Japanese Economy or Between the Fields and the City

Japanese Economy

Author: David Flath

Despite recent upheavals, Japan remains one of the dominant economic powers at the end of the twentieth century. Yet the Japanese economy is one of the most misunderstood phenomena in the modern world. Aimed at graduate courses on Japan, this book will be indispensable both for students and instructors alike. Lucid explanations and comprehensive and rigorous analysis make it a natural choice for any interested in comprehending the rise of the Japanese economy.

Read also Streamlined Life Cycle Assessment or Strangers at the Gates New Immigrants in Urban America

Between the Fields and the City: Women, Work, and Family in Russia, 1861-1914

Author: Barbara A Engel

This book charts the personal dimensions of economic and social change by examining the significance and consequences of Russian peasant women's migration from the village to the factory and/or city in the years between the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 and the outbreak of World War I. The author uses case studies to explore the effects of urbanization and industrialization on the relationship of the migrant to the peasant household, and on family life and personal relations. It differs from other studies in looking at both village and city; in treating personal life, and in drawing on a wealth of archival data, most of it for the first time. The focus on women and the family provides a fresh perspective on the social history of late Imperial Russia.

Library Journal

University of Colorado historian Engel uses previously unavailable primary sources to provide a detailed account of Russian rural migration to the city. She gives special emphasis to the plight of women, noting that they are often overlooked in studies of Russian urbanization. Her picture of peasant life is grim: suffocatingly patriarchal families, abuse, poverty, and restrictive laws. Few women found utopia in the cities, however, where they faced double workdays, squalid quarters, alcoholism, increased infant mortality, and sexual harassment. Protections provided by the extended family were lost, leaving women powerless, impoverished, and exploited. Engel's thematic approach uses vivid case studies to buttress her statistics. She concludes that urbanization and industrialization were more advantageous to men. This absorbing, well-written study is highly recommended for academic and public libraries collecting Russian history and women's studies.-- Donna L. Cole, Leeds P.L., Ala.

Table of Contents:

List of illustrations; List of tables; Acknowledgements; Introduction;

1. Patriarchy and its discontents;
2. The woman's side;
3. Out to work;
4. Between the fields and the factory;
5. On their own in the city;
6. Women in the margins/marginalising women;
7. Making a home in the city; Conclusion; A note on sources; Index.