“To see things steadily and clearly is a gift of few. Mr Hapgood possesses fewer blind spots than most, but it may be that he is mistaken in parts of his analysis. However, he stimulates the reader to formulate his own beliefs. The style is a trifle labored, but there is no mistaking the book’s earnestness.”

+ − Springf’d Republican p8a S 19 ’20 320w

“Special mention should be made of Mr Hapgood’s intimate study of President Wilson. It is a helpful antidote to Mr Keynes’ sketch.” L. R. Robinson

+ Survey 45:320 N 27 ’20 720w

HARA, KATSURO.[[2]] Introduction to the history of Japan. *$2.50 (2½c) Putnam

952

The book is the first of a projected series of publications by the Yamato society, whose aim is to make clear the meaning and extent of Japanese culture to other nations, and to introduce the best literature and art of foreign nations to Japan for a promotion of a common understanding. The present volume is intended for those Europeans and Americans who would like to know Japan “not as a land of quaint curios and picturesque paradoxes only worthy to be preserved intact for a show, but as a land inhabited by a nation striving hard to improve itself, and to take its share, however humble, in the common progress of the civilisation of the world.” (Preface) Contents: The races and climate of Japan; Japan before the introduction of Buddhism and Chinese civilisation; Growth of the imperial power; gradual centralisation; Remodeling of the state; Culmination of the new régime; stagnation; rise of the military régime; The military régime; the Taira and the Minamoto; the shogunate of Kamakura; The welding of the nation; the political disintegration of the country; End of medieval Japan; The transition from medieval to modern Japan; The Tokugawa shogunate—its political régime; culture and society (two chapters); The restoration of the Meidji; Epilogue. The objects of and the rules of the Yamato society are given in full and there is an index.

“A carefully evolved and well written synopsis of the many centuries of Japanese national life. There is one especially creditable circumstance about the publication of this book. It is honest Japanese propaganda, and it makes no pretensions of being anything else.” S. L. C.

+ Boston Transcript p4 Ja 22 ’21 420w