ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to draw conclusions from the experience of Inner Asia as a contribution to the comparative study of modernization. Such comparative studies seek to gain a better understanding both of the common features of societal development in the modem era and of the problems faced by individual societies in adapting their diverse institutional heritages to the universal challenges of modernity. We interpret the adaptation to modem functions of the premodem heritages of institutions and values of Inner Asia on the basis of a framework that has been employed in studies of Japan and Russia, of China, and of the Middle East (C10, C11, C35). This framework includes chapters on the international context, political development, economic growth, social mobilization, and knowledge and education, for both the premodem era and the subsequent period of societal transformation. The 1920s are considered to be the dividing point between these two periods in Inner Asia, although it fell somewhat earlier in some cases and somewhat later in others. Where relevant, comparisons are made with Japan, Russia/USSR, China, and the Middle East, and with a variety of other countries as seems appropriate.
