fabulous niche history book
588051
I found the heft of the book mildly intimidating, but once I started reading, I literally couldn't bear to put it down.  I returned to it at every opportunity because the subject matter and the author's style are a perfect match.

 When I got to the postscript (comparing the film and history) I was genuinely sorry that the adventure/experience was over.

 So many other reviewers have written such excellent summaries since the first review of August, 2017, that I will simply share that this was a paradigm of reading pleasure -- an ideal balance of education and entertainment.
3130726
Books on historical figures are a 'hit and miss' proposition.  You have some that are dull recitations of facts and dates, while others are impenetrable academic exercises.  Fortunately, Winston Groom's omnibus biography of epic U.S. Army Generals George Patton, Douglas MacArthur and George C Marshall is not like that.  It is accessible and engaging.  Groom does a workman's like job at presenting the backgrounds of the legends and demonstrates how they rose to the positions they were in to provide such crucial leadership during the dark days of World War II.

  The reason I don't rank this book higher is not really the fault of this book by itself.  It is that I have read stand-alone biographies about MacArthur and Patton ("American Caesar" and "Genius For War") that were so outstanding that the bar was raised impossibly high for other biographies.  However, I do not advocate relying on only one (or a small few number of) resource (s) when researching history, and Groom's narrative helps expand the knowledge on these men.
4530009
Very fun and unique style of writing on history, combining insights and thoughts from the author.  It doesn't have an academic paper-ish feel (i.e. with citations inline), but it's a great read in bed or on travel. I read it while travelling in Toscana, Roma, Vatican City, which gave me another dimension of appreciation of the historical importance of the sites I visited.
256276
This book was absolutely wonderful. The breadth, scope and perspective given from all angles is just the best. The amount of research and compilation that had to be done to create this very readable history book and a miracle, especially considering that the sources are multi-lingual. It is a book that I have read three times so far and I find new things each time.
726498
This fat book goes way beyond expectations; historical and multi-lingual, multi-cultural references and explanations are given for sacred symbols and the chants associated with them.

I am recommending that my Level Two students not get entangled with this until they are really familiar and competent, working with the knowledge they've already received...then to pick this up and eat it in small bites.

As for my Master Level students, I am putting this on their recommended reading list.  It can certainly be read straight through, if one is a reincarnated historian, but can also be used very valuably as a specific reference gold mine!

In a word, FABULOUS!
4665141
How a "history book" over 500 pages can be this interesting is a tribute to author Hampton Sides.  I just found this book fascinating, from first page to last. I could have read another 500 pages of it.

Sides not only gives us a portrait of a very, very famous man whom most of us don't know much about today (Kit Carson, an incredible person) but also great insight on various Indian tribes and the U.S. Army and Mexicans all contending with each other in the Southwest in the pre-Civil War decades of 1830s-1850s.

Boy, you really get both the good and the bad of everyone, too, with some memorable stories.  Highly recommended.
3903913
I'm not sure who recommended this book to me, but it's absolutely fantastic! I love the casual references to people that were just getting started at the time, but are well known brands now (Mr. Armour, Walt Disney's dad, etc). The author provides enough detail to almost imagine living in Chicago at the time, without spending 3 pages describing the color of a leaf.
922613
If you love history, you'll love this book.  Provides a great overview of the major historical developments in an evolutionary time.  It covers the major players from kings, popes and emperors to the Mongols, caliphs and rebels.  Baur covers a lot of ground with great detail and manages to make it clear and tell a story.  Really helps tie all the pieces together across Europe, the Middle East, India, China and the far east, with a liberal dose of Mongol horde as well.  The book's progress is easy to follow with timelines and maps that help put each chapter's events into context.  The periods many palace intrigues, crusades, overthrows and related butchery are described in a matter-of-fact fashion that lets the reader imagine what was really happening.

Overall, a very good read for the history lover.
570401
Thoroughly enjoyed revisiting my high school history topics and a comfortable, enjoyable, and entertaining waltz through world history! A perfect introduction for the history-phobe. This is a great book for giving you just a taste of the high and low points in human history - enough to make you want to delve deeper and learn more about the amazing people and events that shaped our cultures and borders. The first page made me chuckle - and I'm not normally a laugh-out-loud kind of reader.
4536247
Not just for writers, but historians, hobbyists, and anyone interested in the small details of life in other times. This volume, like the others in the series, includes chapters (with figures and illustrations) on food, clothing, family life, work, education, religion, leisure activities, social and political history, etc. Great for browsing, great for research. Recommended.
2686079
This is a fabulous book whether you are interested in French history or just history in general.  Actually if neither is your interest, this is still a wonderful read.  The author manages to relate the history of one of the most  influential  Catholic families in France without reducing it to a dry recitation of dates and facts.  It delves into France's history during the tumultuous Reformation and how the Guise family tried to retain power as the preeminent Catholic family of their times.  Their politically motivated marriages read like strategic chess matches.  Catholics became Protestants and Protestants became Catholics all in the name of retaining power and influence in the French court.  Henry IV being the most cynical example of this. The only drawback to those unfamiliar with European history at that time is royalty's  incessant use of the same names (Henry, Charles, Marguerite, Francois).  A single  paragraph can make reference to three separate people (i.e., Henri) of the same name.  It can be a chore keeping track of which one is which.  Thankfully, there is a detailed family lineage in the back of the book which contributes mightily to the understanding of events.  I highly recommend this book.
924348
I like history.  I really like Christian History.  Just take one glance around my office and you will notice that most of the books on my shelves were written by dead guys (actually they wrote the books and then they died).  You might also notice a long shelve filled with biographies and still another shelf filled with volumes of Church history.  You will also notice a magazine stack of Christian History Magazines.  I'm a history guy.  I'm a Christian history guy.

So when On This Day in Christian History: 365 Amazing and Inspiring Stories about Saints, Martyrs and Heroes came up for review, I jumped at the chance to review it.  And I wasn't disappointed.  There are so many things that I like about this book and  it is hard to summarize in just a few words, so let me say this... it's the perfect gift for a guy like me.  I can also see it being a great read for someone who is interested in getting a glimps at the people and events of Christian history.

The stories are generally inspiring.  There is a scripture verse at the bottom of the page that brings relevance and meaning to the previously read story.  There is a fascinating topic index in the back of the book allowing readers to look up stories according to topic. Over all it does a great job at achieving its purpose (a bite sized reading of what happened in Christian history on a particular day) in a way that encourages readers to stay engaged in the book.  I dare you to just read one day's history when you get the book.

I  highly recommend On This Day in Christian History to anyone interested in Christian history.  To beginners its an easy read, small commitment book that will give you a broad spectrum view of Christian History.  To well educated history nerds like myself it will allow you to pull out of a narrowed genre of Church history (I find myself often in the Reformation and the Puritan Eras)  to appreciate a broader scope of history in a way that doesn't take a lot of time.  Plus, everyone wants to know what happened in Christian history on your birthday.

  Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson as part of the BookSneeze program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
363217
Although I am an avid reader of historical nonfiction in and around this time period, I am very far from being a professional historian. However, from a purely "amateur history-lover" standpoint, I have to say that I greatly enjoyed this book. I found it extremely readable - I burned through it in about 2 days - as well as very informative. I'm not qualified enough to pick up on finer shades of bias, but it seemed pretty neutral to me, based on the evidence that was available. If the author's goal was to engage the educated but nonprofessional history lover, she did a fantastic job. I loved her premise, interweaving the lives of these seven influential women.
4292188
This book is truly one of the most amazing and wonderful books I have come upon in quite a while.  I had listened to the original BBC podcast of the same title, so I was already familiar with the style and content of this book.  However, I was very happily surprised at how fresh the book felt even having already heard the podcast.

The scholarship and elegance found in this book are quite an accomplishment and an absolute delight to share in by reading.  Neal MacGregor's style is immediately engaging.  I am not generally a history buff, and yet I couldn't put down this 700 page non-fiction book on world history!  The book is crafted in a way to show how artifacts from our distant past still have impact on the world we live in today.  While the book is very erudite, it includes quirky anecdotes, light humor, and many surprises.  It feels smart, but never tedious, condescending, or preachy.  I have learned more from this one book about our history and our world today than I did from years of high school history classes.  Sad in a way, but true.

MacGregor has carefully selected historical objects from the entire world, not just Europe and the Middle East, as is so commonly the case.  MacGregor has also mindfully selected a diversity of objects from a diversity of cultures and socio-economic classes. Not only did I learn about the ancient history of China, India, and the Americas, but I saw an interconnectedness of history and the cultures that exist today.

The book itself is also very nicely done.  Each of the 100 chapters includes at least one full-page photograph of the object, and many chapters have multiple pictures from different views, or pictures of related objects.  Each chapter is about 5 pages of text, which is enough to be informative without feeling like a college textbook. There is also maps and lists of objects at the conclusion of the book.

I recommend this book without any reservations.  Regardless of your interest in world history today, this book will drawn you into history before you realize it has already happened.  The book is a little pricey at a glace, but you are really getting a book to cherish and thoroughly enjoy for a long time.  I have no regrets having purchased the book (and for considerably more than the Amazon price).
4217928
So this is a fun 'niche history' book that I think has enough different experiences and historical events to keep most readers engaged. The chapters give enough broad view that even if a couple don't connect, there should be a few more that would be entertaining. It does show that maybe it's better to laugh then cry at affairs at the heart, which after all can't actually kill you. But...they can lead to all sorts of fatal problems, as these accounts will show!

Even though it is often tragic history (Oscar Wilde, for example) it's written in an engaging style that finds the laughter behind the tears, as it were. Even the awful depredations of Emperor Nero come across funny, as opposed to horrible.

I would not look at this book as a literal history - I sort of like how Jennifer Wright approaches this by taking every rumor as basically historical fact. So the 10-year-old Marquees of Queensbury supposedly roasted and ate a servant over a spit - that obviously didn't literally happen, but Wright acts like that, and any rumor, actually DID happen. But these are rumors for a reason, and since she's certainly not writing this as a definitive account, I think it helps amp up the extreme "humor" of each situation.

I'm not sure this is the kind of book I'd recommend for a personal purchase, but it would be a great gift for anybody who went through a bad breakup, etc. It's almost better as a gift where there's no stakes, and the reader can just enjoy it for what it is, as opposed to worrying about "getting my money's worth," and a feeling like that. But anybody with an appreciation for these kinds of niche historical events, especially when they involve all the rumors that have been spread around over the years, should find some good enjoyment from it.
1787881
I've read a lot of books on the Civil War (since I was a kid Lincoln was my favorite American historical figure). This is now one of my favorites, and for a  unique reason: between 2011 and 2015 the New York Times ran a series of columns about the Civil War. As a former fulltime journalist, you can most assuredly tell that the superb historians/writers had word limits. These are fast-moving, wonderfully written, meticulously researched pieces that flesh out a wide variety of aspects of the Civil War. In reading it, I couldn't wait to read the next column and if one began to disinterest me (happened only once) I just skipped to the next. The usual political, social and military aspects of the war are covered. And, once again, each column moves quickly and makes you feel like you're back in the era with the array of facts and quotes from documents. I particularly loved several of them. My top two: a haunting and eye opening column on the kids who signed up to be drummers, showing incredible bravery -- and how coffee fueled the troops and may have helped the North win the war. HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for those who enjoy Civil War books -- and those who do not!
2733410
This book is very well-written, with text that is not only interesting but easy to follow. I bought it in the hope that it would give me a better understanding of the events that transpired during the two hundred years following the Norman invasion of 1066. I have begun reading a lot of historical fiction during this time period and so I was eager to gain contextual knowledge that would make it easier to distinquish fact from fiction.
This book was everything I had hoped for. Not only have I been educated on the events of these years, but I have also been given a fascinating insight into the changing culture of this time. My favourite chapter has turned out to be one entitled 'The Peoples of Britain' which gives a brilliant insight into regional identities, and how these changed during the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. The Norman invasion of England of course caused a rift between the Norman and the English people, but David Carpenter explores how the two cultures eventually merged into becoming a united English people. He also discusses Scotland and the how the distinct areas of this country considered themselves to be of differing nationalities. Wales was also interesting to read about, as the culture there did not merge with the Norman culture as it did in England, and to some extent as it eventually did in Scotland.
David Carpenter has a very fluid writing style that easily draws in the reader. He initially gives his key point and then expands from it, allowing the reader not only to see what happened, but how and why it happened. It is easy to tell that he has a geniune love for the period. I love to read history in the words of some-one who loves it is much as I do.
The maps and genealogical tables included in this book are very useful. Whilst reading the text I often found myself flicking to the maps to familiarize myself with the areas.
I would recommend this book to any-one with an interest in this period--even if it's only small your interest will be piqued with each page that you turn.