Colin Barker

 

Origins and Significance of the Meiji Restoration

(1982)


Originally distributed 1982 as a mimeographed hand-out.
Copyright © Colin Barker 1982.
Published here by kind permission of the author.

Transcribed by Colin Barker.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for REDS – Die Roten.


This document originated as a student handout for a course at Manchester Polytechnic at the beginning of the 1980s. It contains a summary of the literature on the Meiji Restoration up to that date from a Marxist standpoint. Although much more literature has appeared since then, I believe that the summary given here is a valuable starting point. In addition, there are some interesting observations on the nature of pre-Restoration Japanese society and on the transition to capitalism that are of wider import.

 

 


Last updated on 28.2.2002