Transwar Asia: Ideology, Practices, and Institutions, 1920-1960

Transwar Asia examines the history of Asia from the 1920s to the 1960s, challenging the division between pre- and postwar periods and exploring the reconfiguration of prewar and colonial ideologies, practices, and institutions during World War II and the two decades that followed. The book addresses key themes such as authoritarianism, militarization, criminal rehabilitation, market controls, labor-regimes, and anti-communism, shedding new light on the formation of postwar nation-states and their political legacies.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 13 January 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

This volume delves into the possibilities of the term 'transwar' to comprehend the history of Asia from the 1920s to the 1960s. Scholars have recently challenged earlier studies that proposed a clear demarcation between the pre- and postwar or colonial/postcolonial periods in the national histories of East Asia, instead examining change and continuity across the divide of war. Transwar Asia takes this reevaluation further, exploring the intricate processes by which prewar and colonial ideologies, practices, and institutions from the 1920s and 1930s were reconfigured during World War II and, crucially, in the two decades that followed, thus shaping the Asian Cold War and the processes of decolonization and nation-state formation. With contributions covering the transwar histories of China, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan, the book addresses key themes such as authoritarianism, militarization, criminal rehabilitation, market controls, labor-regimes, and anti-communism.

A transwar perspective, the authors argue, sheds new light on the ongoing problems that undergirded the formation of postwar nation-states and illuminates the political legacies that still shape the various regions in Asia up to the present.

Weight: 520g
Dimension: 163 x 241 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350182813