Embracing Defeat, By John W. Dower

Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (1999)

Shows how Japan has gone through institutional rebuilding not once, but twice. The entire political and economic architecture of Japan was altered in the rubble of postwar Japan. It gives depth to the Meiji comparison that recurs throughout my book, and it is the evidence that institutional evolution at civilizational scale is possible. It is also evidence of what it usually costs.

Read it asking: Are there any cases of a society redesigning its institutions before the catastrophe rather than after it?