Frits Staal's massive two-volume book details the backgrounds to, and the performance of, a “Vedic ritual,” the Agnicayana, in Panjal, Kerala, in 1975. In its own terms the book is a success. Staal has set down, or told the reader where to find, every word of the twelve-day Agnicayana; he has described every ritual event; he has included many superb photographs (by Adelaide de Menil); he has collected essays on the various aspects of the Agnicayana, including comparisons with rituals of Tibet, Bali, and Java and discussions of pre-Vedic ritual. The book falls short in considering the multiple and ambivalent aspects of Agnicayana 1975: How much was Agnicayana the creation of the scholars who wanted to discover an intact Vedic ritual? To what degree did the very filming of Agnicayana transform it into a media event? What can be said about scholarship based on hybrid events such as Agnicayana 1975?

This article examines the thought and career of Nabeyama Sadachika (1901–79) from communist militant in 1920s Japan to his conversion to the emperor system in the 1930s and, finally, to his role in shaping the postwar anti-communist movement. Using Nabeyama's recently released private papers, the article shows how he brokered his anti-communist expertise to a range of postwar actors and institutions—the police, the Self-Defense Forces, business circles, politicians—as well as to foreign states, especially the Republic of China (Taiwan). These networks indicate that important sections of Japan's postwar establishment rallied behind anti-communism in the face of reforms that threatened their power at home and their vision for Japan in the world order after 1945. As a transwar history, this article adds to our understanding of Japan's transition from the age of empire to that of liberal democracy by qualifying narratives about the “progressive” nature of postwar Japanese politics. It argues that the vitality of anti-communism is symptomatic of the durability of particular political traditions, and reveals that, despite the significant reforms that Japan underwent after 1945, the Right was able to claim a space in the country's political culture that has been neglected by historians.

The most serious threat to the Dutch monopoly of Japanese trade came from the English during the wars of Napoleon. As early as 1794 Holland was overrun by French forces, and French propaganda transformed the Dutch East Indies into a Batavian Republic allied to France. Grave complications immediately arose with Great Britain who was at war with France. The situation became even more acute when in 1801 Napoleon gave to Holland a new constitution and demanded a more enthusiastic cooperation with his policies.

IN this study Southeastern Asia is limited to the land area on the continent of Asia which is south of China and east of India. In particular it includes Burma, Thailand, Indo-China, and Malaya.

Nationalism has more than one connotation. Every people has a nationalism or a patriotism of some sort and perhaps always has had. However, in previous ages it was more the expression of a feeling of cultural, tribal or ethnic oneness. In modern times the word has acquired a political connotation so that it is possible to say that some peoples have developed a modern political nationalism and others have not.