Feudalism in History . Ed. Rushton Coulborn. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1956. xiv, 439. Bibliographies, Index. $8.50.

Abstract

Feudalism in History. Ed. RUSHTON COTJLBOBN. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1956. xiv, 439. Bibliographies, Index. $8.50. This collective volume is something of a boot-strap operation; it begins with a short general essay on the idea of feudalism, continues more or less deductively with special studies of eight histories (including Chinese, Japanese, and Indian) which may have illustrated this idea, and concludes with a long comparative essay re-educing the generalization, and refining it, on the basis of the studies. Among the latter, Derk Bodde's on China, a calm synthesis of views sometimes acrimoniously held, accepts a feudal tag for the Chou period and emphasizes structure and social prerequisites. Edwin 0. Reischauer, for Japan, adds more of the time dimension—in what way and to what culmination does feudalism work itself out? The Indian material seems relatively intractable; Daniel Thorner simply does not have enough straw to make bricks. The aim of the whole is to test for repetition, or uniformities, in history.