Jennifer M. Miller is Assistant Professor of History at Dartmouth College, where she teaches courses on American foreign policy and the Cold War.
Exhaustively researched and incisively written, Miller’s book is a
model of historical scholarship that will be essential reading for
scholars and students of 1950s Japan and broader United
States–Japan relations.
*Diplomatic History*
[An] impressive book. Miller’s original thesis, her prodigious
research, and her ability to connect her topic to the broader
international setting and move its focus from grass roots
organizing to high policy will make Cold War Democracy the standard
treatment on this important but relatively neglected period in the
U.S.-Japan relationship.
*Passport*
Insightful…This most valuable book provides an innovative and
significant contribution to the understanding of the
democracy-building process in Japan in the postwar years and, more
broadly, it can be considered a fundamental reading for scholars
and students of US-Japan relations in the Cold War.
*European Journal of East Asian Studies*
By far one of the best books on nation building and
democratization…superbly written.
*Choice*
Cold War Democracy may sound like a contradiction in terms. But as
Miller’s nuanced, deeply researched interpretation of postwar
relations between the United States and Japan shows, ‘democracy’
provided a flexible vocabulary for both architects and critics of
this rapprochement. An innovative study of one of the most durable
and significant relationships to have shaped the world since
1945.
*Susan L. Carruthers, author of The Good Occupation: American
Soldiers and the Hazards of Peace*
How could the Cold War United States, so publicly and noisily
committed to democracy, have supported repression and curbs on free
speech while attacking others’ allegedly pernicious neutralism?
Using U.S. relations with Japan as her case study, Miller explores
this seeming paradox with great insight and deep research,
including Japanese-language sources. This is a superb book with big
ambitions, fully realized.
*Andrew Rotter, author of Hiroshima: The World’s Bomb*
In this book Miller deftly examines the ideological core of the
Japanese–American relationship during the Cold War and shows how it
continues to shape international relations to this day. With
subtlety she explores the contested and paradoxical meanings of
democracy whereby order, unity, stability, spiritual renewal,
economic growth, and geopolitical power often subsumed and eclipsed
concerns for freedom, equality, individual rights, and peace. This
is a book that inspires deep thinking about what
democracy-promotion has meant and should mean.
*Melvyn P. Leffler, author of Safeguarding Democratic
Capitalism: U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security,
1920–2015*
Cold War Democracy is a stellar book. Relying on a treasure trove
of English- and Japanese-language sources, Miller elucidates the
complex—and oftentimes contentious—interplay of politicians,
policymakers, intellectuals, labor activists, and grassroots
protestors as they shaped a new transpacific relationship after
World War II. Anyone interested in diplomatic and international
history will gain a lot from this fascinating study.
*Hiroshi Kitamura, author of Screening Enlightenment: Hollywood
and the Cultural Reconstruction of Defeated Japan*
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