England Books - Page 6

The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (Kodansha Globe)

Peter Hopkirk

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 88 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Definitely history come alive... 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I won't repeat too much of the praise already heaped upon this book, other than to say it is well deserved. Hopkirk has a very engaging writing style that makes it very difficult to put the book down.

Just a few notes:

- Hopkirk does a good job of staying on topic in a book that encompasses many regions and personalities. Often this means he has choosen to not take certain stories to their conclusion or lay all the groundwork for certain narratives. It can leave you wanting more in some cases, but the alternative would be a two thousand page book.

- A reviewer complained about the maps, but I must say I was most impressed with them. Almost every place he mentions is marked on the maps. Obviously if you want a larger context to the area you may need to visit an atlas or google maps, but after that the maps in the book follow the text quite closely.

- The book is certainly from the British perspective because at the time of writing that was where most of the source material came from and the author is British as well. That said, I don't think this was one sided as the author is clearly critical of the British motives in many circumstances and has outlined the conflicting Russian motives reasonably well.

In any case, a top notch book you won't regret reading.

Editorial Review:

The Great Game was the epic stand-off between the two superpowers of the nineteenth century--Victorian Britain and Czarist Russia--for the riches of India and the East. Based on meticulous scholarship and on-the-spot research, Peter Hopkirk's immensely readable account covers the history at the core of today's geopolitics. Photos and maps.

Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Pure Churchill 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Richard Langworth has hit another grand slam with his new book, Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations. This is an extraordinary work of scholarship that documents what Churchill said and didn't say. Like his previous work, A Connoisseur's Guide to the Books of Winston Churchill (unfortunately I lost mine in Katrina), Richard's meticulous attention to detail sheds pure white light on Churchill's quotations. It's about time someone cleared the air! The Bible, Shakespeare, Churchill, and perhaps Mark Twain with a dash of Teddy Roosevelt make up the lion's share of quotations used by business people and governmental speech makers. I'm no longer surprised how many quotations are attributed to Churchill which he never said or would have said. Now we can all get ground truth thanks to Richard Langworth.

Editorial Review:

“Never give in!” Winston Churchill is famous for admonishing: “This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never.” What most people don’t know is that when he said this he was addressing not a nation facing the threat of invasion, but a roomful of schoolboys at his old school. A powerful, persuasive speaker and notorious wit, Churchill is one of the twentieth century’s most oft-quoted leaders—and one frequently misquoted or quoted out of context. Yet his actual remarks were often much wiser and wittier than reported. Churchill By Himself is the first exhaustive, attributed, and annotated collection of Churchill sayings. Edited by a longtime Churchill scholar and authorized by the Churchill estate, the quotations provide the first wholly accurate record of the esteemed statesman’s words.

A Treasury of Royal Scandals: The Shocking True Stories History's Wickedest, Weirdest, Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes, and Emperors

Michael Farquhar

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 90 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Five Stars 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

A fun read that will have you laughing from beginning to end at the wickedest, weirdest and funniest true stories and the witty way the author writes them right down to the funny titles for each chapter.

Great Tid Bits of History 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I love history but I didn't want to read a 600 page novel that read like a textbook. This book is perfect. Fun, and straight to the point. I learned about all the dirty details of some of history's famous characters that my teachers and professors never bothered to mention. History + sex + murder= good time. The book educates you and entertains.

Highly Entertaining! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Michael Farquhar's "Scandal" series is simply fantastic. If school history books included the subject matter presented here along with all the dry dates and places, more students would enjoy history class I'm sure! Many readers are enchanted by historical figures, as indicated by the popularity of such writers as Philippa Gregory, or Jean Plaidy. We want to hear about the sordid affairs of Henry VIII, Louis XVI, and other famous dead people! But, the author doesn't give us fiction. He digs into the past of many royals across the centuries for the juicy stories that actually happened, but aren't necessarily important.

There were books before this one, most notably "Royal Babylon," that made a similar attempt. However, that book was plodding and the writing too formal and dissertation-like. This is where Farquhar shines. He tells each anecdote with simple, elegant language that is easy to read and flows like a fiction novel. It's like reading an episode of "Access Hollywood" for the celebrities of previous centuries. Some will argue that he has his facts wrong, or "it didn't happen that way." They're missing the point. This is meant to titillate, entertain and give readers a peak into a less than glorious past. And it may just inspire some people to look further for more information on some of the historical subjects depicted. Highly recommended!

Others in the series:
A Treasury of Great American Scandals: Tantalizing True Tales of Historic Misbehavior by the Founding Fathers and Others Who Let Freedom Swing

A Treasury of Deception: Liars, Misleaders, Hoodwinkers, and the Extraordinary True Stories of History's Greatest Hoaxes, Fakes and Frauds

A Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten Americans: Pirates, Skinflints, Patriots, and Other Colorful Characters Stuck in the Footnotes of History

Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England

Lynne Olson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A riveting history of the daring politicians who challenged the disastrous policies of the British government on the eve of World War II

 

On May 7, 1940, the House of Commons began perhaps the most crucial debate in British parliamentary history. On its outcome hung the future of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s government and also of Britain—indeed, perhaps, the world. Troublesome Young Men is Lynne Olson’s fascinating account of how a small group of rebellious Tory MPs defied the Chamberlain government’s defeatist policies that aimed to appease Europe’s tyrants and eventually forced the prime minister’s resignation.

Some historians dismiss the “phony war” that preceded this turning point—from September 1939, when Britain and France declared war on Germany, to May 1940, when Winston Churchill became prime minister—as a time of waiting and inaction, but Olson makes no such mistake, and describes in dramatic detail the public unrest that spread through Britain then, as people realized how poorly prepared the nation was to confront Hitler, how their basic civil liberties were being jeopardized, and also that there were intrepid politicians willing to risk political suicide to spearhead the opposition to Chamberlain—Harold Macmillan, Robert Boothby, Leo Amery, Ronald Cartland, and Lord Robert Cranborne among them. The political and personal dramas that played out in Parliament and in the nation as Britain faced the threat of fascism virtually on its own are extraordinary—and, in Olson’s hands, downright inspiring.

Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia

Janet Wallach

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 59 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Illuminating and timely 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

It's remarkable that a book written about events that took place 100 years ago has direct relevance to today, but that's just one of the many strengths of "Desert Queen." When you read about Gertrude Bell's political savvy about Iraq and the stubborness of the male politicians who ignored her advice, well, the parallels are obvious.

The biggest takeaway for me was imagining Bell's life traveling through the desert to meet sheiks who were truly living in a different world. The Middle East of the 19th century still had huge populations of nomadic tribes that measured their wealth in camels. They were not a part of the Western world -- though they were highly intrigued by it. With incredible bravery and an astounding ability to overcome exhaustion and discomfort, she worked her way into the tents of sheiks who would not let another woman sit in their presence. And then after a few months of visiting and gossip, she'd take a several-week journey back to the luxury surroundings of her family's home in England. There was probably only about a 50-year window in which a person could do what she did -- the heyday of British wealth, might, and arrogance -- and she took advantage of that period perfectly.

Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn about how Europeans thought about and influenced the Middle East. And, in fact, that's also the source of my only criticism of the book. If you don't know a lot about Middle East geography and history, the names and places mentioned in this book can sometimes be a blur. The maps and photos are very helpful, but for someone like me who has only a superficial knowledge, it's still hard to figure out at times.

Editorial Review:

Turning away from the privileged world of the "eminent Victorians," Gertrude Bell (1868—1926) explored, mapped, and excavated the world of the Arabs. Recruited by British intelligence during World War I, she played a crucial role in obtaining the loyalty of Arab leaders, and her connections and information provided the brains to match T. E. Lawrence's brawn. After the war, she played a major role in creating the modern Middle East and was, at the time, considered the most powerful woman in the British Empire.
 
In this masterful biography, Janet Wallach shows us the woman behind these achievements–a woman whose passion and defiant independence were at odds wit the confined and custom-bound England she left behind. Too long eclipsed by Lawrence, Gertrude Bell emerges at last in her own right as a vital player on the stage of modern history, and as a woman whose life was both a heartbreaking story and a grand adventure.

The Fatal Shore

Robert Hughes

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Cultural Amnesia 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding


By Robert Hughes

Australia is one of those faraway places you read about in National Geographic or watch on Discovery. Remote, exotic, modern yet solidly based in its history, it's a chamber of commerce promotion writer's dream. T he only country to occupy an entire continent... spanning from the Pacific to the Indian Oceans; sophisticated and modern along the coast with Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane; forbidding and undeveloped in The Outback; boasting symphonies, opera, and architecture; an outdoorsman's paradise.
Robert Hughes, the Art Critic for TIME magazine, has done an outstanding service in chronicling the rich history of his homeland.
The Australian writer has delved deeply into primary sources including diaries of those unfortunates who fell victim to the System of Transportation: the official euphemism for the forced removal of mostly minor criminals from England and (particularly) Ireland to the distant and fatal shores of the new continent.
In researching "diasporas," I've discovered artificial "homelands" for Esquimos in Canada, "Little Cubas' in Miami; the relocated Acadian ("Cajun") culture of the Mississippi delta, and new asian cultures in the American Midwest.

But Australia really qualifies: the indigenous population, the Aboriginals, like our Native Americans were run off their land, deprived of their rights, and forced to give up their culture. The rest came in rusty "Hellships" -overcrowded, prone to disease, starvation, physical and sexual abuse, it's amazing so many arrived alive.
And when they did get there they found the horrendous penal colonies of Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land, where they worked as indentured servants until winning freedom.
For years, Hughes tells us, Australia underwent a collective cultural amnesia about its past, sweeping the darker side of The System under the rug. But gradually they came to terms with "The convict Stain," accepting their beginnings, and in the process developing a great nation. Those who have seen the Mel Gibson movie "Gallipoli" will understand how Australia's sense of identity was forged on the hellish trenches and beaches of the First World War. As I write, Australia is celebrating "Australia Day"...not colonial day, or Queensland Day, or something else from Europe.
The Fatal Shore is first-rate history and first-rate writing. (We're lucky to have Hughes still among us: he was seriously injured and almost died after a car accident in Australia)

*****

Editorial Review:

In 1787, the twenty-eighth year of the reign of King George III, the British Government sent a fleet to colonize Australia...An epic description of the brutal transportation of men, women and children out of Georgian Britain into a horrific penal system which was to be the precursor to the Gulag and was the origin of Australia. The Fatal Shore is the prize-winning, scholarly, brilliantly entertaining narrative that has given its true history to Australia.

Le Morte D'Arthur: Complete Unabridged, New Illustrated Edition

Sir Thomas Malory

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Total reviews: 69 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A blessed king who strives for peace and justice; the round table where only the most gallant knights may sit; the dramatic quest for the Holy Grail; a fateful romance that destroys a dream: the epic story of King Arthur never fails to stir the imaginations of readers everywhere. This outstanding illustrated version adds to Sir Thomas Malory's skillful recounting with original artwork that creates a unique vision of Camelot. Some of these breathtaking, elaborate watercolors and pens-and-inks have hung in museums, including the depiction of the Tintagel Castle, the Sword in the Stone, Merlin and Nimue, and Guenevere rescued from the stake. With remarkable accuracy, Anna-Marie Ferguson captures every nuance of the historical period-the knights' shining armor, the intricate architecture, and the English forests with their abundant flora and fauna. Yet she also revels in the fantasy, with mysterious and magical landscapes, misty and moonlit. These legends have always been a treat for the mind-and now they are a feast for the eyes, too.

Five Days in London: May 1940

John Lukacs

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

It's caviar. 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Several reviewers here don't appreciate scholarly writing. Lukacs (and his editor) didn't adulterate concise prose to produce a coffee table book. There are no fictions here; its conclusions are based on carefully and voluminously researched facts. Lukacs HAD to include concrete historical reference; his argument would have been incomplete without it, his conclusions unconvincing.

Yes, he's old fashioned, even Edwardian; he takes care to say only what he knows and nothing more. Yes, the form he insists on for each chapter erects a scaffold that detracts from his aedifice and might better have been removed after construction. His distinction between sentiment and opinion adds little to his argument. But his conclusion is unassailable and as formidable as a Roman arena. If he writes like a scholar, he is one. Those who object should remember that each of us is entitled to one's own style. To hold otherwise is to telegraph envy or confess to low standards.

He might well be the best living historian, for he's a master of his discipline. What he has done here is to write concisely about events that are exhaustively researched and confer new significance. That is what historians are supposed to do. He knows what he's talking about, and, when you finish reading, you know, too.

Editorial Review:

The days from May 24 to May 28, 1940, altered the course of the history of this century, as the members of the British War Cabinet debated whether to negotiate with Hitler or to continue the war. The decisive importance of these five days is the focus of John Lukacs's magisterial new book.

The Lord God Made Them All (All Creatures Great & Small)

James Herriot

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

very satisfied 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I was verey satisfied with the whole process of ordering
on-line and I will continue buying books this way.

Editorial Review:

With each book more embraceable than the last, James Herriot once again brings us the magical beauty of Yorkshire through his heartwarming experiences as a country veterinarian. These new stories provide a grand finale to the wonderful books that began with all Creatures Great and Small.It is just after World War II, and James has returned from the R.A.F. to do battle with the diseases and injuries that befall the farm animals and pets of Skeldale and the surrounding moors. Four-year-old Jimmy Herriot, Humphrey Cobb and his little beagle Myrtle, Norman the book-loving veterinary assistant, and many more new faces join old favorites among the green hills of Yorkshire, as James takes an unforgettable voyage to Russia on a freighter with 383 pedigreed sheep. Touching our hearts with laughter and wisdom, lifting our spirits with compassion and goodness, James Herriot never fails to delight.

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Visions of Glory

William Manchester

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Gripping account of a misunderstood man-- you should read this! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a truly *massive* work, equal parts scholarship and artistry. Though volume one runs close to a thousand pages (counting notes, sources, etc.), I finished reading it this afternoon after an off-and-on reading of about two weeks, and it just flew by. Manchester crafted this with such precision care that I fell into the narrative from page one.

The greatest strength of the book itself-- aside from it's subject-- is Manchester's gift of narrative. WC was the quintessential Victorian, as Manchester points out time and again throughout both volumes. It is only appropriate, then, that the author should give some feel of what it was like to live in the British Empire at the time of Queen Victoria. Some of the very best passages, in my opinion, deal with life during the last quarter-century of Victoria's reign. These are not mere digressions. These fascinating glimpses into WC's era help the reader to better understand Churchill himself, who was born a Victorian and remained one to his dying day.

Manchester provides insight into British colonial administration, life in the British Raj at the end of the 19th century, and the upper class's attitudes toward sexuality and marriage. While this is fascinating in itself, Manchester goes even further and weaves a vivid tapestry of politics, history, and culture through his use of personal correspondence. It is his exhaustive use of personal correspondence-- between WC and his parents, WC and his wife and children, WC and Members of Parliament, and between all sorts of people talking about Churchill and the events in which he was caught up--- that this gives Manchester's work the feeling, not of history or even biography, but of a life too large to have been lived by one man.