Henshall, Kenneth G., A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.

Henshall, a New Zealander professor of Japanese Studies, provides a sweeping and lively account of the history of Japan, focusing on both political and cultural history.

Ikeno, Osamu, and Roger Daniels, eds., The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Culture, Tuttle Publishing, 2002.

The editors, a Japanese and a British professor living in Japan, provide a guide to some aspects of contemporary Japanese culture, including rituals, myths, and ideas about social organization.

Sugimoto, Etsu I., A Daughter of the Samurai: How a Daughter of Feudal Japan, Living Hundreds of Years in One Generation, Became a Modern American, Doran, 1933.

Sugimoto's autobiography tells the true story of her upbringing in traditional Japan and transition to life in the twentieth century in Japan and the United States. The book provides personal insight into Japanese culture as it...