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The Showa era in recent Japanese history runs from 1926 to 1989. Since Showa seishin shi (History of the Showa Spirit) covers only the period up to around the year after the end of World War II in 1945, the title of Oketani Hideaki's book is somewhat of a misnomer. For those whose interests lie in the "spirit" of the first third of the era, however, the volume offers a cornucopia of information, primarily with reference to the interface between, broadly speaking, literature/culture and politics/ideology. The period in question witnessed the ascendance of modernist and proletarian literatures in the 1920s, followed by the rapid decline especially of left-wing thought and activities in the 1930s which accompanied the rise of nationalistic sentiments in both word and deed.