Books

History and the Historians (Access to History S.)
The Fifty Years War: United States and the Soviet Union in World Politics, 1941-91
Race Relations in the USA Since 1900 (Access to History S.)
March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
Please Kill Me: Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Blood and Fire: William and Catherine Booth and the Salvation Army
Richard III: The Great Debate
The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis
The Search for Modern China
French National Cinema (National Cinemas S.)
Chronicle of the Roman Republic: The Rulers of Ancient Rome from Romulus to Augustus (Chronicles S.)
Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (Dover Thrift Edition)
Victorian London Street Life in Historic Photographs
Old Sword-play: Techniques of the Great Masters
The Second Treatise of Government: AND A Letter Concerning Toleration
The Cairo Museum: Masterpieces of Egyptian Art
Chronicle of the Pharaohs
Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-by-reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome
Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning
War Junkie
The Nazis: A Warning from History
Battlefields of the Second World War
Legacy: Search for the Origins of Civilization
The F-word

Average customer rating:

Really Good Read!
A great book on taking your daughter to the game!
A Fan's Notes
Something to Touch the Heart
Growing up in the Fifties

Wait Till Next Year: A MEMOIR
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0684824892

Book Description

Wait Till Next Yearis the story of a young girl growing up in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s, when owning a single-family home on a tree-lined street meant the realization of dreams, when everyone knew everyone else on the block, and the children gathered in the streets to play from sunup to sundown. The neighborhood was equally divided among Dodger, Giant, and Yankee fans, and the corner stores were the scenes of fierce and affectionate rivalries.

We meet the people who influenced Goodwin's early life: her father, who emerged from a traumatic childhood without a trace of self-pity or rancor and who taught his daughter early on that she should say whatever she thought and should bring her voice into any conversation at any time; her mother, whose heart problems left her with the arteries of a seventy-year-old when she was only in her thirties and whose love of books allowed her to break the boundaries of the narrow world to which she was confined by her chronic illness; her two older sisters; her friends on the block; the local storekeepers; her school friends and teachers.

This is also the story of a girlhood in which the great religious festivals of the Catholic church and the seasonal imperatives of baseball combined to produce a passionate love of history, ceremony, and ritual. It is the story of growing up in what seemed on the surface a more innocent era until one recalls the terror of polio, the paranoia of McCarthyism reflected even in the children's games, the obsession with A-bomb drills in school, and the ugly face of racial prejudice. It was a time whose relative tranquillity contained the seeds of the turbulent decade of the sixties.

Customer Reviews:

Really Good Read!.......2007-06-27

Ms. Goodwin knows how to tell a good story. In addition to telling us about her childhood in a New York City suburb in the 1950s, she also talks about the changes America was going through in this time period: economic development and the impact on the family, the beginnings of the civil rights movement, the "end" of baseball as the American pasttime. The book is well-written and very enjoyable.

A great book on taking your daughter to the game!.......2007-04-27

Great book. It inspires me to take my two little girls to games. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A Fan's Notes.......2007-04-10

Goodwin grew up in New York in the 40's, and this memoir tracks her Brooklyn Dodgers through their World Series win in 1956.

Something to Touch the Heart.......2007-03-27

So many people recommended Doris Kearns Goodwin's charming memoir, "Wait Till Next Year," that I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

Experiencing her youth in the forties and fifties as I and many of my reading friends did, Goodwin struck chords that reverberated movingly with us. Though the story takes place in Rockville Centre, New York, a suburb just a train ride away from Brooklyn, her pictures of herself and her friends in front yards and back yards, her schools and churches, drug store and neighborhood could have been taken in any American suburb of those distant days.

These memories make up a different kind of "fan's notes," as she tracks the ups and downs and near misses of her beloved Brooklyn Dodgers, the team she followed faithfully as a six-year-old in 1949, until "dem bums" finally delivered a World Series championship in 1956. Her team, with Gil Hodges and Roy Campanella, and even their radio announcer, Vin Scully, moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and became my wife's favorite team. My "Whiz Kids," the Philadelphia Phillies of the fifties, with Robin Roberts and Ritchie Ashburn and Eddie Waitkus received mention and reminded my wife and me of the days when you could count on the same players returning loyally to play year after year for the same team.

In addition to the thread of baseball running through the book, Goodwin touches on national events that characterized the times for anyone who lived through them: the death of FDR, the Korean War, the Rosenberg spy case, McCarthyism, and forced school integration in Little Rock. She remembers Elvis and James Dean and covers faithfully the rituals of growing up in the Catholic Church. There is something here to touch the heart of anyone who grew up in those naive times of the 1940s and 1950s.

Growing up in the Fifties.......2007-01-20

Doris Kearns Goodwin captures the essence of the post WWII era, when many New York City families were finally able to move from the city and have their own homes in the suburbs. As I was one of those families, we also brought our love for baseball. If you came from the Bronx, you remained a Yankee fan and if you came from Brookln, as Doris did, you loved the Dodgers. This book was sweet and poignant especially for me. And that is because I spent part of my childhood in the same town that she did...Rockville Centre, NY.. I graduated the same High School , South Side, that she did ...just a few years ahead of her. We shared some of the same teachers and memories. It brought me back to time 50 years ago when we faced some different and yet some of the same problems that we face today. This was a story told with tenderness and love and I loved all of it.
Steve Bank , SouthSide '54

In the Fullness of Time: A Historian Looks at Christmas, Easter, and the Early Church

Average customer rating:

A Christian history teacher's review
Surprisingly historical
A Must read.
Interesting, non-biased work by a scholar of ancient history
Food for Thought

In the Fullness of Time: A Historian Looks at Christmas, Easter, and the Early Church
Paul L. Maier
Manufacturer: Kregel Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0825433290

Book Description

This engaging and beautifully written narrative sheds a brilliant new light on the life of Jesus and the courageous men and women who carried His message throughout a hostile empire. Full-color photos and illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

A Christian history teacher's review.......2007-05-14

Paul Maier is a truly gifted lecturer. I've had the pleasure of watching two of his videos and if I lived anywhere near Western Michigan University, I'd sneak into the back of his classroom (he is a member of the history faculty there) on a regular basis - he has a gift for making the First Century A.D. accessible.

"In the Fullness of Time" continues this tradition. Maier has basically consolidated 3 other books into one larger volume (with a few changes) and he discusses the first Christmas, the first Easter and the ministries of the early Apostles, especially Paul and Peter.

Maier does a great job of bringing actual documentation that supports the stories of Christmas, Easter and the Book of Acts. He includes the works of Roman and Jewish historians, explains Roman and Jewish religious and political practices and deals with alternate theories that have been proposed. While this could be dry reading, Maier makes it lively and this volume reads more like a novel than a textbook.

So, who is this book for? If you are a well-read Christian who has looked into many of the facts that back the New Testament as it is written on your own, you won't find much new ground covered in this book. The internet has lots of this information scattered about. However, you are unlikely to find sources as concise and as well-written as this one. Plus, if you are interested in further research, it is well-documented with tons of footnotes.

If you are a new Christian or are newly interested in the history behind Christianity, this is a powerful introduction.

I give this one a grade of "A"

Surprisingly historical .......2006-07-30

Maybe it's because I enjoy reading historical literature... or maybe I am facinated by the notion the Gospel accounts are historical in nature. Paul Maier has done a wonderful job combining backround historical context, archeological artifacts, and a clear logical approach into a credible and refreshing look at what is was like to: experience the first Christmas, the first Easter, and what it was like for the early Christians after the resurrection. This is surprisingly enjoyable read.

A Must read........2005-05-20

Pail Maier, a expert in ancient history, has written a great book. from my understanding is that, this book was three different books now put into one. If you are a new Christian, you need this book. If you read this book as a new believer, you will have a better grasp of the background of the NT in reading this book, than going to a expositional preaching church for two years. It will lay a great foundation for your walk with the living Christ. If you a long time believer, and have not read this book, you should, for it will open your eyes, to the NT. Dr. Maier goes into the Christmas story, Easter Sunday and the early church. Great book.

Interesting, non-biased work by a scholar of ancient history.......2002-03-14

When I saw Paul Maier interviewed in a documentary on the life of Jesus, I searched for titles by this author, and when this book was listed, I immediately ordered it. I wasn't dissappointed.

Maier is a professor of ancient history at Western Michigan, and brings credibility and scholarship to a subject that is frequently approached with bias, often from polar perspectives. Professor Maier is one of the leading scholars on the writings of first century Jewish historian Josephus, and this book includes appropriate and informative references to this ancient source. As a student of history and an attorney, I found the book stimulating and thought provoking. However, the book most certainly does not read like a history text, and is interesting to both the historian and the person simply looking for some information on the historical context of the birth of Christ, his crucification and the biblical account of his resurrection. The book also examines the early church and the spread of Christianity. Anyone with an interest in these topics should read this work.

I very much recommend this book, and look forward to reading other works by Paul Maier.

Food for Thought.......2001-06-09

This is a tremendous book which provides insightful analysis based upon hard facts. If nothing else, this book will get you thinking about the practical reality of the foundations of the Biblical message. The book provides a means of evaluating various Biblical stories from a unique perspective. While true belief does not require a foundation of historical fact ( from this world, anyways ! ), I found it comforting that many of the people, places, and events described in the Bible certainly could have existed as told. One of the more interesting themes is why God chose that particular time and place of human history to bring about the completion of the Old Testament Scriptures !

Average customer rating:

Wonderful memoir or is it a history?
Long, sometimes rambling, but usually fascinating
Five Germanys I have known
Why is Germany so Important?
Part history, part autobiography, awesome and engrossing

Five Germanys I Have Known
Fritz Stern
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

20th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

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Suite Francaise

ASIN: 0374155402
Release Date: 2006-08-22

Book Description

The “German question” haunts the modern world: How could so civilized a nation be responsible for the greatest horror in Western history? In this unusual fusion of personal memoir and history, the celebrated scholar Fritz Stern refracts the question through the prism of his own life. Born in the Weimar Republic, exposed to five years of National Socialism before being forced into exile in 1938 in America, he became a world-renowned historian whose work opened new perspectives on the German past.

Stern brings to life the five Germanys he has experienced: Weimar, the Third Reich, postwar West and East Germanys, and the unified country after 1990. Through his engagement with the nation from which he and his family fled, he shows that the tumultuous history of Germany, alternately the strength and the scourge of Europe, offers political lessons for citizens everywhere—especially those facing or escaping from tyranny. In this wise, tough-minded, and subtle book, Stern, himself a passionately engaged citizen, looks beyond Germany to issues of political responsibility that concern everyone. Five Germanys I Have Known vindicates his belief that, at its best, history is our most dramatic introduction to a moral civic life.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful memoir or is it a history?.......2007-06-03

This is a quite long but eminently readable book that does cover a long period of time in the recent history of Germany. It is both a memoir and a history book at the same time. I think it is most helpful to the reader in the way his personal recollections and the experiences of his extended family add meaning and perspective to the better known but probably not completely understood historical events described in the book. The early chapters remind me of Stefan Zweig's wonderful book The World of Yesterday. Also the fact that it was written by someone from the former German lands that were given to Poland after WWII also adds an additional somewhat unfamiliar perspective to the events described. Where are the East Prussian, Silesian, and Sudeten refugee camps after all these years? It is probably lucky that such things were never established after WWII except for the fairly shortlived displaced persons camps. Overall a very good book and somewhat difficult to put down once you get started and I really appreciate all of the new ideas and outlooks that the author has provided to me in this book which must have required both a prodigious amount of work and a prodigious memory. I would have given 5 stars except for the fact that the whole book shows a fairly unbalanced socialist world view that in light of all the history covered in this book (it was called National Socialism after all) was sometimes rather surprising and rarely even somewhat jarring. I would have thought that after all his experiences he would have been less of a socialist and more of a believer in the primacy of individual liberty and freedom, possibly even a libertarian rather than a socialist. However I concede that the author is much more knowledgeable about all these topics than this reviewer and overall it is a very good read for anyone looking for a book to flesh out the outline of German history that most people get in school.

Long, sometimes rambling, but usually fascinating.......2007-02-03

Fritz Stern has lived a long and exceedingly full and productive life, both as a scholar and a participant, focusing very largely on Germany and on U.S. relations thereto. His title suggests his historian's perspective; I hoped to broaden my own understanding of Germany by absorbing what he has come to know. I found most of "Five Germanys...." fascinating but I also had some disappointments.
Anne Appelbaums' excellent review for the Washingon Post Book World, reproduced above, thoroughly summarizes the many strengths of Stern's history/memoir. I concur in her praise. My reservations are these:
The world of eminent scholars and political leaders in which Stern has traveled for the past 60 years has not brought him in much contact with the ordinary German's world. And it was this world that I was most curious about since my wife and I visit there quite often to see her Army son and his family who have been stationed there for much of the past 20 years. It is the life of ordinary Germans in shops and schools and hospitals and factories that especially interests me. That is virtually untreated here. Similarly, U.S. Army troops have occupied and/or been stationed in Germany for over 60 years. In great numbers. Surely that presence has had, and continues to have, a major impact on life in Germany, but Stern scarcely mentions their presence.
It is, of course, Stern's prerogative to discuss what he finds most interesting and significant. Potential readers should simply be apprised of what topics they will and won't see covered.
Finally let me offer a caveat to one of Stern's several times repeated historical judgments. He shares the consensus opinion that the Cold War originated primarily because of the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe after WWII. What puzzles me is that he never mentions the obvious problem with that argument; Any Russian/Soviet government, whether communist or fascist or democratic, would have done the same thing as Stalin did. Perhaps less brutally but no less assuredly. That country had been devastated twice in less than 30 years by the Germans and their allies. In WWII they had had more people killed every week for four years, on average, than the U.S. lost in the entire Viet Nam War. It is inconceivable that any responsible Soviet/Russian government would have taken a different view of future potential threats from the west.

Five Germanys I have known.......2007-01-13

This is a fascinating and highly readable history, not only of post World War II Germany, but of the story of our times as seen through the eyes of a deeply involved scholar who participated in many of the processes that shaped our lives.

Why is Germany so Important?.......2007-01-11

This is history interwoven with the life of the author and his famaily.
It shows also why history is so important for the people and the nations.
Fritz Stern has succeeded to bring history to a personal level still keeping his distance with the subjecgt to make it historian work.

Part history, part autobiography, awesome and engrossing.......2007-01-11

Fritz Stern is an impressive writer. This book takes one from 19th century Germany to about 2002, mostly in the context of his own family history. I had a particular interest in the book, because Stern comes from Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland). I've spent time there and have many relatives living in and around that city. In addition, a family friend escaped the Nazis out of Breslau in much the way Stern's family did. Anyone who is interested in German history should read this book, especially as a starting point. Stern gives many explanations and insights into events that are not commonly known and gives the reader plenty to think about. I have one of his other books, Gold and Iron, that I now can't wait to read.

One criticism I had was the chapter on German Themes in Foreign Lands. I can understand the author's wanting to put the lessons of 20th century in a global context, but to me this material seemed like a diversion, with too tenuous a connection to German history. If I want to study China, India, Argentina or other countries, I'd read a book exclusively on that subject. I thought the book started to drag at this point.

Otherwise, anyone interested in German history from a German/Jewish/American perspective shouldn't miss this.

The Houses of History: A Critical Reader in Twentieth-Century History and Theory

Average customer rating:

useful
Dull Dull Dull This Book needs to be reworked.
Great intro text - which Jay obviously couldn't handle
Don't listen to Jay!
Don't listen to Jay!

The Houses of History: A Critical Reader in Twentieth-Century History and Theory

Manufacturer: New York University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

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Modern Historiography: An Introduction
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ASIN: 0814731279
Release Date: 1999-03-01

Customer Reviews:

useful.......2007-01-23

I read this book for a methods course as well as some of the other reviewers. The format of the book is useful since it provides a synopsis of the selected perspectives as well as a reading that provides an example of the method/interpretation in action. While it is not always entertaining, it is not designed to be; it is a critical reader designed to promote critical discussion. I completed an annotated bibliography of the work (since Troup references many scholars and their works) and found this very useful so that I could read the better known examples that Troup discusses in each section. This book is a good spring board to further studies in the historian's journey to becoming thinking historian who is sensitive to the relationship between worldview, interpretation and methods in the historian's research.

Dull Dull Dull This Book needs to be reworked........2005-12-12

I am a university student majoring in history. I was forced to endure the reading of this book for a course in historical methods. I found the book to be very dull in its presentation and arguments about the historical house. This is not just my opinion but that of my fellow students as well. In a class of thirty people only two or three found the book excellent to use the rest of us found it a disaster. There are numerous other sources out there that present this material in a more colorful and interesting fashion. I am no fan of this book. The book does present the very broad subdivisions of historical research. I disagree with anyone who is in the study of history that allows one book, one professor, or one course to mold their like or dislike for this discipline. I suffered through this book because it was mandated for the course. I did learn something about the topic. So in that way the book did have useful information in it. I just would like to suggest to those who want to learn about the historical houses of history that there is an abundant amount of material available both on the web and published that is much better in presentation then this book. For the dullness and lackluster presentation of the material I gave this book only 3 stars.

Great intro text - which Jay obviously couldn't handle.......2005-07-11

Great book. Before I read it, I had been confused by the various historiographical 'houses.' Now I know what's what. Anyone who's doing a historiography course at university should read this book because it (a) explains most things well and (b) makes it clear that there is a lot of conscious consideration behind how historians approach the past, which I think anyone who plans to study the past for a living needs to know. Jay's negative review shows he isn't willing to engage in a sophisticated analysis of the historian's influence on history.

Don't listen to Jay!.......2002-12-05

This is a response to the first review written by Jay, who claims that this book made him hate history, and further, change majors because of it. If this is the case, then that it great. The study of history doesn't need people like Jay! The value of this text is that it presents a brief synopsis of the main schools of historical thought, and an according sample with each. Jay is obviously of the dominant school (empiricist) that thinks history chould be treated like a science, without concern for philosophical questions. Despite what you may think about postmodernism, it has unearthed the deception of the empiricist school. By professing their method as THE path to THE truth, empiricists cut off unthought ideas by setting up a power discourse. They rule the universities, and anyone who wants to become a 'professional' historian must take his/her PHD pill from them. HOUSES OF HISTORY is a great text for the beginner in that it provides a brief summary of the schools of history, which is invaluable in undertaking a historiography course. Historiography is NOT boring and useless, and any historian who thinks it is is simply trying to prevent new ideas from emerging, ideas that might (oh no!) compromise his/her position. Don't listen to Jay.

Don't listen to Jay!.......2002-12-05

Everyday Life in the 1800s: A Guide for Writers, Students & Historians (Writer's Guides to Everyday Life)

Average customer rating:

Great information at your finger tips
Mediocre, missing essential information, poorly constructed
Simply a dictionary
Holy disorganization, Batman....
Too broad a subject to be really useful except in general

Everyday Life in the 1800s: A Guide for Writers, Students & Historians (Writer's Guides to Everyday Life)
Marc McCutcheon
Manufacturer: Writer's Digest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1582970637

Book Description

A superb reference for writers, researchers, students and teachers, this dictionary-style book illuminates everyday life in the 1800s, decade by decade. Readers will find hundreds of otherwise obscure facts about:

* Popular slang--from the range to the underworld
* How to furnish a farmhouse or outfit a barn
* How much it cost for a shot of whiskey or to mail a letter
* Styles of the fashionable--and not so fashionable
* Courtship and marriage rituals
* Popular food and drink--including brand names
* And much, much more!

Customer Reviews:

Great information at your finger tips.......2007-01-29

This is a great reference guide. I am currently writing a romance novel set in the mid 1800's. The chapters are easy to find what you're looking for and the examples show how the word or phrase was used. If your looking for a great reference guide that is straight to the point I would highly recommend "Everyday Life in the 1880's"

Mediocre, missing essential information, poorly constructed.......2006-06-12

This book lacks any information about education. Such an essential subject - affecting children and adults alike - should certainly be included.

Nor does it include information about art (visual/performing) or literature pertinent to the people at the time.

It also has no index, so that searching for anything is ridiculously slow.

Visuals are lacking - textual descriptions of hair or various equipment are poor substitutes for an image.

Essentially it is a poorly organized dictionary, and stating that it is "a guide for writers, students and historians" is an overstatement to say the least!

Simply a dictionary .......2006-03-09

When I read the description of the book I thought that this book would actually provide information about everyday life in the 1800's; instead, it is merely a dictionary. There are no passages that describe fashion, etiquette, industry, clothing, or anything else useful to a historian. Instead, the book merely provides one sentence descriptions of objects you probabaly can already identify. This book may be useful if you come across the name of an item in a primary text and you are not sure what it is. However, it provides very little useful general information

Holy disorganization, Batman...........2005-12-28

It's been a few months since I read this, but I thought I might give a review.

I found this book horrid. It was not organized in a way that would be simple and easy for a reader. As a writer of historical fiction I was interested in finding out about daily life during the Civil War. But I would find references from all years thrown together so I had to fish out the important details.It was not broken down by years or decades which I think would have been much easier. I gave up on this book because I couldn't find the information I needed.

If you are a writer and are thinking about this book I suggest getting it from the library, and if you believe it will be of use to you buy it then.

Too broad a subject to be really useful except in general.......2005-11-18

I didn't think this book really useful as is claimed for "writers, students historians" etc. It is much to broad a time period to cover all aspects of just what life was like.

This time period is just too broad with too many alterations in that time to cover everything with any real detail. With clothes it is clearly difficult, but styles of everything, even culture just changed too much over that hundred years to really effectively cover everything. Just think in the last 20 years how much dress, slang, music, and our way of life has changed? Who heard of SUV's and Gangsta Rap 20 years ago? Well the same details can translate in the nineteenth century too.

I wouldn't have minded if this had just been an overview, but to term it a guide to everyday life for 'writers etc' I just didn't think worked. There is not enough good detail to be that accurate for those purposes. As a general look to tempt the interest for general readers I think might be a more accurate description.

Average customer rating:

Worth reading
Eulogy

George Kennan: A Study of Character
John Lukacs
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300122217

Book Description

A man of impressive mental powers, of extraordinary intellectual range, and—last but not least—of exceptional integrity, George Frost Kennan (1904-2005) was an adviser to presidents and secretaries of state, with a decisive role in the history of this country (and of the entire world) for a few crucial years in the 1940s, after which he was made to retire; but then he became a scholar who wrote seventeen books, scores of essays and articles, and a Pulitzer Prize–winning memoir. He also wrote remarkable public lectures and many thousands of incisive letters, laying down his pen only in the hundredth year of his life.
Having risen within the American Foreign Service and been posted to various European capitals, and twice to Moscow, Kennan was called back to Washington in 1946, where he helped to inspire the Truman Doctrine and draft the Marshall Plan. Among other things, he wrote the “X” or “Containment” article for which he became, and still is, world famous (an article which he regarded as not very important and liable to misreading). John Lukacs describes the development and the essence of Kennan’s thinking; the—perhaps unavoidable—misinterpretations of his advocacies; his self-imposed task as a leading realist critic during the Cold War; and the importance of his work as a historian during the second half of his long life.

Customer Reviews:

Worth reading.......2007-06-13

I knew almost nothing about Kennan before I read this book, but Lukacs got me interested in learning more about Kennan and reading Kennan's books. This is by no means a balanced, objective, or scholarly work - Lukacs very obviously admires Kennan and makes no attempt to hide this. If you want a scholarly analysis of Kennan's life, work, or legacy, this book is not for you. But if you want to read a mostly well-written and interesting biography of a rather major American figure, I recommend it.

Eulogy.......2007-04-22

A close friend looks back with respect and fondness over the long span of the intellectual life of Mr. Kennan, one of our nation's most distinguished diplomats and foreign policy experts. Important insights into the grand history of the Cold War are presented in this short volume. But this, as the author repeatedly states, is in no way a full biography.

A rare (but mild) criticism is expressed by Professor Lukas of Mr. Kennan's written evaluation of a German leader: "...Kennan's admiration for Bismark is unstinting. He esteems and defends the German chancellor throughout." (p. 171) This can be as well said of this book's near deification of George Kennan.

While I admire Professor Lukas' previous work, I do think he is too blindingly close to his subject for objectivity. My case for this view is made when Professor Lukas closes by linking the greatness of this American life, by a direct allusion, to that of Abraham Lincoln's: "Now he belongs to the ages."

The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past

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More Defense than Method
must read for the historically minded
a unique glimpse into the mind of a master historian
Brilliant Treatise on History as a "Denied Area"
A serious study of the philosophy of history, with a few lame analogies thrown in.

The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past
John Lewis Gaddis
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195171578

Book Description

What is history and why should we study it? Is there such a thing as historical truth? Is history a science? One of the most accomplished historians at work today, John Lewis Gaddis, answers these and other questions in this short, witty, and humane book. The Landscape of History provides a searching look at the historian's craft, as well as a strong argument for why a historical consciousness should matter to us today. Gaddis points out that while the historical method is more sophisticated than most historians realize, it doesn't require unintelligible prose to explain. Like cartographers mapping landscapes, historians represent what they can never replicate. In doing so, they combine the techniques of artists, geologists, paleontologists, and evolutionary biologists. Their approaches parallel, in intriguing ways, the new sciences of chaos, complexity, and criticality. They don't much resemble what happens in the social sciences, where the pursuit of independent variables functioning with static systems seems increasingly divorced from the world as we know it. So who's really being scientific and who isn't? This question too is one Gaddis explores, in ways that are certain to spark interdisciplinary controversy. Written in the tradition of Marc Bloch and E.H. Carr, The Landscape of History is at once an engaging introduction to the historical method for beginners, a powerful reaffirmation of it for practitioners, a startling challenge to social scientists, and an effective skewering of post-modernist claims that we can't know anything at all about the past. It will be essential reading for anyone who reads, writes, teaches, or cares about history.

Customer Reviews:

More Defense than Method.......2007-04-04

I've looked at over a dozen books to try and find a good, solid guide for my students to they can have a foot up on thinking historically. Gaddis book is more philosophy and comparisons with social and natural science than it is a book describing historical theory and method. Perhaps I run in my accepting circles but I've never had to defend my historical work or my department against attacks from social or natural scientists; we realize that every discipline has it's own way of gathering, analyzing and using information. By and large this book seemed like a apologia than a guide for historians. While it was a interesting read for me, I firmly believe it would confuse most undergraduates making the audience for this book much more narrow than I had hoped.

must read for the historically minded.......2006-07-06

John Lewis Gaddis has done all who read or make history a great service with his reflections on history: what it is and is not, its limitations, its purposes, its biases. As someone who gets paid for producing historical studies, I found this book particularly helpful with its insights. There are very few jarring notes--the worst being that Gaddis says he agrees with postmodernists that "all our bases for evaluating behavior [i.e. making moral judgments] are themselves artifacts of behavior." Ignore this bit of confusion and enjoy the rest, which is eminently lucid. I particularly liked his comparing what the historian does to what a cartographer does in making a map: first, choosing what landscape to depict, what the emphases will be, and what to leave out. I also liked his comparison of history as a discipline with sciences like paleontology, geology, and astronomy--where experiments cannot be conducted except in the mind. Overall, a significant book; highly recommended.

a unique glimpse into the mind of a master historian.......2006-05-24

A brief, but entirely enjoyable book on the craft of history. John Lewis Gaddis's book is really a collection of speeches he gave during a visiting professorship at Oxford. The speeches center on the art and science of historical research. He challenges the view held by many social scientists that downplay historians as storytellers whose craft lack the rigor of the scientific method. Gaddis claims that the historical method is more complex that most realize and that historians have more in common with evolutionary biologists and astronomers than economists and political scientists. Despite the academic nature of the subject, the chapters are very readable, since they were written as speeches. The only downside was his attempts at pop-culture humor in an attempt to seem hip to the Oxford audience. A man of his standing in the field of Soviet history has nothing to prove to a bunch of British 19-year olds.

Nevertheless, the book offers a unique glimpse into the mind of a master historian. Good history reads easily, with beautiful narrative, deep research, and thought-provoking analysis. This Gaddis book describes how complex the process can be. It made me appreciate first rate history even more.

Brilliant Treatise on History as a "Denied Area".......2006-04-07

He is bluntly critical of the political science and social science communities, branding them with an inability to engage in methodical research or articulation. History is a "denied area." When we combine our current lack of appreciation of history across all the disciplines, with our long track record of disdain for religion and culture as fundamental aspects of the total intelligence picture, we must recognize that we have created many "virtual denied areas" for ourselves, Islam being but one of many. In that vein, this book can be considered a primer on how to go about understanding a "denied area" by substituting analytic tradecraft for the multiplicity of sources that characterize the more obvious targets of our interest.

A serious study of the philosophy of history, with a few lame analogies thrown in........2005-12-25

Gaddis is a well-published Cold War historian. His PhD (1968) is from the University of Texas. He now teaches at Yale. I have seen him on C-Span a couple of times; he has a flat, slightly nasal, Southwestern accent, is highly intelligent beneath his self-deprecating and slightly awkward manner.

This book is based on a series of lectures he gave on historical method while he was George Eastman Visiting Professor at Balliol College, Oxford, 2000-2001, before 9/11.

Although I have given this book a 5-star rating, there are a few negatives. He tries too hard to make a good impression on his Oxonian audience, with cornball humor and lame analogies. He obviously feels that he has to prove that he is a civilized, cultured person and not an ignorant Texas yahoo. He is too nice to the post-modern feminist deconstructionists who have tried to destroy Western culture and rewrite history. No doubt he is in an awkward position, surrounded as he is by such people at Yale. It's hard to blame him for trying to defuse their basic hostility toward everything he represents - caucasian, male, Texan. He could have made his points without citing such trendy vacuities as "Shakespeare in Love", "Being John Malkovich", and Tom Stoppard.

That said, this is a serious book about a serious subject, the structure of historical thought and method. He gives most of the credit for the modern understanding of the subject to Marc Bloch and E.H. Carr, whose work he cites throughout. R.G. Collingwood, who actually preceded both Bloch and Carr with many of the same insights, also appears frequently, but almost as an afterthought.

Gaddis believes that while it is not possible to apply the experimental scientific method to history ("history" is past, done, over with, finished, by definition), it is quite possible to use the descriptive scientific method of collecting evidence and using reason to explain it, much like a physician, paleontologist, geologist, or field naturalist does, and by doing so arrive at a fair representation of the past. The more objective and thorough the historian, the more accurate the representation. He also shows that a PERFECT reproduction of the past is impossible, and probably not even desirable.

For the details of his argument, read the book, and ignore the lame analogies.

My opinion of Gaddis is heightened by his graceful admission that he failed completely to anticipate the peaceful and almost bloodless collapse of the USSR.

Highly recommended for those with a serious interest in history.

Further reading: R.G. Collingwood, "The Idea of History". I have read Collingwood's book and highly recommend it. I haven't yet read Bloch or Carr, but Gaddis has prompted me to put them high on my reading list.

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The Lives within Lives of Anthony Blunt.
Utterly Fascinating
Why did the author knock author John Costello?
The eternally forgiving English establishment
Definitively well researched and written bio

Anthony Blunt: His Lives
Miranda Carter
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0374105316

Book Description

The first full biography of the notorious spy— and an X-ray of the British ruling class that produced him.

Once an untouchable member of England's establishment—a world-famous art historian and a man knighted by the Queen of England—in a single stroke Anthony Blunt became an object of universal hatred when, in 1979, Margaret Thatcher exposed him as a Soviet spy.

In Anthony Blunt: His Lives, Miranda Carter shows how one man lived out opposing trends of his century—first as a rebel against his class, then as its epitome—and yet embodied a deeper paradox. In the 1920s, Blunt was a member of the Bloomsbury circle; in the 1930s he was a left-wing intellectual; in the 50s and 60s he became a camouflaged member of the Establishment. Until his treachery was made public, Blunt was a world-famous art historian, recognized for his ground-breaking work on Poussin, Italian art, and old master drawings; at the Courtauld Institute he trained a whole generation of academics and curators. And yet even as he ascended from rebellion into outward conformity, he was a homosexual when homosexuality was a crime, and a traitor when the penalty was death.

How could one man contain so many contradictions? The layers of secrecy upon which Blunt's life depended are here stripped away for the first time, using testimony from those who knew Blunt well but have until now kept silent and documents from sealed Russian archives, including a secret autobiography Blunt wrote for his controllers. Miranda Carter's Anthony Blunt is the first full biography of the mythical Cold War warrior, and is at once an astonishing history of one the century's greatest deceits and a deeply nuanced account of fifty years in the British power elite, as experienced by one deep inside who wished to bring it down.

Customer Reviews:

The Lives within Lives of Anthony Blunt........2005-03-17

Miranda Carter has written a splendid book about Anthony Blunt, appropriately subtitled, "his lives." Reading about the Cambridge Fellow, Soldier, Double Agent, Art-Historian, Director of the Cortauld Institute, Surveyor of the King's/Queens Pictures, etc., etc., is like peeling an onion, or perhaps--more appropriately--opening a Russian Matrioshka doll. As one probes into a deeper layer one discovers yet another persona, and although one might begin to understand Blunt's motives, one never really gets to know who he really was, thanks to his ability to compartmentalize his multifarious activities and interests.

Although I began the book with considerable prejudice, since Anthony Blunt seems to have prospered while his fellow Cambridge spies were living comparatively miserable lives in Moscow, Ms. Carter's sensitive portrayal of this man, whose aloofness stemmed from a fundamental insecurity, changed my mind. She shows us a man who was unwavering in his ideals and loyal to his friends (He waited until 1964--after Guy Burgess had died and Philby and Maclean were 'safe' in Moscow-- to admit his complicity.). She also portrays a tormented man, whose ability to lose himself in his art-history scholarship preserved his sanity and probably saved his life. Publicly disgraced in 1979, stripped of his knighthood and other honors (after a promise of immunity), deserted by all except a few loyal friends, he died soon after. Miranda Carter depicts him as a man who was courageous but tragically flawed.

This book is meticulously researched, so much so that an average enthusiast of espionage literature may find himself adrift among the dozens of friends, acquaintances and enemies whom Anthony Blunt knew, not only Guy Burgess, Kim Philby and the other Cambridge spy protagonists, but also literary figures, including Julian Bell, Louis MacNeice, W.H. Auden; and other characters--who have come in for their own share of speculation--Victor Rothschild, Michael Straight and Goronwy Rees. Precisely because of the plethora of names, the book presents a fascinating glimpse into a fifty-year history of Great Britain from the 1920's onward. And while probably only the most passionate art historians will read every word about Nicholas Poussin and Baroque Rome, the persistent reader will be rewarded by a colorful and witty glimpse into the outrageous life and times of Guy Burgess (Inexplicably no one has written a biography of the wayward spy, but if they do, it should probably be called "My Noisy War"!).

For those afficionados who cannot get enough of the Cambridge Spies (Judging from the numbers of books still being published about them, half a century later, such readers are numerous.), this book is highly recommended!

Utterly Fascinating.......2004-02-09

Anthony Blunt was a child of the British Establishment, born to a middle class family with Church of England and royal connections. He received a fine education at Marlborough and Cambridge and became one of the most acclaimed art historians and teachers in Britain in the twentieth century. At the same time, he was a spy for the Soviets. The story of how Blunt became a communist, worked against his country while supposedly serving it in MI5 during World War II, then became a courtier for two monarchs and the highly regarded head of the Courtald Institute, which he made into one of the finest art schools in the country, is fascinating.

Blunt was a man of many contradictions. At the same time he stood at the side of the Royal Family as the Surveyor of their art collection he was leading a secret gay life notorious for its seaminess. While he appeared to be a pillar of the Establishment he gave secret information to the Soviets and became the long sought after Fourth Man who was in league with Burgess, Maclean, and Philby before they defected to Russia. When he was unmasked in the 1960s the British government did its own contradictory little dance around him, granting him immunity while pumping him for information.

Miranda Carter is sympathetic to Blunt and emphasizes his positives, like his fine teaching abilities and helpfulness to many of his students, but without whitewashing his treasonous activities. She helps us understand the pressure Blunt was under for many years and the fear of being unmasked that dominated him until he was finally publically denounced in 1979. Above all, she does a fine job of depicting the man's numerous contradictions. Highly recommended.

Why did the author knock author John Costello?.......2004-01-27

Carter wins on giving us numerous minutia about Blount's life and his odd selection of friends. But her book was not of great interest to a reader who was aware of Blount's peculiar nature and interest in art. It is difficult to understand how Blount or his friends, seemed completly oblivious of politics as Carter has laid out. Unless she is making the case that Blount was the perfect mole - at all times on guard against exposure. But I don't think she is trying to make that case.Carter gives us a blur of names, quotes, and a failure to find mention of expected comments in corresspondence such as the passing of Blount's father. It may be Carter's intention to show Blount's world as an extremely focused life which was hardly influenced by outside events; such as the end of World War One and the rise of Communism. I suspect Carter is trying to explain Blount as a Good Boy Who Does Bad Things.

The eternally forgiving English establishment.......2003-04-11

What is the purpose of this account of the life of Anthony Blunt, the great traitor?

This biography is a long emollient salve applied to Blunt's traitorous and murderous life. Its strengths are all associated with its depiction of the milieu in which he moved so effortlessly, the upper class institutions of England which he betrayed.

The author, a product of St. Paul and Oxford, is an excellent writer and an indefatigable researcher. Her style is mellow and balanced--her analysis subtlely and consistently biased in favour of Mr. Blunt. The only time her mellifluous prose veers into ascerbity is when referring to Mr. Blunt's detractors, including Brown, Deacon, and the various former KGB operatives who have written memoirs. Their opinions, Ms. Carter assures us, are unreliable, badly researched, poorly judged, and so on.

But not to worry--Ms. Carter does have the facts, and, she assures us, the proper perspective on Blunt's actions. Despite her many portentuous references to KGB archives, most of her research is based upon secondary sources, a great deal of which is journalism, and on interviews with people to whom she gained access no doubt because of her social background and elite education.

And these sections of the book are indeed fascinating: Ms. Carter refers authoritatively to climates of opinion in the English upper classes that allegedly prevailed during periods before she was born. Her account sometimes reads like it was written by a contemporary of Anthony Blunt's, one with a remarkably benevolent attitude towards the traitor. This authenticity of tone is a testament to Ms. Carter's long years of research and her supple and even-tempered prose. It is also a testament, however inadvertant, to the tolerant, clubby upper class climate which allowed a traitor like Blunt to flourish for so long.

On the surface, the purpose of this book is to present a balanced judgment on the life and deeds of Anthony Blunt. Its rhetoric is indeed a model of moderate, even-tempered balance. But that is not the character of the book, nor is a balanced account its true purpose. What this book actually represents is an example of what it sets out to document--the extraordinarily forgiving attitude of the English upper classes to the Cambridge spies who betrayed their country.

It can only be hoped that its appealing surfaces will not persuade the public to accept this Blunt biography as anything other than an all-too-refined case of special pleading on behalf of a cunning, unrepentent, and all-too-refined traitor to his country.

Definitively well researched and written bio.......2003-04-04

Miranda Carter has been justly acclaimed for producing a biography on Anthony Blunt that cuts through all the weird and assorted myths that have attached to him over the years since the revelations of his spying were made public. This book is richly rewarding as it connects the many lives of this very private public figure. Blunt is a complex personality and it took thorough research and the skill of a good writer to fully appreciate and capture these many and varied layers. The examination into the world of academia and art history was particularly well done and held the interest of this reader. I picked up this book because of the spying details but, to my surprise, found myself as riveted by all the other aspects of this man's live. This book, unlike all the others written about the Cambridge spies, does not come with an axe to grind and it is all the stronger for that abscence. Highly recommended.

Imagined Histories: American Historians Interpret the Past

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The Exception to Real History, or Historiography Gone Awry

Imagined Histories: American Historians Interpret the Past

Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691058113

Book Description

This collection of essays by twenty-one distinguished American historians reflects on a peculiarly American way of imagining the past. At a time when history-writing has changed dramatically, the authors discuss the birth and evolution of historiography in this country, from its origins in the late nineteenth century through its present, more cosmopolitan character.

In the book's first part, concerning recent historiography, are chapters on exceptionalism, gender, economic history, social theory, race, and immigration and multiculturalism. Authors are Daniel Rodgers, Linda Kerber, Naomi Lamoreaux, Dorothy Ross, Thomas Holt, and Philip Gleason. The three American centuries are discussed in the second part, with chapters by Gordon Wood, George Fredrickson, and James Patterson. The third part is a chronological survey of non-American histories, including that of Western civilization, ancient history, the middle ages, early modern and modern Europe, Russia, and Asia. Contributors are Eugen Weber, Richard Saller, Gabrielle Spiegel, Anthony Molho, Philip Benedict, Richard Kagan, Keith Baker, Joseph Zizak, Volker Berghahn, Charles Maier, Martin Malia, and Carol Gluck.

Together, these scholars reveal the unique perspective American historians have brought to the past of their own nation as well as that of the world. Formerly writing from a conviction that America had a singular destiny, American historians have gradually come to share viewpoints of historians in other countries about which they write. The result is the virtual disappearance of what was a distinctive American voice. That voice is the subject of this book.

Customer Reviews:

The Exception to Real History, or Historiography Gone Awry.......2000-03-30

Responding to what they perceive to be an exceptional"historiographic moment" (p. 17), editors Anthony Molho andGordon S. Wood pool a "highly selective" and "partial" (p. viii) collection of essays on American history-writing in their book Imagined Histories: American Historians Interpret the Past. The tangent essays focus on topics of social history, the three centuries of American history, important epochs for western civilization, and a few chapters on other nations, mostly European. However, the threefold axis for spinning such disjointed historiographies into the same volume might possible be defined as follows: (1) a revisionist debunking of Americanism as a teleological historic apex, namely "exceptionalism"; (2) a concerted shift to rewriting history from the viewpoint of the "marginal" and "forgotten" people (p. 11), or the new social history; and (3) an emerging "transoceanic cosmopolitanism" (p. viii), i.e., a growing international perspective among American historians. These three themes as developed by the different contributors to the book and a few brief comments on each will delineate the parameters of this paper. Just say nay to exceptionalism. Rodgers' chapter is the keynote for this major theme of the book. "Is America different?" he begins (p. 21). But then he wrestles with the semantic slide from "difference" to "uniqueness" to "provincialism" to "newness" to "providentialism" to finally "exceptionalism". For him, "exceptionalism differs from difference. Difference requires contrast; exceptionalism requires a rule" (p. 22). This Russian epithet, a "Stalinist coinage of the 1920s" (p. 23) albeit anachronistic according to Rodgers' historical construct (cf. irrelevant colonial "language of eschatology and millennialism"), somehow stuck as witness of American historians' ready adaptation of Marx's "general laws of historical motion" (pp. 25, 27, 28) and the Augustinian "teleological arrow" (p. 31), the content of such "laws" and "arrow" Rodgers does not specify but only assumes, i.e., "general laws" (p. 29; cf. "imagined rules", p. 30). Pejoratives of this exceptionalism abound-"storybook truth" (p. 29), "thin line between history and faith" (p. 26), "exhortation" replacing "analysis" (p. 24)-and, according to the text's contributors, this type of thinking has left its marks on just about every American historiography. Countries like Spain, Japan, and Russia and their "systems" are seen as "antithesis", "Other", "rival", and "challenge" (pp. 329, 340, 416, 417, 450; cf. the absence of America's medieval past, its "alterity" or "otherness", pp. 239, 253) while America is portrayed as the consummation of important westernizing forces, i.e., the Romans as "antecedents of American liberalism" (p. 224), the "nexus between the Renaissance and modernity" in the American Bildung (pp. 264, 267), and the Reformation as the "historical self-definition of so many Protestant churches" (p. 299). Compare the American role in the development of "Western Civilization" (pp. 207ff.), but contrast the difficulty of the revisionists in integrating the French revolution into any exceptionalist framework due to what Baker and Zizek call the constraints of "observational perspective" and "ethnographic distance" (pp. 350ff.). Correspondingly, historians of the colonial period, the nineteenth, and the twentieth centuries contest issues of relevance (p. 157), participation (p. 168), and fragmentation (p. 185), respectively, while others have given a voice to those who have been excluded by exceptionalism, "especially blacks, Indians, and women" contra "white males" (p. 164), under the themes of race (see p. 108), gender (see p. 47), economics, immigration (see pp. 120, 131), etc. Clearly, according to the naysayers, the tentacles of exceptionalism are to be found everywhere. The proletariat gets a face. The postmodern undoing of residual exceptionalism falls to the champions of what is dubbed the "new social and cultural history" (pp. 12, 30; cf. the effects on cliometrics, pp. 63-69, and particularly the debate about Time on the Cross, pp. 72-75) or "history from the bottom up" (p. 11, like the Annales school; cf. p. 443), which is supposedly "authentic history" (p. 30). It is really a story about the masses, in contrast to the story of the elite, which is nothing really new (contra Ross, pp. 91ff.; cf. the work of the Russians Kliuchevskii, Kareev, Luchitskii, Rostovtseff, p. 421, the work of Reformation scholars, pp. 299ff., and the consistent trend of people's history in Medieval studies, p. 249), only that more people are writing about it, and American historians think that they have discovered it (see Wood's exaggerations, p. 156), an excellent example of provincial mentality (a la self-contradiction)! According to the new social engineers, it is a story about reversing those "hidden structures of power" (p. 53) in such realms as race, gender, class, and money, an attempt to break down the old scaffolds in order to radically reconstruct modern societal relationships (i.e., Kerber's gender analysis; cf. the excellent assessment by Ross, p. 98). The historical "resurrection" of the proletariat, better a Russian than American accomplishment, spells the deathknoll of American exceptionalism as the teleologically caricatured and eurocentrically warped enterprise is rendered invalid by the mass of voices in protest to the contrary. There really is a world, Horace. The inferred omnipresence (p. 13) of a concatenation of international historiographic voices toward globalization completes the tightening of the hangman's noose on the "old-fashioned unified sense of American identity" (p. 14). Most noteworthy are American collaborations with the French (pp. 361ff.), with Russians, i.e., important gap-filling (p. 431), with the Japanese, i.e., critique of "nationalizing" (p. 445), and especially concerning nagging questions of cosmopolitan moment, predominately from the twentieth century (see pp. 397ff.). However, this worldwide revisionist overthrow of exceptionalism does not at all explain the already existing and quite lengthy cooperation of international scholars in precisely the historical fields upon which exceptionalist thought was founded (see p. 207), namely the classics which are "transnational in character" (p. 222), Renaissance studies, transformed as early as the 1930s by Jewish immigrants from Germany (p. 270), and the Reformation which has always been primary domain for European scholars (pp. 295ff.). Furthermore, the question of identity bashing does not appear to be fully established. Resisters abound, notably in the areas of western civilization ("they flee Eurocentrism only to meet Europe in Samarra," p. 218) and about Spain (which "remains something of an Other," p. 340). The evidence toward global solidarity and a worldwide multiculturalism is not so ubiquitous after all. All in all, Imagined Histories is a good attempt to give momentum to the postmodern debunking of Americanism on the basis of social reconstructionism and multiculturalism, but in the final analysis, these subtle shifts might be accurately described as vacillations not in substance but only in kind, and the overall thrust is best seen as merely straining out the gnat.

The Historian's Toolbox: A Student's Guide to the Theory and Craft of History

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Grand theory and nuts-and-bolts

The Historian's Toolbox: A Student's Guide to the Theory and Craft of History
Robert C. Williams
Manufacturer: M.E. Sharpe
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

Grand theory and nuts-and-bolts.......2003-07-09

Williams gives instructors and students of history two books in one. Part one is a quick look at some of the big ideas and controversies of the profession. These short chapters on such topics as metahistory and anti-history should provide great fodder for class discussions. Part two on "the tools of history" offers good guidance on researching, writing, and thinking about history. Again, short, provocative chapters should stimulate students to think and talk about the joys and difficulties of doing quality history. I'll assign the book to my next class on historical research and writing. With this book as a guide, students will not write just another term paper; they'll know how to craft a livelier, deeper, and more revealing interpretation of the past.

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