The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 6) - The Twentieth Century, 1900-1974 (1988. e2008)

By its very nature, then, a volume of this sort, concentrating on the twentieth century, is an exercise in obsolescence. Like the later volumes of the first Lord Acton's Cambridge Modern History, this volume is the most likely among those of the Cambridge History ofJapan to require early revision. Given this reality, it seemed wiser to plan the volume as a discursive guide to twentieth-century Japan than as a complete Baedeker with each site and vista along the way properly noted and catalogued. 

For example, there is less space, and hence less detail of coverage, devoted to political and diplomatic history than there might have been. But as there are many excellent monographs in English on these subjects, readers will not have trouble filling in the obvious gaps in the record. It may be more difficult for them to find succinct accounts of other subjects, particularly in economic, social, and intellectual history, and hence the contents err in their favor.