http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/836988414

The Savage wars of peace : England, Japan and the Malthusian trap

This book aims to solve the problem of how parts of mankind escaped from an apparently inevitable trap of war, famine and disease in the last three hundred years. Through a detailed comparative analysis of English and Japanese history it explores such matters as the destruction of war, decline of famine, importance of certain drinks (especially tea), the use of human excrement and the effects of housing, clothing and bathing on human health. It also shows how the English and Japanese controlled fertility through marriage and sexual patterns, biological and contraceptive factors, abortion and infanticide. It proposes a new historical methodology through the examination of chains and causation. At one level this is a book of detection, trying to solve one of the great unsolved mysteries of history. At another it is a work of cultural transition, trying to explain the material and cultural underpinnings of East Asia (Japan) and Europe (England) through a long historical period. It thus combines history, anthropology, medicine and demography with a detailed use of contemporary sources such as traveller's accounts, diaries and medical texts.

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