Neurotic Beauty: An Outsider Looks at Japan

by Morris Berman

Overview

Neurotic Beauty is a remarkable reevaluation of Japan's role in the modern world.

It includes a new assessment of the events leading up to the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, and of the potential role of Japanese philosophy in creating a dynamic

approach to human nature and our understanding of reality. The book also shows the

interrelatedness of various facets of Japanese history and society, including psychological orientation, pop culture, and Japan's vibrant craft tradition. Finally, it concludes with a possible prediction, that whereas the United States will not be able to escape from its neoliberal economic categories and its commitment to a self-defeating philosophy of "growth," Japan might surprise us, and turn out to be the frontrunner in the development of post-capitalist alternatives in the 21^stcentury. Written in a personal and accessible style, the book is likely to provide a focus for debate about issues of economy, ecology, and sustainability for years to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621342106
Publisher:	Water Street Press
Publication date:	06/18/2019
Pages:	520
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.16(d)

About the Author

Morris Berman is a cultural historian and the author of The Twilight of American Culture. He has held a number of university appointments, most recently as Visiting Professor of Sociology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

Table of Contents

ix Contents

Note to the Reader x

List of Illustrations xi

Acknowledgments xii

Introduction: Thinking Otherwise 1

1.Traditional Japan(1): Zen, Craft, and the Eternal Present 27

2. Traditional Japan(2): Amae, Group Structure, and Hierarchy 87

3. The Meiji Restoration and Its Aftermath 113

4. War and Occupation 147

5. Philosophy: The Kyoto School 221

6. Vaguely, Crystal: The Americanization of Japan 269

7. A Modern Tokugawa? Japan as a Post-Capitalist Model 305

Appendices 355 Notes 402

Glossary of Terms 467

Index 477

About the Author 502

Editorial Reviews

If American civilization is the last outpost of the expansionist myth, then its fateful encounter with Japan, as described by Professor Berman, suggests to us a picture of its final transformation. A vivid and provocative study."

--Yasunari Takada, Professor of Transcultural Studies, University of Tokyo

Much is to be learned from his judicious account of the fraught relations between Japan and the United States over the past century, and the last chapter, on 'Japan as a Post-Capitalist Model, ' should be required reading for any thoughtful person who's interested in where our deranged world might be heading in the decades to come."

--Graham Parkes, University College Cork, Ireland

Morris Berman does more than anyone to illuminate the arc of this story and the attendant mysteries of Japanese culture, with all its artistry, resilience, and periodic craziness."

--James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency

From the Publisher