Uneven Moments

Louise Young, University of Wisconsin-Madison:
Harry Harootunian is a leading voice in Japanese intellectual history. It is no exaggeration to say that his work has shaped the field for the past forty years. These essays collectively provide an extended reflection on the intellectual and philosophical concerns that run through Harootunian’s oeuvre, including the relationship between culture and politics; the problem of temporality, history, and modernity; and the intertwined projects of critical theory and critical area studies. This book will become a classic.

Alan Tansman, author of The Aesthetics of Japanese Fascism:
To read forty years of Harry Harootunian’s bristling reflections on Japanese history and thought is to come face to face with the most fundamental questions of our own conditions of thinking about history and theory and also about the intellectual life writ large. Each of the essays in this volume demands that we contend with a fierce, exacting, and passionate mind.

Bruce Cumings, University of Chicago:
Harry Harootunian is both a pioneer American scholar of modern Japanese history and a probing critic of mainstream analyses of Japan's turbulent past. This book is a brilliant summing up of his prolific career.