Temple Urbanism in Medieval South India
The Tamil country of South India experienced a flowering of political, economic, and cultural forces during the Chola period (849–1279). The environments supporting this expansion were nucleated settlements focused on temples, surrounded by verdant paddy fields with artificial irrigation networks. This article is a study of the sacred sites and nucleated settlements that were the heart of this medieval civilization. The purposes of the study are two: first, to portray the dynamics of early urbanism during a crucial period of regional integration in South Asia, and especially to portray the geography of early centers; second, to provide the basis for a comparative study of early South Indian urbanism and premodern urbanism in other world areas.
From Court to Capital: A Tentative Interpretation of the Origins of the Japanese Urban Tradition
between Japanese and non-Japanese. In this last section Reischauer criticizes Japan for not playing a more active role in creating and maintaining the peaceful and orderly world community on which Japan, more than any other nation, is so critically, dependent. I do have a few minor quarrels with Reischauer's presentation. For example, rather than treating Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shintoism as distinct systems, as Reischauer does, I would view Japanese religion primarily from the perspective of primitive animism and ancestor worship. I would also credit Japanese religion with a more vital role than he is willing to admit. I would give a lower score to Japanese government in combating ecological problems than Reischauer does. In discussing education, I would not fail to point out the social costs (neuroses, loss of motivation, suicide) of the present system, which emphasizes entrance to college as the sole meaningful goal. But these are largely differences in emphasis and aproach, and do not mar the overwhelming merit of the book. Very few scholars have the ability to write a lucid, comprehensive, general book with depth and sympathy. The field of Japanese studies is fortunate to have such a scholar in Reischauer.
The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy
In this newly revised edition of his widely acclaimed work, Peter Burke presents a social and cultural history of the Italian Renaissance. He discusses the social and political institutions that existed in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and he analyzes the ways of thinking and seeing that characterized this period of extraordinary artistic creativity. Developing a distinctive approach, the author is concerned not only with the finished works of Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and others, but also with the social background, patterns of recruitment, and means of subsistence of this "cultural elite." He thus makes a major contribution both to our understanding of the Italian Renaissance and to our comprehension of the complex relations between culture and society. An excellent social history of the lives and culture of the artists and artisans which made it possible for the arts to flourish.