Simon Partner, Associate Professor at Duke University, is author of Toshie: A Story of Rural Life in Twentieth Century Japan and Assembled in Japan: Electrical Goods and the Making of the Japanese Consumer (both from UC Press).

"It is a historical ethnography that is both sweeping and situated, eminently useful for courses but equally instructive to scholars." -- William W. Kelly American Historical Review "Remarkable." -- T. James Kodera Journal Of Japanese Stds "Excellent book." Monumenta Nipponica

• List of Illustrations Introduction 1. The Village Enters the Modern Era (1866 -- 1885) Born in Troubled Times Building a New Nation Hardship and Protest 2. From Farm Manager to Independent Landowner (1885 -- 1894) A Young Man of the Enlightenment Reaching Maturity in Momentous Times Toward Independence 3. For Village and Nation (1894 -- 1908) The Nation Comes of Age Politics on the Kanto Plain The Mantle of Responsibility The Hour of Need The Railway Comes to Hashimoto 4. The Mayor of Aihara (1908 -- 1918) Mayor of Aihara Technology and Change A Great Sadness 5. A World Transformed (1918 -- 1926) An Unprecedented Economy A Modern Village The World Turned Upside Down The Family Patriarch Conclusion Did Hashimoto Ever Become "Modern"? Villagers in Control of Their Destiny? The Meaning of a Life Notes Bibliography Index