| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Mark Metzler. Lever of Empire: The International Gold Standard and the Crisis of Liberalism in Prewar Japan. (Twentieth-Century Japan: The Emergence of a World Power.) Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 2006. Pp. xxii, 370. $49.95.

In part because I once tried to investigate Japan's monetary system only to drop the ball (or coin if you prefer), I found Mark Metzler's excellent work to be far more important to the general study of modern Japanese history than its title might suggest. Though billed as a study of "prewar" Japan, for example, the book actually begins with a prologue of young Meiji (1868–1912) individuals who would later become influential makers and government officials, and then circles back to discuss the collapse of the Tokugawa (1600–1868) monetary system after trade with the West began, Japan's adoption of a gold standard prior to World War I, Japan's economic policies between the two wars, and even post-World War II issues. Similarly, Metzler recognizes that he cannot describe changes in Japan's monetary system without also discussing British and American banking systems, and, at times, the social effects of Japan's economic policies.

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