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David's Reviews > 1959: The Year Everything Changed
1959: The Year Everything Changed
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Available as a 10+-hour two-part audio download from .
This audiobook made a long round-trip via ground transporation, made during the holidays with the usual delays and heavy traffic, much more enjoyable.
This book belongs to a school of historical storytelling which I am pleased to call the Herodutus School of History Writing. It could also be less charitably called the Attention Deficit Disorder School. I enjoy reading books of this type very much, allowing myself to be transported by the author's enthusiasm and energy. It's like the author is always poking you in the ribs, saying, “And then THIS happened! And THAT It was the first of its type! Oh, and there was another cool thing. Yeah, and that reminds me of a great story which may or may not be true... �
Some people don't enjoy this sort of historical storytelling so much. They want a thesis and a discipline march of facts. I call these people partisans of the Thucydides School of History Writing, or alternately Grown-Ups.
Another enjoyable activity is to (warning: incoming mixed metaphor) pick nits in the avalanche of facts in a book. In this case, in the second part, chapter 12, time 5:15, Kaplan says Joseph P. Kennedy, father of the President, was a bootlegger. This is false -- see, for example, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent, p. 367.
This audiobook made a long round-trip via ground transporation, made during the holidays with the usual delays and heavy traffic, much more enjoyable.
This book belongs to a school of historical storytelling which I am pleased to call the Herodutus School of History Writing. It could also be less charitably called the Attention Deficit Disorder School. I enjoy reading books of this type very much, allowing myself to be transported by the author's enthusiasm and energy. It's like the author is always poking you in the ribs, saying, “And then THIS happened! And THAT It was the first of its type! Oh, and there was another cool thing. Yeah, and that reminds me of a great story which may or may not be true... �
Some people don't enjoy this sort of historical storytelling so much. They want a thesis and a discipline march of facts. I call these people partisans of the Thucydides School of History Writing, or alternately Grown-Ups.
Another enjoyable activity is to (warning: incoming mixed metaphor) pick nits in the avalanche of facts in a book. In this case, in the second part, chapter 12, time 5:15, Kaplan says Joseph P. Kennedy, father of the President, was a bootlegger. This is false -- see, for example, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent, p. 367.
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December 27, 2013
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Neil
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Dec 28, 2013 06:39AM
If you haven't already read it, may I suggest Fred Kaplan's The Wizards of Armageddon.
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Neil wrote: "If you haven't already read it, may I suggest Fred Kaplan's The Wizards of Armageddon."I added this book. "1959" has a chunk dedicated to this same topic -- the author is no doubt a big fan of recycling.
