Harold Bolitho

Bolitho received his B.A. from the University of Melbourne in 1961 and his M.A., M.Phil, and PhD degrees from Yale. In 1985, Bolitho was granted tenure as a Professor of Japanese History at Harvard.Georges, Christopher et al. [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=162800 "Waiting for the White Smoke: A Peek at Harvard's Tenure Searches,"] Harvard Crimson. 1 December 1984. He was Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies from 1988 through 1991.Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies (RIJS), [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~rijs/people/director.html Director, 1988–1991]

Formerly, Bolitho was a member of the faculty of Monash University and he taught at the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. Bolitho was a visiting professor at the Research Institute for Humanities at the University of Kyoto in 1989;{{Cite web |url=http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~rijs/people/faculty/h_bolitho.html |title=Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, faculty bio |access-date=21 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226034303/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~rijs/people/faculty/h_bolitho.html |archive-date=26 February 2008 |url-status=dead}} and he has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.[http://www.donaldkeenecenter.org/calendars_old/2005S.html Lecure: Leviathans of the Floating World: Sumo Wrestlers and the Japanese Print,] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070922213125/http://www.donaldkeenecenter.org/calendars_old/2005S.html |date=22 September 2007 }} Columbia (2005).

According to Bolitho, the post-war development of Japanese studies in English-speaking countries was characterized by unexpected growth.{{cite book|last=Hardacre|first=Helen|title=The Postwar Developments of Japanese Studies in the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dS7DwqiUKnwC&pg=PA85|year=1998|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-10981-1|pages=85–114}} He helped to foster that expansion.

Bolitho's research interests included Tokugawa institutions, the Bakumatsu and the Meiji Restoration, with an emphasis on regionalism.[http://www.wcfiareligiondirectory.org/?q=node/1178 Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, faculty bio]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} In his 1969 doctoral dissertation, "The Fudai Daimyo and the Tokogawa Settlement," he refined a distinctive point of view about the fudai daimyo and the bakufu. He argued that it was the collective power of the fudai and their competing interests that prevented the accumulation of unfettered power by the central government. He argued that "historians, believing too readily that the fudai were more bureaucrats than barons, have ... assumed that they were the model servants of centralized feudalism" and that "an examination of their roles supports no such belief".{{cite book|last=Shulman|first=Frank Joseph|title=Japan and Korea: An Annotated Bibliography of Doctoral Dissertations in Western Languages 1877–1969|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNjRd1RYvrcC&pg=PA71|date=February 1971|publisher=Taylor & Francis Group|isbn=978-0-7146-2691-8|page=71}}

In addition to his own work, Bolitho worked for Brill Publishers as an editor of their Japanese Studies Library. The series includes monographs on substantial subjects, thematic collections of articles, handbooks, text editions, and translations.{{cite book|editor-last=Hardacre|editor-first=Helen|title=The Postwar Developments of Japanese Studies in the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dS7DwqiUKnwC&pg=PR5|year=1998|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-10981-1|page=394}}

In commemoration of the United States bicentennial in 1976, the Australian government provided funding for an endowed chair in Australian studies at Harvard. This faculty position rotates yearly among different departments, and former chair holders have come to Harvard from a number of disciplines. This investment in Harvard encouraged an expanded interest in Australian studies. As he was an Australian, it was natural for Bolitho to serve as chair of the Committee on Australian Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.Peterson, Susan. [http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1997/05.15/AustraliaChairT.html "Chair Turns 20."] Harvard Gazette. 15 May 1997.

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Harold Bolitho, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 10+ works in 30+ publications in 3 languages and 1,000+ library holdings[http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/identities/default.htm WorldCat Identities]: [http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n83-213036 Bolitho, Harold]

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• Treasures Among Men: The Fudai Daimyo in Tokugawa Japan (1974)
• Japanese Kingship (1976)
• Meiji Japan (1977)
• A Northern Prospect: Australian Papers on Japan: Papers from the 1st Conference of Japanese Studies Association of Australia (1981) with Alan Rix
• Two Lectures on Japanese History. (1983)
• Approaching Australia: Papers from the Harvard Australian Studies Symposium. (1999)
• Bereavement and Consolation: Testimonies from Tokugawa Japan (2003)

; Chapters

• "The Tempo Crisis," The Nineteenth Century: Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 5 (1989), Marius Jansen, editor
• {{cite book|last1=Hall|first1=John W.|last2=Brown|first2=Delmer M.|last3=Marius B.|first3=Jansen|first4=William H.|last4=McCullough|first5=Donald Howard|last5=Shively|first6=Madoka|last6=Kanai|first7=Kozo|last7=Yamamura|first8=Peter|last8=Duus|title=The Cambridge History of Japan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a3QtaOH64rsC|year=1988|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-22355-3}}

{{reflist}}

• Hardacre, Helen, ed. (1998). [https://books.google.com/books?id=dS7DwqiUKnwC&dq=harold+bolitho+japan&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 The Postwar Development of Japanese Studies in the United States,] Leiden: Brill Publishers. {{ISBN|978-90-04-10981-0}}
• Schulman, Frank Joseph. (1970). [https://books.google.com/books?id=XNjRd1RYvrcC&dq=harold+bolitho+australia&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 Japan and Korea: An Annotated Bibliography of Doctoral Dissertations in Western Languages, 1877–1969.] London: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-7146-2691-0}}

• Harvard/RIJS, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080226034303/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~rijs/people/faculty/h_bolitho.html faculty photo]
• National Library of Australia: [http://nla.gov.au/nla.cs-pa-http%253A%252F%252Fwww.adm.monash.edu.au%252Frecords-archives%252Farchives%252Fcgi-alias%252Fmonpix%253FIMAGE_NUMBER%253D1019 Monash archive, faculty photo]
• Boston Globe, [http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bostonglobe/obituary.aspx?n=harold-bolitho&pid=146306898 obituary]

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Category:1939 births

Category:2010 deaths

Category:Harvard University faculty

Category:Yale University faculty

Category:Australian Japanologists

Category:Yale University alumni

Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty

Category:Columbia University faculty

Category:Academic staff of Monash University

Category:Academic staff of the University of Melbourne

Category:Australian people of Cornish descent

Category:People educated at Trinity Grammar School, Kew