Reading: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford. Got the advice from the Book list resource from this very subreddit. About 30% in, and so far, great fun, but it seems to me (a complete layman) that Genghis is portrayed as a noble hero, that did what he had to do given his time and circumstances. While this might be true, I believe that the author is a bit overwhelmed by the great khan's figure and tends to paitn a rather too favorable image of him. Still, like I said before, great fun, great story, very well told and written.

Looking for: A book that explains how the moors came to occupy southern Iberia, and the very founding of what later would be Al-Andalus. Any suggestion will do, if I can find it on e-book format all the better since I live in a remote city in the southern tip of Argentina.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed a pleasant holiday. I've been quiet recently on account of travel and family (and now shoveling snow in Maryland), and I won't be returning to California until the end of January.

Anyhow, yesterday I received Edward J. Drea's Japan's Imperial Army: It's Rise and Fall, 1853-1945 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009). Everything seems good so far. As the dust jacket explains, "[t]his first comprehensive English-language history of the Japanese army traces its origins, evolution, and impact as an engine of the country's regional and global ambitions and as a catalyst for the militarization of the Japanese homeland from mid-nineteenth-century incursions through the end of World War II." Accordingly, Drea focuses more on the role and development of the IJA as an institution rather than the minutiae of military operations. The actual text only runs 262 pages, though Drea writes very efficiently; he certainly doesn't waste the reader's time with idle rhetoric.

Having glanced through the sections on the Second Sino-Japanese War and Pacific War, my only complaint so far (and a minor one, I emphasize) is that Drea does not discuss war crimes and atrocities in greater detail. Regarding the Nanjing Massacre, he merely writes that the slaughter "was more than a breakdown of discipline brought on by the heavy losses suffered during the Shanghai fighting. The 16th Division, which perpetrated some of the worst atrocities at Nanjing, did not fight in Shanghai and had suffered relatively light casualties. This suggests that the army targeted the civilian population as a critical component of total war and applied indiscriminate terror to cow the Chinese into submission." (197) He mentions the creation of military brothels ("comfort stations) a few pages later, noting that this was an attempt (not entirely effective) to limit violence against women in occupied areas, restore discipline and morale, and the prevent the spread of STDs. The so-called "Three Alls" policy ("kill all, burn all, loot all") in China, Unit 731, and the Bataan Death March receive brief comments. On the other hand, Drea does describe crimes committed against Japanese civilians by their own army, especially at Okinawa ("The most notorious crime occurred on Tokashiki, where an army captain allegedly executed dozens of villagers and coerced more than 300 survivors into committing collective suicide," 247). Drea states in his conclusion:

Violence was idiosyncratic, depending on commanders' attitudes and orders. Too often senior Japanese officers ordered the execution of prisoners and civilians, the destruction of villages and cities, and condoned or encouraged plunder and rape. Junior officers followed orders (or acted secure in the knowledge that no punishment awaited them), and the enlisted ranks followed the permissive lead and took out their frustration and anger on the helpless. Not all Japanese soldiers participated in war crimes, and those who did cannot be absolved because they were following orders or doing what everyone else in their unit was. They were the "ordinary men" in extraordinary circumstances who became capable of the worst. (260)

Waiting for me at home is a used copy of Paul S. Dull's A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945 (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1978), which I look forward to reading.

I also read a bunch of stuff recently about the ancient Numidians, all of which was horribly racist in one way or another. Next week I might share some of them here or over at /r/badhistory. :P

Looking for: Article recommendations on the Beaver Wars. I'm relying heavily on Trigger's Children of the Aataentsic and need to flesh out my sources a bit.

Recommended Reading: Mapping the Mississippian Shatterzone: The Colonial Indian Slave Trade and Regional Instability in the American South is a great collection of essays for understanding the factors influencing Native American populations in the Southeast in the 17th century.

I was happy to find Voyage of the Deutschland, the first merchant submarine by Paul Konig freely available in it's entirety through Google Books. Deutschland was one of the new merchant submarines designed and constructed in World War One to evade the British blockade and trade with the United States. Konig, a merchant captain by trade, was tasked to take command of the Deutschland on a trip to Baltimore with a cargo of trade goods, and return to Germany with needed supplies.

This memoir was published on his return from the second (and last) merchant trip to the United States in mid/late 1916. The entire venture was a PR coup for the German government, internationally and domestically, and this book was a part of that. Therefore, it should be read with a mind wary of the more propaganda-infused episodes within it. If you weren't aware of a German mariner's opinion on the British blockade, Konig will repeatedly remind you on it's illegality and speak in an almost mocking manner about the English.

Nevertheless, this is one of the few accounts we have from the German side of the U-Boat war, even if the Deutschland was an unarmed merchant vessel. Konigs observations, given that he had no prior experience in submarines, can provide a valuable insight into life on a U-Boat in World War One.

I'm looking for books/journals about pre-colonial Southeast Asia, can anyone give a recommendation for it?

And if there are any, I would be even happier if someone can recommend about the pre-Indian influence Southeast Asia, that is, books/journals about period before Hinduism and Buddhism influence entered the region.

Can anyone recommend a good survey of the history of the Korean peninsula? I'm looking for either a handbook or graduate or upper-level undergrad textbook, something that can give me a decent foundation for further studies and later research. I'm more interested in premodern history, particularly prehistory through first millennium CE.