A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower

by Kenneth G. Henshall

Book Overview

In a rare combination of comprehensive coverage and sustained critical focus, this book examines Japanese history in its entirety to identify the factors underlying the nation's progression to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312219865
• ISBN13: 9780312219864
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 242 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

An excellent introduction to Japanese history

This book is my recent reading about Japanese history and I found it is written in a wonderfully succinct way. Japan's history ranges over almost 2,000 years only for its historical part. If anybody feels it is still difficult to summarize 200-year history of the United States into a few hundred pages, you will know how daunting task it is to summarize 2,000-year history of one of the most important countries of the current world into this comfortable volume. This book distributes proper weight to each period of Japanese history and does not disproportionately emphasizes its modern history in disregard of its ancient one. In fact, the author's narration of Japanese history flows with very clear connection in mind between its ancient display and its modern development. In this small volume (yet more or less 300 pages), every paragraph retains significance in relation to the entirety of Japanese history as the author recognizes it. One may choose a fact-ridden thick dry textbook type for his/her introduction to a country's history, but I believe you will get a more vivid sense of the politcal and cultural entity called Japan through this book than through a long enumeration of historical facts of Japan. This book has my hearty recommendation for anybody who begins to develop an interest in Japanese history and culture.

Different approach

RECOMMENDATIONS I have been recommending this book to people as bedtime reading or something alike, as the style of this book seams more neutral (not comparing with West) but also in same time kind of light and somewhat humorous... so if interested of well written overview of Japanese history this book is kind of fun to read actually (how ever odd that might sound about bloody history). Some people appreciate that, some don't. I certainly enjoyed this different and light Japanese 'story. CONTENTS Have read quite few history books about Japan, but this one was actually (mostly) entertaining, which is refreshing next to thick and boring books that still don't cover all events (for example Nanjing massacre is completely missing from quite few thick Japanese history books by western authors). It is indeed somewhat disappointing that even this author left out for example the massive Nanjing rape and massacre, but at least he mentions Nanjing on couple of the pages, which is much more than could be said about other material out there. The best part in this book is though older history, that is before Meji era. I like this 'clear:head kind' of neutral feeling about this book, as it appears to me. Here you don't need to be worried about finding little lines here and there comparing some western countries against Japan (often in favor to writers own country), in same time as he still puts some personality to this 'story of the country. I like the way mr Henshall has placed the Japanese mythology in beginning and actually explained it in concise but informative way. Not very common in history books, I think. He seams to have also somewhat more sober interpretation of samurais throughout the history, among other things. (Here samurais are not presented just brave "heros" fighting for the truth and honor of the country.;) They seam to be put forward in more realistic way.) GENERALLY It is relatively thin book to be about one country's history, and you can't expect read all the details about everything that happend in Japan throughout it's pretty long and shaky history. However, if you not going to do deep detailed research about one specific event under Kamakura period or alike, with this book as only resource, this book covers Japanese history perfectly well. This entertaining and informative overview about history of Japan is definitely recommended. Hopefully this review helps you. If you will get this book, enjoy!! :)

Very perspicacious summary of Japanese history

After reading Gordon's "A Modern History of Japan" which was twice thicker with longer pages and concentrate on the history since Meiji, I was a bit skeptical that Henshall would be able to tell me much more about Japanese history, as there isn't much to say about early and medieval history in 70 pages, and even less from Meiji in 110 pages. However, I really enjoyed this book. Not only was it more digestible than Gordon's, it is probably the best comlpete history of Japan from the stone age to now that I have read so far. There are lots of interesting anecdotes and facts, and Henshall's summaries of key points in Japanese culture's development after each chapters are very eficient and perspicacious. There is very little useless commentaries or wasted space, without being too dense. Very good indeed !

Good Guide to Japan

Textbooks are no fun; that has always been the case. It is a lot more fun to learn something when you aren't thrown at a bunch of names and dates and expected to understand everything from those facts. Kenneth G. Henshall's A History of Japan doesn't seem like much of a textbook and perhaps it wasn't meant to be one. The only textbook like element that pushes the textbook like quality is the index in the back, but how can you not have an index in a history book?The first really good quality of this book is the length. It may seem impossible to complete an insightful history of a nation in two hundred pages, but Henshall manages too. He knows exactly what to talk about, and has a very good idea of what would be interesting to the reader. He touches on all important facts, dates, and events but does so in a much better narrative method than a typical textbook would. The whole work is written like a good story book as opposed to something that is supposed to force learning. When reading it, the reader doesn't feel like he's being spoon-fed bits of information to swallow. Henshall manages to convey all the information necessary without sacrificing reading quality. This interesting technique allows you to be able to zoom through chapters and sections and yet be able to retain information that you have read. The only minor downfall of his technique is that sometimes the reader manages to get through a topic so fast that he or she need to go back and look at it again to understand what they have read.Another great aspect of this book is detail. Henshall brings in a ton of interesting facts and tidbits of uncommonly known information. This plays on the reader's curiosity and encourages him to continue reading on. Henshall is great at throwing in information that isn't in typical textbooks and maybe thought of as excessive by other authors. It's these extras that allow the reader to gain a broader insight into the topic and feel as if they are part of the action. Descriptively Henshall is very clever as well. He is a good narrator and builds up scenes that allow the reader to visualize that which is being discussed. Henshall never goes too far, when describing something gruesome or shocking he never steps over the interest boundary and into the territories of disgust. A third good characteristic of this work is the inclusion of events outside Japan. The author manages to tie in events going on around the world into those in Japan. If Japan is ever affected by something outside of its borders, Henshall makes sure to explain why. Henshall also makes sure to note when something done by the Japanese affects the rest of the world. The time related references are great as well. If something is significant enough, Henshall will make sure to state why this came about or how this will affect the future. He manages to convey all this without confusing and losing the reader. Seemingly, the best quality of this book is that Henshall isn't an American. Perhaps his a

Concise and Absorbing

About the size of a paperback novel and just as readable, Kenneth G. Henshall's "A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower" presents the entire span of Japanese history in an almost unbelievably short work, yet manages to convey what the author believes to be the essence of the evolutionary stream of Japanese society. Despite Henshall's obvious gift for terse exposition, the book is not without scholarly authority, and was clearly intended to be used as a textbook as well as an adventure for the inquisitive. The major historical names are signified, and there are summaries of the principal themes. Japan is a most mysterious land to the average Westerner, having been for so long deliberately self-isolated. Its attitudes and customs are often the blunt antitheses to those found in most other areas. I have to admit that I stayed up all night reading this book, something that I hadn't done in 25 years. Using an emphasis on early and enduring belief systems, this work dispels historical myths about the motivations of the Japanese that seem to be a part of our folklore. It is a story portrait of a people both delicate and fierce to Western sensibilities, and makes for absorbing reading.