Review of "The Shortest History of Japan" by Lesley Downer

The book starts of well (which is why I bought it), discussing carefully the rise of the Japanese Empire in the seventh century (e.g., the Taika Reform), as well as the personality clashes (it is difficult to call them wars) during the Japanese middle ages. Especially after 1900, however, the book degenerates into a weird pile of political factoids. Little attention is given to economic and technological history, as well as the global context, though the book carefully discusses certain districts in Tokyo and even Kyoto and Nara. The second world war gets barely a mention, and the book sometimes reads nearly like Wikipedia. Nevertheless, this is a good book for getting up to speed on basic Japanese history c. 600 to 1900 (especially if you are good at remembering personal names).

basically how I suspect the book was written

The book is not as well composed as the Shortest History of Germany (which is at least good as a troll history), but has a better composition than the Shortest History of Italy.

I will still recommend Ienaga’s Pacific War when it comes to 1900-1945 Japanese history. I have not read enough books about pre-Meiji Japan to make book recommendations about this subject.

Rating: three out of five stars