ARTICLES
History, Space, and Ethnicity: The Chinese Worldview
Q. Edward Wang, 285
As is shown in the historical writings of imperial China, there were many factors that contributed to the formation of the Chinese worldview. In its formative years, the Chinese view of the world was centered around the axis of Han ethnic culture. The Han and non-Han relation was arranged dichotomously. Yet ethnicity was not the only factor that influenced the Chinese worldview. There was also a spatial concern, which was reflected in the dynamic center-periphery relation and alluded to by the terms zhongguo and tianxia, the two key concepts in the Chinese worldview. The term zhongguo, which originally meant the capital of all states, referred primarily to the central geographical position that Han China occupied in the tianxia, or the entire human world. This spatial dimension of the Chinese worldview became increasingly visible in later periods when the zhongguo, the center of world space, was sometimes occupied by non-Han peoples. While the Han Chinese still hoped to sinicize their barbarian rulers and achieved some success, they were no longer able to maintain their ethnocentric approach to imagining the world. By occupying the zhongguo, therefore, non-Han rulers claimed legitimacy in the Chinese cultural tradition.
The New Race Consciousness: Race, Nation, and Empire in American Culture, 1910-1925
Matthew Pratt Guterl, 307
During and after the Great War, Irish-American and African-American nationalist movements further electrified domestic and international politics. Gaelic and New Negro activists drew strong parallels between their movements and spoke often of their shared desire to end the tyranny of imperialism. But despite their sense of shared mission, the anti-imperial radicalism of these two groups was, when put in the context of racial thinking, strikingly dissimilar. That dissimilarity reflected changes in the balance of power in the world economy.
Indigenous Peoples and the Vietnamese Revolution, 1930-1975
Mark W. McLeod, 353
In precolonial times, Vietnam’s imperial state dominated and attempted to “civilize” non-Vietnamese indigenous peoples. French colonizers exploited the resulting tensions, and many indigenous peoples supported France’s conquest, viewing it as a liberation from Vietnamese domination. French policy, however, was inconsistent, alternating between protection of the indigenous peoples and their economic exploitation. Vietnamese revolutionaries, by promising autonomy and manifesting apparent respect for indigenous cultures, gained significant support from some of Vietnam’s indigenous peoples, aid that facilitated the revolutionary victories during the Indochina Wars. While this support was vital to the revolution’s success, the Indochina Wars were devastating for Vietnam’s indigenous peoples, who face discrimination in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Democracy and Globalization: 1989 and “The Third Wave”
Jarle Simensen, 391
This article argues that “the third wave” of democratization that took place around 1989 must be understood in the context of global dynamics. Explanations in terms of power politics, modernization, and diffusion are considered relevant but inadequate. The deeper structural causes are sought in the globalization of the economy, the rise of international institutions, and the development of global normative systems justifying the concept of “world society.”
REVIEW ARTICLE
Was It Pluck or Luck that Made the West Grow Rich?
David D. Buck, 413
New debates about political economy are enlivening the study of world history. David Landes and Andre Gunder Frank take diametrically opposed views in their new books. Landes upholds the well-established tradition of Euro-centered world history by arguing that the plucky Northern Europeans used their cultural values and technological superiority to dominate a world previously in the hands of cruel autocrats and inadequate bumblers; for Frank the avaricious Europeans just were lucky enough to have American gold and silver to buy a place in a flourishing Asian-centered world economy. Other less iconoclastic historians, such as R. Bin Wong, also challenge Eurocentric approaches by employing the logic of comparative history to limit the scope and duration of Western dominance. This renewed emphasis on questions of political economy signals a counter-trend in world history studies away from postmodern concerns with identity issues such as gender, class, race, and nation.
BOOK REVIEWS
Lawrence Keeley. War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. Barbara Ehrenrich. Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War
reviewed by Mary W. Helms, 431
Sheldon Watts. Epidemics and History: Disease, Power and Imperialism
reviewed by Noble David Cook, 434
Ainslee T. Embree and Carol Gluck, eds. Asia in Western and World History: A Guide for Teaching
reviewed by Paul Lococo, Jr., 436
Gary B. Nash, Charlotte Crabtree, and Ross E. Dunn. History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past
reviewed by John T. McNay, 438
Robin Cohen. Global Diasporas: An Introduction. Robin Cohen and Zig Layton-Henry, eds. The Politics of Migration
reviewed by Mark J. Miller, 441
Peter Gran. Beyond Eurocentrism: A New View of Modern World History
reviewed by David Northrup, 447
Joan R. Piggot. The Emergence of Japanese Kingship
reviewed by Karl Friday, 449
Sanjay Subrahmanyam. The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama
reviewed by A.J.R. Russell-Wood, 452
John B. Hattendorf, ed. The Age of Discovery. John B. Hattendorf, ed. The Eighteenth Century and the Classic Age of Sail
reviewed by William N. Still, Jr., 457
N. D. Cook. Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492- 1650
reviewed by Sheldon Watts, 459
Michael Adas, ed. Technology and European Overseas Enterprise: Diffusion, Adaptation, and Adoption
reviewed by Jonathan Coopersmith, 462
Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giráldez, eds. Metals and Monies in an Emerging Global Economy
reviewed by William Schell, Jr., 463
Helen Wheatley, ed. Agriculture, Resource Exploitation, and Environmental Change
reviewed by J.R. McNeill, 466
Peter Bakewell, ed. Mines of Silver and Gold in the Americas
reviewed by Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giráldez, 468
Hugh Thomas. The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870
reviewed by Ivana Elbl, 473
George Frederickson. The Comparative Imagination: On the History of Racism, Nationalism and Social Movements
reviewed by James O. Gump, 476
David A. Chappell. Double Ghosts: Oceanian Voyagers on Euroamerican Ships
reviewed by Francis X. Hezel, S.J., 479
Katherine G. Morrissey. Mental Territories: Mapping the Inland Empire
reviewed by Michael Marker, 481
Leila J. Rupp. Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women’s Movement
reviewed by Judith P. Zinsser, 483
Tani E. Barlow. Formations of Colonial Modernity in East Asia
reviewed by Tessa Morris-Suzuki, 485
Alice L. Conklin. A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895-1930
reviewed by David H. Groff, 488
David C. Evans and Mark R. Peattie. Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941
reviewed by J. Charles Schencking, 491
Seamus Dunn and T.G. Fraser, eds. Europe and Ethnicity: World War I and Contemporary Ethnic Conflict; Winston A. Van Horne, ed. Global Convulsions: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism at the End of the Twentieth Century
reviewed by John Hutchinson, 494
Katharine H.S. Moon. Sex among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations
reviewed by Robert Shaffer, 499
Lisa Lowe and David Lloyd, eds. The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital
reviewed by William Cummings, 502
LETTERS
Lynda Shaffer and John Brownlee, 505