The author is an economist who has spent much of his life in Japan, so his insight into the "Japanese miracle" - the economic recovery after the devastation of the war was especially fascinating. Part of what was fascinating was how some of those early traditions affected Japan after its defeat in WWII. The first few chapters do provide a quick look at the last 1500 years or so of Japanese history, but the remaining chapters spend much more time on the last 200. It wasn't quite what I was looking for, but it was fascinating in its own way. Then I came across this recently published book and decided to check it out. I wanted to start this challenge with an overview of Japanese history since I know so little of ancient times in Japan. I read this book as the first in a challenge on the History Book Club's pages here on Goodreads.
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