The Fall of the Berlin Wall The Revolutionary Legacy of 1989 is a very interesting book. It is edited by Jeffrey A. Engel and is a collection of essays on the subject, written by people who are acknowledged as experts in their fields. Chen Jian, holder of the Michael J. Zak chair of history for U.S. -Chinese relations, Cornell University; Melvyn P. Leffler, Edward Stettinius Professor of American History, University of Virginia; Sventlana Savranskaya, director of Russia Programs, National Security Archive, George Washington University; James J. Sheehan, Dickason Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Modern European History, Emeritus, Stanford University; William Taubman, Bertrand Snell Professor of Political Science, Amherst College.
Two of the most momentous events of the late 20th century were the construction of the Berlin Wall, the other was the demolition of that same wall.
The erudite and well-argued essays examines how the Berlin Wall came to be removed all at once in 1989, and why nobody had foreseen this epoch making event.
The book details how the events of the days and weeks leading up to the fall occurred, how a frightened and desperate DDR leader Erich Honecker ordered his troops to open fire on the generally good natured but vocal crowds of demonstrators that were protesting against Honecker's autocratic rule. They declined to accept his order. Something that would have been utterly unthinkable, even months earlier. The party sacked Honecker and thus was the beginning of the end of not only the cursed wall. but of the entire DDR itself.
The book points out that these results came about as a result of the changes that had swept through neighbouring Poland and Hungary. Soon, revolt and revolution took not only the Communist Party of East Germany but also the rest of the Warsaw Pact member states.
The book looks at what happened next, and raises issues about what could happen in the future in this, the Post Wall period.
This book is a must have for any serious student of political or social history.
It is published by the Oxford University Press in paperback at $19.95.
Book review blog site, with some entertainment material from time-to-time.
Saturday 11 February 2012
Shakespeare, Sex and Love
In his book Shakespeare, Sex and Love noted Shakespearean expert and author Stanley Wells takes on a fairly big task.
He examines how Shakespeare dealt with the subjects of sex and romantic love in his plays and his other written works.
In doing this, Wells undertakes a detailed analysis of the works of Shakespeare, which, of course, one would expect.
But Wells does more than this. He examines the sexual morays of the times in which William Shakespeare lived. How the contemporary folk of the day viewed sex and sexual matters.
He explores the use of sexual imagery in Elizabethan poetry, how some apparently innocent phrases would have possibly had another, more titillating meaning that would have been all too clear to the groundlings who attended the performances of the plays.
Wells also points out that some modern critics simply do not 'get' Shakespeare, failing to understand some of the points he was making, or at least, illustrating.
The text is assisted by some photographs of the plays of Shakespeare, which are most helpful.
A very interesting book from dramatical and historical viewpoints.
It is published by the Oxford University Press in paperback at £10.99 or $17.95. However, it might well be available at a discount through the That's Books bookshop, which is powered by Amazon.
He examines how Shakespeare dealt with the subjects of sex and romantic love in his plays and his other written works.
In doing this, Wells undertakes a detailed analysis of the works of Shakespeare, which, of course, one would expect.
But Wells does more than this. He examines the sexual morays of the times in which William Shakespeare lived. How the contemporary folk of the day viewed sex and sexual matters.
He explores the use of sexual imagery in Elizabethan poetry, how some apparently innocent phrases would have possibly had another, more titillating meaning that would have been all too clear to the groundlings who attended the performances of the plays.
Wells also points out that some modern critics simply do not 'get' Shakespeare, failing to understand some of the points he was making, or at least, illustrating.
The text is assisted by some photographs of the plays of Shakespeare, which are most helpful.
A very interesting book from dramatical and historical viewpoints.
It is published by the Oxford University Press in paperback at £10.99 or $17.95. However, it might well be available at a discount through the That's Books bookshop, which is powered by Amazon.
The Aztecs, A Very Short Introduction
Who were the Aztecs? In this riveting little book David Carrasco takes us back to the time of the Aztecs. Although the book is short, it is very heavy on content, drawing on a wide variety of sources.
From contemporary accounts by the Aztecs themselves (although they attempted to destroy all of the pictorial records of the Aztecs the Spaniards failed in this aim) from the Spanish invaders, from archaeological excavations, etc, Carrasco is able to provide detailed accounts of how the Aztecs lived, their religious practices including ritual sacrifices of humans and the ritualistic consumption of human flesh.
He explores the rich cultural heritage of the Aztecs (tracing them back through earlier kingdoms such as the Toltecs) their history, their religious ceremonies, their foods, the banqueting habits of their rulers, their agriculture, their understanding of and use of astronomical phenomena and so forth. It also contains interesting snippets of information. For example we find out that the first Spaniards to arrive their were not who we have probably have been taught. And that there was at least one example of a Spanish soldier who fought on the side of the Aztecs, against his fellow Spaniards.
He explores how and why the empire failed and died.
Carrasco also takes time to look at the Aztecs of today, and how there is even something of a return of the Aztecs.
The book contains many useful and interesting drawings and photographs. Curiously, all are rendered in black and white.
The book is published by the Oxford University Press in paperback and costs £7.99 or £11.95.
From contemporary accounts by the Aztecs themselves (although they attempted to destroy all of the pictorial records of the Aztecs the Spaniards failed in this aim) from the Spanish invaders, from archaeological excavations, etc, Carrasco is able to provide detailed accounts of how the Aztecs lived, their religious practices including ritual sacrifices of humans and the ritualistic consumption of human flesh.
He explores the rich cultural heritage of the Aztecs (tracing them back through earlier kingdoms such as the Toltecs) their history, their religious ceremonies, their foods, the banqueting habits of their rulers, their agriculture, their understanding of and use of astronomical phenomena and so forth. It also contains interesting snippets of information. For example we find out that the first Spaniards to arrive their were not who we have probably have been taught. And that there was at least one example of a Spanish soldier who fought on the side of the Aztecs, against his fellow Spaniards.
He explores how and why the empire failed and died.
Carrasco also takes time to look at the Aztecs of today, and how there is even something of a return of the Aztecs.
The book contains many useful and interesting drawings and photographs. Curiously, all are rendered in black and white.
The book is published by the Oxford University Press in paperback and costs £7.99 or £11.95.
How to Think Like a Neandertal by Wynn and Coolidge
How to Think Like a Neandertal by Thomas Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge is an extremely interesting book.
"Oh,your such as Neandertal!" Will shriek some man or woman when they are criticising the behaviour of someone they know.
Yet if they were challenged and asked: "OK, who were the Neandertals? Where did they live? How did they live? How did they treat sick members of their group? Did they have any concept of religion?" they would be utterly and entirely clueless, as their views on Neantertal society were probably based on a hodgepodge of vague ideas from seeing a model of a caveman in a dusty, somewhat grim museum, and Raquel Welch in a fur bikini.
Wynn and Coolidge have examined many branches of science to work out how Neandertals lived, worked, played and prayed. Or at least, how they dealt with the death of a family member or of a member of their group.
The book is fascinating and very readable. Unlike many other books of the academic rigour of How to Think Like a Neandertal, the authors want to share their discoveries with their readers. This is no dry as dust worth tome! It's a highly readable worthy tome!
They explore and explain how and what Neandertals ate, how they hunted, the types of work they did, the average length of their lives, how they reacted and inter-reacted with each other, their concepts of an afterlife, how they tended the sick and the elderly, how they thought, how they communicated, etc. They also showed that although Neantdertals and humans did intermarry, that the relationship between humans and Neandertals was not always a happy one.
They also explore several interesting concepts. For example, did Neandertals have a sense of humour? Did they dream? What happened to them?
The book is published by the Oxford University Press in hardback. It is, of course, available from the That's Books bookshop.
I can heartily recommend it to academic and general reader.
"Oh,your such as Neandertal!" Will shriek some man or woman when they are criticising the behaviour of someone they know.
Yet if they were challenged and asked: "OK, who were the Neandertals? Where did they live? How did they live? How did they treat sick members of their group? Did they have any concept of religion?" they would be utterly and entirely clueless, as their views on Neantertal society were probably based on a hodgepodge of vague ideas from seeing a model of a caveman in a dusty, somewhat grim museum, and Raquel Welch in a fur bikini.
Wynn and Coolidge have examined many branches of science to work out how Neandertals lived, worked, played and prayed. Or at least, how they dealt with the death of a family member or of a member of their group.
The book is fascinating and very readable. Unlike many other books of the academic rigour of How to Think Like a Neandertal, the authors want to share their discoveries with their readers. This is no dry as dust worth tome! It's a highly readable worthy tome!
They explore and explain how and what Neandertals ate, how they hunted, the types of work they did, the average length of their lives, how they reacted and inter-reacted with each other, their concepts of an afterlife, how they tended the sick and the elderly, how they thought, how they communicated, etc. They also showed that although Neantdertals and humans did intermarry, that the relationship between humans and Neandertals was not always a happy one.
They also explore several interesting concepts. For example, did Neandertals have a sense of humour? Did they dream? What happened to them?
The book is published by the Oxford University Press in hardback. It is, of course, available from the That's Books bookshop.
I can heartily recommend it to academic and general reader.
Eminent Victorians on American Democracy, The View From Albion, by Frank Prochaska
What, exactly, DID eminent Victorians think of the American democracy?
In this likely and thought provoking book, Frank Prochaska explores how things looked in this fledgling democracy. Or rather, how they looked to outsiders, many of whom had firm views of how government should work in the modern, Victorian era.
I had hoped that the book would be a collection of essays, perhaps with notes and an explanation of each essay, how the author of the book understood the eminent Victorian to mean.
However, the book in question is not that book. The author of the book tells the reader what HE thinks -for example- Bagehot, Mill, Bryce, etc., meant, rather than letting the eminent Victorians actually say it in their own words and allowing the reader to form their own conclusions. Guided with footnotes, etc.
It is a good book, but it could have been a great book. However, students of modern politics and of history of the Victorian era will find it eminently useful.
It is published by the Oxford University Press in hardback.
In this likely and thought provoking book, Frank Prochaska explores how things looked in this fledgling democracy. Or rather, how they looked to outsiders, many of whom had firm views of how government should work in the modern, Victorian era.
I had hoped that the book would be a collection of essays, perhaps with notes and an explanation of each essay, how the author of the book understood the eminent Victorian to mean.
However, the book in question is not that book. The author of the book tells the reader what HE thinks -for example- Bagehot, Mill, Bryce, etc., meant, rather than letting the eminent Victorians actually say it in their own words and allowing the reader to form their own conclusions. Guided with footnotes, etc.
It is a good book, but it could have been a great book. However, students of modern politics and of history of the Victorian era will find it eminently useful.
It is published by the Oxford University Press in hardback.
A Child of the Jago by Arthur Morrison
Look at any map or Atlas of the Victorian era and you will not find The Jago. However, every large city and town and even some smaller towns throughout Britain had their own Jago, an area of streets for which the word "mean" really comes nowhere near descriptive enough.
The Jago of Arthur Morrison in his work A Child of the Jago is based very closely on the worst part of the East End of London.
His description of the hovels the people of the East end occupied, of the filth, the dirt and the squalor are very well realised.
There are certain little facts that he salts his novel with that make its reading even more compelling. For example, did you know that people residing in slum areas such as the Jago often had to keep a light on all night, to ensure that their sleep was not disturbed by being attacked by rats?
Morrison tells the tale of young Dicky Perrott, who is the child of the Jago. His mother reminds him that they are not like the other people of The Jago, although when his father returns home with a cosh covered in the blood and hair of a victim of a coshing robbery, the reader is forced to conclude that perhaps she is not really even fooling herself. Street robberies and urders punctuate the book like grimy comas.
Dicky knows what he wants out of life. He wants to become a leading criminal, in the parlance of the area, a High Mobsman.
But due to the herculean efforts of Father Sturt, it eventually becomes clear to Dicky that perhaps there is another way? Another path that might not lead him ever downwards to the prison cell or even the gallows? Or worse?
Some novels that told of the life of the Victorian working classes were sentimental and mawkish. This novel, however, is not. Its attention to detail and its realism set it high above novels by Morrisons well-meaning but lesser fellow contemporaries.
Although Morrison gives a warts and all description of what was the worst part of the East End of London, a place where even some criminals would fear to visit, let alone the police officers who would only ever visit it in threes, he also showed that the denizens were capable of normal acts of human kindness. One example of this is the obvious love that Dicky Perrott showed to his baby sister, early in the novel.
This edition caries a very good introduction which gives a background to the area upon which The Jago is based. It also provides as much biographical detail of the author as is to hand. Which is not much. Morrison was an extremely private man whose desire for privacy seemed deep-rooted. He felt that he had enemies who would use information from his past against him.
The book also contains a very helpful glossary of terms used in the book.
The Appendix also includes a chapter on Morrison and his Critics,
It is published by the Oxford University Press in paperback at £8.99 and is available via the That's Books bookshop and all good bookshops.
The Jago of Arthur Morrison in his work A Child of the Jago is based very closely on the worst part of the East End of London.
His description of the hovels the people of the East end occupied, of the filth, the dirt and the squalor are very well realised.
There are certain little facts that he salts his novel with that make its reading even more compelling. For example, did you know that people residing in slum areas such as the Jago often had to keep a light on all night, to ensure that their sleep was not disturbed by being attacked by rats?
Morrison tells the tale of young Dicky Perrott, who is the child of the Jago. His mother reminds him that they are not like the other people of The Jago, although when his father returns home with a cosh covered in the blood and hair of a victim of a coshing robbery, the reader is forced to conclude that perhaps she is not really even fooling herself. Street robberies and urders punctuate the book like grimy comas.
Dicky knows what he wants out of life. He wants to become a leading criminal, in the parlance of the area, a High Mobsman.
But due to the herculean efforts of Father Sturt, it eventually becomes clear to Dicky that perhaps there is another way? Another path that might not lead him ever downwards to the prison cell or even the gallows? Or worse?
Some novels that told of the life of the Victorian working classes were sentimental and mawkish. This novel, however, is not. Its attention to detail and its realism set it high above novels by Morrisons well-meaning but lesser fellow contemporaries.
Although Morrison gives a warts and all description of what was the worst part of the East End of London, a place where even some criminals would fear to visit, let alone the police officers who would only ever visit it in threes, he also showed that the denizens were capable of normal acts of human kindness. One example of this is the obvious love that Dicky Perrott showed to his baby sister, early in the novel.
This edition caries a very good introduction which gives a background to the area upon which The Jago is based. It also provides as much biographical detail of the author as is to hand. Which is not much. Morrison was an extremely private man whose desire for privacy seemed deep-rooted. He felt that he had enemies who would use information from his past against him.
The book also contains a very helpful glossary of terms used in the book.
The Appendix also includes a chapter on Morrison and his Critics,
It is published by the Oxford University Press in paperback at £8.99 and is available via the That's Books bookshop and all good bookshops.
Friday 10 February 2012
Virgin To Veteran: How To Get Cooking With Confidence - New Release From our Most Prolific Young Culinary Writer
From mastering the basics to insider tips and techniques, this book will teach you everything you need to become a confident cook. From fast food to slow, food to go or eat in, healthy to greedy, there's something in the over 100 Masterclass recipes featured to match every mood, budget and lifestyle.
Core dishes are accompanied with advice on saving cash, time, and delicious and wide-ranging variations that will expand your cooking repertoire in the blink of an eye - if the exotic Hot Mixed Mushroom Bruschetta is not to your taste, you can opt for the more homely topping of Broad Bean and Wensleydale instead. If a formal dinner isn't your style, convert your refined fillet steak into a fast and fabulous BBQ treat. The possibilities are endless.
Sam's passion for making the kitchen accessible to all is reflected through diagrams, step-by-step guides and the Virgin Kitchen Set-Up (the stuff you need to know to set up a workable kitchen). In no time at all, relevant skills such as knife work, sauce making and baking can be picked up with ease and placed at your disposal, while such necessities as sourcing and substituting ingredients, seasonality and the secrets of great presentation are also covered.
This wealth of information, accompanied by stunning photography that gets right to the heart of Sam's delicious cooking, is presented in such an engaging way that it will have you turning out brilliant meals without too much fuss, cost or effort before you know it.
20-year-old Sam Stern is studying Politics, Sociology and Business at Edinburgh University. He is also the author of 5 bestselling cookbooks which currently dominate the teenage market, and has been cooking for as long as he can remember.
What started as a personal passion for cooking (and fierce kitchen competition with his older brother) turned into a mission to inspire his generation to cook. Cooking Up A Storm (2005), Real Food Real Fast (2006), Get Cooking (2007), Sam Stern's Student Cookbook (2008) and Eat Vegetarian (2010) were published by Walker Books to great critical acclaim while Sam was studying for his GCSE's and A levels.
Cooking up a Storm has been translated into 14 languages, with worldwide sales nudging 700,000 copies. The books and associated activity have attracted global media attention and have given Sam a unique status as the voice for aspiring young cooks.
www.quadrille.co.uk.
Core dishes are accompanied with advice on saving cash, time, and delicious and wide-ranging variations that will expand your cooking repertoire in the blink of an eye - if the exotic Hot Mixed Mushroom Bruschetta is not to your taste, you can opt for the more homely topping of Broad Bean and Wensleydale instead. If a formal dinner isn't your style, convert your refined fillet steak into a fast and fabulous BBQ treat. The possibilities are endless.
Sam's passion for making the kitchen accessible to all is reflected through diagrams, step-by-step guides and the Virgin Kitchen Set-Up (the stuff you need to know to set up a workable kitchen). In no time at all, relevant skills such as knife work, sauce making and baking can be picked up with ease and placed at your disposal, while such necessities as sourcing and substituting ingredients, seasonality and the secrets of great presentation are also covered.
This wealth of information, accompanied by stunning photography that gets right to the heart of Sam's delicious cooking, is presented in such an engaging way that it will have you turning out brilliant meals without too much fuss, cost or effort before you know it.
20-year-old Sam Stern is studying Politics, Sociology and Business at Edinburgh University. He is also the author of 5 bestselling cookbooks which currently dominate the teenage market, and has been cooking for as long as he can remember.
What started as a personal passion for cooking (and fierce kitchen competition with his older brother) turned into a mission to inspire his generation to cook. Cooking Up A Storm (2005), Real Food Real Fast (2006), Get Cooking (2007), Sam Stern's Student Cookbook (2008) and Eat Vegetarian (2010) were published by Walker Books to great critical acclaim while Sam was studying for his GCSE's and A levels.
Cooking up a Storm has been translated into 14 languages, with worldwide sales nudging 700,000 copies. The books and associated activity have attracted global media attention and have given Sam a unique status as the voice for aspiring young cooks.
www.quadrille.co.uk.
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