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Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Huntn
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“The Womanly Face of War”. History. It’s about Russian women who took part in WWII.
Anthony De Palma's The Cubans: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times.
The book is based on sharings from the lives of five citizens with very disparate backgrounds and current status vis a vis the Cuban government of today. These five are not residents of tourist-ready "old Havana" but live across the bay from there in the hilly township of Guanabacoa, a place with a 500-year-old history of its own.
The author's note at the back of the book is the place to start, if you ask me: it lays out the rationale for his choice of venue and a clear intent to let the five Cubans of his book show us "where to look but not what to see". De Palma was a journalist for the New York Times for 22 years and is married to a woman from Guanabacoa who emigrated to the USA at age 8 when the Batista government fell.
The book is based on sharings from the lives of five citizens with very disparate backgrounds and current status vis a vis the Cuban government of today. These five are not residents of tourist-ready "old Havana" but live across the bay from there in the hilly township of Guanabacoa, a place with a 500-year-old history of its own.
The author's note at the back of the book is the place to start, if you ask me: it lays out the rationale for his choice of venue and a clear intent to let the five Cubans of his book show us "where to look but not what to see". De Palma was a journalist for the New York Times for 22 years and is married to a woman from Guanabacoa who emigrated to the USA at age 8 when the Batista government fell.
Time for some Roman history:
Time for some Roman history:
Let me know if it's any good.
Time for some Roman history:
I'll echo @yaxomoxay with a request to let me (that is, us) know whether it is any good.
Two excellent books - I recommend both of them - that cover some of the same material (and ground) are Tom Holland's exceedingly good "Rubicon" and Mary Beard's superb "SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome".
They are on my "to read (very soon)" list together with History of Rome by Michael Grant.
I think that you'll enjoy them.
Holland's early work ("Rubicon" & "Persian Fire" are both excellent) was really very good, but I think he lost his way, & became a bit self-indulgent afterwards.
Please do let me know what you think of Grant's book.
I must add, one of my regrets is that having lived in Italy for 20 years I never really studied Roman history to the level it actually deserves. I always took it for "granted" so to speak.
Roman history is a wonderful subject, and, in the days when I dwelt in the groves of academe, some of my nicest colleagues - who were also very fine scholars - were invariably to be found in the university's Classics department.
Just finished Shop Class as Soulcraft. Took my time, and found it quite worthwhile.
He mentions Pirsig's book at some length, but it is not quite like Zen.
The book is a good discussion, in historic, economic, and political frameworks, of how work, particularly the manual trades, changed through the industrial revolution, as well as its effects on how education is conducted and valued.
It articulates pretty well the development in academia of a fascination with so-called "knowledge work," and challenges some of the pronouncements of one of its current champions, who happened to be a professor of mine in graduate school.
And, as a graduate school educated student of philosophy, practicing electrician, and motorcycle mechanic, Crawford anchors the discussion throughout using examples from his diverse and often gritty personal experience. I found his approach refreshing. Both serious and entertaining.
On a personal level, it put into context my own diverse job/career choices over the years, which maybe were not as haphazard as I had imagined, or been led to believe.
Highly recommended for its practical treatment of the subject of work, as well as for offering an opportunity for some self discovery.
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Welcome!I am new here
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I am new here
Welcome to the forum & welcome to this thread.
I’m reading assembly instructions. I found the page that’s in English but still reads like it’s in a Greek. 😓
Starting this today.
How well researched and documented is it? At 800+ pages is it overwhelming?
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Starting this today.
When was it published? In other words, are there fresh insights or new sources in this work?
In an earlier life, I used to teach Russian and Soviet history, and have read quite a number of works about Stalin.
In any case, I await your verdict on the book with considerable interest.
Found this description on Amazon;
Winner of the British Book Awards History Book of the Year.
Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize.
This thrilling biography of Stalin and his entourage during the terrifying decades of his supreme power transforms our understanding of Stalin as Soviet dictator, Marxist leader and Russian tsar.
Based on groundbreaking research, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals in captivating detail the fear and betrayal, privilege and debauchery, family life and murderous cruelty of this secret world. Written with extraordinary narrative verve, this magnificent feat of scholarly research has become a classic of modern history writing. Showing how Stalin's triumphs and crimes were the product of his fanatical Marxism and his gifted but flawed character, this is an intimate portrait of a man as complicated and human as he was brutal and chilling.
Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1842127268/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_opXlFbPW52JGB