Description
Book SynopsisIn the 1930s and 1940s Marxist academics and others interested in liberal political reform often faced virulent accusations of treason from nationalist critics. John Person explores the lives of two of the most notorious right-wing intellectuals responsible for leading such attacks in prewar and wartime Japan: Minoda Muneki and Mitsui.
Trade ReviewArbiters of Patriotism is a fresh and deeply informed synthesis of Japanese- and English-language scholarship on the intellectual and institutional history of Japanese fascism from the 1890s through the 1940s. It takes seriously, and documents closely, the careers of two important ultranationalist ideologues who have remained obscure as scapegoats for Japan’s rightward turn. Mitsui and Minoda warrant this attention because they provide access into the world of so-called "fanatics," who, as it turns out, received a wide hearing at the time because their views were resonant, not exceptional. John Person’s book is an important and timely intervention into the literature on the Japanese imperial state, fascism and populism, and the role of the "fanatic" and "right-wing/left-wing" in historiography and political ideology. This is a meticulously researched and careful study of a crucial aspect of not only Japanese intellectual and political history, but also social theory and ideology.
