A Brief History of the Samurai

very thoroughly documented and researched, i will give it that. Too detailed for its own, or the reader's, good, unfortunately. It is not a history of the samurai (class) as I expected, but a collection of many histories of some samurai (men) - the big picture cannot be seen, just and endless stream of repetitive small pictures of individuals. The author also dwells way too much into the literary/poems sources (famous for the Japanese, I think, and for him, but not for the ordinary reader), even though he admits they are not reliable historical sources.
The fact that so many Japanese names are very similar (must every samurai have a name starting with Y, damn it!?) and difficult to remember for a European is not the authors fault, but it sure does not help.
The book is too detailed and sinks too much into the individual, personal stories, failing to provide a clear history of the class itself or of the social phenomenons. And, frankly, is also very boring. I am fascinated by the samurai and read a lot about them (both historical and literary works), or zen, or bushido, but this one I just could not finish.