I've never read anything by Alan Macfarlane, but an interview/video I found on YouTube of him discussing Fernand Braudel led me to looking him up, and his book "Savage Wars of Peace: England, Japan, and the Malthusian Trap" intrigued me the most. Would it be worth buying a copy, or is there another one of his works that would be more worthwhile?
Thanks!
I have no specialty whatsoever in the topic that this book covers but I was intrigued because it shares the same name with not one but two other books that I've read (and that given the subject matter I think are actually more appropriately named).
I don't know if you have a JSTOR account but all three of these reviews are positive, including from an initially skeptical Japanologist:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2808129?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4054394?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2385682?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents