Maciamo
Decommissioned ex-admin
Registered: July 2002
Location: Austrasia
Posts: 6652
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Review Date: July 13, 2004
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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concise, complete, easy to read, lots of interesting facts and anecdotes
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Cons:
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too short (180pp) for those looking for a very detailed history
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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 !
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