A Limited Book Review Part II: A Concise History of Japan

 

Walker, Brett L. A Concise History of Japan. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

This is the second book review that I have posted on this blog, so it is only appropriate I call it “A Limited Book Review Part II,” for obvious reasons. If you are interested in my first Weaving Chronicle Book Review here is the link https://theweavingchronicle.blogspot.com/2017/01/a-limited-book-review-last-founding.html. Shameless self-promotion finished, here is my limited book review.

A Concise History of Japan is a fairly easy read, Brett Walker moves the narrative along at a good clip. If you are looking for an easy history to pad your book count. The pagination is only 304 pages and 15 chapters so it is a really easy read (chapter lengths average only about 20 pages per chapter).

The following quote sums up the philosophy of the book. Focusing on the big picture of history or as the French say Longue Duree (literally Long duration). This term Longue Duree is also a historical term coined in the 1960s to describe the long view of history, attempting to see all the complexities of history. The perspective has gained favor again in the 21^st century especially in the context of environmental history.

"...context of the historical longue duree, one lesson of environmental history is that the physical stage on which our past unfolds is unstable and dynamic, just like the human societies it supports and sustains. But climate change threatens to amplify that transformative process several fold.

That being said, this book is not an environmental history per say. Rather, this book is what I imagine history should look like in the twenty-first century, as ice sheets and glaciers melt and sea levels and storm intensities rise." - Brett L. Walker, A Concise History of Japan (xvii)

It's “not an environmental history”, but you can tell that is what he wanted to write. My biggest complaint of the book is with its organization of the book. The author will be going through the Empire and Imperial Democracy, 1905-1931 (Chapter 12) and then BAM! He gives three whole paragraphs on the "legacy" of over fishing and whale hunting into the 21^st century (227-229). Call me old fashioned but if the chapter title says “1905-1931” than you should focus on “1905-1931.” This bit would have been better suited later in the book or maybe a complete reorganization to incorporate more environmental history themes.  As the book reads now, it is as if the author copied and pasted some last minute additions into the original manuscript. There are other instances where the organization goes askew but this was by far the most noticeable.

There are some redundancies and I wish the author had given more definitions, even if it was only in the glossary. I suppose defining everything would have made it less concise and more introductory. These are my only gripes about the book, I found it interesting and helpful. I was looking for a quick history to bolster my understanding of Japanese history and this was a good choice.