Sup /his/, historically dumb here. I've recently aquired

>>3061724
Start with the Greeks, then move on to Japan.

>>3061724
I personally find the Meiji restoration, Emperor Meiji, modernisation, Japanese empire and time as a world power the most interesting (partly because I know shit all about feudal Japan).

Emperor Meiji and his world is a good book about those.

>>3061724
Do you just want to read some exciting bits or are you fine with reading with longer, more dense material? Which era? Ancient, classical, medieval, pre-modern, or modern?

>>3061724

Stephen Turnbull wrote some really interesting books to get you started on the Sengoku period.

Otherwise just read Shogun by James Clavell. Not historically accurate but still good read.

>>3061813
>>3061840
Wonderful, thank you! I'll search for that

>>3061828
I'm completely fine with straight up heavy read as i want to educate myself as much as possible.
>Which era?
Would be great to start from the oldest recorded history and climb up to 17-18 century progressively.

>>3061876

https://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Turnbull/e/B001H6U2BS

>>3061876
Stephen Bull is literally a meme-tier historian with his older books having a ton of misleading "facts." They're not terrible, but you can do much better if you consider yourself a serious reader.

If you don't mind dense reads, start with Cambridge History of Japan series. The Cambridge History series are always excellent places to start for the history of any region and the one for Japan is no different.

A few books I'll recommend in addition:

Sacred Texts and Buried Treasures (read this if you're into historiographical controversies in ancient/classical Japan)
Antiquity and Anachronism in Japanese History (another good book about ancient Japan)
The Making of Modern Japan (very good overview of early-modern and modern eras)
The World Turned Upside Down: Medieval Japanese Society (covers the chaotic medieval period)
Yoritomo and the Founding of the First Bakufu: The Origins of Dual Government in Japan (read this if you like institutional history, but ONLY AFTER you already have an overview of the Genpei War and establishment of the Kamakura Shogunate)
Heavenly Warriors (read this if you're into samurai)
Japonius Tyrannus (a hard to find book, but the best English biography on Oda Nobunaga)
Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy (read if you're interested in WW2)

>>3062033
Oh, I forgot to mention Samurai Revolution, which is a good, detailed overview on the fall of the last Shogunate, the Boshin War, and Saigo Takamori's rebellion (the incident that Tom Cruise's Last Samurai movie was very loosely based off of).

>>3061724
This is a really broad topic. Generally Peter Duus has written some good texts, both introductory and in depth.

>>3062033
>>3062038
Bless you anon

Samurai: A Brief History of The Warrior Elite by Jonathan Clements is a pretty decent read that it doesn't only cover the samurai class but also talks about how Japan was like before the Chinese came in contact

Has anyone read Emperor Hirohito: Making of modern Japan? Is it any good and is about post war Japan or pre war