Far East
The Far East in the Modern World. By F. H.
THESE three massive books, all of which deal with the recent history of the Far East, contain between them 1,766 pages. They are literary mastodons. If any essential facts are omitted from their sur- vey, it cannot be for want of space. The first two are by American scholars. Mr. Michael and Mr. Taylor are at their best in the introductory part
of their book, which describes the traditional system of government and society in China before the modern period started. Professor Vinacke writes from an original point of view; he. sees postwar history in East Asia as the aftermath of the failure of Japan to establish its Co-Prosperity Sphere. Both books are well documented; their facts are seldom open to serious question; they are sober, comprehensive, impressive. But they are textbooks, and no more. They fail to make the fate of Oriental humanity interesting. It is odd that the calamitous and crowded events with which they deal do not light up their exposition of them. Their particular variety of dispassionate- ness does not come from a loftiness of view which sees the world's tumults calmly, and analyses and assesses. It comes from being burdened with facts, and nothing but facts. Certainly it is useful to have Asian encyclopedias of this kind; both books will be used as reference works; that by Mr. Michael and Mr. Taylor has a particularly valuable bibliography. But for the description of Asia today it is better to have a wrong and excit- ing interpretation than no interpretation at all. The virtues of a historian, said Byron, should be diligence, learning, wrath and partiality. These American scholars, full of the first two qualities, could do with an addition of the others.
The book by Li Chien-nung is a curiosity. It is by a Chinese scholar, also written on a large scale. It combines some of the qualities of traditional Chinese methods of writing history with Ameri- can academic methods. It contains a good deal of information, not easy to find elsewhere, about China in the days when it was besieged by the foreign imperialists. It is valuable to have a judicious chronicle from the side of the besieged.
GUY WINT
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