5 comments about Remembering Ahanagran: Storytelling in a Family's Past.

1. An excellent, in-depth exploration of his mother's Irish past and of her coming to America as a young girl. He takes family stories and investigates them through his historian's training. Of course, many times he finds the facts don't support the story, as family stories change over time and blend different events or are shaped by changing perspectives. So then he explores the power of the story, regardless of its veracity, and then explores the facts to more fully understand the world that shaped the people from whom he is descended.
   
   The book is a history lesson in how family's work and don't work. And it is a history lesson in the politics, morals, and folkore of rural Ireland and Chicago's South Side.
   
   A rich, well-written book. You do not need to be Irish to enjoy it.



2. I did not find White's actual content all that engrossing. His historian's determination to separate fact from his mother's "storytelling" embellishments or lacunae follow the usual patterns of such explorations into the clash of contrasts. The Irish mom-meets-Jewish American dad that gave birth to White appealed to me, but reading the pages of life in Chicago in the 30s vs. his father's military stint made this book little different than a self-penned history of one's family by the designated genealogist in the clan. White does write considerably better than such amateurs, but what he writes about does not rise above the mundane or the all-too-familiar tales of peasant agitation, the old IRA, and the leaving of the village for the big city.
   
   His eye occasionally gleans the telling detail, regardless. A petition for citizenship reveals that the husband does not know his wife's birthday, and his guess is off three years. His mother is asked as a 16-year-old at entrance to the country if she was a polygamist. The legend of St Rita, patron of the Chicago parish his family lived in tells in its own moral that God shapes you up only then to kill you off. Jack Benny and Father Coughlan were the radio shows one never missed on Sunday.
   
   One detail shows an error on White's part: on pg. 23 he claims that his relatives had their baptismal names "Gaelicized" by the priest as Helen-Hellena and William-Guilielmo, but surely this is the customary Latinization found on many Catholic documents rather than a return to the Irish which would make Eileen and Liam?
   
   This book reminds me of a few others that have recently delved into the Irish-meets-American immigrant encounter. Thomas Lynch's "Booking Passage," also looking at North Kerry, would complement White's book. His style in its spareness yet its eloquence reminds me of Henry Glassie, the folklorist who compiled "Irish Folktales" and chronicled a Fermanagh community in "Passing the Time at Ballymenone." Finally, books like David Monagan's "Jaywalking with the Irish" and Steve Fallon's "Home with Alice" similarly compare Irish American memories with extended Irish residences.



3. This is a fascinating memoir, alternating between memory and historical records. The remembrances of the author's mother of her early life in western Ireland and her later immigration to the United States are set against his searches for the actual historical documents and records of these events.
   This is not a sentimental or saccharine biography, but an unflinching look at the lives of the respected-historian author's relatives and neighbors, both in Ireland and in America.
   I read it over several days, and would have finished it sooner had I not found myself lost in thought so many times over what records might support-- or contradict--the stories of my own mother and grandmother. I am telling all my friends about this book.



4. Too often the well written and engaging memoir is disengaged from the careful checking of facts and ordering relationships that is the mark of the historian. Richard White tells the story of his Mother's family in Ireland and Chicago, draws on the family stories that he was told, and then relates them to the historical facts and records. The result is a book that is better than it would have been had he relied on a single methodology, and the story is more engrossing than it would be otherwise. While other reviewers would have critisized this methodology, I find that his ability to show where and why discrepancies arise between memory and fact is extraordinarily illuminating.



5. In tracing the "representative" story of his mother's life, the author provides an insight into the motivation and experience of the Irish immigrant. There is also an interesting lesson on the difference between memory and history. Both of these items are of particular interest to the genealogist.

4 comments about The Queen's Slave Trader: John Hawkyns, Elizabeth I, and the Trafficking in Human Souls (P.S.).

1. I absorbed this read with great interest. The subject of slave-trading has been too painful for me to tackle it head-on but here I got into it because I am interested in Elizabethan personalities. The thing that shocks me in the book is how matter-of-fact the trading really was. This fact-based account puts the reader into the then-contemporary perspective of humans as just another commodity to be dealt for profit and a highly lucrative one at that. The rewards for successful trading were enough to turn the Queen, Elizabeth, into a profiteer. In fact, we see an Elizabeth in denial after she has waxed moral in her view of the abduction of Africans. She says they should be asked to volunteer. (Which is ridiculous on the face of it.) Of course, Hawkyns only saw the green light to GO. One cannot view Elizabeth in any ideal sense after this: there is no Gloriana or Astraea in this book. The business of the Queen is business; Queen and country are one.
   
   There isn't much of a biography of Hawkyns in the book. At least, insofar as a biography fleshes out the nuance of the character. What we get is a very competent individual who is able to make both military and financial decisions in quicktime. The depth of the book is focused on the ambivalence of Hawkyns in matters of religion. This is, in my opinion, is what places the story into it's deeper historical context. The English, as other Europeans, who were destined to fight bloody civil wars in the next century, were obsessed with the outer manifestations of Christianity (ritual, plastic images, etc. or not) and had lost any real sense of Christian teachings. In this book, we lose any ability to condemn Hawkyns as an individual; we are overwhelmed by the brutality of the times. I think the author, Nick Hazlewood has done quite a good job here.



2. Attempts to analyze the historical sociology of capitalism and slavery too often deal in abstractions. And the morality of power politics, and economic globalization, as with Marx, tends to be sublimated into the account by value-free laws of history, etc,... All well and good, but. This account of a one vignette of the early gestation of the Atlantic slave trade, in England, speaks more eloquently by its plain account of actual people, at the moment of the crystallization of a dreadful circumstance. Significant is the detail of Queen Elizabeth, quoted early on as denouncing the traffic in human beings, succumbing to royal patronage once the immense profits possible became clear. While one can practically hear the ghost of Marx snorting with contempt, the plain fact of the matter is that there is an ethical history possible, and there was nothing inevitable in the way slavery, almost extinct in Europe, made a comeback in the early modern period. It is not utopian, as this portrait makes clear, to consider that politicians, instead of being untrustworthyfrom the word go, might actually not succumb to terrible temptations and enter in league with poor devils like the Hawkins portrayed here, basically a capitalist thug, soon a courtier. The portrait of John Hawkins gives a fine-grain series of images of one of the great and classic failures of economic globalization, and the terrible legacy and bitterness that it led to.



3. Nick Hazlewood has written an engrossing book that gives us a rare and in-depth look into the opening salvos of the English slave trade through the voyages of Sir John Hawkyns (also spelled John Hawkins), the first English trader. Hazlewood supplies a brief biography of the Elizabethan mariner but focuses on Hawkyns' three major slave-trading voyages starting from 1562, from his departure from England to his actual acquisition of slaves in West Africa, through to his transactions in the New World and return to England.
   
   This book is a must-have for those interested in the early Age of Exploration and the nature of early trans-Atlantic commerce, but it is of far greater significance and value for a general audience since it provides a rare glimpse into the little-known details of the wretched commerce in human beings that took place as the Americas were being settled. Treatments of the African slave trade often leave a reader wondering about the mindset and nature of the participants who were profiting from it, and Hazlewood provides us with a "you are there" feeling. He has clearly done his homework here, consulting primary literature in both English and Spanish archives to reconstruct the means by which Hawkyns acquired his slaves in West Africa, the "currency" exchanges which took place to seal the deal, the wretched and horrendous conditions on the slaving ships, and the nature of Hawkyns' eventual transactions in the Caribbean and Spanish outposts in America. What emerges is that Hawkyns was a remarkably shrewd and ruthless businessman, able to secure such an extraordinary profit margin from his deals that even Queen Elizabeth I-- initially opposed to the human commerce-- became a crucial investor in Hawkyns' slave-trading schemes, providing ships and resources for raising his crews and launching further voyages.
   
   Hazlewood also casts Hawkyns' commerce within the broader context of 16th-century European seafaring, demonstrating how Hawkyns' actions-- viewed as smuggling by Spanish authorities-- in many ways constituted the root of the conflict that would flare between the Spaniards and English (leading to the Spanish Armada attack and a 16-year war between the two countries) later in the century. The reader is treated to an in-depth look at Hawkyns' fateful third voyage in 1567, in which his ships were attacked by a Spanish squadron off Veracruz. Hazlewood provides perhaps the best description in any recent book of the clash at Veracruz and its aftermath, both for Hawkins and his unfortunate crew members who were seized by the Spaniards. The book does drag somewhat in its later chapters but is not at all a chore to read, and Hazlewood's evocative style ensures that readers have a concrete tableau of the events that were transpiring, rather than merely an abstract depiction of them.
   
   For what would become the United States as well as for Britain, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was integral to their history. Indeed, Americans are well aware of the brutal consequences of slavery from the Civil War in the 1860s, yet are often much less aware of the background to that "curious institution." Hazlewood details these often obscure origins with both accuracy and a highly readable presentation. The reader emerges from the book with a sense of the Hobbesian mentality and conditions that dominated seafaring in the 1500s, and a better sense of the psychology that enabled so many to allow themselves to partake in the bloody business of human enslavement and trans-Atlantic trafficking. Hawkyns is shown in all his complexity as a ruthless merchant and as an inspiring leader of his crews, who braved on-ship conditions and hostile oceans that would make most of us cringe barely minutes away from the dock. Hazlewood's book is an excellent complement to Harry Kelsey's book on John Hawkins-- which covers similar territory-- and to Hugh Thomas's general history of the slave trade. It's a must-have for historians, for teachers and school libraries (at many levels), and for those who want to learn about the often-obscure history of slavery and of the fascinating details of 16th-century Atlantic exploration and maritime commerce.



4. First, the good: Nick Hazlewood gives us a thoroughly researched book about an interesting character from English history, the seafarer/pirate John Hawkyns. I was constantly amazed at the in-depth information that Hazlewood was able to provide, even going so far as to relate many of Queen Elizabeth's conversations with or about John Hawkyns to the reader. We also get the words of Philip II, the Spanish king, and his ambassadors in London. We even get the gist of John Hawkyns' conversations with all the dignitaries he dealt with in the new world as he sold his horrific cargo. All in all, we get a fairly complete picture of Hawkyns the brute, the opportunist, and Hawkyns the leader of men. It is an interesting portrait.
   
   And now the bad: John Hawkyn's adventures in New Guinea and the New World aren't really enough to fill a book from cover to cover with enough drama or information to keep the reader enthralled. Hawkyns makes three missions to the New World to sell slaves, and each time he visits the same places, and employs the same tactics. By the third trip, I was reading out of obligation rather than excitement. And of couse, the drama of his defense against the Spanish Armada falls outside the scope of this book, though there is an attempt to tie it to an earlier conflict that occurred at the end of Hawkyns' slaving career. What I missed most was a sense of history throughout the course of the book. Oftentimes events were merely relayed in sequential, if wonderfully thorough, order, but an analysis of these events place or influence on world history were saved for the final chapter of the book.
   
   All in all, an OK read if you enjoy Elizabethan or Age of Sail histories, but not enough to recommend it to the general readership.

5 comments about Henry VIII.

1. Sometimes appearances can be deceiving. When I first received this book and saw how HUGE it was (and in small print, yet), I thought I was in for a long, tedious and boring read. In other words, the kind of book that you start but it becomes harder and harder to keep reading until you finally give up way before the ending.
   
   To my surprise, this book engrossed my attention from day one and became impossible to put down. Jasper Ridley has done a masterful job of giving us a very detailed biography of one of the most memorable kings in history. Unlike so many other books about Henry, Ridley refuses to monopolize the subject matter with sensationalistic details revolving around Henry's wives. Instead, he concentrates on the much more important religious, political and social aspects of his reign.
   
   I think this book captures the true essence of Henry VIII--a tyrant, selfish, arrogant, and demanding. A person who in almost every instance was able to manipulate people into doing his dirty work for him. An individual who could play tennis with a subject he considered a "friend", such as Thomas More, and then easily have this bosom companion executed without nary a shred of remorse whenever it would serve Henry's advantage to do so. One of Henry's most popular practices was to sail the Thames surrounded by women and fawning courtiers while a former close advisor, friend etc. was being executed. This king was a master of disguise, making it appear that he had little or nothing to do with distasteful events and absenting himself from the controversy at hand.
   
   The author mentions early on that, in effect, while gazing at the famous Holbein portrait of Henry VIII in all his glory, people were mesmerized by the majesty as portrayed in the painting. What they did not notice were the hard, unfeeling and pig-like eyes that were barely visible in the already bloated face. If the eyes indeed are the "windows of the soul", Henry was a very cruel individual indeed.
   
   Although his reign was extremely productive in many ways, such as his interest in solidifying England as a naval power, the most striking aspect is, of course, the religious break with Rome. Here too, Henry waffles back and forth as the winds blow. To say this was an achievement is merely subjective; it began a period of intense religious misunderstandings which resulted in the deaths of untold innocent people who refused to accept this or that form of religious belief and worship. As such, I cannot classify Henry's break with Rome as a positive issue. I am not religious, and therefore perhaps not qualified to judge this. But the results of this action are being felt well into modern times. It is a subjective issue as to whether this extreme action on his part set his country and Europe on the right course.
   
   As initially stated, do not be put off by the size of this book. It will engage your attention and provide a picture of Henry (essentially minus the much touted wife leaping) that probably comes closest to what this famous monarch was actually like.



2. Yet again, J Ridley takes the reader on a remarkable journey, guiding you through the maze of factual background without ever letting your hand go. His mastery of the English language and notable training as a barrister make him the best narrator of the century.



3. Ridley is brilliant as ever. In his masterly style, he portrays both historic detail and periodic insight in such manner that the reader is captivated from the first page onwards. The ongoing battle with Lady Antonia Frazer's biography is a delight (especially when historical inaccuracies in her biography are condemned to footnotes). A book one cannot put down for a single moment.



4. Jasper Ridley's bio of Henry VIII, if nothing else, suggests to me that executioners must have had a steady employment during early 16th-century England. In Ridley's biography, England's formative king is essentially a psychopath, and the country became Protestant, not because of any doctrinal attachment to the Reformation, but as a consequence of political machinations and goals on Henry's part. This, in fact, is one of the book's great strengths; Ridley is rare among biographers in his thorough attention to and excellent summary of the thicket of political events surrounding Tudor England, and this book does an excellent job of explaining these intricacies. Especially fascinating was the depiction of the conflict between Henry and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Henry would have probably gotten the papal annulment that he wanted to dissolve his marriage to Katharine of Aragon, if only Charles had not effectively controlled the pope and been such a bitter enemy of Henry's; then Henry would have found no need to break from the Catholic Church, and history would be entirely different! For a Renaissance monarch, Henry seems more to resemble one of the 20th century's bloodthirsty dictators in this book. While the depiction initially surprised me, Ridley backs up his claims with such excellent documentation and use of primary sources (which I was able to check), that he definitely has a point! A fascinating bio.



5. Ridley paints a picture of a King who is as ruthless a tyrant as any 20th Century dictator. Henry VIII is shown as a ruler who forced his ministers to do his bidding and then executed them to satisfy public opinion, once his policies began to loose popular support. He would stop at nothing to get what he wanted, including breaking with the Pope in Rome and reforming the Church in England with him as the head, when the Pope refused to grant him an annulment from his wife, who could not give him a male heir. Thereafter, Henry played Protestant and Catholic factions against each other, so that he could remain in complete control as an arbiter; alternatively burning influential Protestants as heretics and Catholics who refused to recognize him as Supreme head of the Church of England as traitors. Ridley's picture shows us a king who would stop at absolutely nothing to get what he wanted, including turning society and 1000 years of religion completely upside down! A fascinating look at the Stalin of the 1500s!

4 comments about Scott of the Antarctic: A Life of Courage and Tragedy.

1. David Crane shows how the death of the explorer Captain Scott galvanized the UK on the edge of World War I, but he qualifies British response to the tragedy by pointing up that, despite the weight of popular opinion, the pre-war Edwardian years were not exactly the Golden Age of empire the way they are nowadays painted. Crane's life of Scott is in every way a re-revisionist biography, kicking against what he feels has been the unfair denigration of Scott's life and deeds over the past thirty years.
   
   Sometimes this approach works, sometimes it doesn't. Through meticulous handling of evidence, he tells the story without a hint of strain, and yet sometimes whole paragraphs stop the action to argue that history has shafted Scott once again. A prototypical Englishman in the days when "God was an Englishman," Scott has suffered from unthinking backlhas, or so says Crane, and indeed he says it about four hundred times so that, frankly, I began to sympathize with Scott's attackers a bit, for no one's that perfect.
   
   Indeed Crane admits as much, citing his rivalry with Shackleton and then finally with Amundsen as proof, but in each case, the other man is deeply at fault and Scott was just trying to muddle through on Naval smarts and years of experience leading men. It was a time for heroics, and something in the air (together with a thriving media culture) made heroes out of the most unlikely souls. England expected every man to do his duty, and alas so did Norway and Amundsen came home with the gold, so to speak, whereas the Englishmen after the same glittering prize were all dead by the time Amundsen returned home. "The Englishmen, the goal accompished," bleated the press, "lay quiet in the snows. Through the months since . . . while wives and friends set forth for meetings and counted time, they lay oblivious. All was over for them long ago."
   
   Beyond the heroics of the era, Crane attributes the legend of Captain Scott to his indispitable skill as a prose writer. There is something macabre about the veneration given to his last journal, found by the relief party, but it's a bizarre twist totally understandable in the context, the words that live on after the hand that wrote them has grown cold and still. Without that last journal, its reinscription of subaltern heroics, its narrative of deprivation and memory and love, how else would Scott be remembered? In this regard Crane has an interesting passage about the way in which Westminster Abbey had its own little competition going on with St. Paul's Cathedral about which site had the most pomp and had the most heroes of empire commemmorated there.



2. The book is dreadful. It continually refers to other expeditions that the average reader will not know about. The writing is random and its impossible to follow the thread. There are also many deliberate and irrelevant literary references just inserted to be clever. A great subject that I w\as looking forward to, treated very badly by a pseudo intellectual. Try as I might I could not finish it.



3. I particularily like the subtitle to this book, 'a life of courage and tragedy.'
   
   Scott was undoubtedly courageous. He could not have been otherwise. On the other hand, his courage and drive to get to the South Pole was not exactly balanced by experience or perhaps by common sense. There's an old saying that if you wanted to get somewhere like the South Pole, Scott would have been a good leader to follow, but if you wanted to get back, then other expedition leaders like Shackleton would be your first choice. Shackleton's quotation: 'Better a live donkey than a dead lion.' Consistent with this, Scott got to the South Pole, Shackleton didn't. Scott didn't get back.
   
   In this book, the author is clearly a deep admirer of Scott. And indeed he did great things. Coming from a humble beginning he appeared driven to accomplish things, and he did. He was a complicated man, and Mr. Crane's access to the family papers and Scott's letters give a view that is perhaps more balanced than what we have seen before.
   
   If nothing else, Mr. Crane is an excellent writer and the story becomes one of those can't put down books.



4. The history of Arctic exploration is not a subject I've ever had a particular interest in. I picked this book up more or less by chance, was intrigued enough to buy it ... and haven't been able to put it down. The story itself is absolutely gripping from beginning to end, but it's the intelligence and skill of the writing that makes this such a memorable and remarkable book. Wonderful. Six stars.

2 comments about Julian of Norwich: Mystic and Theologian.

1. 'Mystic and theologian' is a perfect subtitle to this book. As Julian's experience, deepening ponderings and reflections feed my heart AND my head, so does this book. Talk about integration, whole-making! This exposition makes me fall and fall and fall deeper into truth in Julian' writings, deeper into the truth of myself, and deeper in love with God.
   
   thank you grace.



2. Grace Jantzen presents a thorough, interesting background of Julian's place, time, and spirituality. It is especially valuable because, unlike many other contemporary books on the topic, it is not speculative - conclusions can be trusted because no half truths are justified. Excellent scholarly work. Only the political correctness in the introduction is a bit boring.

5 comments about Diana.

1. If you're like me and just want to know Princess Diana's whole story, this is the book you need to read. It tells her life story in such an intertaining way that i just couldn't stop reading it until the very end. Sarah Bradford's work is remarkable. I highly recommend it.



2. I wasn't sure about "Diana" by Sarha Bradford when I picked it. I thought that it would be a Diana hate fest or love fest. But this book was either. I was a balance book about Princess of Wales. Ms. Bradford should that Diana was just everyone else in the world. She had her up and downs with family and friends and all that she was looking for was her place in world, but unlike the rest of us the whole world was watching her do it.
   If you are a fan of the late Princess of Wales this may be the book for you.



3. Bradford sounds like a fan of the Princess. She gives Diana the benefit of the doubt at every juncture. In a way, this makes for a pleasant and poignant read. Diana is portrayed as misunderstood and misused by "the establishment," the press, her family and most of her lovers. The only ones who didn't let her down were us (her public) and Hasnat Khan, the Pakistani surgeon who loved her dearly but couldn't/wouldn't marry her. Diana's more destructive impulses are portrayed as being the flip side of her strength. The thing of it is, though, very little of this information is new and much of it is hard to believe. Diana did bring much of her heartache onto herself. As Tina Brown's superior book exhibits, Diana's real story -- objectively told -- is just as compelling and heartbreaking as this more rose-colored version.



4. I've read many biographies of Diana written by the usual suspects and wasn't going to read this one. It was recommended to me by a friend and I'm so glad I bought it.
   
   It is a very well written biography by an author who obviously knows her craft. She touches on some events that are well known, but treats them in a different way---crisply and to the point. I'm learning some new things, too.
   
   I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a good book about a subject that seems will never be over.



5. Ms. Bradford is a celebrity biographer! She certainly did not bring anything memorable to the enigmatical Princess but she dragged it out forever. As Americans, we know little of the British system of royalty or those priveleged to be titled. I'm not certain that dragging every name and title connected with the late Princess brought anything at all interesting to this writing but it certainly filled pages with useless information. The only fact that was of any interest to me was that Diana Spencer's English lineage is absolute while that of Prince Charles is notably flawed! Diana's ideas concerning Prince William's elevation to King in place of Prince Charles has much value to the British people if the sequence of events reveal themselves to be in the best interests of the Monarchy. Diana would have liked William to be 'a very English King' who brings the Monarchy into the 21st century with she taking on the role of Queen Mother and aiding him in this huge endeavor. The Princess wished William and Harry to be a part of comtemporary English life by knowing his people and not reigning from afar in isolation. She wished him to be a democratic King to the people he would rule and to the extent that she was able, already had William and Harry on the road to that end. After reading almost 400 pages of information, this was the only enlightenment I came away with. I much preferred the biogaphy written by Paul Burrell to this one although the comparison is, more or less, one of apples to oranges.

5 comments about Elizabeth Wydeville: The Slandered Queen (England's Forgotten Queens).

1. An excellent history of Elizabeth Wydville. Sometimes a few too many details. Shows the love between Elizabeth and Henry. A great sadness at the end of the book showing how badly a queen can be treated after the king dies.



2. I thought this book had a great deal of conjecture in it. Regarding keeping this reader's interest, the book didn't come close to most of the historical books I've been reading lately, mostly by Alison Weir and Antonia Frasier. Additionally, the print was not dark enough for easy readability, and the print was rather small. Not easy on the eyes at all.



3. What a studied and fascinating work this book is! We've heard many versions of the presumed accounts of the 2 missing princes who disappeared from London Tower...but what of their mother, the first Queen Elizabeth? Although we've heard much smattering of slander about her in the past, now we have a new story to consider in this lavishly researched, footnoted and indexed work reviewing the Queen's life. Although you will feel the good weight of research that the author poured into the book, you will be able to read the Queen's fascinating story without needing to be a Rhodes Scholar to delve into it.
   
   We even get to sigh a romantic sigh as we imagine the meeting of (24 year old) Elizabeth when she met with the King (age 19) at the time he likely fell madly in love with her: "At Grafton, Elizabeth was on home territory. The Wydeville manor lay within a mile of Whittlewood Forest where the King was hunting. Having grown up here, Elizabeth knew the course that the hunters would take, the fields where the deer would be chased for the kill, the grassy spots ideal for picnics. Choosing a large oak tree, she stationed herself and her two small sons beneath it and waited. Hard in pursuit of prey, Edward saw the beautiful young mother with her children, pulled his horse up short, and marveled at the bucolic tableau." See what I mean? We really get a feel for the romance, the hardship, and the tragedy to follow.
   
   The ancestor of Mary, Queen of Scots and of Lady Jane Grey, this slandered queen's grandson will be Henry VIII, her great-grandaughter will be Queen Elizabeth I. In her time, she will become a widowed mother of two children but then secretly marry the King of England (the younger Edward IV), thus being crowned Queen of England in 1465, her father will be beheaded, her husband the King will become exiled leaving her alone while pregnant with many young children in tow, she will give birth to the future King of England (Edward V), her brother will be executed, her son (Sir Richard Grey) will be murdered upon order of Richard III, her two sons (King Edward V and Prince Richard of York) will disappear from the Tower of London with tragically uncertain fate, her 19-year-long marriage will be declared adulterous and their 10 children will be declared illegitimate, and she will be accused of witchcraft and sorcery.
   
   An amazing life, worth of the re-defining richly presented by this author.



4. I have to agree with another review that it was interesting to read a different interpretation of Elizabeth Wydeville. Some of the arguments fell short, but I still thought it was well done. I'm also not sure we are at a point to be spurning historical reinterpretation just yet.
   I enjoyed it and recommend that readers also read Baldwin's biography of Elizabeth



5. Is anyone else tired of hardline feminists writing revisionist histories of every female personage whose reputation may have been exagerated by contempory chroniclers?
   
   As contempory chroniclers are the only primary information sources, even assuming that they were all misogynistic and that they unjustly slandered every "liberated" woman, there are no better sources to prove otherwise. Portraying Elizabeth Wydeville as unculpable and virtuous is adding modern prejudice to her personage even more than her contemporaries possible misogyny.
   
   Frankly, this type of revisionist history is insulting as a scholar and as a female, and I was highly disappointed to see Alison Wier's name associated with this farce.

1 comments about The Last Letters of Thomas More.

1. Here is the man in his own words in letters to his daughter, his king and his friends. Much from A Man for All Seasons is taken from these letters. Wonderful!

5 comments about After Elizabeth: The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle For the Throne of England.

1. Queen Elizabeth (1533-1603) the "Virgin Queen" ruled England from 1553-1558 following the death of her half sister Mary Queen of Scots (reigned from 1553-1558). Mary won the nickname "Bloody Mary" due to her burning of Protestants at the stake. She was an ardent Catholic wed to Phillip II of Spain. Elizabeth was the daughter of the executed Anne Boleyn and the behemoth tyrant Henry VIII. As a young person she often lived in fear of being executed. She was at one time a prison in the infamous Tower of London. Elizabeth was vain but a good ruler guided by wise counselors. She never married but had close male friends.
   Elizabeth is nearing death in 1603. The realm is near bankruptcy, the court is corrupt and Catholics are being persecuted. Elizabeth had to execute Mary Queen of Scots in 1587 fearing she will support a Catholic invansion of England. Elizabeth began her decline after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1558. A plot by her young favorite the Earl of Essex had been extinguished and he was executed.
   Following the death of Elizabeth, James VI the King of Scotland and son of Mary Queen of Scots was crowned King of England. He was opposed by several factions which are described in great detail by the author. Scotland was a tough and brutal nation where bandits and clan warfare were the norm. The major foes to James' accession were:
   1, Supporters of Arbella Stuart a relative of Elizabeth.
   2. Jesuits and secular Catholic priests who wanted to restore the nation to the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholics were also busy fighting one another.
   3. Supporters of the deceased Earl of Essex who wanted to bring the Tudor monarchy to an end.
   One of the themes of this 300 page book is that the perception that James had an easy road to the crown is fallacious. Heads roled as conspiracies were discovered including that of the famous Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh was charged with conspiring with Spain to bring down James.
   DeLisle comes to the following conclusions about James I
   (1603-1625).
   1. He was a positive force in reforming the English church. During his reign the King James Version of the Bible was translated in 1611. The Protestant clergy was reformed with better educated preachers in pulpits. There was no offical toleration of Roman Catholicism. James favored the Protestant cause even though his wife Anne was a Roman Catholic.
   2. He kept the peace.
   3. James failed in his efforts to call an ecumenical council to reconcile Roman Catholics and Protestants.
   4. James also failed to unite England, Ireland and Scotland into the Great Britain we know today. He, nevertheless, made an effort to achieve this worthy goal.
   5. James may have suffered from cerebal palsy, attention deficit disorder and alcoholism. He was probably bisexual and had male favorites at court including George Villiers.
   6. James had a brilliant mind but was often cold and standoffish. He did not get along well with ordinary people and was not liked by the English public.
   7. He authored a book on the evils of tobacco and enjoyed music. The masque became popular during his reign. De Lisle says he was vulgar and was often crude in his conversations.
   8. James believed in the Absolute Right of Kings and was anti-democratic.
   This is a good first book by the English author/journalist L. De Lisle.
   One looks forward to her future books.



2. I read this book with great pleasure. I am a big fan of Elizabeth I, and this book gave a very detailed look at the end of her reign as well as the struggle for James I to get the throne after her. If you like this kind of history, this book is a must read!



3. Linda de Lisle has undertaken a tremendous amount of research before setting pen to paper - that is quite obvious. Her problem, however, is that she begins to stumble when it comes to meash this wealth of information into a narrative that keeps the reader's interest and retains coherence. This is a difficult task, and with new players entering the scene at regular intervals, a substantial challenge. De Lisle has made a sterling effort, and succeeds in getting the message across that James' succession to the throne of England was all but a forgone conclusion. However, it is a difficult book to read, and one requires a lot of patience and time to do so. I am inclined to say that it is worth the effort, but it requires more stamina than it should.



4. I found this short history tedious. I could not immerse myself in it and often found myself putting the book down out of boredom so that it took me much longer to read than many longer histories I've read in the past.
   
   I believe the main problem is that the author condenses too many characters in the space without rounding the characters out; I do not find myself interested in them because they appear wooden...not enough insight into their personalities and not enough color given to their backgrounds. I feel the author's past as a journalist has influenced her here. She can write volumes of information, but it doesn't seem to engage the reader on a deeper lever than a newspaper story might.
   
   I enjoy Christopher Hibbert and Alison Weir more. They convey complex historical events with a gift for giving the reader a feeling for the time and they have an ability to communicate characters on more of a flesh-and-blood level. Too bad. I was looking forward to the book.



5. LOVED THE STORY LINE AUTHOR IS GREAT IN THE DETAILS OF HIS WRITING

3 comments about Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe.

1. Very well-done book; good background too on the events Wolfe was involved in as well, esp. the '45 in Scotland. Well written.



2. Stephen Brumwell's biography of General James Wolfe is a top notch read for those interested in the man behind one of the most decisive battles in North American history. Through extensive research, Mr. Brumwell delves into the known facts, testimony and controversy surrounding this determined and inspirational leader and gets as close as anyone can to the truth, heart and life of General James Wolfe. As I read the book I felt I got to know Wolfe as a real person--through his hopes, desires, disappointments, doubts and courage during his short lived life leading up to his death on the Plains of Abraham in his "against-all-odds" victory against the French at Quebec. For anyone interested in the history of North America--this is a Must Read! I only hope this book is used as a blueprint for an epic movie about one of the greatest British Generals of the French and Indian War.



3. Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe is the first full-length biography published in half a century of Major General James Wolfe, a British military hero whose decisive 1759 victory against the French, on the Plains of Abraham before Quebec, ensured that English would become the dominant language of North America. Wolfe paid for his victory with his life; since then he has been enshrined in paintings, praised for his military genius and self-effacing modesty, and reviled by revisionist historians who paint him as bloodthirsty and snooty. Paths of Glory seeks to uncover the truth, as best as historical records and testimonies can deliver, of the chronically ill Wolfe's life and death. An inset handful of color and black-and-white illustrations, notes, and an index round out this absorbing in-depth chronicle of a pivotal historical figure.