Europe Books

IT'S GOT ALL THE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW, IN A VERY ENTERTAINING WAY, HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

This book perfectly served my purpose of reading an overview about European history without getting too deep into details. Considering the little free time I have and the thousands of other things keeping me busy, I found this book excellent.

It is written in clear language, divided into short paragraphs and adorned with pleasant-to-the-eye font and graphics.

Highly recommended!

My daughter's AP European History teacher recommended this book to parents during the open house. We were told that it may help during the year and so far so good.

"The Complete Idiot's Guide to European History" is not an exactly correct title. It would be more accurate to say modern Europe, because the book begins at the end of the so-called Dark Ages. It then talks generally about most of the important movements in Europe; the Reformation, the Enlightenment, industrialization, the various socialist movements, and several of the wars of the last 700 or so years. It goes a long way to explaining how the European Union of today comes to be. If there is really any complaint it is that it is too broad and general. I know that is the point, and that all these Complete Idiot's Guide books are just a once over and a starting place for the subject at hand, but still...Oh well. It is great for what it is. I recommend this for anyone that has a western civilization class coming up in high school.

I read this book over summer because I wanted to get ahed in the European History class I would take in the fall. It is a very good overview of most of the major events in European history. Be Warned that this is a good, quick overview, which only covers the basics. Good for people who have not been in a European history class before.

Although written before the fall of the Soviet empire, this books charts the course of relations between the Russian nation and Islam during the past 300 years or so.
At times this book is difficult for the average interested reader because it is so full of facts and unfamiliar names.
But those who persist will be amplyu rewarded, if only by the beauty of the wrtier's prose and his strong narrative sense which is closer to a literary novelist than a journalist.
R.B

As this review is being written, the attack by Chechen guerrillas against a theatre in Moscow is still going on.
The outside world is trying to understand why so many desperate men and women decided to risk their own lives by seizing hundreds of innocent people hostage in a Moscow theatre?
The answer comes in this book to which I return whenever there is something dramatic between the Russians and the Muslim peoples who live amongst them or are teir neighbours.
I wish Vladimir Putin had read this book before vowing to crush the Chechens who have been at war against Russia, and for their own independence, since trhe 18th century.
Believe me it is not enough to say "terrorism and repression" to understand.
A READER IN PARIS FRANCE

The liberation of Afghanistan from the Taleban last year has attracted international attention to a vast area the size of the United States and known as Central Asia.
It was there that the colonial empires of the 19th century played what is known as The Great Game.
The term Central Asia is misleading because the lands concerned resemble a secluded area rather than one that is at the centre of things.
The region may achieve centrality because of its oil and natural gas resources, and the rivarly it is generating among America, the European Union, Russia, China, India, Iran, and Pakistan.
This book by an Iranian author and journalist tells the story of Islam in the entire Soviet Union of which Central Asia was part until 1991.
Much research has gone into this volumnious study, one might even say too much research, and the torrent of details may prove tiresome to some readers.
But the prose is fast paced and journalistic in the best sense of the term, thus compensating for the heaviness of the facts, names, dates and figures.
The book appeared more than a year before the collapse of the USSR but clearly predicts that event.
One would have preferred more detailed maps with this volume.
The author should do a sequel to bring us up to date about developments in the region in the past decade or so.
A READER

Very little is known about the huge landmass that forms Central Asia and the Caucasian highlands with the Caspian Sea, the world's biggest inland body of water, in the middle.
This book tries to fill the gap by providing an exhaustive, and yet highly enjoyable, account of the history, geography and culture of the many different nations that inhabit the area.
The book was published a year before the fall of the Soviet Empire and clearly predicts the end of Communsim and the USSR.
But the chief interest of the book is the fact that it brings so many peoples out of obscurity.
In recent years such places as Chechnya have gained notoriety. We also know about the overspill of terrorism from Afghanistan into neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. But little material is available on the background of these conflicts. This scholarly book is, to my knoweldge, the most authoritative source available in English.
I receommend it to students and scholars as well as the intersted general reader. A READER

Bombs exploding in Moscow and Saint Petersburg? Russian planes pouring Napalm on villages in Chechniya and Daghestan? If you wish to know why all this is happening all you need do is get a copy of Amir Taheri's book, already regarded as a classic. The book was written before the Soviet empire collapsed and clearly forecasts the disintegration of the USSR as " the last colonial empire of the 20th century." Narrating a history of over 1000 years, from the time that Islam arrived in the lands that later became Russia, the book provides a detailed study of numerous ethnic groups, languages, cultures and civilisations spread from the Ural mountains to the Far East and from the frozen steppes of the north to the Caspian Sea in the south. One of the first books to tackle this complex subject " Crescent in a Red Sky: The Future of Islam In The Soviet Union" may at first feel a bit heavy going for the uninitiated, especially because of the copious footnotes and addenda the author provides. But a little bit of patience and time would procure great rewards. The reader discoveres an entire world about which very little is known in the West. For example did you know the symbolic signficance of those strange domes in Saint Basil's church in Moscow? Taheri's book gives the unexpected answer. The chapters that deal with the Russian and then Soviet periods in the history of Muslims in that part of Eurasia are especially fascinating. They reveal an underground world that continued to exist side by side with the official Russian or Soviet society for almost two centuries. The book tears aside the masks of many Russian and Soviet leaders to show their exceptional brutality in dealing with the Muslim nations under their rule. Peter the Great and Cahterine the Great are revealed as barbarous conquerors who built their empires on hecatombs. Lenin, Stalin and Ferunze are presented as mass murderers who drew the map of the Soviet empire in blood. Even Mikhail Gorbachev, the darling of Western lberals, is shown ordering the use of force to crush revolts in Kazakhstan, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Taheri's book accurtaely forecast the wars in Chechniya and Daghestan which are now raging. Once you have read the book you will know that this is not the end of the story. More wars could come in Tatarstan, Bashkortstan, Ossetia, Ingushetia and other parts of northern Caucasus. Although the Soviet empire has collapsed, the Russian empire continues to cling to its bloody existence. Taheri's book shows that this empire, too, is sure to disintegrate. The time when one nation could rule over whole subject nations is gone. I wish Boris Yeltsin, the Russian President, would read this book to understand why.Western leaders, especially in the United States, also need to read this book to get a measure of the biggest problem that new Russia is facing as it tries to build itself a new future. A READER IN CASABLANCA

Ms Ugresic makes a real case when she exposes the nationalisms that permeate our world. How do things that are similar become different? Why do people not approach themselves but are being "held apart"? Much of the reasons are political policies, money and power struggles. At the end of the day, everyone of us is victim of national brainwashing. This is why we ought to be critical and never forget how we have something essential in common: we are all human.

This well-written book gives keen insight to events surrounding the dissolution of Yugoslavia while providing a view into the collective mind of former Yugoslavians. This book also makes one wonder about how nationalism is used, for better or worse, in other countries as a political vehicle to motivate its people to support specific ideals. While I agree with Ugresic's criticism of nationalism and the role it plays in post-Yugoslavian times, I also wonder if it is just a collective defense-mechanism, a means for survival when collective identity is being shattered. It is a fascinating read, well-written, and illuminating on many different levels.

Although it has taken the English translation of this collection of essays a few years to come into print (it was first published in Dutch),this is a highly relevant, illuminating, and moving book. Most of the essays were written between '92 and '94, with more recent postscripts. With rare clarity and complexity of thought, gift of articulation, emotional courage and absence of pretence or squeamishness, Ugresic has carried out a highly accessible investigation into the Yugoslav war, the demise of communist Europe, the East-West polarity, the ambiguities of exile. With references to other East European writers and thinkers (Milan Kundera, Miroslav Krleja, Danilo Kis, Josiph Brodsky), she explores the tyranny of the new constructs of national identity in the Balkan states, the enforced collective amnesia of the former Yugoslavs, the many traumas of their history, as well as the common psycho-cultural lanscape of the 'Eastern block'. There are many deeply moving episodes and revealing insights here, delivered in the familiar 'Central European' style of ironic, melancholic, bitter humanism. Vaguely reminiscent of Milan Kundera, only better because of the lack of smugness and the final doubting humility of someone who has felt intense pain and articulated the nature of this pain.

Dubravka Ugresic is perhaps less well-known in the English-speaking world than the other Croatian "dissident" writer Slavenka Drakulic, which is unfortunate. Both Ugresic's essays and especially fiction are far superior to that of Drakulic. "Culture of Lies" includes the author's observations of Croatian society and politics of the last ten years, both of which have been none too kind to her (indeed, while achieving great acclaim in other European countries, she was branded a "traitor" and worse by Croatian politicians and the pro-regime press for her uncompromising criticism of Croatian nationalism, etc.). In this book, Ugresic shows the many ways in which nationalism imbued all levels of society in Croatia, making people increasingly hostile to different views and people who were/are "different." Her particular area of interest is the way this was reflected in the behavior of intellectuals, who-at least one would like to think-are not supposed to be as susceptible to the appeal of God-and-country patriotism and nationalistic kitsch. Her description of an incident in a Zagreb tram, in which a young man accosts and beats an old destitute drunken man, is particularly vivid and sadly indicative. In fact, this whole section of the book, called "Souvenirs from Paradise" is an excellent collection of impressions and observations of the underside of Croatian life. Despite the recent sweeping political changes in Croatia, many of the negative aspects of society in this country as described by Ugresic are still here, and they will haunt this country for some time to come.

It tells truth of thousends of people manipulated with mass media on Balkans. If you want an expert book on how wars started in ex-yugoslavia you should read this one.

I agree completely with the praise other reviewers have heaped upon this book. I have a large number of books on the Middle Ages and this is one of the best, if not the best. There is detailed information on a large number of topics, which are easily located, and well written. This book is a winner.

This author has accomplished quite a feat by taking what could be extraordinarily dry material and masterfully crafting a very interesting book. Rarely do you find a scholarly work of this caliber that you can read simply for pleasure. Mr. Newman debunks all of the supposed truisms about the Middle Ages to put the era in its proper perspective in history. This is a marvelous, considered, detailed accounting of what life was really like in those times, and it was not nearly so dreary as you have been told. This thought-provoking book is a must-read. You won't want to put it down.

"Daily Life in the Middle Ages" provides and excellent look at life, food, cleanliness, warfare and other aspects of the period. It is at the same time very accessible to the lay-reader such as me. After reading about the development of armor, the reader will look at "Braveheart" a little differently. The style is informative, but neither dusty nor without humor. Higly recommend.

Newman's book is divided into seven sections -- Eating and Cooking, Building and Housing, Clothing and Dressing, Cleaning, Relaxing and Playing, Fighting, and Healing. Each chapter is further broken down into convenient and well-organized sub-sections that combine to paint a thoroughly detailed portrait of life at all levels of society throughout Europe. Newman points out how each of his seven areas differed from country to country and in different centuries. The writing style is simple, yet vivid and entirely engaging, bringing the middle ages to life in an easy-to-understand yet detailed way. For example, in the chapter on building and housing Newman discusses what materials were used (and where and why), how they were worked, and what tools were used for each; types of buildings and construction techniques; use of lighting, furniture, decorative elements, etc. The section on food includes what food and drinks people consumed, how food was grown, gathered, stored and served, and differences in class and geographical areas. Almost two pages are devoted to grains alone. Newman explains each element clearly, using photos to illustrate many of the concepts. He dispels common myths about the period and writes convincingly that life was much more advanced and varied than is commonly believed. This is not an academic book (no footnotes or specific source material, although there is a rich bibliography for each chapter generally), but rather a book for the casual researcher, writer or lay person who really wants to understand the middle ages. It is extremely well-written (if poorly proofed), and the only real criticism I can make of the book is the quality of the binding, which makes it hard to read the left-hand pages in the early chapters.

I have been heavily researching the middle ages for a book I am writing and have read numerous books on the subject. This one is by far the most informative and enjoyable.

Newman really gets down to the "nuts and bolts" of medieval life. For most topics, he is extensively detailed. (For a few topics, he touches them so lightly I don't know why he even mentioned them.) His sections on food, clothing and construction techniques are the best I have seen so far in any book on the subject. Overall, if you want to know the "how and what" of medieval life this is a great reference book. I only gave it four stars because while Newman had great information, he was skimpy on how he knows it other than a few pieces of artwork and some very rough sketches. More artwork examples, better diagrams, and some actual photographs would have helped.

This book is an excellent guide to where you want to go and how to go about getting there. Time tables, open and close time, where to eat and what to avoid. I've used this book on two separate trips to London and it has saved me frustration and time. If you want to take a vacation and base yourself in London this book is worth its weight in gold!

Used this book for a few local trips. Some of the prices quoted need to be update but good book overall.

Although I rely on Rick Steves' travel books to explore major European cities, I never leave home without Daytrips if I intend to day-trip by rail to smaller towns. In England and parts of Scotland, the Guy Friday bus tours make it easy to explore a town on your own without a tour group, and are highly recommended. However, Daytrips will cover in detail sites worth seeing, good hotel recommendations (better than Rick Steves), good restaurant recommendations, and fairly good maps (bring a compass). Very reliable and solid guidebook for travellers who enjoy walking. Certain cities are recommended with a star and from experience, it is extremely accurate.

I have used this volume extensively, over a number of years, and have found it to be exceptionally useful. Pair it with a Brit Rail flexipass, and you will never need to join tours or be at a loss for new places to visit.

The descriptions and maps make it possible to explore locations at a leisurely pace, noting spots one would find of particular interest. Though the 'walking tours' outlined are within the reach of most, those who cannot walk distances should not be deterred, because there nearly always are local buses (if not Guide Friday tours, which are convenient and relatively inexpensive) that can bring one from the station to the town centre. I have never had difficulty exploring a new city using the Daytrips maps, and I am by no means gifted with any sense of direction.

Though not aimed solely at those with Brit Rail passes, this book can help those who hold them to have maximum benefit. (Those travelling from the States, used to a country that is geographically massive, and where major cities of interest can be separated by hundreds or thousands of miles, often need time to adjust conceptually to that one may see much of England by travelling by day return. One cannot get the full benefit of rail passes unless one gets away from the mindset that any journey means an overnight stay.) Since, for example, the most common flexipass allows one four days of travel, not journeys, using Daytrips to select destinations, then returning to the home base in the evening, means exploring four cities - not going in one direction on the first and returning on the next 'day of the pass.'

The sixth edition of this helpful guide replaces our well-worn fifth edition (published 1995). In addition to being updated, it includes five additional day trips (Hastings, Shanklin on the Isle of Wight, Cardiff, Wells, and Chester).

This edition follows the format of the prior one with each of the fifty-five destinations being allotted its own chapter. A brief introduction to each place is followed by directions for getting there that may include transport by underground, rail, car, boat, or bus, as applicable. The discussion always includes the distance from the city, which London train stations service the area, a summary of the schedule ("at least hourly from Victoria") and the duration of travel. The guide then cites a few pubs and restaurants in the area (generally those providing English fare), with a one sentence review. A walking tour is provided with a map and commentary on the various sites of interest encountered along the way. Also included is a section entitled "Practicalites" that lists the dates and times major attractions are not open to the public, the address and phone number of the visitor center (although they spell it centre), and other information pertinent to someone planning a visit.

Destinations vary from those within London itself (e.g. the City, and Westminster), to those located fairly near the city (e.g. Windsor Castle, Richmond and Hampton Court), to those located over one hundred and fifty miles from London (e.g. the Welsh city of Cardiff, and York). The latter destinations can take two hours to reach by rail (each way) and may be more amenable to an overnight stay than a one day visit.

Also included is an excellent section on managing the British rail system (it really is quite simple).

The major advantage of the guide is that it tells you how to get to and explore many places of interest in southern Britain without having to join expensive and restrictive organized day tours. It gives you the freedom of choosing your own itinerary; if you want to spend your time lingering over a long lunch, shopping, or just enjoying the ambiance, you can do so. There is no: "The bus will leave at exactly 2:15 this afternoon, be sure to be here."

For the first time visitor to London who only wants to take in the grandeur of the city, the book seems to be of limited value. But if a trip outside London, such as to Stonehenge or Bath, is contemplated, the guide can prove quite valuable. It is highly recommended.

An unheard and untold story of World War II. Romanian Jewish emigrants are stranded on an old ship waiting to get settled somewhere. Great Britain does not want them in Palestine and Turkey does not want them in Istanbul. After spending two months in the harbor of Istanbul, the Turks tow the ship out to the Black Sea where a "heroic" Soviet submarine torpedoes it. There is a lot of blame to go around. The Romanians and Germans for starting the Holocaust. The British for losing sight of human kindness and turning a blind eye toward this suffering. The Turks for not doing more to help these poor people. Finally, the Russians for torpedoing a ship full of civilians.

The authors detail the journey of one man to find why his grandparents were on this ship and to locate the wreakage of the ship. This is a great read. This shows mans inhumanity to man.

A disturbing but important tale told in rich, compelling detail. The ``Struma'' was to be a lifeboat for desperate refugees from Hitler's Europe only to become a pawn of politics. History kept this secret too long, but thanks to Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins the story of the ``Struma'' has been recovered from the depths of obscurity. And just in time to underscore the real, human costs of indifference to brutal prower and the failure of reasoned diplomacy. Here, the victims have names and they haunt the pages of ``Death on the Black Sea'' -- as they must always the pages of history.

The story of the Struma, probably one of the least known of WWII, is also probably one of the saddest chapters of both the war and the Holocaust. At least two countries (Britain and Turkey) and possibly more were presented with the opportunity to save the almost 800 passengers who were sailing on the Struma and, for various reasons, all elected not to do so. As a result, the Struma ended up being torpedoed by a Russian submarine with the loss of all but one of those aboard. The authors give a very good history of what led up to this fateful voyage, including detailed biographical backgrounds on many of the passengers. Intertwined within the story is the modern day search for the wreckage of the ship by the grandson of two of the people who died when the ship went down in the Black Sea, and a final goodbye by many relatives of the victims of this tragic event. This is a great addition to both the literature of the Holocaust and WWII and I highly recommend it.

A disturbing but important tale told in rich, compelling detail. The ``Struma'' was to be a lifeboat for desperate refugees from Hitler's Europe only to become a pawn of politics. History kept this secret too long, but thanks to Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins the story of the ``Struma'' has been recovered from the depths of obscurity. And just in time to underscore the real, human costs of indifference to brutal prower and the failure of reasoned diplomacy. Here, the victims have names and they haunt the pages of ``Death on the Black Sea'' -- as they must always the pages of history.

There are countless stories of the Holocaust that can never be told because those who experienced them were lost in the mad destructive fury. The story of the doomed ship _Struma_ might be one of those stories, except that one of the nearly 800 people on board survived the sinking of the vessel. _Death on the Black Sea: The Untold Story of the Struma and World War II's Holocaust at Sea_ (Ecco) by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins, is not just a survivor's story, but a full accounting of a shameful atrocity that has been largely overlooked, even in histories of that bleak time.

The history begins with an account of pre-war Romanian history, and the brutalities that occurred even before the country joined the Nazis. Only the desperate would have paid the shamefully exorbitant cost for passage on the leaky, filthy cattle boat _Struma_, with the hope of getting to Palestine. The British controlled such immigration, however, and restricted it so as not to bother the Arabs and their oil supplies. The ship left Romania in December 1941, with intent to sail out of the Black Sea, through the Bosporus Strait, and on to Palestine. The engine failed on the first day, was patched, and failed three days later. The ship was towed by a Turkish tug to Istanbul harbor. There the ship stayed for almost two months, while bureaucratic nonsense was conducted to seal the fate of the passengers. They slowly withered due to disease and lack of fresh food and fresh air. There was even bickering over a plan to let the children leave the ship, a plan that never happened because Turkey, following a suggestion from the British, cut the anchor of the engineless vessel and simply set it adrift. Stalin had ordered Russian submarines to sink all ships in the Black Sea to prevent them from getting to Germany. A day after being set adrift, the helpless _Struma_ was torpedoed, and quickly sank. Nineteen-year-old David Stoliar miraculously was rescued by Turkish fishermen, but was imprisoned in Turkey thereafter; much of the book is his story.

The horrific story of the _Struma_ is here told in a plain and unsensational way. The authors have rightly sensed that there is no need to try to make the account more dramatic by artificial recreations of imagined conversations or thoughts of the people involved. There is some heroism, like that of Simon Brod, an Istanbul businessman who selflessly devoted constant efforts to helping refugees of various kinds and from various sources. Such lights are few in this, one of the darkest episodes of the war and one that took longest to be seen clearly. There is a portion of blame to go to the U.S., which parroted the British line about the importance of limiting emigration, and did not want to get further involved. The evil of the Nazi purge is to blame, of course, in its Romanian variant, as is the ruthlessness of Stalin's blanket order to clear the Black Sea of shipping indiscriminately. Those on the _Struma_ died, however, because of the joint efforts of the British and the Turks, from veiled anti-Semitism to indifference to outright murder. Frantz and Collins have produced a vivid and shocking book to rescue a gruesome but essential story into history again.

Very few histories of this depth and detail can sustain 500+ pages and keep the reader as engaged as though s/he were reading a thriller. This book is one of them.

Some of Martin Meredith's talent is in describing the main characters. Portraits of Cecil Rhodes and Paul Kruger are masterpieces. His other talent is describing the settings for instance, the respective cultures of the settlers, the freewheeling diamond/gold rushes and the devastation of war. The marvelous descriptions sustain the reader through the dry but important financial dealings, military maneuvers, and legal complexities.

There are very few women in this book. Queen Victoria gets a few mentions, as does a female novelist, Paul Kruger's traditional wife and a stalker attracted to Rhodes. The plight of the Boar women left homeless and confined in camps is addressed, but there is nothing of the native African women. Hopefully future historians will explore the lives and roles of women in this period.

Two things about the history of South Africa are striking. One is how a very small number of people in key positions wanting war made it inevitable that many would suffer its devastating consequences. The other is the total racism of the Bible quoting Boars and the aquiescence of the British government to their racist demands. The Archbishop of Canterbury endorses what becomes the apartheid system with the salve to his conscience that the future will undo it.

This is a sorry, sorry story. It is a story of the making and execution of a completely unnecessary war and a step by step degradation of a native population.

Journalist, biographer, and historian Martin Meredith presents Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa, a thorough history of the Cape Colony in southern Africa from when the British took possession of it in 1806 to the founding of modern South Africa in 1910. The chronicle heats up in 1871, when diamonds were discovered in southern Africa - in tremendous quantities. A massive struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the region erupted. Meredith's narrative is heavily researched yet comes alive with colorful portrayals of personalities ranging from rakish prospector Cecil Rhodes (founder of the DeBeers company) who absconded with a fortune manipulating diamond and gold markets, to nationalists like Paul Kruger who fought tirelessly for their land and people, to native kings like Lobengula who were trapped amid the Europeans' struggle. A gripping chronicle of greed and destruction unleashed, and the repercussions for the nation of South Africa for the century to come, highly recommended for world history shelves.

This is one of the best histories of Africa written in modern times from one of Africa's greatest chroniclers. A vast history of Southern Africa from 1871 to 1911 this is an epic tale of greed, settlement and war set amongst some fo the most colorful peoples and characters of the period. Mostly the book examines the personalities of Cecil Rhodes and Paul Kruger and the clash of the English and the Afrikaners. But it is bigger in scope than that. Blending history covered elsewhere(The Great Anglo-Boer War and The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876-1912, The Washing of the Spears: A History of the Rise of the Zulu Nation Under Shaka and Its Fall in the Zulu War of 1879) it also has an incisive and balanced view of the history, without judgement, this is more a tale of tragedy, in the Greek form, than mere history.

History at its best in fact. The book moves from the discovery of diamonds near Kimberly in 1871, to the battle for the control of the 'road north' to modern day Zambia and the final destruction of Afrikaner freedom in the Boer War. All the while in the background is the developing race issues and multitude of diversity that would chance Africa forever in the 20th century.

For students of African history this will be a rivetting read and for those looking for an introduction to the history of Southern Africa they will be pleasently suprised.

Seth J. Frantzman

Martin Meredith's aptly named book recounts the events leading up to the formation of the Union of South Africa. The introduction provides a quick background about the coming of the Dutch and then the British to the Cape, the Great Trek, the formation of the Boer Republics, and the colonization of Natal. The story begins in earnest with the discovery of diamonds north of the Cape. It continues with tales of fortunes made and lost, of the coming of the mining magnates and the rise of Cecil Rhodes, of the subsequent discovery of gold in the Transvaal. We learn about the wars against the Zulus, the Tswana, the Basotho, the Ndebele, the taking of their land, the formation of the British South Africa Company, and the making of Rhodesia. We find out about Rhodes' thirst for power and the hubris that led to the Jameson Raid. Then came the scheming and deception that led to the Anglo-Boer War--a war that wrought terrible suffering, particularly upon the Boers. The British won the war only to give self-government to the Boer territories five years later. This was shortly followed by the formation of the Union of South Africa, essentially a union of the whites of South Africa. The `native' policies stipulated by this union would lead to increasingly devastating laws against non-whites, and particularly against blacks. The period covered by the book is filled with interesting events and interesting people. And because Meredith writes beautifully, the book reads almost like a novel.

I have read several books (though certainly not enough) about South Africa: 'The Great Boer War,' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; 'The Corner House,' by A.P. Cartwright; 'The Randlords,' by Geoffrey Wheatcroft; 'White Tribe Dreaming,' by Marq de Villiers; 'The Boer War,' by Thomas Pakenham; and 'The Covenant,' by James A. Michener, but until I got into my latest purchase, 'Diamonds, Gold and War,' by Martin Meredith, I was not entirely sure why I had become more than sympathetic to the old Boers and to Afrikanerdom.

Mr Meredith has given me all of the necessary reasons and, as a life-time admirer of the British Empire and its works, I was made more firmly angry and ashamed at what some of those ostensibly promoting the Empire had done to those to whom the British people should have been attached and who should not have been antagonised and attacked.

Cecil Rhodes's dream of colonising from The Cape to Cairo had great merit, especially if one recalls to what depths much of Africa has descended since Rhodes's day, but it was clearly a gross mistake and an unforgivable deed to betray his Cape Boer friend, Jan Hofmeyr, and his potential friends, President Paul Kruger of The Transvaal and President Marthinus Steyn of The Orange Free State. Rhodes comes out of the book badly, as do his co-conspirator, Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, the British Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, and, worst of all, the British High Commissioner and Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Alfred Milner.

And, of course, there were the thousands of British soldiers lost (my wife's late grandfather, a wonderful man, volunteered for the Imperial Yeomanry, went enthusiastically to South Africa, but, thankfully, survived this shameful Imperial episode), and the thousands of Boer 'soldiers,' their wives and their children who suffered either in the war (to be more precise, the Second Boer War) or in British concentration camps. It was a disgrace and several passages in Mr Meredith's book moves one almost to tears. The description of the elderly President Kruger's leaving of Pretoria for eventual exile on the 29th of May, 1900, leaving his beloved but infirm wife, Gezina, is one such and merits partial quotation:

'After conducting family prayers in the sitting room, Kruger took his wife's hand and led her into the bedroom. Nobody spoke or moved. Outside the carriage horses snorted. Then the old couple reappeared. Kruger pressed her against him, then released her, looking at her intently, silently. Then he turned and walked out to the carriage. They were never to meet again.'

I am old enough to have known a number of honourable men who went off to fight 'Old Kroojer': they were misguided, misled and mistaken. That Jan Christian Smuts later became one of the Empire's best friends is a fine reflection of Boer qualities, but the bitterness bequeathed by such as Milner did no good to Britain nor to the longer-term benefit of South Africa or its inhabitants, black or white.

I can only touch on some aspects of a brilliant and well-written history: to get the drift in its entirety, you have to get the book which, with 569 pages, is wonderful value!

For a great rendering of the old Boer song, 'Sarie Marais,' sung in Afrikaans, go to - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrvEwv26WLc

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Tom Tierney has produced a work of art worthy of Diana, Princess of Wales -- the most gracious and lovely woman of her generation.

If you love Diana, Tom Tierney's book is a beautiful addition to your collection.

I first came in contact with this book in a city 800 miles away from home, I purchased it right away. I am looking for more books, and would like to know if there is a catalogue, which I could choose from.

I like this book because it makes me remember the priness and how beautiful and kind she was when she was still alive

This is an excellent book with 1 doll and 31 famous dresses drawn by Tom Tierney. A perfect reminder of just how beautiful Princess Diana was, and her likeness and poise have been perfectly captured.

This book gives a brief history of the dresses. The illustrations are quite good. He actually manages to capture Diana very well in his presentation. If you want to see the dresses that were at the Charity Auction this is definately the one to get. The book is printed on high quality paper so you are sure to enjoy this one for a long time.

Teen-ager Dawid Sierakowiak, imprisoned with his family in the Lodz Ghetto, at first carries on a "normal" life, discussing politics with his friends and keeping up with his studies.
More and more restrictions on the population-- illness, lack of food, hygiene, fuel and money, eventually take their toll on everyone. Existence deteriorates to the point at which Dawid knows he will soon die, and he does so 4 months later.
Every aspect of this slow death to the ghetto residents who are not murdered was planned by the Germans.
There are many photographs, which enhance the narrative.

This book deserves a Five Star "Plus." It is an absolute "must" read for those interested in the destruction of European Jewry. I have read very many memoirs on the Holocaust, some quite good, yet none moved me to tears as much as Dawid's diary. What I found remarkable was that a 15-year old (his age when he started writing his diary) should have so much depth and so much wisdom. His description of his extreme hunger and finally his feelings when his mother was deported are extremely poignant. His love for his mother and the extreme agony he experienced when they took her away defies description.

As Adelson writes in the Foreward, Dawid is "increasingly piqued by the hierarchy of privilege that prevails among Jews in the ghetto." The "privileged" do not lack food or adequate shelter while the "ordinary" Jews (which was the overwhelming majority)literally starve. Dawid, a devout Marxist, writes eloquently about these "privileged" Jews. All this privilege of the few and suffering of the majority further reinforces his Marxist principles.

Simply put, Dawid is an amazing young man. Unfortunately for this world, he probably had to suffer to make a long lasting impact. True greatness rarily comes to those of us who contribute daily to the ENHANCEMENT of life and young Dawid is proof of this. His sometimes yielding but never breaking spirit of joy and hopeful speculation makes him a true hero. While his tragic, and "all too early" death are sad, the important things left behind in his words are timeless. He reminds us all that no matter how (supposedly) bad things get in our (truly) rich lives, a thing such as maniacal tyranny and slavery can never be tolerated. The light at the end of Dawid's tunnel never came to him, but by his words and actions hopefully we will all see that inspiration and determination will also glow.

"A HOLOCAUST VOICE Writings about the Holocaust take many forms--novels, stories, poems, plays, histories. But, as `The Diary of Anne Frank` showed, none has the effect of actual reports left behind by its victims. `The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak: Five Notebooks from the Lodz Ghetto` is quite different from Anne Frank's memoirs because, unlike Anne, who was hidden away from the Nazis for years, Dawid lived openly in the sealed ghetto of this Polish city and was a witness to and victim of the deprivations, humiliations and cruelties inflicted on the Jewish populace. He was 15 years old when he began to keep his notes, and 19 when he died of illness and starvation in 1943. His diary, edited by Alan Adelson and translated by Kamil Turowski, is written with a sardonic humor and growing despair that can still horrify today. It is illustrated by shocking photos of life in the Lodz ghetto, most of them taken surreptitiously."

This book is the most powerful and memorable book on the Holocaust I have ever read. Kids in school read Anne Frank, I suppose because it is so popular. It was the first memoir found, not the most telling or interesting. This book is also a great psychology book as it so graphically shows the heirarchy of needs as the situation becomes more desperate. I wish that teachers of senior or junior honors classes would consider this over Brave New World where the main character gives up. Dawid, is a much more positive book of the human spirit in that he continues to deal with the ever worstening cards he is given and works hard to survive. This book hits on so many topics: history, psychology, the power of the human spirit, man's cruelty and literature as Dawid was an exceptional mind for his age.

Discovery and Conuest of Mexico by Bernal Diaz Del Castilo is a tremendous first hand account of one of histories most amazing achievements. Although the ethnocentricity of the Spainard is patently obvious in most of his descriptions, the story of 500 soldiers of fortune conquering an empire of millions in a newly discovered land is easily able to grab the reader's interest. Written in the late 1500's the language is archaic and romanticized,but this serves to make it a book that can appeal to the ordinary reader as well as be a historical source to the academic. It's not for everyone, but anyone with an interest in history and a love of tales of adventure will enjoy it.

This has to be one of the most interesting journals I've ever read. Like others have said, the detail and adventure in Diaz's life make the text seem almost like fiction. I'm only 1/3 of the way into the book and every time I pick it up it's like I'm jumping back in time. Simply amazing.

I thought Hugh Thomas's CONQUEST, with its hundreds of sources, included everything there was to know (and his wry British wit makes the tragedy of Montezuma's cowardice read like a novel), but Diaz adds a whole new perspective. Thomas, for example, writes that a Castilian castaway who decided to stay with the Maya, Gonzalo Guerrero, was "ashamed" of his tattoos and pierced body parts. We find out from Diaz's account that this is a gross misinterpretation. Upon hearing of his rescue, Guerrero in fact tells his fellow rescuee, the famous Geronimo de Aguilar, "Are you nuts? I have a wife and three kids! Look at these beautiful children!" Aguilar suggests bringing his family along, but Guerrero's happy with his new life [and has a heroic-sized statue in Yucatan for his leadership against the Spanish - wife and children by his side]. How does the conversation end? Guerrero's Mayan wife does the logical thing and tells Aguilar in no uncertain terms to get the [expletive deleted] out of her house.

Diaz's description of how another Spanish castaway, a dog, bounds joyfully into a Spanish boat "leaps off the page," as it were. Historian Thomas gives us a much broader picture, but leaves out details that would only interest a foot soldier (how one gets a pretty girl for the night at Montezuma's palace, for example). The paperback was translated by someone who isn't an historian, which makes the guileless writing of old Diaz all the more immediate. A must-read for those fascinated by the century between the voyages of the Santa Maria and the Mayflower -- the century when everything interesting happened.

This first hand account of Cortez's conquest of Mexico was written by Bernal Diaz', one of Cortez swordsmen. It is perhaps the most interesting and detailed first hand account of a historical event ever written. Diaz' writes about the battles, Cortez' manipulation of the various Indian tribes and his own men, and he provides intimate details on the personality of Montezuma. It is an exciting, powerful, informative, cover to cover, real-life, adventure.

Another good read on this subject are Cortez's letters to the King. As can be seen, Cortez' was in hot water because he co-opted the expedition to serve his own ends, and he was trying to con (And intimidate) the King into favoring him, rather than the governer of Cuba, from whom he stole the expedition. Cortez' tried to convince the king that he could get millions of indians to follow him, and that they could make brass cannons, gun powder, etc. ( Which by implication, could be used against any forces to bring him to justice.) He also bribed the king by sending him some of the gold that he stole from the indians, and implying the he could send much, much more. As can be seen, one of Cortez' other swordsmen went on to conquer the Incas, by using the same methods that Cortez used against the Aztecs.

A very graphic, realistic and shuddering account of the discovery and conquest of Mexico by one who witnessed this major historical event from 1517 to 1521.

Although a lengthy narrative, the reader will find themself vehemently ripping through the pages of Bernal Diaz' reminiscences while anticipating the next turn of events. With a plethora of plot twists, there is never a sluggish moment.

Prior to his experiences with Cortes on the conquest of Mexico, Diaz gives us an account of his two previous expeditions with Cordova and Grijalva to the east coast of Central America from 1517-1518. Battles were fought, different cultures were found, and gold was discovered among the indigenous people. This beaconed the governor of Cuba to send Cortes to these lands for `settlement', with the fundamental motivation for the quest of riches.

We read of how Cortes and his men fought many battles on the trail to Montezuma's city of gold. Cortes was indeed a smooth talker, always attempting peace efforts first by making promises and talking flattery while distributing gifts to the Indian tribes he met along the way, all the time with the underlying theme of Christianity. This lead to a growing number of Indian allies, who for the most part had developed a deep-seated hatred for Montezuma due to his unmerciful plundering of villages for human sacrifices to please their gods. Cortez, after nearly losing main battles to overtake Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), finally comes in with 150,000 Indian allies to conquer the city of gold.
For the armchair adventure seeker, this book has it all.