{"product_id":"9781108293020","title":"The Matter of History: How Things Create the Past","description":"New insights into the microbiome, epigenetics, and cognition are radically challenging our very idea of what it means to be 'human', while an explosion of neo-materialist thinking in the humanities has fostered a renewed appreciation of the formative powers of a dynamic material environment. The Matter of History brings these scientific and humanistic ideas together to develop a bold, new post-anthropocentric understanding of the past, one that reveals how powerful organisms and things help to create humans in all their dimensions, biological, social, and cultural. Timothy J. LeCain combines cutting-edge theory and detailed empirical analysis to explain the extraordinary late-nineteenth century convergence between the United States and Japan at the pivotal moment when both were emerging as global superpowers. Illustrating the power of a deeply material social and cultural history, The Matter of History argues that three powerful things - cattle, silkworms, and copper - helped to drive these previously diverse nations towards a global 'Great Convergence'.","brand":"Cambridge University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47120387277040,"sku":"9781108293020","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781108293020_p0.jpg?v=1763691443","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781108293020","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}