Why Does LaFeber Go So Far Wrong?
So why does LaFeber paint so different a picture from the one that I do? The answer is not that he is a stupid man or a bad historian– although a number of the sources that he relies on are stupid, mendacious, or bought. The answer is that he trusts the wrong sources, and reads the wrong documents. Government archives–and news reports–are full of threats of retaliatory duties, disputes over subsidies to export industries, and declarations from those whose economic position is harmed by rising imports that allowing such imports is not in the national interest. That is the knowledge base he uses to write his book. Appearing nowhere in the files of governments, or in the reports of news organizations, or in white papers produced by think-tanks funded by import-fearing textile barons is the satisfaction of a U.S. consumer who has just bought a SONY walkman, the happiness of a processed-foods exporter who has just landed a large contract from a Japanese importer, the extra cheapness with
