A Brief History of the Samurai

Brief Histories

By: Jonathan Clements

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

From a leading expert in Japanese history, this is one of the first full histories of the art and culture of the Samurai warrior. The Samurai emerged as a warrior caste in Medieval Japan and would have a powerful influence on the history and culture of the country from the next 500 years. Clements also looks at the Samurai wars that tore Japan apart in the 17th and 18th centuries and how the caste was finally demolished in the advent of the mechanized world.

©2010 Jonathan Clements (P)2014 Audible Ltd

Meh

Managed to make a fascinating time period sound quite boring. No small feat. Good narrator.

very entertaining

not what I expected but I thoroughly enjoyed the tales and history of a most interesting and influential class of people

Exactly what I had hoped for!

This is a realistic look at the glorified warriors of history. It was worth every penny!

Really connects all the dots

I would recommend this book because it does just what the title says. As someone who has known bits and pieces of Japanese and Samurai history, this account really pulled it all together in an interesting and insightful way.

Excellent book and narrator

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the Samurai or the early Japanese feudal period.
Full of history, battles and anecdotes it is very interesting.
The narrator is very good and adds just enough emotion into his performance to be enjoyable.

Beyond excellent

So perfectly written - nuanced, consistent, sophisticated. His work is truly extraordinary. I love Japanese history in part because Clements tells it so thematically and well. Absolute must-read

makes me want to know more.

as my title says, I want to know more about the samurai and especially the history of Japan

Very descriptive

I spent several weeks listening to the stories and accounts of the samurai detailed in this book, I would recommend it to anyone interested in the historical timeline of Japan and their Samurai warriors

Not what it seems

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes but with caveat that it's not about samurai warfare or fighting skills etc. but more just history

Connected Temporally, if not fully Thematically

The narrator is competent, but the recording makes it so that, at times, the sibilants get really hissy. It's distracting, but it wasn't hard to get distracted. It was neither as compelling nor as interesting as I'd hoped. It's very broad in its scope, and it tells at least some version of the story with at least some analysis. It admirably connects the history right up to present day, though there were many times in the final chapter I was surprised the book wasn't done. Lastly, the final message in the final minutes didn't feel well connected to the rest of the book.