Essential reading of a not well know period
358753
An extraordinary read.  Should be required for every single white American.  It is a history that I knew almost nothing about.
This book is artfully crafted and provides a well researched, detailed and vivid account of a fifty-year process undertaken by millions of American Americans to escape the horrors of the post- slavery South.
It is a long book and more repetitious than it should be but oh so worth the effort.  It greatly aids in understanding how we got to where we are today in terms of race relations
2614684
Those pursuing advanced study of medieval texts would do well to read Spiegel's book (a collection mostly of previously published articles).  It helps the reader understand how the 'linguistic turn' of the 20th century affected our understanding of the distant past.  Spiegel lays out a path of approach for texts that had begun to appear useless.  The chapters summarising major theorists and laying out the historiography are alone worth the price of admission, and Spiegel herself proves an adept philosopher of history.
2714620
A good story about a time in the past that most of us today don't understand but it makes wonderful reading.
1113005
Great book!  It told of a period of time in this country that I know little about.
1376502
A must read on a subject which doesn't get enough attention.
4394828
How can I know so little about this period? A wonderful addition to those who love history. And Brownworth is a great narrator. I wish other historians could write in such a clear, mature and informed manner.
3193986
The book is academic in tone (it is a collection of scholarly papers), so it is not intended for the general reader. But as someone with no background or training in the relevant areas and only an armature interest in history, I found at least half the book to be readable and it lead me into aspects of ancient history I might have otherwise never known. And parts of the collection were surprising. E.g., I didn't expect to come across Georges Bataille in here but, after reading that section, it made sense. I read the book out of curiosity, an interest in how humans have (mis)treated animals and, in part, because I share a surname with the book's editor with whom, as far as I know, I am not related. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in ancient history including non-experts if their knowledge is sufficient to allow them to explore more arcane aspects of that history.
1519384
Fascinating historical fiction of an era which I realize now I had little knowledge of.  Good reading!!
3964003
No one who looks closely at this book, or at the reviews of this book, could reasonably expect it to be an exposition of James Hutton's important but long-superceded geological notions. This is a social history, a story of science as a cultural phenomenon, and as such it is neither meandering nor disorganized. As Mr Rocky Road himself acknowledges, it's engagingly written, economical of words, almost never repetitive, witty, and not at all a difficult piece of reading. In fact, it's a short book and a quick read, and if you don't know much about the 18th C explosion of knowledge, it's a great introduction.
1591826
I honestly had very little idea, prior to reading this, what sort of historical studies have been done around the Bible's origins. Burton L. Mack not only provides much of that data, but also frames it in the context of the societies and cultures that interacted in the period during which it was composed--and such a structured framework, too.
1294457
This book is invaluable to students of Catholic history. It was written as a dissertation, and the author's career path for the last thirty years has led away from the Reformation, which is most unfortunate, since his really unusual insight, his grasp of political nuance, in analyzing the differences between the two Catholic camps emerging during this period is quite germane to problems facing the Church still. The sides formed in a prison populated only by priests, some 'secular' and others of a relatively new order and one sent to 'mission' England, to restore Catholicism, the Jesuits. Finding the differences between them was extremely challenging at the time, given that open Catholics faced death so that any debate was circumspect and anonymous, and even if that had not been the case, the arguments, as Pritchard points out, were theologically complex and utterly novel, since neither the Church nor individual Catholics had ever been faced before with the problem of a state out of synch with the teaching of the Church, a situation not existing for misty eons and eons in Merry Old England and one with which people found it insufferably difficult to come to grips. (And as yet we still do, recognizing that we have a secular state but expecting it to show outward signs of its 'Christian' forebears, oblivious to the real meaning of the state we erected on the ashes of Christendom following Luther's apostasy.)

The situation in the prison after seven years was that the secular priests had begun to compromise their vows, and the Jesuits wished to appeal to the authorities, in this case the wardens, initially--since of course, only scant years before, before Henry VIII's lustful assault, the state authorities would have been in fact the agents of religious discipline when necessary. For the state and the Church had been united in their vision for England. The Church had not yet substituted new authority and was tenuously focused on the restoration of that condition, the Catholic confessional state, not accepting or at least positioning themselves to deal with the new one. The secular priests eventually sued the Vatican to accept Elizabeth, accept the fact that England had apostized, and let them live in peace with it, and thus they are called the Appellants. The other side, the side that refused to give in, were known then as the Allen-Parsons party. And today they have another name.

Pritchard was well aware of the parallels between the Appellants and today's liberals, but it will take those students of Vatican II to see the mark of this old debate still unfolding in the Council's eager willingness to make peace with the new world of democratic secularity at the expense of Catholicism's traditional reverence for Christ the King. By the end of this book you will find yourself being on one side or the other: and one side, now as then, now as always, leads to martyrdom.
2055251
I have read many books about this period and I thought I had a good understanding of the region and it's history. Well Janet Wallach opened some doors and I'm onece again humbled. Intellectual humility is always a safe and recommended place to reside. I would strongly recommend reading this fascinating account of the period in both England and the Middle East. It certainly expands one's understanding of what happened then, and is quite relevant to what is happening now. Ms. Bell is unique and very interesting. How she managed to penetrate the desert world as a woman, let alone a Victorian woman is almost beyond belief, but appaearently quite real. One can only speculate that the rules of gravity just don't apply to everybody. Janet Wallach is an excellent writer. Her sentences are clear and her descriptions are complete and visual. She has knitted together this woman's Odessy with clarion precision. This, in my opinion, is a really fine book.
249962
Interesting slice of history from someone who was there
It's not literature, but is surprisingly readable and compelling for those of us interested in Mexican history and especially the Mexican Revolution. Written in the passive voice popular at the time, it bogs down and moves slowly sometimes, but given the author and circumstances, I was happily surprised and quite satisfied.
Essential reading for an understanding of the period and one man's involvement. A resource for the historian and student of history, and a fine yarn for the casual reader.
3611941
Really, this should be required reading. While the dialect writing style seems insulting today, it is important to understand the time frame. Actually, it's really key to understand the time period of both the slave-era and the time these accounts were collected. With careful reading, a grain of salt, and other sources to help guide you, hearing these stories will touch and change you.
3277644
This is a small gem of a book and introduces both the characters and the influences of the period of the terror in the French Revolution. Like all good narrative histories, it maintains a balance between the detail and the sweep of history. Any book that is fresh and alive after forty years, begins to deserve the title of classic. Unfortunately history does not stand still and many of Palmer's conclusions need to be tested. It needs to be read alongside Soboul and Schama to gain an understanding of the complexity of this period. Even so, a great work that will repay careful reading.
From this starting point, you can delve back into the influences that brought this group to power and forward to the Napoleonic period.
2859502
Even though I lived hrough this period, I never realized what was really going on.  It opens your eyes to a lot of things that were going on at this time. Amazon verified purchase
397994
An interesting read about a critical period of history that is largely overlooked by most historians and commentators.  This helps to explain a lot to fill in gaps about the birth of the Hellenistic and classical periods.