Explaining how nations and narratives have been the products of transnational, cross-border forces of migration and cultural exchange, this open access volume presents a global history of the basic ideas that govern our understanding of the modern world and highlight the power of narratives in world history. From the Contents: 4. Fighting ‘the warfare of peacetime’: Japan’s Quest for National Narratives during the Late Nineteenth Century (Mayuko Sano); Chapter 5 . Toyo (the East) and Asia: The Transition of Japanese Self Consciousness from the 1850s to the 1940s (Haneda Masashi).