> --- Todd Archer wrote:
> >
> > Hi, Folks.
> >
> > I'm looking for some scholarly opinion on the
> > secondary source, "Secrets of
> > the Samurai" by Ratti and Westbrook. A google
> > search brought to my
> > attention lots of positive reviews and mentions from
> > bookstores and people
> > who seem to be students of various martial arts, but
> > not from any source I
> > would consider authoritative on the subject of
> > Japanese cultural history; I
> > could find no academic reviews. While the book has
> > a fairly large
> > bibliography as I recall, and does mention, I think,
> > something called the
> > Historia Nipponica in the credits, I don't remember
> > seeing any footnotes,
> > page references to other sources, or endnotes; this
> > lack set off a warning
> > bell.
> >
> > So, does anyone here know anything about how well
> > received this work is by
> > historians and scholars?
> >
> > Thanks for any advice.
> >
> > Todd
_
I've read a lot of Turnbull, and he's a good popular author, but
he's writing for a popular audience, and not for scholars. I picked up
his books when I was a medeival recreationist (For a decade I made
Japanese armor for sale to other recreationists). I think it depends
on who you're teaching-- when I was working on my Bachelor's degree
in Asian Studies, the professor cited some of Turnbull's writings, to
give us a feel for particular aspects of Japanese culture. When I did
my Masters in Japanese history, my advisor, Dr Paul Varley, knew of
Turnbull but never had reason to cite him (nor did the other Japanese
history faculty at my school).
By all means read Turnbull for background, then move on to deeper
scholarship in particular topics. I respect him as a very influential
popularizer of Japanese history, but don't normally think of him as a
historian, since the books I have from him aren't written in
historian style (lacking footnotes...). Of course, I haven't written
anything that got published either, and he has done plenty. Like I
said, he's well worth reading to get started, or to fill in on topics
you don't know well.
Alex Hazlett
Japanese History MA from Univ. of Hawaii, 1999
thesis title "Japanese Overseas Trade During the Ming Dynasty"
now a Texas A&M PhD student in the Nautical Archaeology Program