Reading Lamps and Smoking Jackets

[Cray Squirrel]

Why though?

Customer Review​

ProfClio
3.0 out of 5 stars It's all Politics
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2015
Verified Purchase
Read this at my History Book Club (Politics & Prose in Washington DC). There were a few who really enjoyed it. I rate it OK at best. The work is a tantalising survey. There is a lot that doesn't get the coverage that I had hoped for (Canada's first nations being one example) and the focus is definitely on the political. So this work has nothing to say about, say, cultural history. It would then better include "Political" in the title. Whenever an interesting issue was raised, the discussion was, as is necessary in a work like this, over before it could be developed. Perhaps this wasn't a book that I should have chosen although the US history version is much better.

 

[waikikigun]

Finally, after several months of reading, I now know all about the history of Canadian penguins.

Bob

I found that book much too penguin-centric. Until you've read The Long-tailed Weasel History of Canada you don't really begin to get the full picture.

 

[deluxestogie]

Why though?

Are you asking why I would read a history of the most important neighbor and ally of the United States, with whom we share an enormous, unfortified border?

As for the silly criticism that it's just a political history, and ignores "cultural" history: Of course! I don't know of history books of any part of the world regarding any epoch that have been written as much more than the political history of the region--until authors in the last 15 or 20 years. It has been only in the 21st century that we see the explosion of ethnographical history and practically any objective analysis of the cultural impact of the "discovery" of America, or the contribution of, say Genghis Khan to the blossoming of Europe. Written histories have for millennia been about victorious leaders.

I have read history extensively for the past half-century. In early summer of 2021, I realized that I knew more about the history ancient Sumer and Akkad than I did about Canada. I purchased used copies of two different histories of Canada. Bothwell was the briefer of the two. The other (a 1200 page monster) will have to wait for the next pandemic lockdown.

So...which specific book on the history of Canada would you recommend? I've asked Canadians. Suggestions welcomed.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

The

Are you asking why I would read a history of the most important neighbor and ally of the United States, with whom we share an enormous, unfortified border?

As for the silly criticism that it's just a political history, and ignores "cultural" history: Of course! I don't know of history books of any part of the world regarding any epoch that have been written as much more than the political history of the region--until authors in the last 15 or 20 years. It has been only in the 21st century that we see the explosion of ethnographical history and practically any objective analysis of the cultural impact of the "discovery" of America, or the contribution of, say Genghis Khan to the blossoming of Europe. Written histories have for millennia been about victorious leaders.

I have read history extensively for the past half-century. In early summer of 2021, I realized that I knew more about the history ancient Sumer and Akkad than I did about Canada. I purchased used copies of two different histories of Canada. Bothwell was the briefer of the two. The other (a 1200 page monster) will have to wait for the next pandemic lockdown.

So...which specific book on the history of Canada would you recommend? I've asked Canadians. Suggestions welcomed.

Bob

French-Indian War was fascinating. British, Colonials, French, all with Indian allies and fighting in Nova Scotia, Quebec, and the Colonies.

 

[deluxestogie]

One of my favorite old Nintendo games was a strategy game on the subject of the internecine wars in China during the medieval period: Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Years later (9 years ago), I played it again, but this time as an NES emulation on my Windows laptop. (I still have a small stack of blank maps I printed, showing the outlines of the provinces of China, in order to jot down strategically useful data during game play.)

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that the title of that favorite game was also the title of the very first Chinese novel, a historical fiction named Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It's creation is a bit blurry, but seems to have originated from an actual historical chronicle written several hundred years earlier. The historical fiction was first published in the 1500s. I located a modern English translation, and purchased it—two volumes. They arrived today.

The two volumes together add up to 1360 pages. It's going to be a bit before I get to it.

Bob

 

[Radagast]

I find this to be awesome. There were innumerable NES titles, many of them obscure, many sleepers, hidden gems and lost treasures. I often found Nintendo game music to be so ingeniously crafted.

 

[deluxestogie]

The early strategy games were heavy on text and still graphics, with little or no animation. Lots of data panels, with your actions actuated by menu. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Genghis Kahn were two of those that I found to be both excellent and enjoyable. You could always identify a strategy game, because you had to actually read the instructions. But I had not expected the manual to be 1360 pages.

Bob

 

[DIY Pete]

I loved Genghis Kahn on the original Nintendo. Played it for hours with my friends when I was in the Airforce. Six pack of beer and a Pizza and I was good to play for most of the night.

 

[deluxestogie]

It was from the Genghis Khan game that I first heard of Uighur traders. Speaking of which, I read this in early December, just before gift wrapping it, and sending it to my son for Christmas.

Excellent book, loaded with stuff I never knew.

Bob

 

[DIY Pete]

I would like to read more but my days are so full right now. They shouldn't be but they seem to just fill up almost like magic. Wish the bank account worked that way.

 

[deluxestogie]

Owning a television tends to make days full.

Bob

 

[GunnyJ]

I'm almost halfway through The Jungle. The level of detail regarding the quality of living (or lack thereof) and working conditions is rather disturbing.

 

[deluxestogie]

This was published in 1991. Despite my 6 decades of reading all sorts of history, there are many glaring holes. I am enjoying the clear and objective narrative by Hourani, who was an Emeritus Fellow at Oxford. I purchased it (used) back in September of 2021, for $4.64, but it just now came to the top of my reading queue.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

A side note and a public service announcement:

I posted this photo in this thread about a year ago.

I started reading Gavin Menzie's 1421 (about the Ming Dynasty treasure fleets that sailed the world). It was fascinating. With each new chapter, I found myself mumbling, "I've never heard of that ever before." When I reached about half-way through the substantial tome, it was insinuating that the friendly, well-dressed and handsome "Indians" that greeted the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock were, in fact, the descendants of a stranded Chinese crew from one of the shipwrecked "Treasure ships".

Screech to a halt! This seemed patently bogus. I began an academic search for opinions on Menzie's books by expert historians and archeologists who specialize in the Ming Dynasty period. The kindest description from any of them was that Menzie's works were "alternative history." FICTION! They are both fiction. And they pointed out all the flaws in his approach.

I set aside 1421, and read a completely different book, to allow my anger to subside. After finishing that other book, all I could do with Menzie—both of his craftily misrepresented books—was to retrieve my bookmark, never to open their covers again.

So...I strongly recommend 1421 and 1434 if you enjoy "alternative" history. If you want to read actual history, look elsewhere.

(I'm still pissed-off.)

Bob

 

[Redleaf]

i was very interested in your stack of books. I received the bottom four as gifts from my kids. Much like you I was very pleased to read the pre Columbian history of the americas and then the results of European colonialism. Both books by Charles Mann are fascinating and recent excavations since the writing of his books continue to bear up the truth of his story.
Also much like you I was quite surprised by the revelations of China basically sailing the globe, and I being perhaps more gullible went on to read the next novel and read how China set up the world for the renaissance. After I had read both of Gavin Menzies books I too was somewhat skeptical and slightly P.O.’d to read reviews that confirmed my suspicions that a great deal of what he wrote was mere speculation. Still there may be some grains of truth in his vast claims for I am sure that many knowledgeable people knew the earth was not flat long before Columbus’s time.
Moving on to your quest for knowledge of your neighbour to the north I would like to offer up my suggestion of Frontier farewell by Garrett Wilson. This book is a wonderful accounting of the late 19th century and “the end of the old west”. Centering particularly on events in the Great Plains of North America. I highly recommend this book and think anyone would enjoy reading it and come away with a greater knowledge of a very tempestuous time in the west.very well researched and written.

 

[deluxestogie]

there may be some grains of truth in his vast claims

There are some grains of truth in all my sci-fi and fantasy writing. But on the copyright pages they say, clearly, "This book is a work of fiction."

Bob

 

[Redleaf]

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not defending him.

 

[deluxestogie]

I know. Sorry if I made it sound like that.

Menzies himself fabricated his own bio, regarding his stent in the Royal Navy. Actually, they tossed him out, and refute many of the "details" he provides about his alleged submarine cruises. His original manuscript was so awful that the publisher hired several ghost writers to write (not edit and re-write) all of what you now read in those two books. And they were directed to just write the book based on Menzies' assertions, without questioning them. So they are books written by ghost writers at the direction a less than reliable "authority". But those well-written, phony histories were instant hits among readers, with colossal sales numbers. Shame on the publisher. (As you can readily tell, I still harbor a bit of a grudge about him.)

Bob

 

[Tobaccofieldsforever]

I know. Sorry if I made it sound like that.

Menzies himself fabricated his own bio, regarding his stent in the Royal Navy. Actually, they tossed him out, and refute many of the "details" he provides about his alleged submarine cruises. His original manuscript was so awful that the publisher hired several ghost writers to write (not edit and re-write) all of what you now read in those two books. And they were directed to just write the book based on Menzies' assertions, without questioning them. So they are books written by ghost writers at the direction a less than reliable "authority". But those well-written, phony histories were instant hits among readers, with colossal sales numbers. Shame on the publisher. (As you can readily tell, I still harbor a bit of a grudge about him.)

Bob

Hmmm. Makes me wonder what other embellishments or plain lies were taken as fact when history was being documented.

 

[deluxestogie]

History is the consensus of what the primary sources say it is—until proven otherwise. As an example, the history of the European conquest of the Western Hemisphere was written by the conquerors, while they piously destroyed any written records of those whom they conquered. For the most part, the Europeans were unaware of the epidemics they brought with them into virgin populations. It is only after a half-millennium that researchers utilizing non-written records (archeology, mineralogy, genetics, aerial LIDAR, and other recent technologies) have been able to definitively prove the primary historical sources wrong. Some were intentionally wrong, while some were based on invalid assumptions.

Bob