- Hardcover: 134 pages
- Publisher: Harvard University Press (2 May 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0674022173
- ISBN-13: 978-0674022171
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 15.7 x 2 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,351,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
Lost Modernities
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Review
Works by Alexander Woodside are not merely to be read. They are to be studied. I have yet to read a book, essay, or review by him that did not deserve a second reading...Lost Modernities is no exception. This is history and historiography at its very best, leavened by humor and stunning breadth. -- Joshua A. Fogel Chinese Historical Review 20060901 This compact study is original and provocative. Its comparative approach is an inspiration to all who work on Asian states past and present. It confronts alternative modernities in new and sophisticated ways. And, not least, it is a contribution to the history of governance, notably on the need for, and the limits of, meritocratic principles in public management. -- Wang Gungwu Pacifica Affairs 20061201
Product Description
In "Lost Modernities", Alexander Woodside offers a probing revisionist overview of the bureaucratic politics of pre-industrial China, Vietnam and Korea. He focuses on the political and administrative theory of the three mandarinates and their long experimentation with governments recruited in part through meritocratic civil service examinations remarkable for their transparent procedures. The quest for merit-based bureaucracy stemmed from the idea that good politics could be established through the 'development of people' - the training of people to be politically useful. Centuries before civil service examinations emerged in the Western world, these three Asian countries were basing bureaucratic advancement on examinations in addition to patronage. But, the evolution of the mandarinates cannot be accommodated by our usual timetables of what is 'modern'. The history of China, Vietnam and Korea suggests that the rationalisation processes we think of as modern may occur independently of one another and separate from such landmarks as the growth of capitalism or the industrial revolution. A sophisticated examination of Asian political traditions, both their achievements and the associated risks, this book removes modernity from a standard Eurocentric understanding and offers a unique new perspective on the trans-national nature of Asian history and on global historical time.
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