1 comments about Italy and its Monarchy.

1. This masterly, elegant account of who Italy's monarchs were and what they got up to (usually something not very edifying) demonstrates why Mack Smith is widely viewed as the leading authority on Italy writing in the English language. Post-unification Italy's development might well have been less turbulent, had it not been for the distressing tendency of successive kings to interfere in politics and indulge their taste for intrigue. Nurturing the tender plant of Italian democracy was usually the last thing on their minds. As in his other works, Mack Smith wastes little sympathy on the civilian politicians who were, if anything, even more culpable than their royal masters in contributing to Italy's failure to construct a stable, corruption-free democracy before the First World War. But his particular focus is the monarchy, from its crucial part in the wars of unification after 1860 to its inglorious association with Benito Mussolini's dictatorship in the inter-war years. After putting down Mack Smith's book - a gem of concise writing and lightly worn learning - one can only be glad that Italians eventually abolished the monarchy after the Second World War. Republicanism, though drenched in corruption and crime between 1946 and 1992, did at least do something to modernize public life in Italy.

No comments about A Picture History of Mr. and Mrs. Grenville of Rosedale House: An Album by Mary Yelloly, Eight and a Half Years Old.

4 comments about Florence: The Golden Age 1138-1737.

1. Penned by an eminent historian, this book is superb! Very striking is Brucker's unique narrative style. He makes the readers think as if the events happened only yesterday. I strongly recommend his other works as well: You will feel enlightened. No other historian can capture the cultural richness of Florence with such delightful charm. I guarantee you'll fall in love with the city, her citizens, and this historian, Gene Adam Brucker.



2. The word "amateur" comes from the Italian "amare" which means to love and this is a book for anyone with an interest in and affection for Italian city states and Florence in particular. Mr. Gene Brucker is a distinguished American historian (University of California, Berkeley) with an admirable record but the book he has produced about Florence is meant for the general reader and obviously aims at sharing his passion for the quattrocento (Florence's golden age, the 15th century and beyond) with as many people as possible. The result is splendid : in seven chapters dealing with the great families, the economy, the forms of government, the Florentine dominion, the Principato, etc., the reader is taken through a pleasant voyage in history. The writing is never heavy but neither is it meant for those who give up easily : some of the chapters - on the conflicts between Guelfs and Ghibellines for instance - do require more than a passing interest in the subject. The book is lavishly illustrated and contains a number of separate "two pagers" I greatly enjoyed, which present a number of interesting topics in themselves, such as the description of a city plan, the features of a traditional Florentine palazzo, the currencies in use, the reach of Florentine trade, the guilds, Andrea del Verocchio, the geometric theory of perspective and many other topics. An admirable book, to be highly recommended.



3. After reading Mary McCarthy's The Stones of Florence, I decided that I wanted to read a more straightforward history of the city. I picked this book based on the Amazon reviews, but never expected a coffee table-type book, albeit with a paper cover. Lavishly illustrated, The Golden Age of Florence covers the city from the initial stages of the Renaissance to its end. Florence was a turbulent city, sometimes ruled by a group of nobility, sometimes by its guilds, and eventually by the Medici. The city faced as much danger from its own internal squabbles as it did from its external enemies. Yet, despite this, the city experience unprecedented economic , industrial, and artistic development , producing some of the finest wool in Europe along with Dante, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Botticelli, among so many.
   
   This book does a fine job of telling this story, not just the politics, but the economics and the various arts. It is a general overview, not meant to be a scholarly work. The writing is designed to bring the reader to the Florence during its Golden Age, drawing interesting portraits of all the relevant characters. I grew somewhat frustrated with the lack of connection between one event to another. Savonarola somehow sneaked up, took over the city, and died as a heretic, with no real explanation of who he was and how he came to take on such a role. Although the book itself only covers a 600 year period of time, an appendix in the back does have a brief synopsis of historical events starting from its founding and ending with the rule by the Austrians. The illustrations in the book are arranged in categories, so each page centers not on the text itself, though it may be related, but on the general theme. The author has selected drawings from manuscripts, photographs of sculptures and buildings, and representations of paintings.
   
   Despite any quibbles mentioned, I highly recommend the book for anyone who wants to learn a general overview of the history of Florence illustrated with some of the finest works of art that man has ever produced.



4. If you want to know about the most beautiful city on Earth during the Renaissance, look no further than this title. The author provides detailed information on everything you could want to know. Perfect for the history buff, lover of art, Florence-fanatic, or tourist headed to Italy. Much better than Michael Levey's Florence.

5 comments about Diana: Portrait of a Princess.

1. This book is one of my favorite picture books of Diana. The pictures are just gorgeous, like the lady herself. For anyone who is a Diana fan, this book is for you...It really is beautiful.



2. About 95% of DIANA: PORTRAIT OF A PRINCESS is photos, with only minimal narrative. And almost all of the photos were taken by Fincher, who was a royal photographer. The pictures are fantastic -- a couple just take my breath away. How could this exquisite person be gone? (see page 95) Surely, Diana was one of the most photogenic persons who ever lived. Here in the photos we watch her grow up, make fashion choices (not all good!) to find her own image, and create her own life just in time to lose it. Sometimes she looked a bit like a tired, frumpy housewife. In other pictures she's just perfection. The heavy, oversize book is divided into three parts: For Love, For Loyalty, For Liberty. The printing quality of the photos is EXCELLENT. This was a beautiful gift from my beloved niece, who knows me well. I must say, it makes an excellent gift. This book is one to keep and treasure.



3. This was a breathtakingly beautiful tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, but I wish there had been more text to go along with the incredible pictures. If you are a serious collector of Diana memorabilia or just a casual fan, this is one book you should own.



4. TONS and TONS of pictures -lots that aren't common- and interesting but brief stories explaining what she was doing in each photo, like where she was and general background on the situation. Photos by Jayne Fincher, who followed Diana all over the globe ever since she first appeared in on the royal stage in 1980. I love the layout of the photos and captions. Includes photos from her funeral. I own dozens of books on Princess Diana, from between 1981 and 2006, and this is by far my absolute favorite! It's a terrific, beautiful pictorial of her entire life, with just enough text to add some interesting stories as you flip through the thousands of photos.



5. It's very hard to believe that next year will be a whole decade since the untimely death of Diana, Princess of Wales. What's a shame is the fact that today's teenagers and those in their early-20's probably don't remember her and I'm sure the "Windsors" are in their glory over that.
   
   But Jayne Fincher, royal photographer, has put together a coffee table book that is loaded with rarely published images of the one and only Princess of Wales and it should be a required addition to anyone's royal library.
   
   Ms. Fincher's photographs really brought out Diana's natural charm and inner beauty and that's what makes this volume so special and the scope of the loss even deeper. (It's been hilarious seeing the paparazzi trying to find her replacement ever since 1997 with "winners" such as Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, and Angelina Jolie.)
   
   In any case, this is a beautiful photography book and a tasteful tribute to Diana. - Donna Di Giacomo

5 comments about Nicholas And Alexandra.

1. In 2000, there was much talk about the "most important person of the 20th Century." My choice was always Gavrilo Princip, the young Bosnian assassin who killed Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, igniting World War I, which caused the Russian Revolution, Communism, and the Treaty of Versailles, which led to Naziism, World War II, atomic bombs, and the Cold War.
   
   Of course, there were other factors which formed the tragedy of the twentieth century, and perhaps some of these historical events would have happened anyway. Almost for certain, the Romanov Monarchy would have fallen or been transformed out of recognition without the help of Gavrilo Princip's bullets.
   
   Although the Ottoman Empire was always referred to as "the sick man of Europe," Robert K. Massie illustrates that Russia was not very well either, despite appearances. An obsolescent autocracy, the Russian Empire was mired in time at the dawn of the twentieth century, the great mass of its people existing much as they had 100 years earlier.
   
   Massie's theory, that the hemophilia of Alexis, the young Tsarevich, had an inordinate influence of Russian and subsequent world history, is well thought-out, though perhaps an oversimplification. Yet, it cannot be discounted. The Romanov Dynasty had ruled Russia then for 300 years, and brought the country, by fits and starts, slowly into the orbit of the modern world. Despite this, there is much truth in the observation that "Lenin inherited a nation playing beside a manure pile and Stalin bequeathed a nation playing with an atomic pile." This is not to defend Stalinism, but only to say how little the Romanovs did overall to modernize their State.
   
   When Nicholas II inherited the throne after his father's untimely death, he was woefully unprepared to rule. Dominated for years by archconservative and anti-modernist members of his family, he did little to educate his people, provide health care, build infrastructure, or lift the heavy cloak of official repression that lay over all but ethnic Russians in his realm, or the cloak of cultural repression that lay over the ethnic Russians.
   
   Yet Massie shows us a man and a family of uncommonly kind nature in Nicholas II and his family. His daughter Olga paid personally for the care of a handicapped subject she spied from her carriage one day. The Tsaritsa, Alexandra, despite a reputation as an uncaring woman, herself nursed sick friends before the war and horribly wounded soldiers during the war. The family built hospitals and schools in and around the various cities wherein lay the royal estates. They acted to ameliorate suffering wherever they saw it, without reservation.
   
   Of course, this was the problem. They acted only on what they saw with their own eyes, never recognizing that these sufferings were endemic throughout the realm. Their myopia was part and parcel of the lives of the citified upper classes, completely divorced from the mass of agrarian peasants in the countryside, magnified by the hermetically sealed nature of being an Imperial Family, aided and abetted by sycophants and the self-serving, who kept the real world at a very long arm's length, in order to maintain their own privileged positions. Living in a bubble within a bubble, they were just not aware of conditions in most of Russia.
   
   Nicholas II ruled over the largest domain on earth. Russia today is still the world's largest nation, even shorn of Finland, Poland, the Baltic States, Belarus, the Ukraine, the Central Asian provinces, and (in 1867) Alaska. Sunset in Vladivostok was dawn in Brest-Litovsk. His hundred million subjects included hundreds of peoples speaking hundreds of languages, linked together by a shockingly small road and rail system. The sensitive Nicholas, had he been really cognizant of the shape of things, could have, by a single order, vastly improved the lives of each and every Russian (of course, as he noted, being an autocrat and giving orders does not ensure that they are carried out properly). His greatest failings, as a ruler, all had to do with his decisions to outwardly maintain his Imperial hautre and his autocracy at all costs in the face of cataclysmic change.
   
   This bubble-within-a-bubble existence however, could not spare them from the fact of the Tsarevich's hemophilia. A genetic disorder inherited through the female line (Alexis' Great-Grandmother was Queen Victoria, whose progeny were ravaged by the disease), it prevents the clotting of the blood. When Alexis was born in 1904, the world was a full lifespan away from the development of a usable clotting factor; most hemophiliacs simply bled out and died. The Tsarevich was protected by a full retinue, but this did not help him, and the boy was often in screaming agony and close to death from what might in another child, be a bad bruise. The Heir, therefore lived in a bubble within a bubble within a bubble.
   
   The Tsaritsa, Alexandra, was a solemn, shy, but deeply emotional and loving woman, nicknamed "Sunny" by her husband. To the world, she presented an aloof exterior, and was extremely unpopular with her subjects. Had they known the sorrows and agonies she suffered through with Alexis, her realm, and history, might have treated her far better. But the Imperial Family decided to keep Alexis' condition a closely guarded secret, fearing the destabilization of the Monarchy and Russia in the face of a physically frail Heir. This may have been the Imperial Family's worst error, as it robbed them of an outpouring of sympathy and support from a passionate populace.
   
   Alexandra turned to religion, and ultimately, to Gregory Rasputin, a filthy, degenerate, sexually perverse and personally dissolute monk of peasant extraction. Although derided by most, and called a charlatan by many, Rasputin was perhaps one of the most charismatic men in history, had a devoted following (largely comprised of Society women he'd seduced), did have the power, somehow, to control Alexis' bleeding episodes, and therefore, had the Empress's full and unwavering support in all things.
   
   The feared and hated Rasputin may have indeed been a seer or had mystical powers of some sort, judging from circumstances. Rasputin was not really political, but as his influence over the Romanovs grew, his power expanded commensurately, and he was able to have Ministers dismissed, Generals reassigned to sinecures, and policies changed according to his own whims (expressed as messages from God) or concerns. Capable Russian leaders, who did not know the basis of Rasputin's power, suspected the worst of Alexandra, and in challenging Rasputin found themselves toppled from power. As World War I dawned, Russia was upside-down, its best men in internal exile, and woefully unprepared for war. Rasputin himself counseled against war, stating that Russia would collapse from within. Nonetheless, the British, German and Russian grandsons of Queen Victoria went to war.In that war, millions died, empires fell, nations were born, ideological political systems triumphed, and the stage was set for a darker and yet bloodier future.
   
   The Tsar and his genteel family were consumed, ending their days against a wall before a Bolshevik firing squad, probably not understanding, until the end, that they had been in the eye of a hurricane that remade the world.



2. I first read Nicholas and Alexandra many years ago as a 14 year old. It was a transformative experience for me, awakening what has been a lifelong passionate interest in royal biography and Russian history. Now that I'm in my early fifties, I recently reread Nicholas and Alexandra for the first time in about twenty years, and it continues to have the same magic.
   
   Robert K. Massie became interested in the last Tsar of Russia because he, like Nicholas, was the father of a hemophiliac boy. Massie spent long hours reading about hemophilia and famous hemophiliacs, and he was fascinated by the way Russian and world twentieth century history turned on a chance genetic defect. Had Tsarevich Alexis not had hemophilia, it is probable that Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra would not have come under the malign influence of Gregory Rasputin, the Siberian faith healer who had a catastrophic effect on the Russian government before and during World War I; leading to the Russian Revolution, the rise of Communism, and the deaths of Nicholas, Alexandra, and their children. Its an interesting thesis that still holds up well, though Massie's focus on the inner tragedy of the Tsar's family tends to make him discount the many other problems from which pre-revolutionary Russia suffered. Massie also has a natural tendency to whitewash Nicholas and Alexandra (parents of hemophiliacs have a special bond with those who share their trauma, after all), by barely mentioning such negative traits as the Tsar's anti-Semitism and the Empress' many neuroses.
   
   The book remains an extraordinary work of art. Massie's descriptions of the Russian landscape and his finely drawn character sketches are wonderfully rich and detailed. He is able to explain the political and social complexities of the era colorfully and wittily, even when dealing with such abstractions as the differences between Social Democrats, Social Revolutionaries, and Bolsheviks. Most of all, Massie is able to make us weep for the Romanovs: a man who was a bad Tsar but a good husband and father, a woman who destroyed her family while trying to keep her son alive, and five innocent young people who never had a chance to lead happy, productive lives. Every time I read Nicholas and Alexandra I tremble again at the thought of their last awful moments, but I am enriched still more by the chance to read such a magnificent work of art and scholarship.



3. This is an all-encompassing authoritative biography of the last ruling Romanovs, and Massie has compiled a thorough and well-researched insight into the lives of Nicholas and Alexandra. Even forty years after its original publication and long after the fall of the Soviet Union, it is a relevant part of Russian history. Massie is very sympathetic in his presentation of the royal family and addresses pertinent questions about the fall of the monarchy. If Alexis, the heir to the throne, had not had hemophilia, would the influence of Rasputin not have been necessary? And if Rasputin were never in the picture, would the monarchy have suffered such a tarnished reputation?
   
   The book painted a very vivid picture of the Royal Family based on hundreds of sources and letters. Nicholas is an incapable Tsar but a warm-hearted, devoted husband and father. Alexandra seems frantic and ill at ease (and often just ill) in her constant concern over the life of her son. And I love that I felt I got to know each of the children, Olga, Tatiana, Marie, Anastasia, and Alexis more individually and personally. This made their demise all the more heartbreaking. This book also gave me a greater understanding of the political climate of the time in Russia and a better comprehension of the revolution and the roles of Lenin, Trotsky, and other important players (although I occasionally found some difficulty keeping the various Russian names straight). Overall, this is a captivating book and the saga is all the more intriguing because it's history. I will definitely be interested to read some of the more recent material that Massie presents in The Romanovs: The Last Chapter.



4. Although this is not an historical novel, it almost reads like one. It is an in-depth (character analysis?) of the Romanovs, taking the reader step by step to the events that led to the downfall of the Romanovs. As you're reading, you can almost hear yourself say to the Romanovs, "Don't do that! It will lead to your destruction!" But of course you can't and the rest is history. A well written book, logically flowing to tell you the who's, what's and why's of the Romanovs. Anyone who is a Russian hisotry fan will love this book.



5. Here we have an aggregation of factual stories which effectively summarizes multiple historical events, chiefly of late-period Tsarist Russia, delivered by Robert K. Massie in the artful style of a great novelist.
   
   The principal theme is that of the marriage and family life of Tsar Nicholas [Romanov] II and his wife, the German Princess Alexandra, their privileged fairy tale existence with their five children, and their tragic and sudden fall, (and subsequent murders perpetrated by the Bolsheviks.)
   
   A parallel story craftily unfolds regarding Grigory Rasputin, the so-called "Mad Monk," and how, though a comedy of tragic errors, Rasputin's remarkable and almost mystical influence over the Tsarina Alexandra and her weak husband gave rise to Lenin's successful conversion of the Russian government to that of Bolshevism (Communism.)
   
   A third tale is more medical and genetic than it is historic, that of hemophilia. The Tsarevich (Nicholas II's heir and only son, Alexis) was a hemophiliac, a disease which the child inherited through his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria of England. It was Rasputin who seemed to keep this child alive during times of medical crisis and thus cemented the Tsarina's unswayable belief in his apparently godly powers of healing. Unfortunately for the Tsar, she also fell under Rasputin's phenomenal influence in other realms of opinion, mainly that of how Russia could best be governed during a raging European war.
   
   All these chronicles are woven into one excellent timeline and account of the Russian Monarchy's decline, culminating in tragedy for nearly all involved.
   
   If there is a void in this tale, it's perhaps lacking a Dostoyevsky-ish paradigm on the plight of the Russian people during this turbulent period, a facet which was equally key to the events which transpired. While this actuality is mentioned as a matter of fact, I didn't feel that this important aspect of the legacy was driven home to the reader. Still, supplementary reading of the fiction of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Lyeskov, and other notable Russian masters of period literature can fill in the gaps which Massie apparently felt unable to cover. Granted, such explorations may well have turned this fine history book into a burdensome tome since there is so much to say on the topic of Russian peasant misery.
   
   A superb (if little known) non-fiction work which conveys the plight of the Russian people prior to and during this bleak era was written by Prince Peter Kropotkin in biographical form: Memoirs of a Revolutionist (Collected Works of Peter Kropotkin).
   
   The author, Robert K. Massie, adopts the "linear" view of the sudden fall of the Romanov dynasty. To garner the entirety of what actually transpired during the Russian Revolution(s) [1905 and 1917] in detail, it would perhaps be better to read a text on that specific facet of history: A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924. Figes is a renowned and widely-published authority on Russian history.
   
   The bigger picture of Massie's written legacy is that of the general madness which ultimately consumed most Monarchies from within -- the inevitable end seems nearly always to culminate with the extravagance and opulence on the parts of the royals and the nobility, and their appurtenant obliviousness and hubristic attitude toward the inevitable extreme poverty of the masses. In other words, the royals begin dwelling on their personal belief that they are indeed demi-gods. Throughout the text here, that historically factual concept is plainly conveyed to the reader.
   
   This book was written in 1967 and for that reason, Massie got decoyed by Nicholas Sokolov's somewhat flawed investigation [1919] of the mass murder of the Romanovs. Sokolov's difficult inquiry was generally a good one; however, we now know that his conclusions concerning the final disposition of the corpses of Nicholas, Alexandra, and their children was incorrect. They were not tossed down a mine shaft... they were buried in fairly shallow graves.
   
   Due chiefly to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent fall of the Soviet dictatorship, modern investigation teams have now been able to actually recover the remains of most of the Romanovs from their long-secret graves. The primary issue of contention which remains (between two separate teams of investigators) is whether it is Marie or Anastasia who continues to be unrecovered. This question will likely be resolved to the satisfaction of most at some later date. The Tsarevitch's mortal relics also remain missing.
   
   Some would say that the Romanovs got precisely what they deserved while others would assert that their demise was a shameful national tragedy. Thankfully, Massie allows the individual reader to make this determination.
   
   In summary, this is an outstanding book, nicely illustrated with several pages of relevant black-and-white photographs, and I know of no superior choice on the topic which covers all the aspects which this one does -- I highly recommend it. And if you would like to see this fine work brilliantly conveyed through the media of film, then be sure to see the 1974 BBC mini-series production of: Fall of Eagles.

4 comments about The Hundred Years' War.

1. If you think of the Hundred Years War, epic English victories like Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt would probably come to mind. However despite these impressive military triumphs, the fact is that the French ultimately won the series of wars that stretched out over a 116-year period. Anne Curry, an English expert on the Hundred Years War, brings her considerable knowledge of the subject to bear in Osprey's Essential Histories volume #19. Quite simply, this volume is a tour de force in that the author presents a complex subject with insight and depth. Unlike some of the other volumes in this series, The Hundred Years War 1337-1453 represents a real research effort and not just a condensation of other sources. This is one of the best volumes that Osprey published in 2002.

   As usual, The Hundred Years' War 1337-1453 begins in standard Osprey format with a short introduction, a chronology, a background to the war and the opposing sides and how the war began. The narrative of the war itself is 38 pages in length. Final sections are portrait of a soldier (one French and two English), the cruel nature of the war (attacks on civilians, raids on England), portrait of a civilian (the remarkable female poet and historian Christine de Pizan), how the war ended and conclusions. The author has provided a substantial bibliography as well as genealogical tables for both the French and English nobility. There are a total of ten maps (English lands in Gascony, campaigns in Northern France in 1340, campaigns in the north in 1341-1359, the campaign of 1346, the campaigns of the Black Prince, the second phase of the war, the Agincourt campaign, campaigns of 1415-1428, English garrisons in Normandy, and the defeat of the English) in this volume and they add great value.

   The Hundred Years War was unusual for its protracted nature, although this was frequently interrupted by truces. The English, who began the war with modest objectives and expanded them when fortune favored their cause, crushed one French army after another in the early phases of the war. Much of French fell under English control by 1415 and it appeared that the French monarchy was in eclipse. Anne Curry does a wonderful job detailing how the French gradually turned the war around, beginning with the incredible campaigns of Joan of Arc. The French were not the complete blockheads that recurrent defeats would suggest, but were capable of learning from past mistakes. During the 1430s, the French monarchy oversaw the creation of the first standing army in Europe since the Romans. The French were also quick to adopt and efficiently organize artillery, which was used to help smash English armies at Formigny and Castillon (battles that are all but forgotten but which helped to decide the war). The author also does a splendid job detailing the war finances and economies of both sides. French revenue grew ten-fold during the course of the war as the French monarchy organized a robust tax system. However, the English fought the war on an economic shoestring and their revenues declined as the war dragged on. Indeed, the English often conquered land that was devastated and incapable of producing revenue for some time. In the end, the English lacked the money to sustain large armies in France and they were eventually overwhelmed. The author rightly calls this war a defining moment in European history, where large standing armies become possible and royal authority was forced to construct more complex fiscal structures than had existed under parochial feudalism.




2. I read history books to learn all about world history and I expect this to be an enjoyable experience. I bought this book because the other reviewer gave it 5 stars. I guess I am looking for a Reader's Digest version of this series of wars that explains everything in layman's terms (and it wouldn't hurt if there was a little excitement or inspiration in it). I am next going to read the Seward book on this subject (because it is inexpensive and it has 5 stars ratings) and then I will compare the 2 books. No one should buy this book if it is only your first or second book on the 100 Years War and you are not a history student and dont know that much about French and English history. This book was just very boring. After I read the Seward book, I will re-read this book and see if I can give it more stars or not.



3. Curry's book provides an excellent overall reference for this long and varied conflict. Different sections cover the politics leading up to the outbreak of war, the overall campaigns of the various phases of the war, brief individual histories of three mid-level combatants including Bertrand du Guesclin, and a summary of the effects of the war. The material is well-organised and clearly written, and the maps illustrate the overall geopolitical context. Readers interested in detailed accounts of the battles should look elsewhere, but Curry's volume is an excellent overall reference.



4. This is a great concise 90 page overview of the Hundred Years War.Lots of pictures and maps.The War is broken up into 4 different phases showing how it changed from the first to the last phases with the English finally pushed out.If the French could take any consolation,the Wars of the Roses broke out in 1450 as a direct result of the Hundred Years Wars. Unfortunately however the French had their own civil war which also came about from the Hundred Years War,but at least the major English armies were tied to their own islands.The only good it seems that came about was the final extinguishing of continental land claims by English Kings.These claims were in existence since the time of William the Conqueror and even before.Instead of using war outright as policy to keep an influence on the continent,the English will now use diplomacy and politics to maintain a continental influence. War comes only when the other 2 fail.At any rate England will refuse to be isolated and continental ties are the lifeline.This is a well researched pamphlet style book,a superb general overview.

3 comments about Clans and Families of Ireland: The Heritage and Heraldry of Irish Clans and Families.

1. A beautifully illustrated and well written guide to the origins of the 200 most popular surnames in Ireland.

   Also included is history of the Irish race in all it's forms, this alone is worth the price of the book as it will allow anyone to form a clear understanding of Irish history, cutting away all the myths and confusions that surround the Irish and their origins.

   This book is an essential read for anyone with Irish ancestry or any one with an interest in Irish History and you will find yourself dipping into it again and again.




2. i got this as a gift for my husband (a Reilly) and congratulate myself on the purchase! The historical background is EXCELLENT - enabled me to understand the different ethnic roots of the Irish and also the complexity of the Catholics vs Protestants, etc. In addition, the description of the mass exodus of the Irish to foreign lands was great, the author detailing the emotional background exquisitely. Finally, it was a lot of fun looking up the origins of Irish last names. The crests of each clan is shown in colour.

   If I have a complaint, it would be that the significance of the crest of each clan was not discussed along with the origin and history of each clan. If that was included, this book would be 100% perfect, instead of 95% perfect.




3. The price of this book was good - but there was nothing new in it - and it did not have 2 of my Irish lines in the book- so no help for my research.

5 comments about Eugenie: The Empress and Her Empire.

1. Desmond Stewart's biography does an excellent job of rehabilitating Eugenie's reputation. In earlier accounts, she has been portrayed as a vicious airhead, a bigoted zealot, or a clueless encumbrance on the Second Empire. Stewart's elegantly written, well-organized book shows Eugenie's strengths--her intuitive grasp of French politics, her social liberalism, and her dignified life in exile after the deaths of her husband and her only child. Stewart's research is impressive, and he provides a helpful Bonaparte genealogy as an appendix. I came away from this book with heightened respect for Eugenie and a much clearer sense of the historical importance of France's Second Empire and its legacies: the Suez Canal, the music of Waldteufel and Offenbach, the literary splendor of Flaubert and the Goncourts, as well as France's disastrous defeat by Prussia in 1870 and Eugenie and Napoleon III's ill-fated Mexican adventure. This book is an excellent introduction to Eugenie the woman and to the world of international diplomacy in the Victorian era.



2. I've always been interested in the lives of royal women, especially when I discover that they were more than just royal spouses or fashion plates. While such women as Elizabeth I of England, Mary of Scotland, and Catherine the Great of Russia have gotten plenty written about them, all too often, women with lesser notoriety tend to be forgotten or passed over by historians.
   
   One such woman was Eugenie, the Empress of Napoleon III of France. Author Desmond Seward, a long-time biographer of royalty, takes what at first appears to be a woman of little notice and turns her into someone to be reckoned with. At first I was rather skeptical, remembering that most of what I had read of Eugenie was that she was Spanish, a fashion setter who was known to have never worn the same evening gown twice and who was a patron of Worth, and that most of history regarded her as a conniving, bad woman who frittered life away. To say that I was in for a surprise was an understatement.
   
   Born Maria Eugenia Ignacia Augusta de Montijo , Eugenie grew up in an Europe that was going through revolutionary changes. Her father had fought with Napoleon's armies, and Eugenie soon developed a fascination with all things having to do with the Bonapartes . Clever, beautiful, and with the ability of being able to say the right thing in the right situation, Eugenie should have been wed quickly, but even after a tour of Europe with her wealthy mother didn't manage a good catch, and at twenty-three she was facing the prospect of spinsterhood. But it seems that Eugenie already had someone in mind -- the nephew of the formidable Napoleon, who had just managed to create himself Emperor of the French, by a coup-de-stat.
   
   Napoleon III, as he was known, was also charming, but also short, rather ugly, and inscrutable. An able politician, that side of his personality has been mostly overlooked for historians, focusing instead on his insatiable need for women, and his lack of military leadership. He was also an innate showman, knowing how to catch people's imagination, and able to push through schemes and ideas that most would never take seriously.
   
   Together, Napoleon and Eugenie formed a partnership that managed to survive for more than seventeen years, recreating Paris from an aging medieval slum to the magnificent City of Lights that we know today. Eugenie gave European fashion a chic flair with her patronage of the coutiere Worth, the artist Winterhalter, and her own innate sense of design.
   
   But there were also serious flaws to the couple as well -- Eugenie had a vicious temper, and one that got worse as it got older; Napoleon's infidelities drove her to jealous rages, especially after the difficult birth of her only child. For his own part, Napoleon backed the feeble attempt to turn Mexico into a monarchy, found himself embroiled in a war with Prussia and dwindled into history as a laughing stock. As for Eugenie, besides losing her throne, she would face a long, lonely exile from Paris that stretched to nearly fifty years, and was emotionally devastated by the loss of her only child at a young age.
   
   It's an intriguing look at a woman who was both villified and worshipped during her lifetime and afterwards, much as Marie Antoinette had been in an earlier generation. Indeed, Eugenie was fascinated by her predecessor, and would avidly collect any sort of memorabilia and objects that were associated with that unfortunate queen. In fact, Eugenie's life would eeriely echo that of Marie Antoinette in many ways, and she always lived in fear of the Parisian mob seeking to overthrow her.
   
   Despite the book being a bit light in treatment -- gossip is constantly recounted, and Seward often repeats himself -- this was an engaging, enlightening read. I had known very little about the Second Empire, and discovered that most of my preconceptions of this period were wrong. Seward draws on the memoirs, newspaper accounts and Eugenie's own letters and recollections for his source material. At just under three hundred pages, it's a quick read, and a good start to exploring this period of French history. A selection of engravings and photographs are included in a black-and-white insert, and there are copious notes and bibliography.



3. From the professional reviews, I had expected a well-written, scholarly book. This is neither. The writing is sometimes poor, and never eloquent or outstanding.
   
   The real problem, however, is the material. The portraits of Eugenie & Napoleon III are favorably one-sided. I don't feel as thought I could tell you the character of either after reading this book. Eugenie is impetuous is stated again & again but very few examples are given. Napoloen III is "pathologically secreative" but again no examples are given to support this statement. A very light-weight book.



4. I had very little knowledge on Eugenie other then she was Empress of France and lost her only child. I've never been interested much in Napoleon III's reign or his consort but decided to give this book a try. I was pleasently surprised by what I read. Like the Eugenie was Spanish or that she was probably a better politican then her husband. Eugenie went from being bascially a no body to Empress of France and only to end up in exile after her husband was defeated. It must have been heartbreaking to lose her only child. A wonderful bio.



5. capturing napoleon iii heart and becoming empress of france would lead you to think her life would be happy ever after.but eugenie had a difficult birth of her only child made made it dangerous for another child ending her sex life with husband who carry on affairs that cause her great angry and pain.she became a fashion plate ,but also put reforms to help the poor and disavantage of france.after fall of empire she lived in england for 50 years losting her husband and son.

5 comments about Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland.

1. This is a fascinating subject but perhaps it is a bit complicated as I spent most of the time wanting to rewrite it in a way that would be easier to follow. Nevertheless, if you were interested in this subject, this is a must-have book. It will stay on my bookshelf and I am sure it will be referred to regularly.



2. 
   This is truly an engaging book about population genetics as regards
   to Britain and Ireland. Professor Bryan Sykes succeeds in explaining
   complicated scientific conclusions to help us understand humanity.
   
   Where have we come from? It is a must read for those of us who care!
   
   Dag Stomberg
   St. Andrews, Scotland



3. This was purchased as a gift for a person who has most of Brian Sykes books. The recipient was most pleased with receiving it.



4. This is a very strange book. Despite the title, there is very little actual genetics here, and the author goes so far as to repeatedly denigrate the very science he practices. While it's true that science relies on numbers and technology which may be confusing to people who aren't used to dealing with them, that its strength-- the evidence that his conclusions are valid depends on the numbers. So while I would agree that reducing the various genetic ancestors to numbers has a tendency to dehumanize them, it's those numbers that allow us to know something about them, and to therefore restore humanity to people whose lives have been lost to time.
   
   It's also worth noting that, presumably, someone wouldn't pick up a book with "genetics" in the title without expecting to encounter science. So the embarrassment that the author conveys every time he mentions anything remotely scientific seems misplaced. Indeed, I wished there had been more science!
   
   That said, the few genetics chapters (4-5 of 18 of them, though the one on England is quite short) are interesting. Tracing mtDNA and Y-chromosome markers does provide an important piece of evidence in interpreting things like migrations and other kinds of culture contact in the past. However, it's hard to evaluate his conclusions when there is so little data included. In particular, it is really unconscionable, and almost unethical, to not have a single reference included in the book. Sykes has clearly used the work of many, many other scholars, including archaeologists, historians, and other scientists, and these scholars have the right to have their research acknowledged. But there are virtually no clues for the reader where he got 99% of the information. I would imagine that Sykes would be upset if someone did the same to his work.
   
   The rest of the book seems to be little more than padding, to allow him to get a book out of the few chapters that actually talk about genetics. I suppose you could argue that the history of the study of race or blood groups is tangentially relevant to a book on genetics, but taking pages to talk about the history of the Royal Irish Academy, the archaeological sites of Newgrange and Skara Brae, or the details of the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings seems pointless. These topics are all quite interesting in their own right (I'm an archaeologist, and I know that the sites are important), but they contributed nothing relevant to the discussion. Knowing when people arrived in Ireland is necessary, but a description of the site at Mount Sandel isn't. The necessary prehistory and history could have been dealt with in a few pages, and hardly required a chapter for each part of "the Isles."
   
   So in the end, I was disappointed in the book overall. If you're looking for information on the genetic background of Britain and Ireland, there are a few places here and there that summarize what may well be important contributions to the study of the past in both places. But there isn't enough detailed information in the book to be useful by itself, and there are no references so the reader can follow up with more technical publications. In the end, I was sorry I bought the book-- I could have got what I wanted from it by borrowing it from the library and xeroxing the few relevant pages that actually talk about the genetics of ancient people in Britain and Ireland.



5. In the 19th century, there was much preposterous nonsence blathered about in Europe by nationalistic professors of history. Utilizing some largely mythological sources of information, they tried in vain to create an argument for the presumed superiority of their own particular nationalities.
   
   On the lighter side, this led to some rather buffoonish proclamations of "cultural-supremacy". On the darker side, this led to Naziism.
   
   Modern DNA studies have just barely scratched the surface of a much more fascinating truth. In a region such as Europe, the prospect of an individual, or an ethnicity, being "racially pure" is actually quite absurd. Consider the vast movements of people all over the continent, over two milennia. Dr. Sykes gives us yet another fascinating study of the DNA role in anthropology. This time, the focus is on the British Isles.
   
   Whether you have any heritage from that area or not, this book will open your eyes to consider the great Epic of which your ancestors played a part. YOU are the result! YOU have a role in continuing the story! Your descendants will thank you!

5 comments about Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families (Royal Ancestry).

1. Exceptionally well-sourced and well-indexed. One can tell at a glance which immigrants are descendants of each person listed. Where possible, the author has listed both parents for each person, along with all possible siblings. A must-have for anyone doing research on American colonial ancestry.



2. One of the best sources for the amateur and professional alike, Douglas Richardson's books rank as the be all and end all along with John Dorman's Adventurers of Purse and Person for those wishing to tie their American genealogical lines with the petty nobility and royalty of Europe. A must-have for every genealogist. Extremely well sourced.



3. This is an important study on some of the descendants of the Plantagenet family, whose ranks include many kings, queens, princes, princesses, dukes, duchesses, counts, and many more of the ranks of royalty and nobility, in almost every country of the world. The sources used are original or transcriptions of original records (as much as possible), along with other records, to document the family ties between the people listed in this book. Mr. Richardson et al, have also attempted to give many of the individual royal and noble titles held by each person (if any), to aid in finding these persons in other original and printed resources. Though I'm sure there are mistakes here and there, Mr. Richardson et al does a wonderful job straightening out as many of the known errors as well as a few new ones that had yet to be addressed. The great part is that this work seems to be an ongoing work - I haven't as yet gone online to check out the website, and we can look forward to many new family tidbits in the future. This book is a "must have" for those researching historically or for those with family ties to the Plantagenets!



4. What a wonderful book! As a beginning family historian, I can't figure out how anyone could organize so much material, and keep it both interesting and easy to use. I read about a different part of my family almost every day, and have great fun imagining life back when "Grandpa" was king!



5. I bought this book because it was the first "Royal Ancestry" tome to list one of my own ancestors, namely Richard Parker, 17th century immigrant to Virginia. The author accepted the research of amateur genealogists Waunita Powell and Fred Olen Ray, and included Richard and George Parker, allegedly sons of James Parker and Catherine Buller of Cornwall, in the "Courtenay" line (pp 238-243). Reading this part of Richardson's book, one would naturally assume that this descent was "proven," at least as much as any pedigree can be without DNA verification. However, because these are my ancestors, I have looked in great detail at this Parker family, and I have found a great many problems that would make me hesitate to take the ancestry shown by Richardson at face value. To look at Richardson's bibliography for this line on p. 243, you couldn't tell that McSwain (1980) is a book (now long out of print), while Powell (1990) is just a typewritten collection of notes. There is also no mention of the fact that McSwain and Powell came to opposite conclusions, nor any mention of the fact that the identification of Richard Parker of Cornwall with Richard Parker of Virginia essentially rests on one document which appeared in the late 19th century, the original of which has apparently vanished. When I wrote to Mr Richardson and laid out in great detail the problems associated with the Parker identification, his reply was short, dismissive, and showed a complete lack of understanding of the issues involved. If there are all these ambiguities and uncertainties with this one line, which are not even touched upon by Richardson in his presentation, how many other lines in the book rest on equally shaky ground? How did he get such a reputation as a thorough genealogist? I don't think I'll ever buy any of his books again, because I do not feel I can trust the ability of the author to evaluate sources. Gary Boyd Roberts, in the most recent edition of The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States Who Were Themselves Notable or Left Descendants Notable in American History includes this Parker family in an addendum, and that has made me wonder now about him. Genealogy is big business, and everybody wants to be able to trace their family tree back to Charlemagne, never mind that it's often hard enough to find out who great-grandma really got pregnant by!