Russia's humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 had profound effects. Domestically, it accelerated revolutionary discontent in Russia and enhanced Japan's national image as a modern state. Internationally, it shattered long-standing beliefs in European military dominance; it also marked a significant step on the road to the First World War. For these reasons and others, the war has attracted considerable attention from historians.

As Hamilton was the military attache of the British Indian Army serving with the Japanese army in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War, he was well placed to publish in 1907 this impressive eye witness account to a military confrontation between a well-known European army and a less-familiar Asian army. Good maps (many in colour), a full index and 600+ pages make this facsimile two-volume set a fine reference for the modern scholar, of a war that is still the classic example of a conflict waged for purely imperialistic motives, a rivalry for the control of Korea and Manchuria and indeed for the mastery of the Far East and China.