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.Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature)
City Travel Guides > Books > World History
by: T.E. Lawrence

June 01, 1997
Brilliant. T E Lawrence poured his soul into this magnificently crafted autobiography. It takes you from his arrival in Cairo as an upstart academic, through his dramatic evolution into a desert soldier/strategist and leader of the Arab revolt against the Turks, to his ultimate failure to win justice for the people he'd grown to be part of. Lawrence was a gifted writer as well as an extraordinary soldier and I was fascinated by the insights that run through it: into his political naivety, his ambivalent loyalties, and the hints of concern (almost certainly ill-founded) about his own mental state. The combination of high politics and personal danger, played out in the dramatic and mysterious Arab world as it meets the West is quite magnificent. ... Read More:
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.Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
City Travel Guides > Books > World History
by: Tony Judt

February 01, 2007
Most reviewers have understandably, and rightly, focussed on the grand themes and the author's interpretation of events and conflicting political philosophies. I read the book at least in part, however, simply to refresh my knowledge of basic historical facts about the postwar era, and I still hope to use it as reference material to meet that same end. What disappointed me, however, was to discover some very basic errors about rather trivial matters which must call into question the overall standard of research and the veracity of what is presented.

For example, on pages 482/3 we are told that the Eurovision Song Contest was first broadcast in 1970 and, in an uncomfortably lengthy rant about its shortcomings, that it was a 'hopelessly dated ... Read More:
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.Britain AD: A Quest for Arthur, England and the Anglo-Saxons
City Travel Guides > Books > World History
by: Francis Pryor

September 05, 2005
I found this book so irritating and contradictory that I started writing angry notes (in biro) in the margin, and I'm not even an archaeologist! Pryor takes the evidence he wants and ignores the rest. When he has something sensible to say about cultural influences through the ages, for example, the flow of ideas rather than just people he is on well-trodden ground. When he has something new to say it comes out as garbled nonsense. He allows his pre-history background to cloud his judgement - almost to the point of not admitting any 'events' in history at all! "We know that rapid social change just does not happen" - what?!
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.Night
City Travel Guides > Books > World History
by: Elie Wiesel

August 27, 1981
Night by Elie Wiesel is not only one of the definitve works on Holocaust literature, it is one of the most definitve works on humanity.
This is a factual record of Wiesel's experiences from 1941, when the author was 12 years old, dedicated to learning Talmud and thirsting to learn Kaballah, to his experiences after Jews were forced into ghettoes and then transported to the death camps.
Written in Yiddish in 1958 and translated into English in 1960.
It is a record of Wiesel's childhood in the death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. It is dedicated to the memory of Wiesel's parents and his little sister Tzipora who were cruelly murdered in the Nazi inferno.
The book is stark in it's record of everything seen by the author and asks many questions ... Read More:
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.The Book of the Courtier (Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > World History
by: Baldassare Castiglione

June 24, 1976
There really was a Camelot. But it was in Italy, Urbino in northern Italy to be exact, in the 1500s. Perched on top of a couple of hills in the region Le Marche, Urbino was ruled by the Montefeltro family. From 1444 to 1482 Federigo de Montefeltro skillfully steered his tiny domain through the rough storms of Italian Renaissance realpolitik. Federigo was a successful soldier of fortune yet maintained one of the largest libraries in Italy, spoke Latin, read Aristotle, helped orphans and in general earned the love of his people. He built a beautiful fairy-tale palace and had Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca decorate it.

His less fortunate son Guidobaldo inherited this charming and well-run dukedom. Guidobaldo married the cultivated Elisabetta of the Gonzaga family ... Read More:
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.The History of the Kings of Britain (Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > World History
by: Geoffrey of Monmouth

January 25, 1973
In terms of reliability as a historical source Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain ranges from just plausible to down right nonsensical but you can't take away the sheer brilliance of literary construct on the part of Geoffrey of Monmouth. The farther of Arthurian romance does not fail to entertain.

Only two criticisms which makes it a 4 instead of a 5 star read, Monmouth crams around 2000 years of history into about 250 pages, as such sometimes the book moves at such a pace he just lists kings without passing any comment on them making them instantly forgettable. The only chapter I didn't enjoy was the one on Merlin, I just find it too far out there, maybe it is because I'm a philistine but it just reads like the ramblings of a lunatic.
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.City of God (Penguin Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > World History
by: Saint Augustine

November 27, 2003
City of God is a very challenging piece of work with incredible depth and insight. Metaphysical is a very apt description, as St Augustine turns his attention to very profound subject matters ranging from the nature of the soul, the nature of Angels, to the issue of good and evil and how evil is ultimately non existent.
The first part of the work requires a degree of patience, as it mainly concentrates on the debauchery of Ancient Rome and how it led to its fall from grace. The latter part of the novel considers the metaphysical discussions.
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.The Great Fire of London (How Do We Know About?) (How Do We Know About?)
City Travel Guides > Books > World History
by: Deborah Fox

June 19, 2003
This is a very useful book which I purchased because I was teaching the QCA module in Year 2 which dealt with Famous events. it linked into work about our capital city and has a useful section about Samuel Pepys and his diary. A good sized book with excellent photos and nice, large print. Worth the money.
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.The Early History of Rome: Bks. 1-5 (Penguin Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > World History
by: Livy

March 28, 2002
Other reviewers have dismissed this because of the 'inaccuracy' of the history, but the very idea of history in classical times was different from our definition: there was no strict divide between literature, history and (moral) philosophy and so we shouldn't judge ancient works by the same criteria that we might use of modern history books. Livy, writing under Augustus, was, like his contemporary Vergil, mythologising about the foundation of Rome, and his story of where the Romans came from and how the Roman character was formed, tells us more about Roman self-identity (or the way they wanted to see themselves) at the turning point between the Republic and the principate than about the past.

Having said that, Livy tells a fabulous story! My Latin's unfortunately not good enough ... Read More:
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.The Origins of the Second World War
City Travel Guides > Books > World History
by: A.J.P. Taylor

October 31, 1991
Fascinating book which broke down a lot of the myths I had learnt about the 2nd World War. However, it looks at the situation purely from a political point of view and covers little background as to: the economy, the public, the USA and the preparations for war.

If you're after a casual more rounded read I'd look elsewhere, but as a focused 'text book' this is pretty definitive.
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