1 comments about Glastonbury: Myth and Archaeology.

1. In recent decades, the Somerset town of Glastonbury has become a place of pilgrimage for a wide variety of New Agers, mystics, pseudo-mystics, writers, musicians, and lovers of that group of legends collectively known as "the matter of Britain." Glastonbury has been bathed in the aura of legends involving King Arthur, Joseph of Arimathea, and no less than Jesus Christ. Perhaps unwilling to see the Church of England as originating in the rather squalid behavior of Henry VIII, and even more unwilling to recognize that early British Christianity was Catholic Christianity, many have attempted to posit a new myth of Christian origins in Britain, a myth in which Glastonbury is seen as the mystical center of Britain, indeed as Britain's very own Jerusalem.
   
   Charming as these legends are, most of them have little if any basis in fact, and it is the mission of Philip Rahtz and Lorna Watts to set the record straight. They do so with a mass of scientific evidence - archaeological, geological, literary, and historical - which separates the real Glastonbury from the Glastonbury of legend.
   
   The book is profusely illustrated with color and black-and-white photos, maps, charts, and drawings. Both the geological and cultural history of the area are explored, going back to ancient times and right up to the present.
   
   The authors have little sympathy with the aforementioned mythology, seeing much of it as stemming from a combination of wishful thinking and good old-fashioned huckstering. Why, they ask, can we not love Glastonbury for what it really is, rather than for what we wish it was? A good question, indeed.

No comments about Clans and Tartans of Scotland.

1 comments about Letters from Liselotte: Elizabeth-Charlotte, Princess Palatine and Duchess of Orleans.

1. Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate was born in 1652 at Heidelberg. She was the daughter of Karl Ludwig, the Prince Elector of the Palatinate. Known affectionately as Liselotte, she married Phillip, the Duke of Orleans and brother of Louis XIV of France, in 1671. Although a member of the French court and at one time the ranking woman of that court, Liselotte did not fit in well due to her independent spirit and outspoken personality. She was intelligent and a keen observer of personalities, events, politics and a host of other topics. She died in 1722 and her descendants include Marie Antoinette and Marie Louise, the second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.

   Fortunately for us, Liselotte was also a prolific letter writer. As a result, many of her observations and insights have been preserved. This captivating book is a collection of some of Liselotte's correspondence with relatives and friends in the German-speaking countries. It spans the period of her time at the French court from 1672 to 1722. She is quite candid about herself and about others. So much so, that she became convinced her correspondence was regularly intercepted and read by agents of the Sun King. Her letters cover the whole range of human activity. She was also interested in nature and science. Many of her observations about personalities and the peoples of Europe are as true today as they were 300 years ago. Many letters are descriptive of what life was like in the 17th century. Some letters are titillating. Some, such as those with comments about the latest hairstyles and the "musical" talents of her immediate family, are hysterically funny. All of her letters maintain the reader's interest.

   Maria Kroll, the translator and editor of this volume, did a wonderful job. Her introduction provides an excellent overview of Liselotte's life and the period in which she lived. The only disappointment is that this wonderful volume left me wanting more and wishing that Ms. Kroll had left in the bawdier reports and ghost stories. Perhaps a second volume, Ms. Kroll? Please.

   Although little known in the United States, I think a wide range of American readers would enjoy and appreciate this volume. I knew nothing of this great lady until I toured the Schloss Heidelberg, where there is a portait of a rather corpulent Liselotte in her later years. My thanks to the tour guide for recommending this volume to me. Anyone who has been charmed by that beautiful city and the magnificent ruins of the Schloss or who intends to visit Heidelberg will enjoy this book. Persons with an interest in the period and history buffs in general will enjoy this book. For people who prefer historical romance novels, this is the history book for you. Real romance and real history that rivals anything found in the bodice rippers. Finally, anyone who attends or attended the College of William and Mary (or anyone who knows such people) will enjoy this volume for some of the interesting gossip concerning the namesakes of that prestigious institution.

No comments about Genealogies of Orientalism: History, Theory, Politics.

1 comments about The Staffords, Earls of Stafford and Dukes of Buckingham: 1394-1521 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Third Series).

1. As one of the wealthiest and most powerful landed families in 15th century England, the Staffords played an important political role (as students of Yorkist history have reason to know). Influence was tied directly to land and Rawcliffe examines the unique Stafford family archives in this study of estate and finance management and the patronage it enabled. The composition and work of the ducal council is also explained, since the council was made up of the duke's senior administrators and lawyers, upon whom the family relied heavily. The Staffords also used litigation rather than combat as their preferred means to an end. Moreover, they were instrumental in causing the crown to change its attitudes toward the nobility as a whole. A somewhat technical historical study in Cambridge's "Studies in Medieval Life and Thought" series, but definitely worth the investment of effort.

No comments about The Galitzianers: The Jews of Galicia, 1772-1918.

1 comments about The Hut Six Story.

1. The men and women of Bletchley Park, who repeatedly broke German military cyphers throughout the Second World War, made an incalculable contribution to the allied success. This book, written by one of the code-breakers provides a fascinating insight into the process.

   Despite the core subject, this is not really a book about cryptography, but about how to manage people and technology to solve complex, important problems. Welchman was the "glue" between the pure ideas men like Alan Turing, and the code-breaking production line. His talents were clearly in building the organisation, and liaising between the different parties so that interception, decoding, understanding and using the intelligence became a repeatable success.

   Welchman's insights into British wartime society and bureaucracy are keen and frequently very humourous. Many of his insights are equally applicable today, in business as well as military circles. For example an individual's promotion, prestige and salary should not depend solely on the number of subordinates.

   Although he was very modest about it, it is clear that Welchman was no mean cryptologist himself. The book does attempt to explain several of the ways in which Enigma was cracked, but I found the primarily verbal explanations difficult to follow. However, this doesn't prevent an understanding of the principals, and how different methods were applied at different points during the war.

   The book does have some limitations. Because he was not personally involved, he explicitly refuses to discuss the effort focused on the German naval codes so important to the Battle of the Atlantic, and generally says little about the use of the intelligence information. Sadly, the current edition of the book omits much of Welchman's advice on the analysis of battlefield communications, and how to keep such communications secure. However, one observation has been retained - it was a fundamental mistake to believe Enigma was secure simply because of the enormous computing power required for a brute-force attack. This should perhaps be noted in our Internet age, when so much depends on the assumed difficulty of factoring large numbers.

   If I have a criticism of the book, it's the rather poor production in places, with very faded photographs and occasionally blurred text. Figures are sometimes absent when they are most needed, e.g. when first explaining the Enigma machine. I read this book having only recently attended an excellent lecture and actually seeing an Enigma - otherwise I would have struggled at such points.

   Nonetheless this is an excellent, insightful and inspiring book, containing a range of lessons relevant today, and I thoroughly recommend it.

   ...

4 comments about The Habsburg Monarchy, C. 1765-1918: From Enlightenment to Eclipse.

1. Perhaps I have become spoiled by eminent historians such as Simon Schama, Martin Gilbert, William Manchester, Stephen Ambrose or Ian Kershaw, but I confess to not being able to digest this turgid piece of work. The author is so bogged down in a morass of detail that he looses any sense of the sweep of history. Names of people and places pop up like ducks in a shooting gallery, and promptly disappear without our having understoood why they were referred to in the first place. The subject is admittedly difficult, but the author is clearly not up to the task of sorting it out for us.



2. If there is anything a person could have ever wanted to know about the Austro-Hungarian Empire that is not at least touched upon in this tome - I can't imagine what it could be. If you like to do timelines as you read a history book, leave at least five lines per year (better eight!). The level of detail is truly incredible. Robin Okey's approach is to offer fact after fact, event after event, and date after date. ---- Curiously enough, implications almost imperceptibly seep from this jungle of detail - and they are as contemporary as tomorrow morning's news show. The Habsburg Empire was a multi-national empire that failed, and in a world of multi-national states still trying to cope with nationality or tribal problems, this book has a lot to teach (or more correctly, the development and fall of the Empire carried its lessons, for all to learn from). ---- The last seven pages, "Assessment" brilliantly sum up Okey's insights; you might even want to read it BEFORE starting the book... ---- Unfortunately, one of my biggest complaints about otherwise excellent history books mars this one too: pathetic maps. This book has a grand total of two small black-and-white maps of indifferent quality; it needs dozens! Although engravings and photos would have been nice (and are totally absent), the map failure is more than a minor inconvenience. ---- On the other hand, though the notes are a bit sketchy, the index is excellent, and the bibliography is truly awesome. Indeed, the depth and breadth of this book are revealed most clearly in its astoundingly substantial bibliography! ---- Though Okey's writing style is sometimes obscure, more frequently it is overwhelming in its detail. A sample, taken at random: (pg. 199): "The recurrent liberal image of clerical darkness versus contemporary light encouraged the new regime to ambitious plans for education. The May 1868 school law made eight years of primary education compulsory. Regulation of 1872 approved the old 1848 demand for academic freedom in the universities. New universities were founded in Zagreb in 1874 and Czernowitz, capital of the Bukovina, in 1875." ---- Lastly, be advised that Okey's work is not just a political history. It is a history of ideologies (liberalism, autocracy, socialism, and nationalism, just to name a few). It is also an economic history. And it is assuredly a social history. This book, in short, is complete - so bring an appetite for facts to your dinner or prepare to leave the table with massive indigestion!



3. I was really disappointed by this book. As a history-reader, the Habsburg monarchy during the era covered by this title has always been one of my particular interests. As Robin Okey himself notes in his Foreword, general surveys of Austro-Hungarian history are rare -- particularly in English. I picked this volume up with great anticipation.

   Unfortunately, I set it down again fairly quickly, and found it hard to resume reading. I wouldn't have thought he could do it, but Okey made me reluctant to read about one of my greatest and longest-standing historical interests.

   The problem isn't that the book is poorly researched, badly written or tendentious in argument. On the contrary, it's so incredibly well researched that I had to wonder for whom it was written. For page after page, Okey goes really, really in depth on agricultural production statistics, analyses of economic growth, ethnological comparisons of literary and linguistic developments, political tensions between various nations and regions in the empire, the relative states of national aristocracies ... and much, much more. I now understand, better than ever before, what that old saw about 'the forest for the trees' means. Several times, I found myself so deeply mired in statistics that I forgot what decade Okey was talking about, let alone what point he was trying to make. The second half of the book was somewhat better than the first in this regard, but it was still tough reading at times.

   In all, I am afraid this book may be way too much information for an amateur/generalist like me. At the same time, comprehensive as it is, it may not be enough for the specialists researching a specific, narrowly focused, topic. All of which makes me wonder, as I said, for whom it was written.

   In that Foreword, Okey writes, 'It is hoped that there will be a place, therefore, for a survey of the Monarchy from the later eighteenth century that takes account of advances in Habsburg studies since the publication of C.A. Macartney's magisterial "The Habsburg Empire" in 1968.' After hacking through this dense book, I have to say that there is *still* a place for such a book -- at least where the amateur historian and general reader are concerned




4. Not for the lighthearted or amateur. A sweeping look at the Hapsburg Monarchy from the period of Joseph II to its sad demise in 1918. Okey updates the Hapsburg empire through the lens of late 20th/early 21st century historical questions (brought about by the receding of Cold War language vis-a-vis central and eastern Europe) by deftly analyzing looks at the weaknesses and vitality of the empire in its political, socio-economic and cultural fields. This best is best reserved for "professionals," those with deep knowledge of Hapsburg history, as its depth and historiographical references may leave the casual reader confused. This book is not a meta-narrative but an in-depth analysis of what was and what could have been.

1 comments about Census.

1. The Census' records are an invaluable tool for those researching their past. "Census: The Expert Guide" presents a guide to using the census to its maximum extent in tracing one's own family history. Although "Census" hails from the United Kingdom and contains little actual census information itself, "Census" gives all the information one needs to maximize their time spent researching, making it ideal for readers of any country. For anyone who is going to research their history, "Census" is a must.

No comments about Lanark and the Clyde Valley (Images of Scotland).