eely225's review
4.0
I think it's important with this book to take its title seriously. It's about the idea of "samurai" and it's short.
While the text discusses many relevant historical events, it's not primarily a history of those events. It's a history of how the concept of a "warrior class" evolved over time. In keeping things short, the book only cares about historical events insofar as they affect how the meaning of warrior/samurai has evolved.
So there's lots of name dropping that can be hard to keep up with, but the names aren't really the point. Wert spends sufficient time on the ideas at the core of his book, and if you have more questions about the Satsuma Rebellion or the Onin War or the Ryukyu Kingdom, well, Wikipedia exists for a reason.
The text reads pretty well, but because it's concise it does require your attention. Ideas build quickly and the author doesn't wait for you. Still, I learned a lot and this synthesized many disparate ideas and images I'd internalized over time.
While the text discusses many relevant historical events, it's not primarily a history of those events. It's a history of how the concept of a "warrior class" evolved over time. In keeping things short, the book only cares about historical events insofar as they affect how the meaning of warrior/samurai has evolved.
So there's lots of name dropping that can be hard to keep up with, but the names aren't really the point. Wert spends sufficient time on the ideas at the core of his book, and if you have more questions about the Satsuma Rebellion or the Onin War or the Ryukyu Kingdom, well, Wikipedia exists for a reason.
The text reads pretty well, but because it's concise it does require your attention. Ideas build quickly and the author doesn't wait for you. Still, I learned a lot and this synthesized many disparate ideas and images I'd internalized over time.
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