With The East Asian War, 1592–1598, it is better to begin at the end, with the one-and-a-half-page conclusion, in which the editor, James B. Lewis, explains the nature of the book and his aim in editing it, and provides one-line summaries of each of its seventeen chapters. He points out that, in Western and Chinese scholarship, little attention is paid to the Imjin War (1592–98), while in Korea and Japan studies abound. Sources, too, are lavishly available in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Hence, Lewis asked prominent scholars from Korea, Japan, and Western countries to contribute articles that would “provide introductions to large areas of concern and identify analytical problems” (p. 378). This explains why several contributions read like reviews of existing Japanese and Korean literature, while others seem to fly off on a tangent. It also explains why the volume as a whole does not establish a set of...
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