The first four books in this series should have prepared me for what Will and Ariel Durant had in store for me in a book dedicated solely to Italian RThe first four books in this series should have prepared me for what Will and Ariel Durant had in store for me in a book dedicated solely to Italian Renaissance. By now I am fully aware that in their definition of civilization a great artist’s body of work far outweighs even the grandest dynasty. And yet, I was still unprepared for the content of this book, which essentially is an endless cavalcade of biographies of artists who were active during that period in Italy. And as we all know, there were a lot of artists in Italy during the Renaissance! For the authors as well as the readers who are interested in arts history , both the period and this volume is therefore nothing short of the proverbial motherload. For me, who prefers a broader approach to history, the seemingly never ending avalanche of names of artists and their patrons, lists of paintings and sculptures they produced blurred after a couple of hundreds of pages into a monolithic wall of information that was too overwhelming to absorb.
I say it with utmost humility, but I can’t help but think that in preceding volumes of this book cycle, the authors did a much better job in distribution of space assigned to the history of art and that dedicated to the society in which that art was created. The Italian Renaissance is ‘overpopulated� with great artists; after all that’s what makes it the Italian Renaissance! But the unfortunate consequence of this abundance of great artists is that they take up far too much space in this volume. Yes, I know this statement is ridiculous, but I really feel it is a shame that Durants have no other choice but to focus almost exclusively on all those pesky giants of western culture. The politics and social environment of Italian city-states during that period is absolutely fascinating all in its own right� and so is Durants� narrative on those far too few occasions they ‘forget themselves� and switch focus on something other than Tizian or da Vinci.
Under normal circumstances this volume would probably have been too much for me. I persevered for one simple reason - the writing style of the authors. If there was ever a major literary work in the field of history that reads like poetry, it is “The Story of Civilization'' by Will and Ariel Durant. The gentleness and depth of thought found in their narrative is impossible to describe, but it needs to be experienced....more
A short and sweet overview of origins of Western Slavic people and Poles in particular. Its 80 richly illustrated pages are however more than sufficieA short and sweet overview of origins of Western Slavic people and Poles in particular. Its 80 richly illustrated pages are however more than sufficient to give a decent introduction to the topic, simply because most pieces in this historical puzzle are lost forever in the mist of prehistory.
The author tries to give some sort of answer to two basic questions. First and foremost, when did Slavic people arrive in Central Europe and where did they “originate� from? The answer to this question can only be of speculative nature - there are hardly any primary sources, while secondary evidence in fields of archeology and linguistic studies provides only a vague picture of “who, when and where�.
Second part of the booklet attempts to provide an overview of social processes which led to creation of slavic “proto-nations� in the area. Here the primary source of information consists of tales, single sentences or even individual words that can be found in medieval Frankish and Byzantine chronicles. Those primary sources along with speculations based on archeological finds is just enough for the author to piece together a couple of speculative narratives of the period in question.
Considering the difficulties regarding the factual information, the author does a pretty decent job in this one....more
Student of military history is probably spoiled for choice when choosing among the books dedicated to the topic of the struggle between German U-boat Student of military history is probably spoiled for choice when choosing among the books dedicated to the topic of the struggle between German U-boat fleet and Allied fleets during the two World Wars. I am however convinced that if the reader is looking for a comprehensive single-volume narrative of that aspect of marine history of World Wars, then he’ll be hard-pressed to find anything that will surpass “Business in Great Waters� by John Terraine.
The author himself states that this volume is primarily dedicated to history of technological developments in submarine and anti-submarine warfare during the period between 1914 and 1945. I have to say that this claim is a very modest one, because this book is about so much more. Sure, the rapid, constant developments in technology and how they continuously impacted on operations at sea is the focal point of this book. But in the course of his narrative the author also does a pretty darn good job illuminating the strategic, economic and indeed human aspects of the story. And all that is done in a very accessible writing style. The contents of this book may be complex, sometimes quite technical and at times quite grim, but the book itself is never boring.
The prolonged maritime struggle called as Battle of the Atlantic strikes me as something of an overlooked topic even among students of Second World War. We know that it took place, we are vaguely aware of its importance as well as of its uncompromising, gruesome nature. Yet, when it comes to the details and its actual significance in the overall scheme of things... I suspect that the fog of time has successfully hidden those from us. The “first round� which took place during First World War suffers in similar manner, but even to a greater degree than Battle of the Atlantic. In my opinion, John Terraine's effort to disperse the fog with this volume is quite splendid one. ...more
Oh well... over the years I've came to the realization that when it comes to booklets from Osprey, it's like with that box of chocolates Forrest Gump Oh well... over the years I've came to the realization that when it comes to booklets from Osprey, it's like with that box of chocolates Forrest Gump talks about - you never really know what you're gonna get. In case of this particular volume, content-wise, the value consists of couple of specific points being clarified: * Teutonic knights drowning en masse after going through the ice is most probably a myth. Don't believe movies made for propaganda purposes. * Actual involvement of Teutonic Knights in entire affair was of limited scope, it was the Sword Brothers who were the driving force and Teutonic Knights 'proper' were most probably relieved to get rid of them. * Nicolle manages to provide pretty decent overview of geo-political situation in northern Russia at the time of the battle.
In regard of the campaign and battle itself, this booklet is a pretty good illustration of how difficult it is to write anything informed about that period. Author relies pretty much exclusively on two medieval chronicles. Indeed, direct quotes from those two sources provide bulk of 'factual' information in Nicolle's narrative. Outside of those references, it is impossible for the author not to venture into land of qualified guesses and speculations. There simply isn't enough information about those events to do better here.
An area where I do find author's effort sub-par is in the analysis of consequences of this battle. Arrogance of western historian writing about 'east' raises its unattractive head when Nicolle dismisses the events of 1242 as local affair without any real consequences. Well, I beg to differ, Lake Peipus put an end to Germanic expansion into Slavic territories from that direction. If Teutonic Order managed to prevail and established permanent presence in the area, history of Eastern Europe could have taken entirely different course.
Overall, Lake Peipus is a usefull little volume and pretty much what's out there for english-speaking readers interested in the period....more
Over last thirty years or so, military history books written or translated into English have constituted a major part of literature that I like to reaOver last thirty years or so, military history books written or translated into English have constituted a major part of literature that I like to read. No matter how hard I try, I cannot recollect reading a book in that genre that seems as quintessentially ‘English� as “Duel of Eagles�. Written only 30 years after the legend of Battle of Britain took shape, by a man who actually led one of RAF squadrons into battle against Luftwaffe, it is filled to brim by English patriotism, stiff upper lip and absolute and unreserved pride in the achievement of ‘the few�. And rightfully so!
The passion and emotional engagement of the author makes this volume into very engaging and surprisingly compassionate read. The human aspect of the story told in this book is very tangible, often painfully so. In my opinion therein lies the main strength of this book - the reader gets sincere, frequently uncomfortable insight into the psyche of the young men who did their best to kill each other in French and British skies that fateful summer of 1940. Sense of duty that drove them, exhilaration of combat and joy of surviving yet another day, constant fear of being maimed or burned to death, the utter exhaustion, sorrow over friends lost often in front of ones eyes and quite often pure disgust over the constant slaughter of both friend and foe � this odd mix of emotions is perfectly depicted by author and leaves a very poignant, lasting imprint on reader’s mind.
As so often is the case though, the strength of this book is also its greatest weakness. The strong feelings of the author get in the way of providing a truely objective analysis of the ‘big picture�. In this respect, the book clearly retells the ‘lore� of Battle of Britain rather than its history. If the reader is interested in ‘proper� analysis of early history of RAF and Luftwaffe and especially the operational analysis of Battle of Britain, it must be said that there is a multitude of better choices that this volume. “Duel of Eagles� should be regarded as what it is � a beautiful and thoughtful acknowledgement of bravery and ultimate sacrifice of young men wasted in a deadly conflict that never should have happened in the first place....more
I’ve spent last hour or so trying to formulate a glowing review of “Guns at Last Light� and to my surprise, it is a bit of a struggle! I really enjoyeI’ve spent last hour or so trying to formulate a glowing review of “Guns at Last Light� and to my surprise, it is a bit of a struggle! I really enjoyed this book immensely and I think that it is in every respect a worthy final part of a superb trilogy covering United States part in World War II in Africa and Europe. I am full of admiration for author’s narrative style � Rick Atkinson manages to retell the military history of these final months of war in the West, while never allowing the reader to forget what price those grand and tragic events required from very real people.
And yet, there is something that stops me from giving this book an unreserved accolade Perhaps it’s its somewhat self-congratulatory tone � after all, the end of the war didn’t mean liberation for all nations of Europe. Or perhaps it’s its final chapters which make us believe that yes indeed, the good guys won and the bad guys lost! Was it what really what happened? Without taking anything away from author’s overall achievement, I must admit that the “black and white� conclusions presented in the final chapters do disturb me and cast a slight shadow over this book and the trilogy as a whole. ...more
In “Empires and barbarians�, Peter Heather attempts to tackle two of the biggest questions in history of European continent. The first of those questiIn “Empires and barbarians�, Peter Heather attempts to tackle two of the biggest questions in history of European continent. The first of those questions is how, in a course of millennia, Europe transformed from a territory equally divided between Roman empire and a multitude of Germanic tribes lacking any “national� structures into a socio-political construct of proto-national states which to a large degree remains unchanged into our own time. Simultaneously, he tries to figure out the answer to parallel and equally important question about what role, if any, did large scale migrations play in this metamorphosis.
After this short introduction to the purpose and content of this book, let me proceed with a short clarification of this review. When it comes to serious history works (and in my humble opinion, this volume falls most certainly into this category), I am of opinion that any meaningful discussion must be split into two distinct parts, pure literary assessment being the first one. While I am most definitely a history buff, I am not a historian. As such I require for my history books to be easily accessible and engaging. As much as I desire to learn from history books, I also read for the sake of enjoyment. The other part of my “reviews� of books such as this one consists of evaluation of actual factual content. After all, what’s the point of a history book, if it fails to learn you something new about actual history.
If we start off with the literary “review�, let me put it bluntly - this was one of the toughest reading experiences I’ve had in several years. Now, don’t get me wrong here, I am not saying that it’s a badly written book! On quite contrary, the literary skills of the author are beyond reproach. As a matter of fact, the main reason for why I started reading “Empires and barbarians�, besides the obvious fact that the topic is interesting to me, was my very pleasant experience with one of author’s previous works � “The Fall of the Roman Empire�. Writing style of that book was what I usually look for in a history book � an informed narrative presentation of events, complemented by author’s personal conclusions and observations.
The issue with “Empires and barbarians� is that being written with same skill is the one thing it has in common with "The Fall of the Roman Empire". In pretty much every other respect, it is a very different beast and the reason is pretty straightforward - those two books serve different purpose. Unlike “The Fall of the Roman Empire�, which is clearly intended for general public, “Empires and barbarians� is at its core a presentation of a serious academic thesis and a contribution to ongoing discussion in a very active academic field of study. Yes, it can be read by “general public�, but make no mistake - it is primarily directed, both stylistically and content-wise, toward other academicians. This is very important to realize, because the topic discussed in this book is always contentious and quite often volatile among historians and this book is a direct assault on beliefs held by some of them. As consequence, in what I assume is anticipation of inevitable scrutiny and criticism of peers, the content of this book exhibits painstaking meticulousness and attention to detail seldom encountered in popular history books.
As it turns out, for this “casual� reader who (as stated above) just wants to read a good story and learn something new, this approach didn’t transfer into a pleasant reading experience. Once again, I’m not saying that this is a bad book! On quite contrary, the author’s literary skills are very commendable and every once in a while, when the “plot� manages to get off the ground, this book and author’s theories are absolutely fascinating. However, author spends far too much time for my liking on reiterating same concepts and conclusions and their fortification by even more scientific evidence as it becomes chronologically relevant. This repetitious “hammering down� of individual arguments makes perfect sense in an academic discussion, but doesn’t do any favors to natural narrative flow of the story that is being told. As member of “general public� I had to really struggle through this volume for one simple reason - author’s meticulousness made parts of “Empires and barbarians� into boring read. As paradoxical as it may sound, this book is as close to serious academic report as I can tolerate in my history studies.
And having said that, let me now turn on a dime and say that content-wise, this book is a splendid piece of history literature. The consensus regarding the topic discussed in this book, is currently that that the migrations of first millennium weren’t as significant events in formative process of our continent as it was previously claimed. Indeed, if one is to believe author’s analysis of “current state of affairs�, the opinion prevalent in many academic circles goes to the extreme of complete dismissal of such migrations as fantasies of contemporary historians who were too ignorant to understand what was really going on. “Empires and barbarians� exposes such views for what they are � a folly having more in common with modern cultural and political baggage than with facts and existing evidence.
What Peter Heather does in this book is simply to begin from “square one� and analyze the events that took place during the first millennia, one “case� at the time. He starts with contemporary historical sources and then sees how what’s being told can be embossed with help of most recent archeological evidence, modern theories regarding group identities and migration patterns, etymology and whatever other scientific tools that can be used to fill out the gaps in our knowledge of these “dark ages�. This inter-disciplinary comparative study, mixed with a healthy dose of common sense, renders a series of coherent, inter-locking, parallel processes that starts with the collapse of Roman Empire and end with appearance of proto-states at the end of first millennia. I would not go as far as saying that this book provided us with definitive answer about what happened in Europe in first millennia after birth of Christ. But his model is far more complex, nuanced and plausible than the dogmatic theories currently dominating discussion about those events.
“Empires and barbarians� is not an easy book to absorb, but it is certainly thought-provoking. For me personally, it was a struggle to get through it. But on the other hand, I never considered giving up on it � once I started, I simply had to continue ‘til the end. Does this mean that it’s a “good book�? I’m not entirely sure that it does. But I am most certainly glad I persevered, because this book needs to be read by anyone with the interest in such varied topics as fall of Western Roman Empire, so called dark ages that followed, emergence of European states and indeed even today’s migration crisis....more
For one reason or another (probably out of sheer curiosity) I wanted to get a better understanding of Russian revolution and early history of communisFor one reason or another (probably out of sheer curiosity) I wanted to get a better understanding of Russian revolution and early history of communism in Russia. Richard Pipes� book seemed like a reasonable place to start dabbling with this subject. In many ways it turned out to be a suitable choice for a starting point for a study of this subject. At the same time, it is in my opinion a risky choice for an introduction to this historical event.
“Russian Revolution� starts off as your typical history book, with an introduction of the ‘landscape�. In this case the author starts with a consiste description of social and political situation of imperial Russia in late 19th century. The story then continues briskly with narrative of the period up to bolshevik seizure of power. The reader is led skillfully through the events of 1905 and subsequent decade filled with half-hearted reforms that failed to stabilize the situation. Next, the author analyzes the consequences for outbreak of World War I for Russia steering elite and how they led to February revolution of 1917 and downfall of the Tsar. Once we reach to the establishment of short-lived Kerensky-regime, the author has reached the designated subject matter of his book and his analysis becomes much more detailed and meticulous.
It is also at this point in the book that we encounter bolsheviks and their leader Lenin. From this point on, Pipes narrative splits into two interwoven, but in my opinion distinctly separate tracks. On one hand, he continues on with the ‘history� and provides an informative analysis of the course of events, starting with the first (failed) attempt to take over power by bolsheviks and halting at the time of Lenin’s death in 1924. In this part of the book, the author covers a wide course of topics - the civil war, the internal political infighting with leftist ‘allies�, consequences of communistic doctrine (such as Lenin understood it) on Russian society, culture, education and finances, how foreign powers regarded and dealt with bolsheviks and their usurpation of power, etc� All this is done in very skillful, consiste and very readable, albeit somewhat stiff and formal manner. This part of the ‘Russian Revolution� gave justification for me picking it up in the first place.
However, as the narrative reaches the time when bolsheviks grab the power, the author starts shift focus of his book. Gradually, an increasing amount of its space is dedicated to a study of bolshevik political doctrine and Lenin’s input in particular. Such analysis, in some form, is of course to be expected and in deed necessary, considering the subject of the book. But the longer one progresses into the book, the more does this political dissection take the front seat at the cost of ‘history�. I found this gradual and somewhat sneaky shift of focus rather annoying - after all, I picked it up for the ‘history�, not political analysis of bolshevik take on political doctrine of communism.
This feeling of annoyance is immensely deepened by the what I perceive to be author’s stand on bolshevism and persona of Lenin in particular. The way I understood it, Pipes� view is absolutist - in Pipes� opinion, bolshevism can only be regarded as one of the ‘absolute evils� of human history and its implementation caused immeasurable sufferings for countless millions of people on which it was enforced. Through the course of the book, Lenin emerges to be both the main architect of this evil ideology and prime conductor of its implementation in Russia. As such, he’s also painted by Pipes as evil incarnated. Whether or not the author is correct in this assumption, is beyond the scope of this review. But it needs to be observed that a history of any event, written through such ‘filter�, cannot be regarded as objective. And indeed, the author is honest with the reader in this respect. In the final chapter of the book, where he provides his final judgement and utter condemnation both the revolution itself, the system it enforced and Lenin in particular, Pipes admits openly that maintenance of objectivism was not one of the objectives of this book.
In other reviews of history works, I sometimes expressed my irritation over the fact that an effort to maintain ‘objectivism� caused the author to withhold any personal input about the topic they write about. I find that such 'self-denial' often leads to a final result to become bland and timid narrative without any edge and only limited value. In case of 'Russian revolution', my feeling is exactly the opposite - here, the author allows his feelings about a subject to be his leading star throughout the course of his effort. And when author's premise is that the subject at hand is an 'absolute evil', then the outcome is a given - everything associated with it must also be evil. This is of course a choice free for the author to be made. But at the same time, when a book is written on such a premise, this reader at least can’t help but ask himself about its credibility....more
Fourth volume in Will Durant’s monumental work, entitled ‘Age of faith� deals with the period roughly between 4th and 12th century. The title of this Fourth volume in Will Durant’s monumental work, entitled ‘Age of faith� deals with the period roughly between 4th and 12th century. The title of this book, or rather a trilogy of books, is quite suitable, as the Christian Church is in the center of its focus from the beginning to the end.
The scope of ‘Age of faith� is quite incredible. The author starts with the ‘barbarian� invasions of fourth century. He then guides us through the so called fall of Roman Empire, gives the proper acknowledgment to the Constantinople and Byzantine empire’s legacy, before proceeding into real age of faith, or if one’s to be strict, into the age of three faiths � Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Once the introduction of those three religions is accomplished (somewhere at the end of the first third of the book), the author proceeds with the real task of this volume � a narrative of a world in turmoil emerging from chaos to order with help of these three monotheistic religions. Each of those is given its due, but Christianity and Christian Church are definitely in the center of Durant’s story.
Author’s writing style, choice of course in his narrative and clarity of thought are as stellar as in previous volumes of this work. Perhaps even more so - the ‘story lines� are here so many and interwoven with each much more complexity than during age of Greece or Roman Empire. And yet, somehow, Durant still delivers a coherent and multi-faceted narrative of this utterly chaotic period called dark and medieval ages. And he does it in his usual superb writing style, which is a true joy to enjoy for any reader.
It must at the same time perhaps be said that the wide scope of this volume may be too ambitious. The author tries to cover so many topics over such enormous stretch of time. As a result, even his immense skill with word fails at times and the reader finds himself at times bombarded with a litany of names, dates, places and ideas at a tempo impossible to absorb by ‘mere mortal�. Personally, I found myself zoning out when reaching these parts of ‘Age of faith� and there are quite few of them along the way. As a result, ‘Age of faith� is perhaps the least enjoyable read in the series so far for me. In retrospect, perhaps tackling this volume one part at a time with a ‘pallet cleanser� in-between would be a good idea. ...more
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