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xiii The collective enterprises of language and thought are life movements of which we all partake, and we perceive only glimmers of the sources of all we are given. Here I can acknowledge only the most visible help, starting with an appreciation of the field I’ve been working in. Economic historians lament that economic history in the United States has fallen between the two stools of academic history and academic economics, two disciplines that seem to have turned their backs on the subject (a subject whose lessons may deflate some current conceits of both). I can begin by acknowledging that I don’t encounter this problem when it comes to Japan. Economic history inside Japan sets a world standard in its detail, sophistication, and sheer volume, though only bits of this work find their way into English translation. Outside Japan, dozens of expert foreign historians of Japan incorporate economic subjects integrally into their work, and the combination of economic with social, political, cultural, and intellectual history flourishes with new insights and approaches. I have too much to draw on, and my citations acknowledge only a fraction of it. More directly, parts or all of this manuscript have benefited from the critical reading and comments of Andrew Barshay, David Bruce, Simon Bytheway, Katalin Ferber, W. Miles Fletcher, Dane Hampton, Thomas R. H. Havens, Laura Hein, Tony Hopkins, Temple Jorden, Robert Metzler, Scott North, Scott O’Bryan, Mario Oshima, Irwin Scheiner, Richard Smethurst, and Kohei Wakimura. A stimulus toward synthesis was provided by conversations with Katalin Ferber and Jean-Pascal Bassino. The series editors, Eric Helleiner and Jonathan Kirshner, and Roger Haydon at Cornell University Press, contributed greatly to its realization as a book. The work of writing it was done at the Departments of History and Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where special thanks are due to Alan Tully, and at the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University, where I finished the project thanks to the tremendous hospitality and encouragement of Naoto Kagotani. Earlier phases of research were done at the Faculty of Economics at Osaka City University, with the kind support of Mario Oshima, and at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Social Science, where thanks are due to Nobuhiro Hiwatari. This project was assisted by research funding from the Japan Foundation , the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas Institute of Historical Research, the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University, Acknowledgments xiv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS the Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies, and a FulbrightHays Faculty Research Abroad fellowship. Most important of all have been my family: my parents, Violet Metzler and Robert Metzler; my parents-in-law, Keiko Matsumoto and Shigeo Matsumoto; my spouse, Taeko, for her constant inspiration ; and Miranda, Kairi, Tommy, Luke, and Elisey. ...

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