When I first picked up J.N. Westwood's book about the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), I had very little knowledge of the conflict. I remember studying it briefly in high school, but as I recall, it was only mentioned for the simple fact that it was the first time an Asian country had taken on and defeated a major world power in a war. Beyond that point, my knowledge was no more than speculation. However, now that I have read Mr. Westwood's book, I feel that I have a much better understanding of this conflict that occurred almost a hundred years ago. In his preface, he states that he is trying to provide an account of the Russo-Japanese War that does not rely on books like the British Official History, memoirs and, "worst of all," contemporary newspaper accounts. He explains that most of these accounts were of unreliable origin and, in the case of newspaper accounts, even intentionally dishonest since "most writers accepted that unreliable sources make the most exciting nar!
             ratives." What he used instead was an abundance of accounts written in Russian that had previously been neglected. His hope was to use these materials to display the war from "new or long-forgotten angles." The unique characteristic of this work, then, is that it provides us with a totally different perspective than that of others on the very same topic. While this may make it blatantly wrong to a person already familiar with and indoctrinated with many of the "anecdotal and hitherto unchallenged material" from the abundance of other works, I think that Westwood's portrayal should be praised, and not just for his nonconformist methods.
             Westwood's book begins by introducing the many "reasons" for the war. The chapter, aptly named, The Inevitable War, provides a glimpse into the respective objectives and thoughts of the Russian and Japanese governments during the latter half of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th and...