Japan

by Shelton Woods and Dashka Slater

Book Overview

How did the inhabitants of several small islands in the Pacific become the world's first non-Western industrialised nation? The answer is found in the fascinating story of Japan's political and social... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0781809894
• ISBN13: 9780781809894
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Japanese History

This is a book that briefly tells you history on each era without much detail and is well written

A GREAT introduction to Japanese history!

This book is recommended for anyone looking for an introduction on Japanese history. The book starts from the earliest signs of civilization to present day. It was well written and organized, and I found that it wasn't too fast-paced for comprehension. Even for those who aren't normally big on nonfiction, like me, this is a wonderful read if you're into Japan! It gave me great insight, and this book left me wanting to learn more about certain aspects of the Japanese culture. A great nonfiction read!

the best of many

I have taught Japanese history to high school students for 15 years or so. over the years I have used a variety of texts from standard high school social studies texts, Japan and the Pacific Rim readers and a number of different college texts. This book is unrivaled in its clarity, simplicity and comprehensive coverage. It is so easy to digest the variety of periods and players. It does an excellent job of explaining complex ideas. It also does a good job of covering social, military, cultural and religious histories. If that isn't enough it is an enjoyable read too. You can also add to those traits the fact that it costs less than $15.00 (compared to some history texts that can cost over $100). I supplement this book with An Illustrated History of Japan by Shigeo Nishimura, a wonderfully and artistically illustrated book of drawings (also a wonderful book that costs less than $16.00) that puts vivid images in the mind of my students to go along with the wonderfully written Shleton book.