A Brief History of the Samurai

Brief Histories

By: Jonathan Clements

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Length: 12 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

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.

Good summary. Poor attempt at Japanese names.

I would say it's a great book but it was so hard to listen to the narrator screw up the pronunciation. He even says "sami rai". C'mon you can't even pronounce that right?

A good jumping in point

The narrative is quite broad, and naturally a bit thin in places as a consequence. In general, the author provides a good overview of the various periods, and that gives a great jumping in point for further reading. The biggest gripe I had was that it was sometimes difficult to tell just how much time was passing. The other concern, which falls squarely on my "western ear" is that distinguishing and remembering different actors is difficult without being previously familiar with Japanese names. Over all, worth the listen.

Good book. Terrible language reading .

The book is a great summary of Japanese history from slightly before the Heian period through the Meiji Restoration, with slight touches into the modernization that occurred afterward. There is quite a bit of detail given to the Sengoku and rise of Tokugawa in particular.

My request to any future makers of audiobooks is this: If you are recording a book that emphasizes a foreign culture, please for the love of all that is holy get someone who has at least a passing familiarity with the language! The narrator is actually quite good at reading, and if this was an English history it would be enthralling, but his complete butchery of the Japanese language is appalling. The thing that got me most was the first time he said the name "Ieyasu". He said the name as if it was spelled "Aieeyasu". There are many names in the Tokugawa line that start with "ie" and he made sure to massacre them all. He also had a great proclivity to put the emPHAsis onto the wrong sylLAble on any Japanese word he met.

All in all, the book is well put together and I learned quite a bit about the pre-warring states period of which I'm less familiar, and despite the multiple cringeworthy moments of pronunciation I was able to finish it only having to stop and complain to no one in particular about the reading a few times.

Excellent history of Edo period Japan.

Excellent history of Edo period Japan and of Samurai history in detail. Narration well done. Years of material to digest and research.

Probably should get a 5 it is a bit hard to follow

Very interesting study of the Samurai and I don't know if there is a better way to distinguish between the player's but I did have to back up and review the reading a number of times.

A Little Lengthy

This history wasn’t quite brief enough for me and it seemed to get bogged down in individuals rather than talk about the phenomenon of the samurai, their ethics, their skills, and all the things that we think of when we think samurai. Perhaps that is because the modern idea of bushido and the samurai is largely a myth created after the age of the samurai was over. Whatever the reason, I enjoyed the book but when I finished, I felt like the first last chapters contained most of what I got out of it.