[.uk] The Russo-Japanese War in Global Perspective (History of ... (ISBN 9004154167)

Little Known but Important War:
The collection of essays on this somewhat esoteric conflict are outstanding and cover a wide range of insights, from the diplomatic to the military as well as economic. This war was the first that saw a major European power defeated by an Asian nation, and as such hailed a new dawn in geopolitics. Russia's defeats inspired the first significant revolutionary stirrings, and the 1905 October Manifesto would inevitably lead to the 1917 Bolshevik Uprising under similar conditions of Czarist defeat in a foreign war. In a similar fashion, Japan's willingness in 1904 to take on a vastly larger nation with infinite potential would necessarily embolden them to launch a similar venture in 1941, with historic consequences. I found it interesting to read of Japan's flirtations with Filipino revolutionaries prior to the war, but once Japan had punched its ticket to the Big Leagues, cooled in its ardor to espouse other Asian bids to be free of non-Asian rulers. The essay authors also do a good job in balancing the perspectives that others had of the war, and highlight how Europeans, so eager to brand the Japanese as barbarians before the war, eagerly embraced them as fellow defenders of civilization once they had demonstrated their competence with military violence. All in all, for any fan of this obscure war or early 20th century geopolitics, a must have. It is pricey, even for a scholarly book, but it is a good looking tome with something for everybody.