{"title":"Ian Buruma","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"inventing-japan-1853-1964-ian-buruma-paperback","title":"Inventing Japan: 1853-1964 -- Ian Buruma, Paperback","description":"In a single short book as elegant as it is wise, Ian Buruma makes sense of the most fateful span of Japan's history, the period that saw as dramatic a transformation as any country has ever known. In the course of little more than a hundred years from the day Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in his black ships, this insular, preindustrial realm mutated into an expansive military dictatorship that essentially supplanted the British, French, Dutch, and American empires in Asia before plunging to utter ruin, eventually emerging under American tutelage as a pseudo-Western-style democracy and economic dynamo. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhat explains the seismic changes that thrust this small island nation so violently onto the world stage? In part, Ian Buruma argues, the story is one of a newly united nation that felt it must play catch-up to the established Western powers, just as Germany and Italy did, a process that involved, in addition to outward colonial expansion, internal cultural consolidation and the manufacturing of a shared heritage. But Japan has always been both particularly open to the importation of good ideas and particularly prickly about keeping their influence quarantined, a bipolar disorder that would have dramatic consequences and that continues to this day. If one book is to be read in order to understand why the Japanese seem so impossibly strange to many Americans, \u003ci\u003eInventing Japan\u003c\/i\u003e is surely it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ian Buruma\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Modern Library\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/09\/2004\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 208\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.40lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.20w x 0.60d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780812972863\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAccelerated Reader:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReading Level:\u003c\/b\u003e 10.3\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePoint Value:\u003c\/b\u003e 9\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eInterest Level:\u003c\/b\u003e Upper Grade\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eQuiz #\/Name: \u003c\/b\u003e73109 \/ Inventing Japan, 1853-1964\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/02\/2005 pg. 16\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIan Buruma\u003c\/b\u003e studied and worked in Japan for many years. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eBad Elements\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Missionary and the Libertine\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAnglomania\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Japanese Mirror\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGod's Dust\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Wages of Guilt\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003ePlaying the Game\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in London.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ian Buruma","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45289160540388,"sku":"9780812972863","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0611\/9587\/8628\/files\/9780812972863.jpg?v=1780466148"},{"product_id":"spinoza-freedoms-messiah-ian-buruma-hardcover","title":"Spinoza: Freedom's Messiah -- Ian Buruma, Hardcover","description":"\u003cb\u003eIan Buruma explores the life and death of Baruch Spinoza, the Enlightenment thinker whose belief in freedom of thought and speech resonates in our own time\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"An elegant, relevant biography of a vital thinker.\"--\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Baruch (Benedictus) Spinoza (1632-1677) was a radical free thinker who led a life guided by strong moral principles despite his disbelief in an all-seeing God. Seen by many--Christians as well as Jews--as Satan's disciple during his lifetime, Spinoza has been regarded as a secular saint since his death. Many contradictory beliefs have been attached to his name: rationalism or metaphysics, atheism or pantheism, liberalism or despotism, Jewishness or anti-Semitism. However, there is no question that he viewed freedom of thought and speech as essential to an open and free society. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In this insightful account, the award-winning author Ian Buruma stresses the importance of the time and place that shaped Spinoza, beginning with the Sephardim of Amsterdam and followed by the politics of the Dutch Republic. Though Spinoza rejected the basic assumptions of his family's faith, and was consequently expelled from his Sephardic community, Buruma argues that Spinoza did indeed lead a Jewish life: a \u003ci\u003emodern\u003c\/i\u003e Jewish life. To Heine, Hess, Marx, Freud, and no doubt many others today, Spinoza exemplified how to be Jewish without believing in Judaism. His defense of universal freedom is as important for our own time as it was in his.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ian Buruma\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Yale University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/13\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 216\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.90lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 5.10h x 6.30w x 1.40d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780300248920\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/15\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIan Buruma\u003c\/b\u003e is Paul W. Williams Professor of Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College. He is the author of many books, including \u003ci\u003eMurder in Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam and the Limits of Tolerance\u003c\/i\u003e, and contributes to \u003ci\u003eHarper's\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in New York City.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ian Buruma","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45627798257892,"sku":"9780300248920","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0611\/9587\/8628\/files\/9780300248920.jpg?v=1726200096"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookandmortar.com\/collections\/ian-buruma.oembed","provider":"BookandMortar","version":"1.0","type":"link"}