories in nineteenth-century Japan, France, and the United States. It is worth noting that he is not a historian by training but a scholar of Japanese and comparative literature. Hill relies not only on Japanese sources but also on French-language tracts and writings from the United States. The book stands at the intersection of textual analysis and history, to the enrichment of both. Hill builds on a small yet growing body of transnational history that examines the simultaneous emergence of nationalism and internationalism toward the end of the nineteenth century.1 The concurrence of these developments is no paradox, he argues. This was the moment when thinkers and leaders in a number of countries sought to construct strong nation-states. They necessarily drew on international relations—cultural, political, and economic—to envision how to mobilize resources and people. That is, each aspiring power adopted common elements from transnational discourses on nation building. These included universal elementary education, national anthems, pledges of allegiance, and standardized political institutions that would facilitate diplomatic relations between nations. As Hill explains, each country participated in a "single modernity" embedded in "global capitalism and the system of sovereign states" (p. ix). National history, the focus of Hill's study, serves as a stimulating example of this transnational imagining of the modern nation-state. Publicists and officials found it necessary to write histories that would situate their respective nation within the emerging international order. These histories [End Page 428] aimed to give each nation distinct identities that would impress other powers while "enlightening" one's own people to work and sacrifice for the nation as a whole. At the same time, national history was harnessed to justify the domination of weaker countries. Contemporary European discourses influenced the Meiji era's Fukuzawa Yukichi and others to re-present Japanese history as the rise of "civilization" and progress, and conversely to depict China and Korea as in decline. Like other fine books, this one lends itself to being read in various ways by various disciplines. Transnational historians may be most interested in the first chapter on "National History and the Shape of the Nineteenth-Century World." Hill makes a compelling case for including the United States and...