My husband and I are planning a trip to Hagi. I am familiar with the history of Meiji Restoration and the role of Choshu in it. My husband knows little and I want to give him books that cover the period that led up to the restoration with a special emphasis on Choshu. I know good sources in Japanese, but he does not read Japanese.
Can you suggest some books available in English? We are scholars in other disciplines, so we have access to scholarly publications and happy to read journal articles, too. Thank you in advance.
Regarding the role of ChÅshu there are several popular books by Romulus Hillsborough which I think cover the main points. The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps: The Bloody Battles and Intrigues of the Shinsengumi covers the Shinsengumi; Samurai Assassins: "Dark Murder" and the Meiji Restoration, 1853-1868 covers shishi and ansatsu; Samurai Revolution: The Dawn of Modern Japan Seen Through the Eyes of the Shogun's Last Samurai covers Katsu Kaishu and the Satsuma Rebellion. I recommend these books especially because they focus on aspects of the story that are widely known and dramatized in Japan, but retold for English speaking readers.
A much briefer treatment, in an academic article: Robert Hellyer (2018) "The Meiji Restoration as a Local Event: The Second Kiheitai in History and Memory," Japanese Studies, 38:3. And there is a longer academic work, Choshu in the Meiji Restoration (1978) by Albert M. Craig, although I have not read it and do not know if it explains the most famous incidents of the bakumatsu and Boshin War periods.
Of course there is a much longer, dramatized treatment of the bakumatsu era in Shiba Ryotaro's epic series Ryoma. You're probably familiar with this book already, but I wanted to highlight that it is available in English on Kindle.