Our latest issue is here! The April edition features essays by Reem Abou-El-Fadl, @jbilik.bsky.social, Charlotte Ciavarella, Anwesha Ghosh, Daniel Hershenzon, Rao Mohsin Ali Noor, @tommasoaga.bsky.social, Sam Wilby, and Gabriel Young. sites.lsa.umich.edu/cssh/2026/04...

There's a good article on maps in pre-modern Japan that's relevant for African history on this point about boundaries: "Many of our conventional mapping practices are ill-suited to the complexities and nuances of pre-modern politics" culturalanalytics.org/article/8486...

Okazaki Katsuyo's graph of Marx's pre-capitalist economic formations

Charlotte Ciavarella's "Sustainable Disaster: Fantasies of Resilience, Global Adaptation Science, and East Asia’s Seawomen" is out on FirstView! #Development #Capitalism doi.org/10.1017/S001...

Just submitted my final page proofs. Forthcoming in March 2026. www.sup.org/books/asian-...

My first article, which critiques the adapatation-resilience development paradigm by tracing its genealogy to prewar Japanese labor science and its influence on everything from austerity policies to anti-air conditioning, is now OA on cssh. doi.org/10.1017/S001...

coming soon

remains of the houses of cave-dwelling people in Shiroyama, Shizuoka (1914)

Godelier writes that the abandonment of hypothesis on the "multiplicity of forms of transition" transformed Marxist hypothesis into a "fixed formula"

the dobb-sweezy debate mirrored the existing two "opposing camps in" Japanese history otsuka-school = dobb, unoists (by extension ronoha) = sweezy

Looking forward to participating in the February 3rd "Moving Aquafarms" panel with my co-presenter Matthew Morse Booker, alongside @chaciav.bsky.social and organizer Lijing Jiang.

whatever one might think of the 'asiatic mode of production,' perry anderson's criticism of it is quite underwhelming

In Capital vol. 3, Marx writes that he wants to examine capitalism in its "idealen Durchschnitt." This is usually translated as "ideal average," but I believe a more accurate translation would be "ideal cross-section." I think this is a geological metaphor rather than a mathematical one. 1/5

Andrew Gordon and other historians are talking at a symposium about representations of postwar Japanese labour at Waseda on December 23.

South Korean citizens helped lawmakers scale the National Assembly walls so they could bypass military barricades and vote against martial law.

I made an economic history/history of capitalism in Asia starter pack since it's fairly underrepresented on the other lists. let me know if you'd like to be added or have any suggestions! go.bsky.app/EdtMMtB

I don't think we should gatekeep history to experts but is it too much to ask to do basic research on the history your article is engaging with before writing a comparative piece on it?

be careful what you say about rice

When we interviewed Bob Gurr on April 18, 2000, we asked if he would have liked his monorail design to be adopted in urban areas. Bob's response: "My truthful opinion of monorails is that they are really not very good."

It's alive! My book now has a webpage on the University of California Press @ucpress.bsky.social website: www.ucpress.edu/books/in-the... Will be available open access in April 2025!

My H-Net Environment review of Fynn Holm's "The Gods of the Sea: Whales and Coastal Communities in Northeast Japan, c. 1600-2019"

My colleague, Tom Conlan, tells me that for the next month, the first chapter of his new book, Kings in All but Name: The Lost History of Ōuchi Rule in Japan, can be read free of charge. It discusses the Korean origins of the Ōuchi and how they emigrated to Japan. academic.oup.com/book/55771/c...

if you'll be attending #AASSeattle please come to our panel "The Commodification of Island and Coastal Environments in Japan, Okinawa, and Cheju Island Korea" with @dfeds.bsky.social as discussant on Sunday at 10:45. @AASAsianStudies

the Meguro-ku goat and rooster