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Recommended Readings for Rurouni Kenshin
- Beasley, W.G. Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy
1853-1868. London: Oxford University Press, 1960.
- Hall, John Whitney. Japan From Prehistory to Modern
Times. New York: Dell Publishing, 1970.
- Hane, Mikiso. Modern Japan, A Historical Survey. San
Francisco: Westview Press, 1991.
- Murdoch, James. A History of Japan. Ed. Joesph M. Longford. New York:
Fredrick Ungar Publishing Co., 1964. Vol. 3 of A History of Japan
- Sansom, George B. A History of Japan 1615-1867.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1963.
- Sansom, George B. The Western World and Japan. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1962.
- Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of
Modern Japan. Eds. Chie Nakane and Shinzaburo Oishi, Trans.
Mikiso Hane, Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1990.
- Totman, Conrad. Early Modern Japan. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1993.
- Totman, Conrad. Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu.
Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1981.
If you can only read one or two of these books, read the last
two. Conrad Totman is a really good writer and I know that
Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu explains a lot. However, in my
personal opinion, you have to know about the bakufu and
country's situation in the Tokugawa era before you can understand why the bakufu
collapsed. Also, the western contact did have a fairly significant
effect on the bakufu's collapse and future events (though you can ask me
privately about that).
Other works, suggested by others (currently just J. Story) include:
- Huber, Thomas. The Revolutionary Origins of Modern
Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1981.
- Seidensticker, Edward. Low City, High City. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1983.
Copyright ©1999-2000 Stephen Congly
All Rights Reserved.
Last revised: January 5, 2000
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