'What Japan was she owed to the samurai. They were not only the flower of the nation, but its root as well.'

Inazo Nitobe's book, the most influential ever written on Bushido, or the samurai Way of the Warrior, argues that the philosophy of Bushido is the true key to understanding 'the soul of Japan'.

One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists.

Inazo Nitobe (1862 - 1933) was a Japanese economist, diplomat and writer. He was a major actor in the League of Nations, and served in the Japanese parliament. His important work Bushido: The Soul of Japan is one of the best early explorations of Japanese culture and samurai ethics written in the English language.