Thomas Conlan is an Associate Professor of History at Bowdoin College (ME).

Conlan has authored some really great works in recent years. In Little Need of Divine Intervention and Weapons and Fighting Techniques of the Samurai Warrior are two valuable resources for me in my current personal library. Along with those 2 works, Conlan has also authored State of War: The Violent Order of Fourteenth Century Japan.

You can also find him from time to time making appearances for...

One of the most fundamental reasons for the poverty and underdevelopment of Africa (and of almost all "third world" countries) is neo-colonialism, which in modern history takes the shape of external debt.

When countries are forced to pay 40,50,60% of their government budgets just to pay the interests of their enormous debts, there is little room for actual prosperity left.

International debtors are the modern colonialists, sucking the marrow of countries;...

When the first crisis in the Congo broke out in 1960 the Katanga region contained 60% of the country's economic wealth and it was no surprise that Patrice Lumumba regarded this break away movement as an intolerable way to kickstart his premiership. The secessionists were led by Moise Tshombe, nicknamed 'the cash register' owing to his voracious appetite in accepting bribes and kickbacks. On account of the Belgian goverment's intention to maintain their extortionate concessions on mineral rights...

The Bakufu In Japanese History is an anthology of essays about, well, the Bakufu in Japanese History. (Who woulda thunk it?)

The book is edited by Jeffrey P. Mass and Willaim B. Hauser, and it includes an intro from Marius Jansen among the other contributors that will be mentioned below.

Before I begin reviewing the essays, my thoughts on the book as a whole:

Very informative. There...

Factoid (n) : "A piece of unverified or inaccurate information that is presented in the press as factual, often as part of a publicity effort, and that is then accepted as true because of frequent repetition." - Answers.com

The assertion that the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wished to "wipe Israel off the map" is the official candidate for factoid of the millenium. In an era of total information recall it is astounding that this absolute and utter fabrication...