World History: Japan, East Asia
Brian Platt is Associate Professor of History. He is a specialist in Japanese history, with a research focus on the 18th and 19th centuries. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998, and is the author of Burning and Building: Schooling and State Formation in Japan, 1750-1890 (Harvard, 2004). He is the recipient of grants from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Spencer Foundation, the National Academy of Education, and the Association for Asian Studies. His current research project deals with the spread of archaeological activity in early modern Japan. He has taught various courses on Japanese and Asian history, as well as comparative courses on such issues as modernization, memory, gender, and national identity.
“From Memory to History, via Archaeology: The Life of an Ancient Monument in Tokugawa-era Japan”—article manuscript in preparation
“Early Modernity and Historical Consciousness in Japan”—article manuscript in preparation
“Wind, Worms and Weeds: Rescuing the Eroding Past in Early Modern Japan”—book manuscript in preparation
“Popular Education in Tokugawa Japan,” in Gary Leupp and De-min Tao, eds, The Tokugawa World (New York: Routledge Press, 2021)
"Farmer-Soldiers and Local Leadership in 19th-century Japan,” in Robert Hellyer, ed., The Meiji Restoration: Japan as a Global Nation (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020).
“Imperialism and Civil War in mid-19th Century East Asia,” in Peter Stearns, ed., The American Civil War in Global Context (Richmond, Virginia, The Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commision, 2015).
Burning and Building: Schooling and State Formation in Japan, 1750-1890 (Harvard, 2004).
HIST 125: Introduction to World History
HIST 251: Premodern East Asia
HIST 356: Modern Japan
HIST 357: Postwar Japan
HIST 387: Gender in Japanese History
HIST 300: Hiroshima and Nagasaki in History and Memory
HIST 555: Becoming Modern: A Comparative Look at Europe and East Asia
“Civil War and Mobilization: Japan in Comparative Perspective,” delivered at conference, “The Civil Wars of the Meiji Restoration & National Reconciliation: Global Historical Perspectives,” Wake Forest University, January 30-31, 2015.
“Imperialism and Civil War in mid-19th Century East Asia,” delivered at the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission conference, “The American Civil War in a Global Context,” May 31, 2014.