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- Dr. Davidann is a professor of history at Hawai’i Pacific University. He has published six books on U.S.-East Asian r... moreDr. Davidann is a professor of history at Hawai’i Pacific University. He has published six books on U.S.-East Asian relations and world history. His most recent monograph, The Limits of Westernization: American and East Asian Intellectuals Create Modernity, 1860-1960 (Routledge, 2019) won the Baldridge Prize for the best history book authored by a resident of Hawaii between 2017-2019. His co-authored textbook entitled Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern World History (Routledge, 2019) is in its second edition. Davidann is currently working on a book project called: “The Dissenter’s Guide to American History.” He has received numerous grants and fellowships to undertake his research projects and has given invited lectures internationally. His brainchild History Lens, a video podcast that examines current issues and puts them in historical perspective, broadcasts on Thinktech Hawai’i. He lives in Kailua with his wife Beth, son Eli, and dog, Neilani. His hobbies are bicycling, paddling, and reading.edit
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Research Interests: Philosophy and Routledge
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Research Interests: Engineering, Microbiology, Law, Constitutional Law, Medical Microbiology, and 13 moreBrown Dwarfs, Biological Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Ultracool Subdwarfs, Nucleic Acids, Clinical Sciences, Economic Entomology, Gaia, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Medical and Health Sciences, Cardiovascular medicine and haematology, and Pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences
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Introduction One: 'How Yellow and White Women Are Sold: Controlling Chinese and White Female Sexuality and the Making of US Domesticity in East is West' Two: 'Masculine Racial Formations in Younghill Kang's East Goes West:... more
Introduction One: 'How Yellow and White Women Are Sold: Controlling Chinese and White Female Sexuality and the Making of US Domesticity in East is West' Two: 'Masculine Racial Formations in Younghill Kang's East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee' Three: 'Utopias Lost and Found: Lost Horizon and the Revitalization of American Masculinity, and the National Imaginary' Four: 'Envisioning Feminism Across the Pacific-Japanese and American Feminism and the Limits of Race in Facing Two Ways' Conclusion Bibliography
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... Thus, my own work can contribute to this debate by thinking about the growth of Christianity ... except for capital letters and words commonly used in English such as bushido, and com ... my abilities has been unswerving, and whose... more
... Thus, my own work can contribute to this debate by thinking about the growth of Christianity ... except for capital letters and words commonly used in English such as bushido, and com ... my abilities has been unswerving, and whose willingness to explore religion as a part of identity ...
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The Second edition of Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern World History is designed expand on the first edition’s insight into the dynamics of cross-cultural encounters presented in an accessible, student-oriented narrative format. The... more
The Second edition of Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern World History is designed expand on the first edition’s insight into the dynamics of cross-cultural encounters presented in an accessible, student-oriented narrative format. The new edition employs current scholarship on the subject, while addressing recent developments. The treatment of indigenous agency has been expanded throughout, including the major role played by Polynesians in the spread of Christianity in Oceania that has often been under-represented in historical surveys which focus on Western missionary societies and the activities of their missionaries. Chapter ten on immigration to Europe after World War II has been updated to reflect the refugee crisis and the evolving political situation in Europe concerning its immigrant population. The discussion questions at the end of each chapter, which provide an excellent way to get the students into group discussions, have been updated. Readers of the first edition have valued the manner in which its chapters are enlivened with the voices and views of those who were and remain directly engaged in the process of cross-cultural exchange from 1500 to the present. This edition is designed to build upon that achievement.
Research Interests: History and World History
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Between 1935 and 1937, The Kwantung Army Pushed South of the Great Wall of China into the area just north of Beijing. In the midst of training exercises on a July night in 1937, the Chinese Eighth Army ran into the Kwantung Army at Marco... more
Between 1935 and 1937, The Kwantung Army Pushed South of the Great Wall of China into the area just north of Beijing. In the midst of training exercises on a July night in 1937, the Chinese Eighth Army ran into the Kwantung Army at Marco Polo Bridge at the northern edge of the city. The skirmish that ensued marked the beginning of World War II in Asia.
The Manchurian Incident Damaged U.S.-Japanese Relations Severely. While trust was not always a crucial issue for official diplomats, trust was a very important issue for the American and Japanese public and for the unofficial diplomats... more
The Manchurian Incident Damaged U.S.-Japanese Relations Severely. While trust was not always a crucial issue for official diplomats, trust was a very important issue for the American and Japanese public and for the unofficial diplomats who had invested so much of themselves and their resources in healing the wounds of the 1920s, only to find in Manchuria that they no longer recognized the same ideals.
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In the Early Morning of September 18, 1931, Japanese Soldiers from the Kwantung Army planted a small bomb along side the South Manchurian Railway (SMR) near Mukden, where the bulk of the Japanese Army was stationed. As the bomb exploded,... more
In the Early Morning of September 18, 1931, Japanese Soldiers from the Kwantung Army planted a small bomb along side the South Manchurian Railway (SMR) near Mukden, where the bulk of the Japanese Army was stationed. As the bomb exploded, the railway, which was built and owned by the Japanese, suffered miniscule damage. Within hours the railroad was repaired and working, transporting Japanese troops to invade Manchuria under the pretext of putting down the Chinese bandits who had supposedly blown up the railroad. Later the next day, reporters were allowed to photograph the blown railroad tie and piece of rail. The damage to the rail was no more than eighteen inches long. This small explosion started a huge conflagration, the event some scholars in Japan such as Saburo Iyenaga have defined as the beginning of the Pacific War.
The Washington Conference marked an upturn in U.S.-Japanese relations. War talk disappeared virtually overnight, replaced by optimism that the major point of tension, China, had been resolved at the negotiating table.
By the end of World War I in 1918, the Japanese and Americans had contemplated each other for close to seventy years, from the time of Commodore Perry’s opening of Japan in 1853. In this time both developed strong images of the other.... more
By the end of World War I in 1918, the Japanese and Americans had contemplated each other for close to seventy years, from the time of Commodore Perry’s opening of Japan in 1853. In this time both developed strong images of the other. Though these images did not accurately or completely reflect the reality of the other, they were nonetheless powerful because they represented the building blocks of the unofficial U.S.-Japanese relationship. Although it would be inaccurate to say the United States and Japan went to war over mutually antagonistic images, perceptions of the other help us begin to piece together an explanation of tensions that made war seem inevitable by 1941.
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The Late 1920s Brought Interesting and Disturbing Changes to the landscape of U.S.-Japanese relations. The accession of Hirohito in 1928 shined a spotlight on the Japanese monarchy and the myths surrounding it, bringing once again to the... more
The Late 1920s Brought Interesting and Disturbing Changes to the landscape of U.S.-Japanese relations. The accession of Hirohito in 1928 shined a spotlight on the Japanese monarchy and the myths surrounding it, bringing once again to the fore the question of whether Japan was a modern nation. Japan’s expanding influence in Manchuria also attracted attention, though unwanted, to its empire.
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The Immigration Act Affected U.S.-Japanese Relations in Several Areas. Anti-Americanism began to mirror already existing anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States. In addition, Japanese conservatives were emboldened by immigration... more
The Immigration Act Affected U.S.-Japanese Relations in Several Areas. Anti-Americanism began to mirror already existing anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States. In addition, Japanese conservatives were emboldened by immigration exclusion and other recent events such as the Washington Conference and the Kanto earthquake.
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This War Prediction, from Charles Edward Russell, an American journalist and socialist, was made not in 1941 but in 1921, twenty years before the attack on Pearl Harbor.1
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The Sino-Japanese War Pushed U.S.-Japanese Relations Onto the Rocks. It destroyed what little was left of informal diplomacy and solidified the perception that the Japanese were controlled by the impulses of feudal militarism.
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By the Interwar Period, the Japanese had Access to a Wide Variety of information about the United States and Europe. Japanese youth were known to be voracious readers, devouring great volumes of books. Reading Western literature,... more
By the Interwar Period, the Japanese had Access to a Wide Variety of information about the United States and Europe. Japanese youth were known to be voracious readers, devouring great volumes of books. Reading Western literature, philosophy, and history, Japanese were well educated about Western ideas. However, American critics suggested that the number of books did not equal quality and fell back on Orientalist assumptions to describe Japanese reading habits. Robert Nichols, who had recently taken over Lafcadio Hearns’ old post as the chair of English Literature at Tokyo Imperial University, stated his opinion unabashedly. It is a curious and in some ways pathetic sight to observe these young men and women swimming before the great glass cases [of Western books]. They appear to select at random—so much of what the Japanese do seems done at random … It is in many ways a primitive and naive race.1 Some claimed that the old emphasis on Confucian readings was being displaced by focus on Western ideas. The old bookstores, containing the Chinese classics and other writings in the Chinese, are no longer, as they once were, the cornerstone of culture in Japan … The younger generation not only takes little interests in books in Chinese, but they find difficulty in reading them.2
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When famous American philosopher John Dewey visited China in 1919, more than twenty years before the Pacific War, he saw the seeds of war in the Pacific being sown. But in the interests of truth it must be recorded that every resident of... more
When famous American philosopher John Dewey visited China in 1919, more than twenty years before the Pacific War, he saw the seeds of war in the Pacific being sown. But in the interests of truth it must be recorded that every resident of China, Chinese or American, with whom I have talked in the last four weeks has volunteered the belief that all the seeds of a future great war are now deeply implanted in China.1 China and Japan were increasingly antagonistic toward each other. The Chinese protested against Japanese intrusion in North China, while the Japanese believed their presence was justified by the roiling instability there.
This essay studies the Japanese model and the origins of modernity in East Asia and the United States. Japanese innovations in the 1870s to 1890s impacted Chinese attempts at modernization in the initial decades of the 20th Century. This... more
This essay studies the Japanese model and the origins of modernity in East Asia and the United States. Japanese innovations in the 1870s to 1890s impacted Chinese attempts at modernization in the initial decades of the 20th Century. This resulted in a strong connection between modern thinking and the rise of civic nationalism in East Asia and the United States. Asian intellectuals picked the most useful parts of Confucianism and combined them with Western ideas. Modern thinking among American intellectuals arose at about the same time as East Asian modernity but under very different conditions. Modern thinkers in East Asia, under intense external pressure from Western imperialism, were highly motivated and innovative in projecting forward a vision later carried out in a full-scale modernization. In the United States, however, the conditions of modernity arrived first. Incessant industrialization, urbanization, and immigration after the Civil War caused American modern thinkers to de...
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This innovative study of cultural diplomacy illuminates the causes deeply rooted and often overlooked in explaining the path to war: cultural perceptions on both sides, the pivotal role of public opinion, and the deterioration of... more
This innovative study of cultural diplomacy illuminates the causes deeply rooted and often overlooked in explaining the path to war: cultural perceptions on both sides, the pivotal role of public opinion, and the deterioration of Japanese-American relations on both the individual and the cultural levels.
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... and World War II, the unleashing of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the long Indo-china War, the Cold War, the rise of nationalism (with an increase in nation states from about fifty to almost two hundred), the establishment... more
... and World War II, the unleashing of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the long Indo-china War, the Cold War, the rise of nationalism (with an increase in nation states from about fifty to almost two hundred), the establishment of Israel, the triumph of the free market, an ...
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JOHN FRANCE. Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000–1300. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. Pp.xv,327. $19.95(US),paper. Reviewed by Bernard S. BachrachREUVEN AMITAI-PREISS and DAVID O. MORGAN, eds. The Mongol Empire and... more
JOHN FRANCE. Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000–1300. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. Pp.xv,327. $19.95(US),paper. Reviewed by Bernard S. BachrachREUVEN AMITAI-PREISS and DAVID O. MORGAN, eds. The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999. Pp. vi, 361. NLG 225.00. Reviewed by Peter B. GoldenGAVIN R. G. HAMBLY, ed. Women in the Medieval Islamic World:
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Book Review: Putney and Burlin, eds., The Role of the American Board in the World: Bicentennial Reflections on the Organization’s Missionary Work, 1810–2010 , by Jon Davidann The Role of the American Board in the World: Bicentennial Reflections on the Organization’s Missionary Work, 1810–2010 . E...more
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Page 1. THE IMPERIALIST V IMAGINARY VISIONS OF ASIA AND THE PACIFIC [ IN AMERICAN CULTURE JOHN R. EPERJESI FOREWORD BY DONALD E. PEASE mti PK okio Bay of Bengal 0. Yuri Coral.Sea AUSTRALIA Page 2. Page 3. ...
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The Second edition of Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern World History is designed expand on the first edition’s insight into the dynamics of cross-cultural encounters presented in an accessible, student-oriented narrative format. The... more
The Second edition of Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern World History is designed expand on the first edition’s insight into the dynamics of cross-cultural encounters presented in an accessible, student-oriented narrative format. The new edition employs current scholarship on the subject, while addressing recent developments. The treatment of indigenous agency has been expanded throughout, including the major role played by Polynesians in the spread of Christianity in Oceania that has often been under-represented in historical surveys which focus on Western missionary societies and the activities of their missionaries. Chapter ten on immigration to Europe after World War II has been updated to reflect the refugee crisis and the evolving political situation in Europe concerning its immigrant population. The discussion questions at the end of each chapter, which provide an excellent way to get the students into group discussions, have been updated. Readers of the first edition have valued the manner in which its chapters are enlivened with the voices and views of those who were and remain directly engaged in the process of cross-cultural exchange from 1500 to the present. This edition is designed to build upon that achievement.
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The rise of East Asia from the ashes of World War II in the late twentieth century has led to searching questions about the role the region will play in the world. The possibility that China will overtake the United States as a... more
The rise of East Asia from the ashes of World War II in the late twentieth century has led to searching questions about the role the region will play in the world. The possibility that China will overtake the United States as a superpower suggests the twenty-first century could become an Asian century. Given the dynamism of a new Asia and the continuing power of the United States in the world, this study provides a crucial analysis of the origins and development of modern thought in the United States and East Asia.
While a strong literature on postwar modernization exists, there is a gap in the prewar origins and development of modern ideas. Influential intellectuals on both sides of the Pacific shaped perspectives on the concept of progress and rejection of the old order, the new domain of science, racism, and the importance of civic duty in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
This volume also reevaluates the influence of the United States on East Asia in the twentieth century and gives greater voice to East Asians in the growth of their own ideas of modernity. American-centric interpretations of the American role in East Asia emerged after World War II in the work of the historians John Fairbank and Edwin Reischauer, who together constructed a narrative history of East Asia, arguing that modernity in East Asia resulted from American influence. After this positive view of modernization became discredited in the 1970s, other scholars began to look at Western influence in a darker vein as cultural imperialism.
The analysis of this book suggests that a third turn in the historiography may be needed. In short, we may have overstated Western and American influence in East Asia, both positive and negative.
While a strong literature on postwar modernization exists, there is a gap in the prewar origins and development of modern ideas. Influential intellectuals on both sides of the Pacific shaped perspectives on the concept of progress and rejection of the old order, the new domain of science, racism, and the importance of civic duty in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
This volume also reevaluates the influence of the United States on East Asia in the twentieth century and gives greater voice to East Asians in the growth of their own ideas of modernity. American-centric interpretations of the American role in East Asia emerged after World War II in the work of the historians John Fairbank and Edwin Reischauer, who together constructed a narrative history of East Asia, arguing that modernity in East Asia resulted from American influence. After this positive view of modernization became discredited in the 1970s, other scholars began to look at Western influence in a darker vein as cultural imperialism.
The analysis of this book suggests that a third turn in the historiography may be needed. In short, we may have overstated Western and American influence in East Asia, both positive and negative.
