Sansom's book has been around for a long, long time, and it has been an introduction to the subject for several generations of interested readers and budding Japanese scholars.

As a book for beginners on Japan it is an excellent start. If you already know something about the subject, you will probably find that it is long on history and short on culture. The author goes out of his way to keep the political context in the forefront and always maintains the chronological order of his story, even when the development of some cultural features (e.g., Japanese Buddhism) may not be well-served by that approach. Most of the major features we associate with Japanese culture are mentioned. Too many of them are only mentioned in passing, and could have merited more in-depth treatment.

Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to denigrate the book too much; when it appeared, most western readers knew little enough on the subject, and most of what they could obtain was either fanciful, biased or just plain unreadable. The tide has turned, and there is so much material available on Japanese culture nowadays that it's hard for the beginner to figure out where to start. If he or she starts with this book, they could do far worse.

I purchased this book at great cost but it has been worthwhile. It provides a concise overview of Japanese culture. It is the only book I have found to be so informative without the "fluff" of other books. I don't know about this one but the one I purchased is of fantastic high quality paper that makes such a small book rather heavy. A great book for anybodies reference library.

While interested in culture, I have come to realize I am not very interested in cultural history. For one thing, it is difficult to convey a history of art or architecture or literature to a reader unless the reader is already conversant with historical examples of all of these. It is also true, for me at least, that a discussion of religious and philosophical ideas from a modern perspective, with reference to historical changes, is more enlightening than an attempt at a chronological history. On the other hand, cultural histories, such as Sansom's can provide political histories of just the right amount of detail, and this book does; and Sansom is generally able to convey the flavor of a Japanese cultural epoch. The book lacks a proper emphasis on economic and technical history. Possibly, this is due to gaps in the historical record, at least at the time this book was written (1931), since Sansom does pay attention to economics in the late stages of this book. The book does successfully stress morality and character. A Short Cultural History ends just before the Restoration in mid-19th century. The book's style is pleasantly informal, more in the style of an essayist than an academic. And despite the reservations I have expressed, I found that with a certain amount of skimming, it provides a very good introduction, one that encourages more reading. I give it 5 stars because of the challenge of writing a book such as this.

with so many tiny tidbits of interesting information stuck in here and there it was a learning experience just reading the special highlights throughout the book. There were useful lists of important dates and happenings throughout each chapter and even suggested websites relating to each chapter's material for further information. The way the book was written made for easy understanding of the material and better memory of what was read. Although the book follows a text book formula it was fun to read which is rare. A real find!

I looked for a long time to find a decent world history; one that was neither 10,000 pages nor painfully dry. This is the best I found. It is a very readable book of reasonable length. The authors make good use of sidebars with thought-provoking bits of literature which are scattered throughout the overall history. They also make a good attempt at discussing underlying causes and patterns behind the historical events. I perfer that to a dry recounting of the facts, even if I may not always agree with them on the interpretation. It was surprisingly neutral on religious topics, given the origin of the book.

This is a reprint of Cohen's 1949 book. (Sansom wrote the foreward.) While amended in some respects by later work, there is a great deal here that is valuable and unique. Cohen provided much of the economic information for the U.S. Strategic Survey reports on Japan; this is much more detailed and comprehensive in most respects.

F.G. Bailey's book, "The Prevalence of Deceit," is about deception in human affairs. The book posits that "all facts are theory generated" and that "truth" depends on what people collectively believe the truth to be. The prevalence of deception in human affairs is facilitated by an innate human desire for order, predictablitiy, structure, control. It is this tendency which makes us vulnerable to accepting other peoples' "truths" (deception). Power is the principal motivation for deceiving people (that is, influencing their behavior by your version of "truth"). To persuade people by rhetoric -- i.e., perpetuating your "truth" to others -- you assert your control over them. Politicians are one good example of those who use their words more to persuade/flatter constituents to accept "truth" than to use their words to (dialectically) speak. Actually, F.G. Baileys believes that TRUE dialectics is a philosopher's dream and is virtually impossible. When people accept the "truths" of others, their freedom (to other "truth") is necessarily restricted; that is why F.G. Bailey posits that deception is so prevalent in human affairs. Unwittingly, people lock themselves into paradigms ("habitus") and collectively subscribe to "intersubjectivity." Throughout the book, he uses the terms "syntactical truth," "habitus," "truth-by-coherence," and "layman's truth" to refer to the paradigm problem. One interesting thesis in the book are the so-called "open secrets" (i.e., the so-called double standards) in society. The basis of this can be found in understanding how "truth" tends to be subsumed to the innate will for stability, structure, control. This is why, for example, apparant contradictions in reality are ignored for the sake of maintaining stability, saving face, keeping control. F.G. Bailey gives several examples from his experiences as an anthropologist in India during the 1950s to support his theses throughout the book. Overall the book posits the old epistemological quandary ("what is truth?") and finally warns us to always ask, Cui Bono? (Who benefits?) Thus the preponderance and warnings against deception. Although there is a dry spell in the book's middle on intra-Indian politics/affairs in the 1950s, the book is, overall, worth reading.

For the novice to Tombstone history and the diaries of George Parsons, this is an informative book. There are many good illustrations, with good footnotes on some of the characters mentioned in the diaries. However, there are many mistakes as well, and the informed scholar would be made cautious to take everything at face value, and would be urged to further check any facts. For example, on the very first page it is mentioned that George had one brother, Sam, and two sisters, Alice and Strallus. "Strallus" was a nickname for Alice, thus Alice and Strallus are the same person. The other sister's name was Emeline. A very basic fact such as this should not have been missed and unfortunately makes much of what follows suspect to any scholars looking for pertinent information. The book also states that George began his diary in March of 1879, after arriving in San Francisco. This is also inaccurate - the diary was begun in June of 1869, following the death of his mother, which had a profound effect on George and was the impetus for the journal. Every year on the anniversary of his mother's death, George would note it in his diary, even a half-century later. There are also grammatical errors and misspelled words in those sections coming directly from the author, and poor editing is to blame rather than the author of this volume. It is unfortunate that small things can cast doubt upon an entire volume, but still, the vast majority is in good order and the book is a very good snapshot of Tombstone and the mining district during those years. For someone desiring such, it is chock full of information, although the diary isn't always clear itself on who George is talking about, as he often uses abbreviations when discussing people. There are other versions of the diary in print that eliminate the abbreviations and spell out who is being discussed, although they may lack the extra footnotes or illustrations. For serious scholars, this book is a good companion volume to others in print, while for the novice this book can stand alone as a good primer on the Tombstone mining era.

I recently returned from a 3 month tour of Europe and took this book with me. While it did have a number of major European cities in it the actual information about them was definetly lacking. I found my self usually better off with out a book at all as opposed to only having this one. Several other travelers we met felt the same way and some were lucky enough to have Lonely Planet guides. For the money spent I'll stick to them or Rick Steves in the future. i.e. This book would take you to the train station/ subway but then fall short on what the heck to do to get a ticket!!! Which is important information stranded in 20 different stations/ subways a month each with different customs. Frommer's did do an excellent job of pointing out all of the gay and lesbian districs and bars in each city and the gay friendly hotels and shops... but they also have a strickly gay guide to Europe as well. The amount of space used for this information could have been better allocated for more pertinent information. I'll have to give a thumbs down on this book. Take something else with you or take nothing at all.

Frommer's does a good job with the general hints on travelling cheaper, but unless you plan on visiting only the major cities and capitals only, look for another book. There are 24 major cities and surrounding areas covered from Ireland to Budapest, but that's not many cities in comparison with all of Europe. I only will have a short time in Europe and that means that I will only be able to visit two of the cities listed and have to use another book for everything in between. Lonely Planet is much more inclusive and definitely covers the lower price scale.

Just returned from a 2 month trip using the 2002 guide. I found the recommendations for the restaurants to be excellent. After realizing that the Frommer's writers and I had the same tastes, I made it a point of seeking out all of their 'starred' recommendations for restaurants. The sightseeing descriptions and recommendations were also quite good. The hotel recommendations were not as good. A few of the hotels we stayed in that were not 'starred' or listed as a 'Find' were not as comfortable as hotels in other books.

We traveled with this Frommer's, Rick Steves, Lonely Planet and Rough Guides through France, Belguim, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Italy. We liked Rick Steves' recommendations for lodging, Frommer's for restaurants and both for sightseeing. Lonely Planet and Rough Guides were not used if in a Frommer's city. If in a Rick Steve's city (but not Frommer's) we used Lonely Planet for restaurant recommendations (not as good a Frommer's but better than Rick Steves).

Background: Two travelers, professional, early 30s with enough money to stay out of the hostels, but did not want to blow the bank of 5 star lodging. Rick Steve's packing philosophy. Both traveler's love to eat!!