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- #26
And I found this.(Guns, Germs and Steel)
I saw it too. IIRC a 3 parter on ABC or SBS a few years ago.
I will stick with the book for now. 140 odd pages in and must say very interesting.
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And I found this.(Guns, Germs and Steel)
I saw it too. IIRC a 3 parter on ABC or SBS a few years ago.
And I found this.
I will stick with the book for now. 140 odd pages in and must say very interesting.
I have a better idea. You read the first couple of chapters and then let me know what you think. I am genuinely interested in your opinion.Ordered Guns, Germs and Steel the other day and it jut arrived in the mail. Is it quite Basic?
I have a better idea. You read the first couple of chapters and then let me know what you think. I am genuinely interested in your opinion.
Still one of the best books I've read to this day is The Death of Yugoslavia, based on the BBC series of the same name which tracks the break up and destruction of Yugosvlavia from Tito's death all the way through until the Kosovo war in the late 90s.
Initially read it because I never really knew who the good guys or the bad guys were in the Yugoslav Wars. Cracking (and at times sad) read about how a federation can completely disintegrate and the hands of nationalism.[/b][/b]
"The best work of modern history I have ever read" says A N Wilson on the cover. The cover praise is gushing as we get "masterpiece" from Oliver Kamm and "at last the story can be told" by Orlando Figes. I have to say that I have come out of this book extremely disappointed and for many reasons.
The best work of modern history is as ridiculous a comment and as to Masterpiece? Evans Reich trilogy just kills this book for the sheer brilliance of the telling of the subject as opposed to a limited focus on 3 nations and a constant dose of wide eyed polemic mixed in. As to the story being finaly being told the story has been told countless times? If it was all new why the extensive bibliography?
There is no denying the appalling struggles with totalitarian communist regimes that the masses were forced to endure in the eastern parts of Europe after the fall of Nazi Germany. The vast humanity that had endured Nazi suffering deserved better but that does not make this history book any better for it's wide eyed and bushy tailed presentation. Lets take the chapter on Ethnic Cleansing as an example. Russian soldiers treated the German civilians appallingly no doubt but the author seems shocked at times. Why? Had not the Germans just committed atrocity after atrocity on Russian civilians, not only with the gun but by starvation and many other means? Did the author expect some charity? How naive!
The many examples of badly written prose is for me rather astonishing. Lets take this statement about travel. "According to the Interior Ministry statistics, only 9,360 crossed the border for any reason in 1951, of whom only 1,980 were travelling to capitalist countries" Well yes. We are reading about a country ravished by WW2 that not too far forward is a poverty stricken totalitarian regime with controls over the populace. But what we get a couple of aghast 'only's as if the then Polish government was going to conform to modern western freedom of travel.
The final chapter, Revolutions, finishes with a polemic on everyone being wrong. That is not a writing on history at all and is out of place as to what the chapter should have been about. And as to the Epilogue I just wonder the point. I wanted history, not another polemic aimed at a modern reader who still seems to think that there is a red menace out there. I mean do others who have praised this book really in their heart feel that the eastern European countries were particularly liberal prior to Nazi and Communist takeovers after 1939 as implied by the author? Free trade does not by itself make Poland, to use as an example, a liberal nation prior to 1939. It was a dictatorship.
This book is as big a failure as I have read in a long time. The gushing praise just had me salivating but I was left wanting. There must be better books on this subject than this, a book that to me is just a journalistic pursuit aimed at making a western audience reading the Murdoch Press and watching Fox News somehow think that their very way of life is till under attack. This is my first Anne Applebaum book. I would read her again if I knew there was more focus on the subject. Anyone else read her and if so what would you recommend?
Thanks for the reply and based on it I will give her a miss.Have this at home but yet to read. Her book on The Gulags is a rare book I have started but never finished, and from your summary it sounds like I will struggle to get through this one as well. You just have to accept that she writes from a completely anti-Russian bias - so most of the praise is probably from US types still worried about the Red Menace.
got panned by anthropologists...Just got through 50 odd pages this morning and much food for thought. A populist style of writing, nothing wrong with that when talking to laymen like me, that flows well. Obviously I am not going to be able to be much a critic as this is an area I am not that au fait with. My fav History book review site has an interesting critique on it.
http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/51
I am obviously unable to comment on the rights or wrongs of the book and would have to take anthropologists word for it. The link I posted was reasonably positive though that was from a devoted History revue site. Have you read Morris' book? If so how do they compare?got panned by anthropologists...
Morris has some credentials. but lets see how his tome backs up in 70 yrs sans edit
Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future
he was out here on a book tour. i have it, not read it as yet. the talk was good tho, and that is more idjit than even a cliffs notes version, but a rung above wiki. non-fiction non my thing usually, so this has been delayed and delayed. he has good credentails amd was here for the writers festival and book soiree junket soiree. these thick tomes will fester on my shelf until i get inspiration and boredom at other bookI am obviously unable to comment on the rights or wrongs of the book and would have to take anthropologists word for it. The link I posted was reasonably positive though that was from a devoted History revue site. Have you read Morris' book? If so how do they compare?
As to your previous post mate I have to be honest that is all Double Dutch to me. That may sadly say more about me I suppose.
Thanks. Top reviews and now marked to read eventually. For a more modern tome on Afghanistan have you read Taliban Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid? If not I do recommend it.
digging back into JFW Infinite Jest for the second time, picking up somethings and realising how much it has influenced me.
JFW FTW whiskey foxtrot tango medusala genius bojo will now boycott hashtags until Chief, he of unmatched wisdom pays royalties
got panned by anthropologists...
Morris has some credentials. but lets see how his tome backs up in 70 yrs sans edit
Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future