5 comments about Unknown Shore: The Lost History of England's Arctic Colony.

1. This is an OK read about the Arctic. There are actually two stories here. The first revolves around English explorer and pirate Martin Forbisher and the second about an American Charles Francis Hall. Forbisher was searching for the northwest passage to China and found what he thought was a passage way and a black stone. Assayers felt the stone could yield a fortune in gold. The passage Forbisher found was a bay and the stone contained little in the way of precious metals. Hall searched for the survivors of an earlier Artic expedition of Franklin. He was disappointed too. What he found were the traces of Forbisher's expedition. Both explorers searched for something that was not there.
   The book is of interest to those historians who like the explorations of the Arctic and Antarctic. What is facinating is the life of the Inuit or native peoples who inhabit this inhospital land. It was interesting to read of how these people adapted to their environment. The white man may have thought them savages. They were far more civilized than the white man. As stated an OK read about a little known expedition.



2. I was very interested in Frobisher Air Base now Iqaluit Airport. My interest centered around the part it played in the US nuclear war plans, early warning, communications and strategic location during the 80s and 90s. First I needed to learn about the history of the area and exploration. Unknown Shore provided that first glimpse of early life and exploration. The cast of characters and the way their names became geographic locations are explained to a lesser degree though. If you like reading about remote and harsh areas of the world you will like this book. It could use a few more maps and pictures but I say that for every book I read.



3. An unfortunately rare example of an eminently readable work of history. Ruby does an outstanding job of setting his story in the context of the times with a modern historian's insight into social and cultural history. This is far more than just another in a series of the latest vogue in Arctic exploration narratives. Through skillful use of his sources, the author brings both his European and Inuit protagonists to life. The reader is left with the haunting image of fragments of a remote Arctic island studding the landscape of a prosaic London suburb as testimony to both the folly and awe-inspiring tenacity of the sixteenth-century explorers. This is fascinating complementary reading for students of the colonization of other areas of the world.



4. Robert Ruby's Unknown Shore is a little misleading in its subtitle (The Lost History of England's Arctic Colony) in as much as the history was not quite lost nor was there actually a colony, only the briefest of attempts at a colony in a farcical plan to mine the soil for gold. That said, the book is quite entertaining as it pieces together the story of Martin Frobisher and his ill-fated Elizabethean Arctic adventures and the always fascinating Charles Francis Hall's discovery of the location of Frobisher's Meta Incognita in the nineteenth century. (For a wonderful and full account of Hall, see the very fine Weird and Tragic Shores by C. Chauncey Loomis). The two stories blend fairly well and the author keeps the narrative sparkling along at an entertaining clip. This was a good Arctic read for those addicted to these books and a good place to begin for someone who wants to learn what the addiction to these Arctic books is all about from a book that shows men whose addiction to that cold world ran so much deeper than merely reading about it.



5. This is a tale about an English pirate-turned-explorer who few people have ever heard of, and the establishment of British colony on an Arctic island that is perhaps even less known...but that's short-changing this elaborate true adventure. Bought this one because I liked the author's last book, "Jericho," which was a history of a place, but also of archaeology itself and of wave after wave of quirky scientists who came to study the ruins of the famous city. This new book has an even broader sweep, from pre-naval power London where morality always took a back seat to fortune-seeking, to the coast of West Africa where a ship's crew was worth less to investors than a few tons of pepper, to the Czar's palace in Moscow, the roiling North Atlantic and the confusing, ice-packed passages above North America. This is a tale festooned with accurately-drawn characters. The scholarship is so clearly reliable that you know that you're not getting the pop-magazine caricatures of, say, Sebastian Junger's "The Perfect Storm." Also, with Ruby's style of examining a place through the eyes of multiple adventurers from several eras, you're getting a deeply-textured tale that makes Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" seem one-dimensional. And you also get a fun - and often funny - yarn featuring modern reporters in polar bear pants, privateers who seize all shipping - even that of their countrymen - a pompous alchemist, mutual puzzlement as white man meets Inuit, horrific storms at sea, and discussions of the how Queen Elizabeth's sex life affected exploration. By the end, I had not only enjoyed myself but absorbed an extraordinary amount of the FEEL of an era - or two - and a place. In this sense it's also comparable to Patrick O'Brien's seafaring Maturin and Aubrey series.

No comments about Beating them at Their Own Game: How the Irish Conquered English Soccer.

No comments about Andrew Bryson's Ordeal: An Epiloque to the 1798 Rebellion. (Irish Narrative Series).

No comments about Test of Greatness: Britain's Struggle for the Atom Bomb.

No comments about Charles D'Orleans in England, 1415 1440.

4 comments about White Goats and Black Bees (Classics from the Southwest Ireland Series).

1. Donald Grant and his wife, NY journalists, retire and move to a cottage in Ireland. Their experiences and adjustments to their neighbors, to small scale farming, and to the culture of Ireland makes entertaining reading.
   They learn goat keeping, rabbit raising, and the ways of bees and geese. The evenings chatting in the pub, the village interactions, the local customs and other trivia of daily life make you feel a part of their Irish experience.



2. If you loved Under the Tuscan Sun than you will find a great book here! Donald Grant's book will make you reexamine your life and reorganize your priorities all while providing good reading pleasure. A bit dated as it was written in the 70's, but it is more about finding yourself and the cultural life in rural Ireland.



3. I may be guilty of a little bit of nepetism (Mary Grant being an aunt, a bit removed and seldom seen), but this book has been a family treasure around the house for years. Anyone looking for an inspiring story about a simpler life should look into this one for sure.



4. Donald and Mary Grant, two well paid journalists living in New York City, decide to do a career change in their late 50's. They purchase a cottage sitting on three or four acres, later to become 11 acres, and live off the land. They visit the local Irish Pub on Saturday nights, chat about farm animals, and throughout the year entertain friends from their previous life who thought them totally "bunkers". Donald for added income writes a column for an American newspaper describing their new life. At a time when Americans have had to make career changes late in life, I would highly recommend this book. I think they added to the success of their endeavor by choosing Ireland, for it is definitely a country where nature has it's way. Untamed, perhaps, but also unspoiled. I believe in my heart that the troubles in Ireland should not be and Great Britian should give Northern Ireland it's freedom just as Donald Grant felt after living there. The Irish are unique, pleasantly unique, and should remain so

3 comments about The Voice of Destruction.

1. This book has also been published in the English language under the title: HITLER SPEAKS.
   
   Covering events mostly from the early to the middle 1930's, this book fills an important gap in the development of Hitler's thinking. It comes after MEIN KAMPF (1923-1925) and the then-unpublished HITLER'S SECOND BOOK (1928), but before HITLER'S TABLE TALK.
   
   Rauschning elaborates on Hitler's attitudes towards Poland. It becomes obvious that the Fuhrer never saw the 1934 Polish-German Nonaggression Pact as anything more than a temporary expedient, and that he never seriously considered accepting Poland as an ally against the Soviet Union (p. 119). This adds refutation against the claim that WWII had been triggered, in part, by "Polish intransigence".
   
   A common Nazi anti-Semitic theme is the one about Jews being vermin (presumably fit for nothing other than extermination). Interestingly, Nazis also thought that way of Poles. Albert Forster, the Gauleiter of Danzig (Gdansk), referred to Poles as lice (p. 110). (So did Joseph Goebbels, in his diaries).
   
   Rauschning elaborates on Hitler's obsession with Jews. He believed that it was driven in part by Hitler's fear of his partial Jewish ancestry (p. 235).
   
   In his MEIN KAMPF and SECOND BOOK, Hitler had vilified the Jews, and presented Slavic lands as ones to be conquered for lebensraum purposes and filled with German settlers. But what exactly was to be done with the Jews and the Slavs was left to the imagination of the listener. Not so here! Hitler makes direct threats against both Jews and Slavs as biological entities. He speaks of using both Jewish property and Jewish lives as hostages in response to the anti-German actions of other nations (pp. 88-89). (This foreshadows his infamous January 1939 statement, in which he said that, if "international Jewry" caused another war, he would destroy Europe's Jews in response.) He first speaks of resettling Czechs in Siberia (p. 38) and then, repeatedly complaining about the great fecundity of the Slavic peoples (p. 33, 137), proposes to solve this problem through such measures as keeping men and women separated for years (p. 137). He quips: "There are many ways, systematical and comparatively painless, or at any rate bloodless, of causing undesirable races to die out." (p. 138). (In time, the Nazis did implement both active and passive genocidal techniques against the conquered Slavs, as discussed by Raphael Lemkin. The Nazis also worked to develop mass-sterilization methods, preferably ones that could be used covertly against the intended victims).
   
   In this book, Hitler develops his anti-Christian themes, but not as strongly as in the later HITLER'S TABLE TALK. In this work, Hitler refers to Christianity as an effeminate, Jewish invention (p. 49, 235). He trusts that the dogma of the Vicarious Suffering of Christ will give way to acceptance of the new Leader-legislator, who will liberate the faithful from the burden of free will (p. 225). Hitler also clearly exhibits the views of a moral relativist: "There is no such thing as truth, either in the moral or in the scientific sense." (p. 223).
   
   Nazism is often misrepresented as a form of extreme nationalism. In fact, Hitler believed that the concept of the nation was a political expedient of democracy and Liberalism (p. 232), and was just as outdated as the concept of the dynastic feudal state that it had replaced. He wanted the concept of the nation replaced by "purely biological values". (p. 233).
   
   Nazism is also commonly misrepresented as a form of capitalism. In actuality, Hitler scorned both Communism and capitalism, just as he had done earlier in MEIN KAMPF and the SECOND BOOK. In the present work, he commented: "The classless society of the Marxists, he [Hitler] contended, was madness. Order always meant class order. But the democratic notion of a class order based on the moneybag was equally mad. A genuine aristocracy was not born out of the accidentally successful speculations of bright businessmen." (p. 39).



2. To understand why, read my related essay at: http://www.hashkafah.com/index.php?showtopic=22001



3. These supposed recollections of private conversations with Hitler were shown in the 1980's (see Der Spiegel 37:92-99, 1985), after investigation by a Swiss schoolteacher (Wolfgang Haenel), to be fraudulent. The book was used as evidence at the Nuremberg trials and also cited in postwar histories (e.g., Rise and Fall of the Third Reich), some still in print.
   Richard Pipes, otherwise a splendid historian of the Russian tragedy, also quotes this book.
   Hermann Rauschning met Hitler twice, in public forums, and had no private conversations with him. He had a falling out with the regime and then concocted this "memoir." In 1943 he gave a presentation at my alma mater (Wartburg College, Iowa), no doubt to many a reverent ear.
   The danger of making Hitler or any other tyrant into such a cartoonish figure is that subsequent generations are lulled into thinking that a potential dictator would present himself as an obvious neurotic. Quite the contrary.
   Four stars for historical importance, despite its blatant falsity.

5 comments about The Last Days of Henry VIII: Conspiracy, Treason and Heresy at the Court of the Dying Tyrant.

1. Henry VIII's story does not end with the beheading of Anne Boleyn. Hutchinson pulls from many sources of Henry VIII's contemporaries to tell the most interesting bits of Henry's last few years as King of England. The chapters do not follow a consecutive timeline, but rather skip around and focus on a single theme such as reforming the church, the ordeal surrounding the king's marriage to Anne of Cleves, the war waged with France, Henry's health, etc.
   
   I found this book very easy to read for a number of reasons. Hutchinson continually reminds the reader of certain characters and their relations/roles to King Henry VIII. If you still can't figure out who someone is, simply flip to the back of the book and there's a whole list of names and a short one or two line "biography" on each person. There's also a timeline in case the flipping back and forth between years gets confusing. I didn't have any problems following along and I'm not well versed on Tudor history! In fact, this is the first historical biography I have ever read! And I read it for pure enjoyment!
   
   So, if you're looking for an interesting book on one of the more interesting characters of the English monarchy, I highly recommend you consider this book!



2. This book is a great comprehensive look at the last few years of Henry VIII's life, which is often overlooked due to the scandals of his earlier years. It explores in depth his last three marriages, the conspiracies and rivalries abounding in his inner circle, the religious climate, his volatile temper, his waning heath and final illness, and his majestic funeral. We see some familiar characters like Cromwell exit the scene in Henry's familiar tyrant fashion, and we become more familiar with others who filled large rolls behind the scene. I would recommend this as a great supplement to the collection of any Tudor enthusiast as a readable and straightforward account of Henry's final, tumultuous years.



3. I found this book was not very reader-friendly. It was interesting, but not interesting enough for me to finish...



4. In response to the fellow that gave this book a 1-star, one cannot possibly understand the important political maneuverings in the final days of Henry without explaining details of his reign, of which I feel was the point of the book. I also did not mind the review of other parts of his reign because it included interesting primary sources.
   
   This book is a good starting point to understanding the Tudor political atmosphere and why it is how it is in the wake of Henry's death, backed with good solid sources of letters and financial records. It is also remarkably readable and interesting.
   
   The only thing I didn't prefer are the conjectures of Henry's ailments. At this point it's just a guess - and I'd prefer to just have the symptoms stated instead of a guess stated like a fact.



5. This book does a remarkably good job of presenting the facts about the final years of Henry VIII, a time when political and religious factions were vying for control over the course England would take after Henry's imminent death. I've read a lot about Henry over the years but this book taught me many things about him that I never knew before. This book contains an overview of the political and religious situation towards the end of Henry's time and also presents many interesting new findings and details you probably won't read anywhere else. It's written in an erudite yet relaxed style that is easy, even entertaining to read, and feels like listening to a lecture by a skilled history professor with a sense of humor. This book is a valuable and very welcome recent addition to the world's historical knowledge of Henry's time. I heartily recommend it to anyone who shares my fascination with Henry VIII or English history in general.

No comments about Armoured Cars in Eden - An American President's son serving in Rolls Royce Armoured Cars with the British in Mesopotamia and with the American Artillery in France during the First World War.

1 comments about That Great Lucifer: A Potrait of Sir Walter Raleigh.

1. Everyone knows Sir Walter Ralegh as the gallant courtier who spread his cloak across a puddle so that his queen might pass dry-shod. A commoner who never lost his thick Cornish accent, Ralegh was nevertheless precisely the sort of man likely to catch Elizabeth's eye: handsome, intelligent, witty, well-spoken, and possessed of enough pride and independence to speak his mind, even to his queen. The term "Renaissance man" seems coined with Ralegh in mind: He was a poet, soldier, privateer, explorer, scientist, historian.

   He could also be stunningly naive, and surprisingly inept at the art of courting favor. His first meeting with James I, Elizabeth's successor, was a disaster. Accustomed to priviledge, Ralegh approached James unannounced, even though the king heartily disliked such surprises. When James observed that he might have had to fight for the throne, Ralegh's response was, "Would to God you had! Then Your Majestry would have known your friends from your foes." An honest sentiment and possibly a shrewd one, it not the sort of observation likely to endear him to the new king. James already had reason to be wary of Ralegh, for some of Ralegh's enemies had been plying James for months with negative reports. Ralegh's recent behavior seemed to support these dark hints: he was one of the few dignitaries who did not bother to contact James after Elizabeth's death to assure the new sovereign of his loyalty. Worse, Ralegh presented the peace-loving king with a proposal for seizing the West Indies from Spain. James had been told that Ralegh was a warmonger and possibly a traitor. With his own eyes he perceived another, more subtle threat: this handsome, powerful, and persuasive man was a living reminder of Elizabethan glories.

   Ralegh's fall from power during the reign of James I was as swift and spectacular as his rise under Elizabeth had been. His enemies rejoiced, as did the common folk who then and now love to see the mighty brought low. Ralegh's greatest triumph, perhaps, was the courage and wit he exhibited through his trial, imprisonment, and execution. In a last interview with a friend, he advised him to come to the beheading early if he wished to get a place. "As for me, my place is assured," he quipped. His last words, spoken to the hesitant executioner, were, "What dost fear? Strike, man, strike!"

   Margaret Irwin is a novelist as well as a historian, and this comes through in the tone and quality of her writing. This biography is far more entertaining than most fictorical fiction I've read. It's full of telling anecdotes, vivid descriptions, and dead-on characterizations. Considering the complexity of her subjects and the paradoxical nature of Ralegh himself, this is a remarkable achievement.

   One minor disappointment was the lack of a bioliography; there were several incidents and anecdotes that I would have liked to explore in more depth. Even so, it's an entertaining story, as well as a window into a fascinating time.