My new book, The Last Tsar: the Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs, will be published by Basic Books in December 2024. Based on a trove of new archival discoveries, The Last Tsar narrates how Nicholas’s resistance to reform doomed the monarchy.  Encompassing the captivating personalities of the era, it untangles the struggles between the increasingly isolated Nicholas and Alexandra and the factions of his relatives, the Duma leaders, and the generals who sought to stabilize the restive Russian empire either with the Tsar or without him.  The Last Tsar uncovers how Nicholas II stumbled into revolution, taking his family, the Romanov dynasty, and the whole Russian empire down with him.

“THE LAST TSAR is a terrific account of the February 1917 Revolution in Russia that knocks down many of the pillars of our usual interpretations. Elegantly written and magisterially researched.”—Robert Service, author of A History of Modern Russia

Available December 3! Learn more: https://bit.ly/4e9aKWI

I am a specialist in modern Russian/Soviet history and  Cold War history.  I retired from teaching in 2016 but continue to do research and writing. My research interests cover three different areas.  The first is on the Russian Revolution of 1917, on which I have published four books.  The second is on Russo-Japanese relations, and the third is on the end of the Pacific War.

  • Cold War in Asia
  • Soviet-Japanese Relations
  • History of the Pacific War
  • Social history of the Russian Revolution
  • Evolution of Nuclear Strategy

Requiem to soldiers in Leyte

Tracing how an American soldier and a Japanese soldier encountered each other in the Battle of Leyte, and how the descendants of the American soldier reconnected  the descendants of the Japanese soldier through the captured flag.

Emperors in War: Nicholas II and Hirohito

By examining why Nicholas II fell while Hirohito survived, this projects delves into the major differences between the Russian and Japanese monarchical systems.

Autobiography of a Japanese historian on Russia in the United States

By tracing the trajectory of a Japanese historian on Russia teaching in the United States, this autobiography describes cultural, intellectual, and institutional differences on Russian studies between Japan, the United States, and Russia.

  • The Last Tsar: the Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs (Basic books, 2024).

 

  • Crime and Punishment in the Russian Revolution: Mob Justice and Police in Petrograd (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2017).

  • The February Revolution, Petrograd, 1917: the End of the Tsarist Regime and the Birth of Dual Power (Leiden: Brill, 2017)

 

  • Editor, The Cold War in East Asia, 1945–1991 (Stanford UP/Wilson Center Press, 2011).
  • Coeditor, East Asia’s Haunted Present: Historical Memories and the Resurgence of Nationalism, edited with Togo (Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2008).
  • Editor, The End of the Pacific War: Reappraisals (Stanford: Stanford UP, 2007).
  • Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005).

  • Coeditor, Russia and Japan: An Unresolved Dilemma between Distant Neighbors (Berkeley: IAS, 1993).
  • The Northern Territorrie3s Dispute and Russo-Japanese Relations (Berkeley: IAS, 1989).
  • Roshia kakumei petorogurado no shimin seikatsu (Tokyo: Chuokoron, 1989).
  • The February Revolution: Petrograd, 1917 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1981).

 

  • Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Prize in 1999 for The Northern Territories Dispute and Russo-Japanese Relations
  • Robert Ferrell Award from the Society for Historians of American Foreisn Relations (2006) for Racing the Enemy
  • History and American Studies Award for 2005 from the Association of American Publishers (2006)
  • 9th Yomiuri-Yoshino Sakuzo Award (2006) for Anto: Sutarin, Toruman to Nihon Kofuku
  • 10th Shiba Ryotaro Award (2007) for Anto: Sutarin, Toruman to Nihon Kofuku
  • International Chair of the History of World War II, Universite libre de Bruxells Click here for more.