Yukichi Fukuzawa and the Making of the Modern World

Yukichi Fukuzawa is arguably the greatest Japanese socialthinker of the last three centuries. In numerous books, inparticular An Outline of a Theory of Civilization (1973) andAutobiography (1972) he outlined his many ideas, not leaston the raised status of women.By setting up bookshops, universities, schools, modernaccounting, and modern manufacturing he became oneof the principal architects of modern Japan, where hisimage is still on the highest-denomination Japanesebanknote. Through his travels to the West and readingof western philosophy, he discovered the secret essenceof civilization and modernity and explained this to hiscountrymen and women.Alan Macfarlane, F.B.A., is an Emeritus Professor ofAnthropology at Cambridge University and a Life Fellowof King's College. His website is alanmacfarlane.com.