Dr. Jeffrey Alexander

Office: Molinaro 125

Email: jeffrey.alexander@uwp.edu

My research focuses on Japan's major industrial, commercial, and societal transformations since the 1870s. I am the author of Japan's Motorcycle Wars: An Industry History, which was co-published by UBC Press and the University of Hawai'i Press in 2008. In my work I explore Japanese source material to illustrate such themes as how state investment in industry both before and during the Second World War laid the foundations for Japan's rapid postwar success in consumer product manufacturing, and how that process impacted Japanese society.

My current book, entitled Brewing Japan: The Japanese Beer Industry and National Transformation, 1870-1970, has just been reviewed positively for UBC Press, and I am presently revising the manuscript. It highlights the way that consumer product histories shed new light on a wide array of historical themes, including fashion, taxation, law, war, gender relations, material progress, and natural disaster.

Since 2007, I have been invited to speak about my research at Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of British Columbia, and the International House of Japan in Tokyo. I have also published original research on Japan's optical industry, and I have published 20 book reviews in professional journals such as The Journal of Asian Studies, Japanese Studies, and Pacific Affairs.

I teach the History of Japan since the 16th century, the History of China since Late Imperial times, and World History. In my lectures I exhibit a large collection of historical maps, photographs, and works of art that help to bring the past into view. I emphasize the key figures, ideas, and technologies that have influenced events on both local and global levels, and in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. My teaching focuses heavily on the development of students' writing skills, and I am a co-author of the Nelson Guide to Writing in History, which was published in its second edition in 2009.

I am originally from Toronto, and I received my B.A. from Brock University in 1995. I received both my M.A. (2001) and my Ph.D. (2005) from The University of British Columbia, in Vancouver. I have been fortunate to live and work in Japan on several occasions since 1995, and I have lived in a variety of places, including Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Aichi, and Tokyo.

I invite you to contact me at any time.