Hmmm, now that's a hard one. At college I specialized in modern history and economic history (19th-today), but honestly, I love at least as *much* Ancient History, both early and late. Someone like Alexander (and I'm not refering to Colin Farrell/Oliver Stone's Alexander
) fascinates me.
As someone here pointed out earlier, it helps tremendously to understand where a people stands today to know their history (typically, because their cultures are so different from ours in Western coutries, Japan and China are prime examples of this, imo)
Ah, and Mycernius? In case you read this, about books on Early Japan, you can try those, if you haven't already:
The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 1, esp. chapter 1 (although you may want to beware, since many new datas have emerged since they published this book in the late 70s, so they are wrong on some of their conclusions. It's still interesting, but you should read it along with another, more recent book)
Prehistoric Japan, by Keiji Imamura (1996) It's a reference really, and not too expensive, if you're ever considering buying one book on this period.
Ancient Jomon of Japan, by Junko Habu (2004) Great book, but pretty technical. I'm not sure you should start with this one if you don't know much about that period before.....
In case, I wrote short articles summing up the chapter in the Cambridge History of Japan on prehistoric Japan and pointing out the most important changes in our understanding since they publsihed it (and I'm working on doing the same with Imamura's book). You can find them in another forum on the internet. But I'm not sure it would be appropriate to post the links here (I mean, shameless plug? :bluush: ). In case it's not, but you're interested, you can contact me privately, or by email