This is as fine a popular history as you will ever read
931585
This is as fine a popular history as you will ever read.  Beautifully written, meticulously researched, fair-minded, even 50 years after its first publication it is still relevant and engaging.  This is history from the point of view of significant individuals and as such it contains a fair amount of biographical details about its main characters and their foibles.  This emphasis on individuals gives the book a personal tone missing from other books covering the same period like the excellent recent study "The Ottoman Endgame".

For a first encounter with the massive scholarship surrounding the origins of WW I, there is no better book.
2085707
young and obnoxiously brilliant, numerious affairs, father of the US financial system, possessor of statecraft without equal, bastard son, Lots-O-enimies, George Washington's confidant..its all here. This book is rich with detail of AE's life. Politial struggles, failed proposals, foolish politicans and lots of stuff i'm sure many of the best "armchair" historians have forgotten. I'm sure this book will become the defacto standard reading material in high schools and universities.
2825611
I'm sorry there are so many history books written now only because we are compelled to think we have to keep up with the most recent. As if it mattered. No, there will be histories of histories  but it won't change now to then in reality. There will always be a separation. So, the insatiably hopeful reader, like me, has to realize that he/she ought to be reading only the best, regardless of subject, since our time is limited. Barbara Tuchman had a Shakespearean comprehensiveness and sympathy for her subjects. She seemed to understand in a general way how things work: how this having happened, this must follow. She had a keen sense of character. The shadowy hero of this book, Enguerrand de Coucy, is shown to be virtuous by implication, by contrast with his boorish contemporaries. It's great stuff. It's history taught in equal parts of intuitive intelligence and intellectual intelligence.
At the time she wrote this the calamitous 14th century seemed more of a reflection of our world than it does at present. So the distant mirror aspect may or may not prove relevant, it is nevertheless a superb example of what history should be and fascinating in and of itself.
424609
This is closer to popular literature than a history.  You don't need to be an aficionado to find this fun and interesting.  If you have ever found yourself in Manhattan or Long Island, looking at all the buildings, pavement, pilings, rip-rap, breakwaters--and discovered you were wondering what it was like when the city was young--before subways, trains, airports, water taxis--here is a dramatic glimpse of some of the citizens of these islands.  What were the challenges faced by the denizens of New York during the Revolutionary War?

It is only a matter of 6 or 7 generations ago (in my family) when they suffered through these challenging years.  Cold, privation, inhumanity, lawlessness of the law enforcer, occupation, war, imprisonment were just a little of the environment.

Ordinary people decided to act, very quietly, to aid the efforts of General Washington as he fought the then greatest military power in the world.  And we who love the liberty and freedom we have inherited from them have a good reason to learn about our benefactors, remember them, and keep their vision alive.
3377279
Upon reading this you will wonder just how history can get so distorted in the first place. Where did the lies begin that led generations to accept without questioning the myth that Moorish Spain was some kind of shining beacon of freedom? It had to come from somewhere.

This is a very readable book, though it is meticulously documented and noted that does not prevent it from being accessible. it is enjoyable even while being comprehensive. If you want to read a history of medieval Spain that is not full of rubbish, read this.

While there are times when the author clearly succumbs to sarcasm in his treatment of other historians, he fully backs up his point to the extent that it is evident that the sarcasm is fully justified. As such I don't think it is a weakness.
184692
I pretend to shrink from what one might call "this sort of history". I have learned to call it  "guilty pleasure" of history in that it is of a sort that does not have so much a role in forming history as it is fun to read. I should be paying more attention to the revisionist deconstruction of opposing memoirs of the Gallic Wars, but I am weak.

This is a book of serious history. It is also fun, which I slightly prefer to the term for a page-turner a.k.a. "riveting". The extra-textual sections testify amply.

The writing itself is never sensationalist or affected. It is clear by intent and easy to consume. The appendices are:
 - Key Dates
 - Praetorian Pay and Organization
 - Praetorian Prefects
 - Glossary

Then come seventeen pages of notes. This is a working historian, not some sensationalist cream-puff.

Wait, there is more... near five pages of top notch commentary on references (you hardly eve see the author's ideas on this stuff).
And finally the references themselves, as well as a nice bibliography.

We are left with things to ponder. Forces behind the throne today. As Aretha Franklin would say "Who'se Zoomin' whom?"
3893872
This is a parent's review.

I have never seen the causes and action of World War One explained so clearly or memorably.  The format is brilliantly done, incorporating little jokes, but handling serious material.  This should be the way history is taught -- my kids have read and re-read this book, and we've only owned it one week.  The learning sticks.  I read it twice myself, to answer questions and for my own knowledge.

Top notch history.  Excellent work.  More books like this, please.

For an excellent book on the poem "In Flanders Fields," I recommend this one:&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/In-Flanders-Fields-The-Story-of-the-Poem-by-John-McCrae/dp/0773759255/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">In Flanders Fields: The Story of the Poem by John McCrae</a>&nbsp;Get it for the illustrations.  Beautiful.
4079131
The best history books are those that place the subject squarely in the time period; those that reproduce the thought patterns and day-to-day details which make the subject come alive.  With The Lunar Men, Jenny Uglow has achieved a masterpiece of historical writing.  She manages -- by following the lives of five exceptional individuals who lived and worked during the second half of the Eighteenth Century -- to weave together strands of the incipent Industrial Revolution as disparate as the advances in medical sciences (Dr. Darwin); progress in pottery and porcelain manufacture (Wedgwood); improvements to the steam engine (Boultin and Watt); evolving philosophy and social science (Day); chemistry; the discovery of oxygen and other chemical components (Dr. Priestley); advances in electricity; canal building in the Midlands; patent law.  These individuals live and breathe, literally step out of the page.  Her sources are very extensive and for the most part original (letters, etc.).  The style is elegant and very readable, and (as one would expect from a professional editor) every sentence is a gem.

This book shows what historical writing can be, and it places Ms. Uglow in the Pantheon of modern historical writers such as the late Barbara Tuchman, Paul Johnson, Norman Davies, John Julius Norwich.  I hope it is the beginning of a long series of books on historical subjects by the same author.

It's the book any reader of history would have liked to write.
697678
In the tradition of literature-infused historical overviews for an interested and, dare I say it plainly, educated readership such as Graham Robb's magesterial Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris;, Crawford presents here a tale of two cities that formulate the canon of urban experience for Scotland. That is to say, you won't find page by page a textbook-like exploration of the evolution of these grand cities in a way that presents them in a single, pragmatic, gaze meant to educate the reader about Scottish history, but more a delightful investigation of the nuances of the cities and their relationship in such a way that it is a bit like a spectre from some old folktalke floating back and forth and passing on its impressions. In a book of this length you do not, in any case, provide a detailed and useful history for historians of one great city, let alone two. Yet that is not Crawford's aim: his desire--which he meets quite well--is to offer us a take on Glasgow and Edinburgh that will allow us to walk away from the book much like a person would walk away from a week in each city as a tourist, having learned a wealth about the feeling of the cities yet not really even getting below the tip of the iceberg in either. It's a great book to read with tea and cookies as the sky lets down a fine rain outside, feeling and dreaming you are of that Scotland, of the urbane and the industrial, of the black-and-white and the histories written more across someone's face than in the records of a courthouse or academic library.

Crawford is an able and charming writer and a good enough historian to cull out the dross of details that are not apt to interest most readers while putting on center stage those stories that will most draw the reader into the narrative. You can only praise his work here, not fault it: if you want a more academic history of these cities, or anything about Scotland at that level, you can find books to that end. From the present volume you'll come away informed and enchanted and that is of merit in its own right. I would challenge anyone to read this and not want to book a plane ticket to Scotland the next day.
4683401
This is a totally absorbing book. There are many reviews so it is not necessary to rehash what it is about.  There are a few lessons that will stay with me.  The first is that history can be easily distorted.  This shows something is not true just because it is documented.  Second it follows the obsession of two extraordinary men. They are not trained historians but their commitment is beyond what we would usually associate with people.  Their motives are not clear but their commitment is all consuming.  I believe this book should be required reading for any serious historian.
39421
This book takes the cake as a history book.  It's almost like your reading a novel, but then you flip the pages and see the back cover where it says "history" and you curse, just a little, because you normally have sworn off history after high school but just can't find yourself able to throw the book down.  Bradford's enthusiasim for the history part isn't lost though; oh no, by far it's transformed into an endearing and worthwhile tale of the Knights of St. John.  His prose is so gentle yet sweeping that he easily delves into and out of side-descriptions and filler information, in fact a lot better than most modern novels do.  He gets you to feel the Aegean sun that battered the backs of these superb soldiers and first rate monks when they were at Rhodes, and I can tell you that from word one to word end "The Shield and the Sword" is the book to read for history, whether you like the Crusades, adventure, war-stuff, or heck, you just want a good read.  I'd personally recommend it for anyone- the stuffy nosed scholar or the curious child, the wondering joe off the street or the guy who sits at his computer screen reading this review (yes you, oh great and enlightened one!).  So yeah, five stars, it's excellent.
4896322
As is well known, Adolf Hitler remains one of the most notorious personalities of all time: even now, a lifetime after his death and universally reviled by all significant authorities, he probably commands more attention than any other non-American politician in recent history. Seemingly every year there is a new book -- Often several -- about the German dictator advertised in the papers, and many more that do not reach a mass audience for being too abstruse, too scholarly, or written in non-English languages.

Alas, to keep track of this vast literature is more than one can expect even of professional historians, unless dedicated specifically to that task. Even perusing the massive, thousand-plus-page biographies of such authors as Alan Bullock, Joachim Fest, Ian Kershaw, or John Toland (the lattermost is the best of these, in this reviewer's opinion) can be a daunting task. The casual reader who wishes merely to learn a little about this terror of the 20th century to satisfy his curiosity is liable to be swamped in the morass of wordy publications.

Such a reader is well served in turning to this little-known but tremendously under-rated book.

In one elegant volume of less than four hundred pages, Colin Cross produces a better understanding of Hitler than, for example, Ian Kershaw manages in his cyclopean tome. Eminently lucid, scrupulously objective, surprisingly insightful, and meticulously adherent to the documentary record while also providing a human touch through select application of the personal views of contemporaries, Cross's brief biography must be considered one of the finest works in a very crowded field. That it is not more widely praised than it is (and no longer in print) is nothing short of incomprehensible to yours truly.

Cross shows Hitler in a carefully and sensitively nuanced portrait. He does not fall prey to the all-too-common temptation to belittle Hitler as a lunatic or fool, and neither does he demonize him as an Antichrist figure: on the contrary, he shows a usually very capable, sometimes idiosyncratic, often charismatic, always passionate German nationalist -- Thereby going some way toward explaining how so many intelligent men and women could believe in Hitler, and how he could initially be so successful in international politics. Also, he shows this radical ideologist, Machiavellian statesman and ruthless warlord as a human being, with human interests and concerns (such as family rows, girlfriends, reading habits, occasional hypochondria). At the same time, he in no wise presents an apology for the German dictator. On the contrary, Hitler's aggressive foreign policy, virulent racism, and other negative traits are shown with proper emphasis.

As Cross is writing a popular biography, he bases his account entirely on published sources, ranging from documents and histories to personal memoirs. While this presents an obvious limitation, I have noticed no startling omissions, as compared to the more comprehensive works of others. (Indeed, through using certain nowadays somewhat obscure German-language sources, Cross provides several interesting pieces of information which Kershaw either missed or chose not to include in his more recent, far lengthier account.) Given that the book is now somewhat dated, a few errors do creep in as well -- For example, some distortions about Hitler's teen-age years that stem from the Austrian amateur researcher Franz Jetzinger's influential book on that subject -- but they do not appreciably affect the general picture.

In all, Cross's biography is without comparison the finest brief English-language introduction to Hitler of which I am aware, and of interest even to those who consider themselves well-read in the field. It is thus heartily recommended to all prospective readers, but especially to casual or beginning students interested in its subject.
4139332
I did not know about this book until I recently found it on Kindle.  It's a nuanced, entertaining, and fact-filled telling of the behind-the-scenes dealing that went on before, during, and after the war.  We are taught history these days without understanding the details, and this book gives them - meticulously described, tirelessly footnoted, and with a rapid pace that keeps the reader's interest.  I found the 1913 grammar and spelling to be fascinating, and the author's dexterity with the language first rate.  If you ever have keen interested in knowing what really happened to our country in 1861, with all of the back-story details, this is the book to read.  A++
3104809
Everyone should learn as much as they can about history, and this contains photos and comprehensive articles.
1787844
A superbly written history for this novice.  I cannot place this book in perspective within the spectrum of other works since I have never read history before.  I will just say that this work has begun to lift for me the veil of confusion and total ignorance that I have suffered from all my life in regard to world affairs.  This book is so well explained and referenced that even an uninformed reader like myself begins to feel some grasp of how events force one another on the world stage in situations of crisis like WW1.  Now I think I  see where the background of the more recent war in Kosovo came from, and what memories motivate the actors in current conflicts in the Balkans.  It is a bit scary, because now I realize that irredentist (look it up, that's one of the benefits of this book- new vocabulary) characters are still out there fomenting trouble over imagined scenarios of frustrated nationalism.  And the "responsible and stable" world powers are always there selling arms to the trouble makers.  In those days it was France and Austria and Britain, whereas now it includes the US, but always the guys who wind up having to clean up the mess are clearly responsible for helping cause it.  It becomes clear reading this book why people worked hard to build global institutions like the UN to help prevent, hopefully, such an ill conceived war ever again.  It is not exciting prose, but it is expertly crafted, and I liked it immensely although my wife found it dull.  So if you have a taste for scholarly writing, and have a desire to understand how a few activists, like more recently the 911 culprits, have frequently been able to goad the big guys into responses with enormous unforeseen consequences, try this book.
694986
History that reads like fiction, it is so dramatic.
If you want to know why City Hall (no matter where you live) is so dirty.
If you want to know why there is endless traffic.
If you want to know why graft is so pernicious amongst our "public servants."
If you want to know who gets things done by government and how and why.
If you want to know all about obtaining power.
This is the book.
Caro has written a delicious 1100 pages (and has written four times as much on LBJ) on Robert Moses, a genius (I'm only up to 400) who may, in the remaining 700 pages, turn into Lex Luthor. If you want to really get inside the news, the facts, the truth, this is the book. And unlike some other recent historians, he cites all his sources.
Can't recommend it highly enough.
4560321
Of all the many books I have read about this period this is the finest.  Germany itself and the Germans depicted are many dimensional characters in a manner that is unusual for histories of this terrible time.  The drama of the central characters is remarkable, and the telling, particularly the elegant construction of the various stories within the book, from climbing mountains to falling in love to dealing with the dangerous Nazi powers to establishing a family in America, so rich in detail, is wonderful.