This week's episode is brought to you by Audible.

Audible has over 425,000 titles to choose from, all compatible with iPhone, Android, Kindle, or your MP3 player of choice.

For listeners of the show, Audible is offering a free 30-day trial membership, complete with credit for a free audiobook of your choice.

You can cancel any time and keep the free book or keep going with one of Audible's subscription

offers.

Go to audibletrial.com slash Japan to claim your offer.

This week, I'm going to recommend Legends of the Samurai by Hiroaki Sato.

Despite the somewhat cheesy sounding name, this is actually an excellent primary source

compendium, which covers the entire history of the samurai class, all the way from the classical

period up to the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

I think it's a fantastic read, and I use it heavily for teaching in my own class, so if you're

at all interested, go Road Not Taken.

One of the great truisms of history is that it's hard for us to understand because we already know how it will end.

That knowledge, in turn, lends everything an aura of inevitability.

There's no other way it could have turned out once you understand the factors involved.

Except, of course, that the conclusions that flow from viewing the world that way are pretty unsettling, at least to me.

I'm not a determinist, and I think it's pointless to view history that way.

After all, if everything we do is predetermined by remote past events anyway,

what's the point of trying to learn anything from the past at all?

So I suppose if you are a determinist,

you should find another podcast to listen to. Or don't, it's not like you have a choice anyway.

Personally, I think that part of the point of studying history is to derive lessons or engage

...