State Of War Summary

State of War: The Violent Order of Fourteenth-Century Japan is an interesting historical book that does a great job of giving an in depth look at war techniques used in this time period. It goes over many different aspects that affected warfare at this time, besides just military tactics, such as social structure, government set up, and innovations and technology that were emerging. The author attempts to break down many myths there are about samurai warfare at this time which is important for historians, as well as the rest of the population in understanding this time period in Japan. Thomas Donald Conlan, the author of State of War: The Violent Order of Fourteenth-Century Japan, argues that “warfare is instrumental to change rather than …show more content…
The book is organized into eight chapters, which all can theoretically stand alone. This shows that there are so many different aspects of war that can be discussed almost entirely separately from each other. This helps prove his thesis that warfare is important when it comes to societal change and that so many aspects of society were maintained through military force. Each chapter covers a specific aspect. For example, chapter four is called “Status Creation, Social Mobility, and War” while chapter seven is titled “Law and the Legitimation of Judicial Violence”. This shows the variation in topics the author discusses in order to prove his point. Although the chapters can stand alone, they relate to each other in many ways. Often, Conlan mentions the same aspects of war in multiple chapters which provides the reader with a holistic view of 14th century Japan. By doing this, Conlan effectively proves his points about how intertwined society was with the …show more content…
He introduces the chapter, and the book for that matter, by quite literally painting a “portrait” of a warrior named Nomoto Tomoyuki, who served Ashikaga Takauji in the 12th century. By providing a real example of a warrior, Conlan makes the whole book more relatable for the reader while providing valuable insight into the lives of many warriors. It was a good choice for him to start out the book with this narrative because it helps develop a character of a warrior right off the bat which was very helpful while reading. It was a creative way to portray a variety of different aspects of warrior’s lives at this point. An interesting point Conlan brought up in this chapter was that warriors felt a strong desire to be recognized for their duty. Examples like this really put a human face and feelings to warriors that are usually seen as very one