City Travel Guides > Books > Holmes- Richard

.The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
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by: Richard Holmes

October 01, 2008

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.Shots from the Front: The British Soldier 1914-18
City Travel Guides > Books > Holmes- Richard
by: Richard Holmes

September 01, 2008

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.Marlborough: England's Fragile Genius
City Travel Guides > Books > Holmes- Richard
by: Richard Holmes

May 06, 2008
A fine overview of the life of Marlborough with some interesting details and fascinating insights. This may not be the definitive book on Marlborough (I think that honour still lays with Churchill's 3 volume history of his illustrious ancestor) but it would serve as a useful companion to the Churchill series giving some much needed balance to Churchill's occasionally one sided view.
The book has a minor but niggling weakness in that the title, 'England's Fragile Genius' seems to have little connection with the contents. It mentions his headaches and various illnesses but he doesn't seem to be portrayed as particularly fragile.
The major strength of this book is Holmes descriptive capabilities. I've previously read descriptions of ... Read More:
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.Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front
City Travel Guides > Books > Holmes- Richard
by: Richard Holmes

March 07, 2005
A very long book looking at all aspects of the soldier's life, from training to hospitals, from trenches to home. One of Holmes' main aims is to put paid to some aspects of received wisdom - for example the "lions led by donkeys view of history". It remains a popular history from two points of view - firstly it is very readable. But secondly it lacks in places the rigour of a university work. For example, Holmes frequently complains loudly about the false views of "some historians"... but these historians are almost never named, which is a little disappointing.

Really Holmes book is extremely interesting, and is not afraid to deal with all sorts of controversial questions (homosexuality in the army, deserters, etc.) It is readable ... Read More:
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.Fatal Avenue: A Traveller's History of the Battlefields of Northern France and Flanders 1346-1945
City Travel Guides > Books > Holmes- Richard
by: Richard Holmes

June 20, 2008
A very long book looking at all aspects of the soldier's life, from training to hospitals, from trenches to home. One of Holmes' main aims is to put paid to some aspects of received wisdom - for example the "lions led by donkeys view of history". It remains a popular history from two points of view - firstly it is very readable. But secondly it lacks in places the rigour of a university work. For example, Holmes frequently complains loudly about the false views of "some historians"... but these historians are almost never named, which is a little disappointing.

Really Holmes book is extremely interesting, and is not afraid to deal with all sorts of controversial questions (homosexuality in the army, deserters, etc.) It is readable ... Read More:
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.Wellington: The Iron Duke
City Travel Guides > Books > Holmes- Richard
by: Richard Holmes

February 03, 2003
Although I finished this book with more knowledge on Wellington than I had at the start, I felt the book dwelt too much on detailed descriptions of military encounters, rather than giving me an insight into the man himself. Whilst I accept that his battle field encounters did much to shape his character, there is just too little about his domestic life, the relationship he had with wife and children, the reasoning behind his marriage and its failure, and his subsequent life in retirement.

Whilst accepting and understanding that Richard Holmes is a brilliant military historian, and this is his sphere of knowledge, a bit more was needed on non military matters.
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.Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket
City Travel Guides > Books > Holmes- Richard
by: Richard Holmes

August 05, 2002
After a shaky start, this book rewards perseverence. It leaves no stone unturned in its exploration of army life in the 18th and 19th centuries (with an emphasis on the latter). I got mine in a second hand bookshop but won't be getting rid of it like the original owner did.
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.Riding the Retreat: Mons to the Marne 1914 Revisited
City Travel Guides > Books > Holmes- Richard
by: Richard Holmes

March 01, 2007
Although this is one of Richard Holmes' earliest works and now re-released, 'Riding the Retreat' remains a unique amalgam of travel book and military history of the most enjoyable, if somewhat quirky, type. As a detailed view of the opening moves of August and September 1914, I can only praise this book. Both strategy and more detailed anecdotes are supported by snippets of archival material that may already be familiar to those who are devotees of Richard Holmes' other books. The nature of the BEF, its social structure and the individual battles are brought to life as Holmes and his companions explore the battlefields in a way as never before. But what is different is the often humourous stories of this, Professor Holmes' equestrian adventure with colleagues, covering ... Read More:
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.A Short Residence in Sweden: AND Memoirs of the Author of 'The Rights of Woman' (Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > Holmes- Richard
by: Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin

April 30, 1987
This edition offers two works that complement each other with a sincerity and sagacity that is inspiring. Mary Wollstonecraft, the adventurous `single' mother, proto feminist, free thinker, seeking happiness but beset by a love for a man who is unable to return her devotion. William Godwin, intellectual, Radical, an objectively passionate writer who was to become an influential force for modern biographical development. Holmes' erudite introduction helpfully explains the context for Wollstonecraft's trip to Scandinavia, providing the biographical background necessary to understand Wollstonecraft's views on diverse issues such as commerce, the role of women, capital punishment, her lover's negligence towards her and their daughter (the ill fated Fanny). Godwin, as Holmes ... Read More:
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.Shelley: The Pursuit
City Travel Guides > Books > Holmes- Richard
by: Richard Holmes

October 03, 2005
Alongside, Juliet Barker's 'The Brontes', this is without doubt my favourite literary biography. Shelley simply steps off the page in this wonderful book. As Holmes says himself, this is not a book for Shelley lovers, but as an ardent admirer of Shelley and his work myself, I wouldn't want to read a book that hero worships and is not willing to criticise. Here we meet the real Shelley, a flawed, often selfish man, but at the same time a great thinker ahead of his time, passionate and intelligent.
I particularly enjoyed reading about his relationship with the women in his life, notably for me Claire Claremont and Harriet Westbrook. Harriet is often dismissed in the shadow of Mary Shelley as purely Shelley's first wife who killed herself, but here we see a bright, funny ... Read More:
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