Andrew Edmund Goble is Associate Professor of History at the University of Oregon.
Andrew Edmund Goble has written an impressive study of a key event
in medieval Japanese history… This is not an episode of merely
antiquarian interest. In prewar Japan, Go-Daigo was glorified as a
precursor of the Meiji emperor, and unorthodox interpretations of
his achievements were risky. Today…his role as an instigator of a
major political tradition makes him an object of scholarly debate…
Goble bases his analysis on a careful reading of an extraordinarily
wide range of sources, both primary and secondary… Japanese
scholarship, which is apt to be quite narrowly focused, is
skillfully placed in a larger analytical framework… Any reader of
Goble's book will come away with a new appreciation for this
uncommonly vigorous emperor… Goble has put Go-Daigo in a new light
as a man who, along with his policies, deserves to be take
seriously.
*American Historical Review*
In the true historian's spirit of questioning traditional opinion,
Andrew Goble has undertaken to clear Go-Daigo's name, particularly
as a politician. He investigates his background, political
maneuverings, method of winning allies, struggle against the Hojo,
early administrative policies, and overall goals. He also explores
how and why Takauji got the better of him. Goble's research is
solid and his style is highly readable. His methodology, endnotes,
and bibliography are impeccable… In short, the book is of lasting
value to the field of Japanese medieval studies… Should one read
this book? Yes, definitely. Its analysis of primary sources alone
is a monument of erudition, the theme is pioneering, and the
style…is riveting… It is, above all, a good read.
*Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies*
Edmund Goble returns to the feudal period to develop a scholarly
reinterpretation of a critical time in Japanese history. Was the
role of Emperor Go-Daigo important in moving Japan on to a more
advanced nation state? By demonstrating the fissiparous state of
Japan at that time, Goble helps to illuminate the dual problems of
emperor and state in recent times. Andrew Goble argues that the
Kenmu regime, as interpreted by the Emperor Go-Daigo, who ruled
from 1318–1339, despite apparently failing, led Japan into another
age. From this perspective, the remarkable thing about Japan in the
modern period, is its success, especially since 1945, in
transforming the Emperor's role into that of a constitutional
monarch,in a modern democratic government.
*Japan Society Proceedings*
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