New Oda Nobunaga Book

Has anybody seen or read a new book on Oda Nobunaga. I just found it on Amazon but not much details on its content. Its called

Japonius Tryannus: The Japanese Warlord Oda Nobunaga Reconsidered
by Jeroen Lamars
published by leiden last year (2000)

It came with hefty price tag, $65.00.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

William Letham wrote:

> Has anybody seen or read a new book on Oda Nobunaga. I just found it on Amazon but not much details on its content. Its called
>
> Japonius Tryannus: The Japanese Warlord Oda Nobunaga Reconsidered
> by Jeroen Lamars
> published by leiden last year (2000)
>
> It came with hefty price tag, $65.00.
>

I've been waiting for it for some time. It's supposed to be quite scholarly, and the definitive book on Nobunaga in English. The
author apparently was one of the students of my "dai-sensei", Jurgis Elisonas.


Tony

--- "Anthony J. Bryant" <ajbryant@...> wrote:

> William Letham wrote:
>
> > Has anybody seen or read a new book on Oda
> Nobunaga. I just found it on Amazon but not much
> details on its content. Its called
> >
> > Japonius Tryannus: The Japanese Warlord Oda
> Nobunaga Reconsidered
> > by Jeroen Lamars
> > published by leiden last year (2000)
> >
> > It came with hefty price tag, $65.00.
> >
>
> I've been waiting for it for some time. It's
> supposed to be quite scholarly, and the definitive
> book on Nobunaga in English. The
> author apparently was one of the students of my
> "dai-sensei", Jurgis Elisonas.
>
>
> Tony

Looked on the net and found this web article by the
author...interesting parallels between Nobunaga and
Machiavelli's Prince...

http://iias.leidenuniv.nl/kreeft/IIASNONLINE/Newsletters/Newsletter13/Regional/13ceca03.html

Nate


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So the question I have is considering the price ($65.00) is it worth it? In
other words is it a good read or a plodding 'university' book. I am also
curious about Jurgis Elisonas (AKA George Ellison) Wasn't he going to write
a book about Nobunaga?

----- Original Message -----
From: Anthony J. Bryant <ajbryant@...>
To: <samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2001 4:42 AM
Subject: Re: [samuraihistory] New Oda Nobunaga Book


> I've been waiting for it for some time. It's supposed to be quite
scholarly, and the definitive book on Nobunaga in English. The
> author apparently was one of the students of my "dai-sensei", Jurgis
Elisonas.

William Letham wrote:

> So the question I have is considering the price ($65.00) is it worth it? In
> other words is it a good read or a plodding 'university' book. I am also
> curious about Jurgis Elisonas (AKA George Ellison) Wasn't he going to write
> a book about Nobunaga?

Ummm.... "plodding 'university' book"?

I don't think I've ever seen one of those.

I assume you mean one of those boring things with citations and footnotes and
references? I'm sorry, those are the only books I take seriously.

But then again, I *am* a historian, and read those for fun.

Tony

What I meant by a plodding university book is the type of book written by
people in academia for people in academia, and usually quite
incomprehensible to the ordinary layman. Books like Shogunal Politics by
Kate Nakai, State and Diplomacy by Ronald Toby. These books do have there
place and I'm not knocking them per se. The problem I have with the field of
Japanese historiograpy is that there are few (very few) well written
narrative histories like the type done by say Robert Massie, Simon Schama,
David McCollough, or Stephan Ambrose. While I*am*not a historian I do love a
good book on history. I don't shy away from books with citations and
footnotes as long as they are well written, that describe the period in well
constructed details, and with a human touch. I do shy away from long turpid
discussions about the exact nomenclature of the shugo. Of course these type
of books have been written in Japanese, and when I go to Maruzen or
Kinokuniya I drool over the amoont of material available that simply is not
available in English. However reading Japanese books is too much like
studying. Its really difficult taking a Kanji dictionary on the train with
you. Now I confess I am being lazy, having lived here for 7 years and still
my reading level is about 6th grade.I feel though that anybody who is
interested in Japanese history, interested say in the life of Takeda
Shingen, or daily life in the Nara period , or a good history of the
Nanbokucho period shouldn't have to spend a lifetime mastering the Japanese
language in order to do so. On the other hand there have been plenty of
wonderful books on Russian history in english enough that one wouldn't have
to master the Russian language to read about Ivan the Terrible. If this type
of historical writing can be done in other feilds why not Japanese history?

----- Original Message -----
From: Anthony J. Bryant <ajbryant@...>
To: <samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2001 10:15 AM
Subject: Re: [samuraihistory] New Oda Nobunaga Book


> William Letham wrote:
>
> > So the question I have is considering the price ($65.00) is it worth it?
In
> > other words is it a good read or a plodding 'university' book. I am
also
> > curious about Jurgis Elisonas (AKA George Ellison) Wasn't he going to
write
> > a book about Nobunaga?
>
> Ummm.... "plodding 'university' book"?
>
> I don't think I've ever seen one of those.
>
> I assume you mean one of those boring things with citations and footnotes
and
> references? I'm sorry, those are the only books I take seriously.
>
> But then again, I *am* a historian, and read those for fun.
>
> Tony
>
>
>
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