Amy Stanley
@astanley711
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History professor at Northwestern. STRANGER IN THE SHOGUN’S CITY. New project on WWII. 2023 Guggenheim Fellow.
Joined May 2009
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It’s interesting how History is the discipline that’s exhorted to teach only - or mainly - what students find interesting and relevant. Chemists don’t teach only the molecules that students find interesting and relevant.
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OK, but one more thing: it kills me that the early generation of women's historians has been dismissed as not radical enough because all they did was "include women"
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Why is it that we got the AI that will write crappy essays before we got the AI that will scan a roll of microfiche and turn it into a beautifully in-focus PDF file?
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Historians already have a pretty good idea of what’s interesting and relevant. But in a different way from other disciplines, we’re expected to be *of service* to an existing paradigm that tells us what’s relevant. Basically, that’s the nation, and that’s the problem.
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In some sense Reiwa is a perfect name for this era, because ordinary people look at it like, “huh, maybe this is a little authoritarian?” And then experts rush in with a very complicated reading and assure us it’s all fine and we misunderstood.
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What they really did was something so radical that we still haven't come to terms with it: they put women at the center of their stories. They made women the protagonists and not the supporting characters.
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My essay on historical writing,
#MeToo
, and what we owe to our subjects, even two hundred years later, is up
@AHAhistorians
Writing the History of Sexual Assault in the Age of
#MeToo
| Perspectives on History | AHA
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Historians really hate foreshadowing. We hate it for a reason: the point of our work is always that at any point in the past there were many different possibilities for a future, and that we got one rather than another requires explanation.
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But also, this isn’t why our students are interested. They often want to understand culture, or times and places *unlike* their own. They want to learn the history of their own communities so they can understand themselves and their families.
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@KatieHAdams
You will look gorgeous no matter what, AND you have a great story for everyone you see. Hang in there!
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I also think there’s a problematic assumption that students learn history because they’re pursuing state-oriented goals. They want to influence policy or go into public service or be “good citizens.”
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Ladies, if he:
- Never texts back
- Never watches your Insta story
- Takes bribes
- Is suspicious of large potted plants
-Abolishes the wholesalers’ association
- Exiles a prominent kabuki actor
That’s not your man, it’s Mizuno Tadakuni, architect of the Tenpo Reforms
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Today I have seen: a man putting coins in a pay phone, people standing at stalls to read the physical copies of today's newspapers, and a sign announcing that new CDs have arrived at the library. Niigata Prefectural Library is like a lovely time warp.
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I wrote a book on prostitution in early modern Japan. It was incredibly depressing. Poor girls were indentured to brothels, forced to service men, beaten, starved, sometimes killed. Many died of venereal disease.
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What would happen if we took pregnancy and infant care seriously as a form of labor? I’m obsessed with this idea recently, so want to think through it:
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Finally, the “problem” with History isn’t just a problem with History or even the humanities. It’s with every field and major that won’t, in a transparent way, “help you find a job.” How many Physics majors are there on your campus? Math?
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First of all, if you want to influence policy or serve the nation, you’re way better off becoming a hedge fund manager, joining Mar-a-Lago, or looking really good in evening wear and marrying into one of our ruling families.
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But misogyny is all drearily the same, because the premise is the same: women matter because they serve men's needs. Men are the protagonists and women are the supporting characters. Men are essential and women are disposable.
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It’s worrying to me how many people don’t seem to think that misogyny is *disqualifying*. You can’t be a good scholar who “has problems with women.” That’s not only a minor social problem - it’s an intellectual failing.
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Very few come in thinking “I want to know why our nation is so great and how it can get even better and how I can further that goal!”
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We still can't manage to do that one "simple," "boring," "not radical" thing that those women called for us to do. That one thing that might change so much.
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*laughs in early modern Japan historian*
From the Magazine: The National Archives has billions of handwritten documents.
With cursive skills declining, how will we read them?
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The reason that was - and remains -
radical is because it's so hard to do. We've really never done it.
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It's why the story of
#metoo
is constantly told as the story of the rise and fall of (insert powerful abusive man here). And the questions become: Was it so bad? Did he deserve it? Is he a monster?
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This book wasn’t perfect, but John Dower was surely right about this
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Ok, also really finally, academic scientists aren’t being scolded for Goop the way we are for, like, Killing Lincoln. People realize that Gwyneth has a huge financial interest in telling people ridiculous things they want to hear. We can’t *fix* that.
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Wow, a man who doesn’t understand 17th century Japanese history OR Larry David’s sense of humor? And he can’t spell yarmulke? And he wrote a terrible novel about WWII? It’s like I have somehow willed this person into being. Apologies.
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It's why we spend so. much. time. thinking about the interiority of men (thanks
@MoiraDonegan
for that insight).
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It's why our story about incels is about the young misogynists behind the computer screens. The questions become: why are they like this? How can we help them? What will they do if we don't?
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This is a harrowing BBC interview with a former Chinese “comfort woman,” with Professor Peipei Qiu as translator. It’s difficult but worth listening to.
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This thread is what would happen if we were to read portraits of samurai the way we read bijinga.
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But it turns out that this isn't strange at all - there are "thoughtful" men who still proceed from this premise: men are entitled to sex, women's bodies and lives need to be sacrificed. (Or "redistributed.")
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And yet these men think they're original. That treating women's bodies as thought experiments is bold and provocative.
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“Every New Year some old people eat emoji and die” - 5 yo, incompetently explaining Japanese customs to his friend
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Basically, all of my academic work is the same trick: switch the protagonist, change the narrative. This is why "add women and stir" always seemed a pointless criticism. If you change the protagonist, you always change the narrative. You can't help it.
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The inanity of calling Yoshiwara “a precinct that all could enjoy”
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Thinking about what the
#metoo
movement means for
#asianstudies
? Come join us for a workshop at
#aas2019
. Friday 3/22, 9:30 PM, Silver Room. We’ll have coffee and cookies and a great conversation. Spread the word, and the hashtag!
#aasmetoo
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But the men in power believed that men were entitled to sex with women. It was a necessary outlet - without it, hardworking men would suffer. They might even riot. So some number of women's lives would have to be sacrificed.
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Since this thread blew up a little, I do want to say - the scholarship of that era didn't go far enough in many directions. What I'm saying is really a just a rebuttal of the "add women and stir" critique, which I've never understood as criticism or metaphor.
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9 yo: you should really dedicate this book to the dog because by the time you write another one he’ll be really old and probably dead
The dog is one year old.
My 9 yo has an impressive understanding of academic writing.
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I’ve been stalling writing my last chapter because I couldn’t see the end. This morning I saw the end, suddenly, and wrote it down. Now it’s just getting to that last paragraph. 🏃🏼♀️🏃🏼♀️🏃🏼♀️
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When I teach this subject, I explain to my students that men at the time often did think this was terrible. They sympathized with girls condemned to "hell on earth." They excoriated brothel keepers and unfeeling parents. They cried over tragic stories of abused women.
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Well, I have an 80,000 word book manuscript. I was going to send it to my editor tomorrow, but I may just send it to Jeffrey Goldberg.
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Announcement! I’ve been working with Chicago-based artist Michelle Hartney to create a feminist response to the Art Institute of Chicago’s exhibit “Painting the Floating World.” Find her alternative audio guide here:
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I’ve been thinking a lot about humility - particularly intellectual humility - as a feminist practice. The recognition that you got something wrong, or don’t know, or maybe (god forbid!) won’t always be on the right side.
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The Ross Douthats of the world don't think they have much in common with the officials of the Tokugawa shogunate. For one thing, the shogunate was vehemently anti-Christian.
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But wouldn’t American culture be more fun if we could choose era names based on our own classics?
Terrifying Whiteness (Moby Dick)
Eternal Shame (Scarlet Letter)
Glittering Emptiness (House of Mirth)
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Everyone knows about how impoverished Edo samurai made umbrellas and lanterns to make extra money, but who knew that they also grew azaleas 🌺 and raised goldfish??!
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Basically, the whole thing about being a historian of the Edo period is that people ask you what should be simple questions and you’re like “I need 500 pages to answer that because it’s really complicated and also my brain has exploded and can we just pretend you didn’t ask?”
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The only thing my 4-year-old knows about D.C. is that Wonder Woman lives there, so he asked if I met Wonder Woman at
#AAS2018
. Actually, I met several. Thanks everyone for an awesome, feminist AAS!!
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I know so much about how samurai peed in Edo castle. Like so, so much.(So much.)
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Would you like to hear a very creepy story from Edo? Of course you would! (thread below)
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I just carried a 42 pound sleeping four-year-old from the Nihonbashi exit of Tokyo Station all the way to the Marunouchi exit. I deserve a special commendation from the emperor. With rays. Lots of rays.
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If I just signed a contract to deliver 100K words, and I write around 100 words per coffee, then does the world even have that much coffee?
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Dystopia is watching academic men debate the validity of gender studies while an attempted rapist sits on the Supreme Court, a serial abuser of women sits in the presidency, the woman who testified to her trauma is in hiding, and I can barely write because I'm so sad and angry.
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Universities are among the only spaces we’re still holding open as places to *think* - deeply, unproductively, and in a time-consuming way. But now we’re crowding that out with so many “skills.” More skills! Different skills! Research skills! Writing skills! Soft skills!
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Yes, I am watching Shōgun! And yes, they do use the macron!
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Every weekend I confront the reality that I am very interested in reading and writing about domestic labor and entirely uninterested in performing it.
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I've learned in the past few weeks: No matter how obscure your scholarship might seem to be, no matter how distant in time and space, you will ALWAYS make someone angry by prioritizing women's stories and their experience of the world.
And that's how you know it's worth doing.
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@MistressSnowPhD
@UnseenJapanSite
Thank you for commenting - I understand the concern. In my book, I explain why I use this term for this era in Japanese history.
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And I explain this as if it's an alien way of thinking. As if *of course* we don't understand this mindset, but the past is strange and often terrible.
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Whenever I see a report of an academic disciplined for sexual harassment I’m always astounded at how much he was getting paid.
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Unexpected advice for being on leave, courtesy of one of my most brilliant senior colleagues: "Schedule lots of lunches. They keep you from being isolated, and you have to get things done because you're leaving for lunch. I've written all my books in the half hour before lunch."
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How much do people want to know about restaurants in Edo? Pretty much everything there is to know, right?
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Yet. Another. Global. History. That doesn’t get the population of Edo right. Not even close! When the numbers are EXCELLENT! Very few things drive me this crazy.
I have found the most awesome thing ever - the changing ranks of the 10 biggest cities in the world since 1500.
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I’m both totally stuck with Chapter 8 and really bored, so . . . What are some Japanese history books you wish existed (in English)? I’ll start:
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Ninja, though. Ninja weren’t people. No ninja in Edo. Sorry if I’ve ruined everyone’s night, but the truth must be told:
Edo had 1.2 million people
About half of them were samurai
None of them was a ninja
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The fact that this is what “expertise” looks like in Japan is a problem for all kinds of reasons.
NHK. Seriously. You need a good talking to. This week your
#manel
discusses demographic and regional issues (obviously important to men AND women) BUT you couldn’t find a women panelist? I’m not paying my NHK subs until you sort this out.
#diversity
🇯🇵👩🏻
#Japan
#grrr
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All my senior colleagues are awesome (really!), but the senior women in my department are particularly wonderful and I am thankful for them every day 💜. Having women full professors - and lots of them! - really matters a lot.
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Thanks to everyone who came out for this talk yesterday, and to the Asia Center for inviting me.
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Today I invented a European folk song called “The Bones Are in the Ground,” sang it in the stairwell, and came *thisclose* to convincing a colleague in European history that it was a real song.
So it’s not like I get nothing done at work.
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I just learned from Viktor Smagin’s dissertation that at one point c. 1805 Russians planned to kidnap the entire Japanese population of Karafuto and move them all to Alaska to start a Russian colony. 😮
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My impression from reading all these Edo period letters is that everyone always asked everyone else to do things confidentially (nainai nite), and no one ever, ever listened.
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Recently I've been thinking that for all our obsessing over "hearing women's voices" in the archive, and our frequent inability to do so, we also need to recognize that sources written and created by women present their own, sometimes more acute, methodological challenges
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My “let’s lose the weight I gained while writing” self and my “stressed out about editorial feedback” self are not at all in agreement about how much ice cream to eat.
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In St Louis tomorrow, talking about Edo period letters and writing!
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I can’t help it - the “Crimson Sky” references on Shōgun just make me think about some weird Harvard event, not the idea of storming Osaka Castle.
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@ZaraAnishanslin
They didn't do "tenured professor" because that's just an old sweater covered in dog hair.
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Edo thread! The Ansei Earthquake struck Edo in 1855, the year after Perry’s second visit to Japan and the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa.
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At
#AAS2018
@ChristinaLaffin
shows this awesome slide of women writing Meiji history in English. No excuse for male-dominated histories anymore. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
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@CoreyRobin
@ProfMSinha
This is because we expect that anti-imperialism, anti-racism, and anti-fascism really should be the same thing, but in fact the existence of imperial Japan shows that these lines were not at all clear at the time.
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Orientalist scholarship conferred on East Asia the status of "civilization" and denied it a history. And from this perspective, it makes sense that Edo is so often represented in global history textbooks as a culture without a society.
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I’m trying to write a gargantuan essay on labor in Tokugawa Japan, which is hard bc there’s very little that anyone does in an early modern society that ISN’T labor.
Related: think I can include pregnancy, childcare, and housework under “coercive labor regimes”? 🤔
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5 yo: What is a “loyal companion”?
Me: well, it’s like a really good friend - someone who is always with you abd loves you and would never leave you
5 yo: Oh. (pauses) You’re my loyal companion.
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I told my 10 yo about a friend’s amazing archival discovery and he said, “So what can she do with this information? Can she sell it?”
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It’s one of the strange and unexpected ways that the conventions of narrative can be in conflict with the ethos of academic history.
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After eleven years, my husband still texts me every time he walks through my part of campus so I can come to the window and wave. ❤️️👋🏼
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Fun fact about the so-called Treaty of Kanagawa: it was not negotiated or signed in Kanagawa.
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While THIS was going on among elite Harvard scientists, its president
@LHSummers
was proposing that the underrepresentation of women in science had to do with “the distribution of aptitude at the high end”
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On second thought, I really shouldn't have written a Japanese talk where I'd have to say "toraerareru" (捉えられる）so many times.
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Reproductive labor is labor. It’s grueling, physically and emotionally taxing, and dangerous. It’s also often performed under tremendously exploitive conditions that the laborer can’t control.
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Hi Japan Studies people who are post-PhD! The Japan-U.S. Friendship commission wants me to tell you all to apply for their grant for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan. I have one, and I’m not social scientific at all! They especially want junior ppl. Details below.
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Since he was a baby, 5 yo has soothed himself by burying his head in my belly. Tonight, in the middle of an overtired screaming tantrum, he raised his furious, tear-stained face, lifted my shirt, and said, “I don’t want you, just Belly.” He’s an entire feminist theory course.
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Good evening, Twitter. Here’s a story that, to me, perfectly encapsulates the situation of samurai in the late Edo period:
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Oh no, I’m not going to let this information just dribble out on Twitter. You’re all going to have to wait for the glorious stream of samurai pee-related content to gush forth in my book.
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I think about this kind of thing a lot. Like really a lot. When historians talk about “making an argument” versus “telling a story” I think we all inherently understand that stories ARE arguments.
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