No comments about Isabel I, Reina de Inglaterra (Mujeres en la historia series).

1 comments about John the Fearless: The Growth of Burgundian Power (History of Valois Burgundy).

1. Vaughan's series of books on Valois Burgundy have long been a staple for anyone interested Burgundian history and culture. After a long stretch of being out of print, and very difficult to find, these new editions are sure to be welcomed by many historians. Added to Vaughan's work is a fantastic new introduction written for the 2002 edition by Malcolm Vale (another historian I would readily recommend).
   While these works may be older, and more recent work has been done on Burgundy, Vaughan's scholarship is still first-rate. A must for the bookshelf of anyone interested in Valois Burgundy, or Northern Europe in the late 14th and 15th centuries.

5 comments about African Princess.

1. This is a book that all African American women should own. It gives a sense of pride to know where we come from. I applaud the author. Thank You.



2. I like african princess because it tells adventurous true stories.And woman who had great courage and great symblos for woman.In Ethiopia when you are 10 years old you get married and are trained to do elderly things. The Portugues and Ugandans were in a slave trade. The Portuguess wer in the slave trade to recieve slave trade, and Ugandas would get weapons. All of these stories I mentioned were great and they tell you African history.



3. I discovered African Princess: the Amazing Lives of Africa's Royal Women while searching for history about African Royalty, and it is most excellent. The artwork is gorgeous and the text is simple enough for my 8 year old niece to read it and understand it. Rich history, intriguing stories, and pride in our history make this book great for all generations.



4. Six examples of African feminine royalty are showcased in chronological order, from pre-Christian times to the modern era. Each of the women focused was representative of her time, yet she showed a foresight and independence that made her stand out from her contemporaries.
   
   The text by former schoolteacher Joyce Hansen, along with Laurie McGraw's superb illustrations, makes for a captivating and inspiring read for youngsters, female and male. It also should be noted that the book should be shared with all children for there still remains some misconceptions in the general public about Africa, even to this day.
   
   The book does a good job of addressing and correcting those misconceptions in a highly professional and insightful manner.



5. From a female pharaoh in ancient Egypt to an African princess of her people who avoided men, and an empress, African Princess uses words and pictures to recreate the lives of six selected powerful royal women of Africa. Good reading skills in grades 2-4 will lend to an appreciation of early female African leaders.

No comments about Footprints Of A Life, In Memory Of Princess Alice Of Great Britain And Ireland, Grand Duchess Of Hesse Darmstadt.

1 comments about Great Harry: The Extravagant Life of Henry VIII.

1. Erickson demonstrates her profound knowledge of the Tudor era in England through the amazing variety of details she fits into her easy and engaging narrative of the life of one of England's most loved but notorious kings. The reader learns about the perosn, the monarch, his family and his country, and how all were intertwined. The development of Henry, second son not meant to inherit the throne, into Great Harry, fearless and fearsome king who practically destroyed his kingdom to get his own way are beautifully chronicled and bristles with personal touches. It's high drama and well worth it.

No comments about The Welsh Kings: Warriors, Warlords, and Princes.

No comments about Richard the Lionheart: King and Knight.

No comments about Anne and the Princesses Royal..

4 comments about Elizabeth I: Collected Works.

1. This is an outstanding collection of letters and documents relating to one of the most important and influential person in English history. My only problem how the edition was published - the type font is way too small. I realize that the subject matter is wide ranging and some economies are necessary to keep the printing costs down - reducing the type front to squeeze in more text is one of them. Unfortunately, this makes casual reading very difficult.



2. There are countless books on Tudor England and Elizabeth I in particular. So, it is refreshing to finally read some of the letters so many authors have used as source material in their books about the Virgin Queen. There's little doubt that she was well educated and highly intelligent. Now, readers ready and willing to dive into medieval letters, in the formal language of the time, will be rewarded by the ability to form their own opinion about whether this woman was politically savvy, or a political pawn.
   
   You be the judge--no, really:)



3. This is a beautifully designed book. As to what's inside: It contains what too many of her biographers are either too dishonest, too ignorant, or, too afraid to include, i.e. her belief in God and her understanding that her country and her country's people had a unique place and a unique role in carrying out God's plan. Elizabeth I had a complete understanding. It's difficult to write off her accomplishments in learning at such a young age as being merely the result of having royal tutors helping her along. This is what many biographers try to do. There's never been an over-supply of young genius in royal families in any era. More attention, as well, should be paid to her reading. Reading great books has never been a guarantee of anything regarding somebody's understanding of themselves and the world, but it is, without exception, a key ingredient in the education (self-education or otherwise) of everybody who eventually DOES attain a real understanding of themselves and the world. Elizabeth's understanding may have even gone beyond herself and the world around her... These writings are not ideal as a window into her, but there is enough here to work up an impression above the words, and, coupled with a good biography such as the one by Paul Johnson the picture can become very complete.



4. Queen Elizabeth I of England has had hundreds of books written *about* her, but very few of them allow us to hear what she has to say in her own words. I found this an accessible, well-edited collection, not of *all* her words, but of a very good sample. It includes all of the speeches, prayers and poems she wrote that are available from reliable contemporary sources (as with all famous people, things have been attributed to her that she never wrote). It also includes -- and this is my favorite part -- a selection of her letters; sometimes the replies are also included, as with a series of angry letters she exchanged with King James of Scotland (all the while addressing him as "my right dear brother and cousin"). The documents range from formal speeches to Parliament to the occasional playful, teasing or personal note, such as the one she wrote to Lord Leicester in the Netherlands that begins, "Rob, I am afraid you will suppose by my wandering writings that a midsummer moon hath taken large possession of my brains..." Spelling and punctuation have been modernized, and unusual words have been footnoted, but the words are otherwise unaltered, and the texts are presented in full, sometimes in several versions where they differ significantly. I did find that a basic knowledge of the outline of the events of her life is immensely helpful in understanding who she is addressing and why, which is often mentioned only briefly in the notes. There is a certain amount of theorizing in the book's Preface about the "strategic gendering of Elizabeth's self-representation" -- but the texts really speak for themselves. This is a rare chance to see historical material that's often hard to locate, and an enjoyable chance to be "inside the head" of a fascinating historical person.

3 comments about Ferber: Edna Ferber and Her Circle: Paperback Book.

1. This is a biography of an unusually successful and an unusual woman. Though some of her more well remembered works survive through countless productions of Showboat and viewings of the several versions of the movies made from her plays and books like Giant, Cimarron and Stage Door and the endless productions of her plays, she herself is less well-remembered than other groundbreaking female writers like Edith Wharton. Yet, as we learn from this biography, she was probably one of the most successful American writers portraying the grandeur of this vast country. And as she was able to portray the role of women in creating the patterns of American families, she herself was a powerful and independent woman. This biography tells her story from a point of view of an insider. Julie Gilbert writes of her grand-aunt in a way that describes her through the author's personal vision and then goes back to review Ferber's earlier years with outside research and access to intimate personal information that would be otherwise unavailable. Ferber's story is as fascinating as her stories and this biography is fun and informative. It is a must read.



2. Biography written by a family member or friend so often is mere hagiography, not good biography. But the book by Julie Gilbert, Edna Ferber's great-niece, was the only Ferber biography I could find, so I decided I would start there to learn about Ferber, and I'm really glad I did. Is the Gilbert book objective? Of course not. No one writes objective biography.
   
   I applaud Gilbert for her courage in presenting Ferber as a real person, exposing the extremes of her personality. Ferber was outsized-she had a benevolent heart coupled with colossal rage: "When Ferber got worked up over an issue, there was nobody who could touch her. She was a dervish of indignation. When she was calm she exuded power; when she was upset she exuded great power." Katherine Hepburn, twenty years Ferber's junior, says: "We were dangerous women. There aren't any more of us around."
   
   I give the book only four stars for two reasons: One, because I wish Gilbert had included photos. I love the image that Gilbert writes of Ferber and her sister Fan looking together like a Diane Arbus photo: "visually similar and visually sour." A picture of these two together would have added a lot to the book; and two, because Gilbert doesn't include sources. Perhaps most of Ferber's papers are still in the family's control; regardless, I would like to have known where Gilbert found her information.
   
   That being said, I would recommend this book for anyone interested in Edna Ferber, and also in New York, theater, and party life of the 1930s. Whee, Ferb! Wot a girl!



3. Is there a renaissance of interest in the writings of Edna Ferber? Stamps were minted honoring her this past summer [2002], and now the reissuance of this biography, written by Ferber's greatniece and originally published about 1978. I hope this indicates a resurgence of interest in her writings -- but you would be better served to read Ferber's writings themselves, than this biography.

   I've been in love with the writings of Edna Ferber since I was 12 and someone gave me a used edition of "Amreican Beauty". I realize that she won't go down in the annals of the classics of American literature, such as Faulkner or even Carson McCullers: her writing lacks the quality of universality, and I suppose, self-discovery [on the reader's part]. But she is great at the sociology of America, at giving the reader an intuitive feel or understanding of an era or people. I even did my first term paper in high school on her: "The Effects of Minority Races on the Writing of Edna Ferber" -- and I still remember with pleasure the note the instructor wrote, to the effect that my love for Ferber's writings was apparent.

   So although I had read reviews to the effect that Ms. Gilbert did not let her closeness to her aunt affect her objectivity, I couldn't resist reading it. I was prepared for her to be critical. I was not prepared for her to be vindictive and viperish. She related Ferber's life backwards: 1960 to 1968, 1952 to 1960, 1938 to 1950, 1916 to 1938, etc. -- so you begin by seeing her as a crochety old lady [and indeed, this was the bulk of the book, rather than the period in which Ferber was writing -- although I suppose it is understandable, as that is when Ms. Gilbert would have known her] without having any idea what made her that way.

   What did come out was that Miss Ferber took over of the support of her extended family [besides her mother: her sister, her sister's 2 children, and their children] -- and that the family felt some guilt at this, and I felt Ms. Gilbert's book was an attempt to whitewash the family's guilt, saying in effect, "See, it wasn't easy for us, we had to put up with this disagreeable old lady." When she sticks to facts, it isn't too bad; but she's always jumping to pseudo-freudian conclusions, or attaching a moralistic interpretation to the actions of others. For example, although she quotes letters of praise from Noel Coward [who was not a person to suffer fools gladly] fairly frequently, she usually adds that the work "wasn't Ferber's best" [I wonder what she did feel was her best?] and that he undoubtedly did it out of friendship. She makes numerous allusions to a freudian problem which Miss Ferber had in her relationship with her mother, but during her tale of the early part of Ferber's life, never mentions anything to provide support or justification for such comments. If someone outside the family had written it, I'm sure they would be subject to a lawsuit for libel and inneundo.

   The biography is entitled "Ferber and her Circle", but is only tangentially about her "circle".