Japanese Society and History

By: Harold Kerbo, John McKinstry

Narrated by: Eva Wilhelm

Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Japan has always seemed a puzzle to most westerners - so modern, so industrialized, yet somehow so different. Japanese Society and History seeks to initiate westerners to the learning process of making Japan seem a little less mysterious and a little more understandable. This book walks readers through some of the important features of Japanese society to help readers begin slowly forming a more complete picture of Japan.

Japanese Society and History is a unique text and effective teaching tool designed for use in comparative sociology and political science courses, as well as courses in Asian Studies.

Japanese Society and History explores a variety a topics in Japanese society, including geography, language, history, cultural themes, family life, education, religion, politics and government, and the economy.

©2011 University Readers, Inc. (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

An excellent read- highly recommended

This book was excellent. It was so interesting to listen and learn about Japan. My family will be visiting Japan for the first time soon and I feel so much better prepared for my first visit. The authors offer such interesting observations on so many diverse topics on such things as Japanese history, politics, popular culture, attitudes, and the future. I understand the other reviewers critiquing the pronunciation by the narrator of the Japanese terms, but I did not think that detracted from the book at all. I highly recommend this book. I may listen to it again

Good way to learn about Japan.

The narrator had a nice voice it was like being in class with a decent teacher. I never feel asleep but I could stop at anytime. I thought the information was good and relevant and some stuff I didn't know I wanted to know

Great content, horrible reading

The author reads the entire book like Tricia Takanawa from family guy! Humorous at first but quickly becomes an annoying distraction from the content. Otherwise, a great, informative book.

wonderfully enjoyable and educational

loved it. listens to several chapters twice.
if you are curious about Japan and its culture this is the perfect book.

Good listen

Very enjoyable book, however there were several audio issues during the middle of the book.

Good information but horrible narrator

The information is good but the narrator is so bad that it is hard to listen to

Lots of interesting information and easy to follow

Where does Japanese Society and History rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I'd say it's one of the better audio history books I've read. The reason I got this was because I really like listening to The Great Courses audio lectures on history, but they didn't have a course on Japanese history. Japanese is one of my favorite cultures, so I had to get this.

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

Which character – as performed by Eva Wilhelm – was your favorite?

N/A

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

Probably the bits on history. I already know a lot of things about the culture, but the history is all new to me.

Any additional comments?

I'd just like to say that as a person who studies the language, some of the pronunciation for Japanese words was a bit off. For example, she was talking about Japanese Manga, and she pronounced it "Mane-ga" instead of "Mon-ga" like the Japanese would pronounce it. Other than that, I'm pretty sure this is accurate, because it follows everything I know about the culture, plus other bits of history.

日本語出来ませんね〜

They couldn't find a reader who had some command of Japanese? also, it's super weird to have a comparative history with the USA, and completely ignore the existence of the first nations. But a good coverage overall.

Fantastic book for Japan-lovers!

What made the experience of listening to Japanese Society and History the most enjoyable?

the book is very informative. I like the different chapters on society, history, problems etc very well organised

What was one of the most memorable moments of Japanese Society and History?

the people and the problems

Did Eva Wilhelm do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

I wasn't particularly impressed with the narrator. Quite monotonous. If the book wasnt so interesting i wouldn't have kept listening

If you could give Japanese Society and History a new subtitle, what would it be?

Geeking out on Japan

A Flawed work.

This is a very informative content, poorly written and poorly performed. x x x x