 | The Teleology of the Modern Nation-State Although we may be aware that China and Japan were not nation-states until relatively recently, we still speak and write about Han dynasty China or Jomon Japan. And almost all historians refer to prehistoric China or Japan. Thus imposing the national story on the local, the authors contend, harms the historical record. Joshua A. Fogel is Professor of History and East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author, most recently, of The Literature of Travel in the Japanese Rediscovery of China, 1862-1945. |
