Interesting Historical Expose
348193
Great story, with the sad yet true facts of asylums during that time.  Good for her for getting an inside look and making the terrors known.
1722113
Interesting and had a lot of history in it.
3624099
Intriguing book which I could recommend to others.  Interesting blend of current and historical times.  Some of the content was quite disturbing, but I am glad I read it.
2126626
This book is of course fascinating in the information divulged and the players in what I see as an eternal chess match that is rife with coincidental skirmishes. The expose' of the financial and power battles for supremacy is very sobering. It is more than worth the "price" of admission.
2317188
An expose of the terrible [and much neglected] period in American history when approximately three hundred thousand poor whites were shipped from Britain to the American colonies to work as indentured servants. Often treated worse than black slaves, since they were not bought and paid for, many died in during the term of indenture from beatings, starvation and disease. The children's stories are particularly shocking and sad--most were kidnapped from among the urban poor and shipped to work in tobacco fields where life expectancy did not exceed two years. The book spans a 170 year period, from the Elizabethan age--where the Americas were seen by some as a dumping ground for Britain's unwanted poor, to the horrific conditions indentured laborers had to endure under Virgina's 'gentleman' planter class, to the period of independence when smuggling of convict labor continued at the behest of Britain's coalition government .

 I would highly recommend this extremely well researched and well written history--it should be required reading for all who think non-white peoples were the only groups to suffer brutality and injustice in the Americas.
4845667
I guess I gave 5 Stars due to the history and background the author was able to acquire despite the passage of time. Being a native of Louisiana, this event has interested me since i encountered a fictionalized version in one of N. O. author Greg Herren's mysteries. Townsend gives insight into WHO the victims were not just the fire itself. At a few points the sentence structure is a bit strange to me but that aside this book has been engrossing and Townsend doesn't shy away from reporting some of the uglier reactions by city residents (such as someone repeatedly removing flowers left at the bar in memorial, failure to include information about this fire in a museum show about major New Orleans fires, and unfeeling responses by others like the drag queen told by a State worker that she, the drag queen, should have been in the bar and died too). But he also documents the caring acts by strangers toward the victims, both dead and horribly injured survivors. With 33 deaths there are a LOT of "characters" to keep track of but I feel, due to the details /background given about most, as if I knew them. My one regret is that Townsend did not include candid photos of the people or of the building in the aftermath of the fire. An interesting read and a good documentation of this event. Well worth checking this out.
1875875
This is a well-told story based firmly in historical research (which the author shares in the notes).  Ms. Rinaldi took on the very challenging job of dealing with the  disturbing content around the history of slavery in the US in a careful and sensitive way.  She offers no tidy conclusions, but rather focuses on the complexity of the human interactions.  As a teacher, I have some hesitation offering it to my fifth graders because some of the language around the behavior and treatment of slaves may be jarring for them.  I would be interested to know how someone whose family experienced these times and events would react to it.
On the whole, though, I enjoyed the novel and learned quite a bit.
66353
Roads to Ruin offers an interesting and refreshing view of 16th century history relating the events and players from the perspective of Saadians of Morocco and the House of Aviz of Portugal.  While many histories of this era focus on the Ottomans, Papacy, Hapsburgs, Tudors and Bourbons, this book reminds us that the activities of the Saadian Abdelmalek, the Portuguese Sebastian, and even the English Stukeley were of grave concern to their more historically famous contemporaries.
While the book describes the formation, development and defense of the Moroccan state in the 16th century, Plummer also relates provocative details on the actions and politics in Europe, the Barbary Coast and the Ottoman Empire and their consequences to the efforts in Morocco.
I found Colonel Plummers book both an enjoyable and  fascinating  read interspersed with intriguing, if little-known (to me at least), characters.  His foreign-affairs expertise, as well as extensive experience in the region, led to useful and thought provoking insight to the events related in his book.
4786618
Dalrymple does a wonderful job exposing the attitudes of the left towards the poor.

He shows that the ideas that stream down from the academy have been digested and used by the lower classes as an excuse to perpetuate the culture's shirking of responsibilities.
3894566
IT IS INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE BECAUSE IT DEALS WITH A HISTORIC PHONOMENON THAT MANY OF US IN EUROPE KNOWS LITTLE OR NOTHING ABOUT. IT GIVES A DIFFERENT PICTURE OR RATHER AN ADDITIONAL PICTURE OF THE FATE OF THE JAPANESE SETTLERS WHO CAME TO THE US ALREADY EARLY IN THE THIRTIES. IT ALSO PAINTS WITH A BROAD PEN THE LIFE IN A DETENTION SENTER, AND PARTICULARLY HOW IT AFFECTED THE CHILDDREN.
aS LITTERATURE NOT GREAT, SOME TIMES DRAWN OUT AND REPETIOTIOUS, THE VALUE IS IN THE INFORMATION.
4975592
Well done!  An interesting perspective into the warped propaganda machine of the Third Reich, as well as the oblivious nature of German Soldiers at the time.  The individual interviewees border on attempted justification of Nazi aggression during WWII, but still provide a fascinating read.
2277857
Entertaining while giving a glimpse of history and how some were "pushing" to change what was thought as the norm.
2768105
The book documents the history of the hospital itself, laying out an intriguing and sordid history of corruption and political maneuvering. It doesn't though delve far in to the personal horror that the hospital brought on so many. There are a handful of tragic anecdotes but this mostly sticks too the political corruption that plagued the management of the hospital itself and often, the author gives the staff the benefit of the doubt without much proof one way or the other. Still, as one of the most horrific hospitals to ever exist, this is a fascinating look at part of it's history.
381582
Very interesting book based on some unusual historical events.
3179976
Interesting history in detail I did not expect.  I have read several books on the Cathars.  This was a continuation of the religious persecution by the Roman Church.  Although not presented here, it helps the historian understand the extensive and brutal pograms by the church.
1950545
The author offers insight into what life was like in Alabama during the 1970s.  The vestiges of overt racism are exposed in this true story about a descendant of a founding family of the small, Southern town of Scottsboro who believes he is entitled to be a bully.  He almost gets away with it, big time with dynamite, but for the liberal state attorney general who later ran for governor and lost to the first Republican elected since reconstruction.  I found this story of what was happening behind the gentile facade of a small southern town to be engrossing and interesting.  I would recommend it to anyone interested in 20th century history.
2718791
This is a great eye opener answering the many questions arising about the Inquisition, Moorish influence, and the juxtaposition of two major religions. Proof again that the victors write the history books. Well written and documented, documentary peels off layer after layer of false history that is generally accepted as fact. Recommended for general use in teaching about the pre-Renaissance period of Europe.