University of Great Falls Books

I had the very good fortune to read this book when it was in Galleys, and it is wonderful. It's one of the earliest books written in the USA, and was written by a woman. Set in Fall River, Massachussetts in the 18th century, it tells the tale of a young girl who is seduced, impregnated, and then abandoned and defamed by an scoundrel of a minister. What was truely striking (apart from the quality of the writing), was how little things had changed in the intervening period. As I was reading the galleys, a very similar case was being tried in the same area. Well worth reading, not only for its style, but also for its content, and for its depiction of life in New England in that time.

Three rare & worthwhile autobiographies, this book is worth getting/reading if only for the extremely rare & out of print Corbett piece, by Jim Corbett, the great 'white' hunter of 1920-s-50's India who helped rid the Indian NW of so many man-eating terrors - usually by himself & on foot; but this is his story of his 'mundane' life in the human jungles of his workday world as supervisor of a loading dock at a busy harbor, & the people who worked with and for him. An excellent adjunct to his "Maneaters of ... " series.

I enjoyed this book very much, lovely to read a biography of Anne by someone that's as biased toward her as I am. The speculation that her downfall was caused by miscarrying a deformed child is interesting, & believable, but is not backed up by the sources. The chapters on Anne's childhood & family are fascinating, & the author has a deep understanding of the period which she convincingly portrays. She also points out that some of what we've always been told is fact comes largely from the the very unreliable Spanish Ambassador, & isn't stated elsewhere. It's refreshing to have an author tell us that there's a lot about the people & the times we don't know.it's a reminder that history is what's written down, opinions rather than facts. Buy this book, it'll make you think as well as informing you.

Retha Warnicke is an expert on family relations in early modern society. This brings a unique perspective to the already interesting life of Anne Boleyn. By understanding not only court politics but the gender roles of time, she effectively introduces new and exciting ideas in the history of the Tudor period.

It seems Warnicke would be the first to admit that she does not have a "smoking gun", no deformed fetus was ever recovered, no secret diary detailing the events ever found. However, she bases her conclusions off logical reasoning and a knowledge of the superstitions of the time. Though this book was not written as a popular history, it is readable and very informative, though you might want to do a little bit of research on the Tudors before you pick it up.

I happened to like this book very much, but if you are old school and do not like to be challenged in set beliefs then do not pick this book up. Her ideas are thought provoking, scholarly and make the reader re-evaluate what they might have learned growing up. She presents a different perspective on Anne Boleyn than any other historian before and that is what makes this book scintillating and readable, even if you do not agree with everything (or anything) she writes.

I'm still reading this book, but so far it's an excellent review of how family politics came in to play with the Boleyn family putting up Anne as a possible match for Henry VIII. The book just doesn't do a very good job of explaining who's who in the courts of that time, but if you've read any other books about the court of Henry VIII, it's not too bad

This book is full of errors and unsubstantiated presumptions. To start with, although it has now been conclusively proven by many historians that Anne Boleyn was the younger Boleyn girl(Eric Ives,Alison Weir, Antonia Fraser, David Starkey to mention a few)Warnicke insists she was the elder daughter.
She also insists that Anne was born in 1507 when we now know for certain that Anne was born in 1501. The narrative is slow and laborious. I always try to be objective with any book I read but simply could not take this one seriously when it is so full of errors. The historical fiction author Philippa Gregory based her story 'The Other Boleyn Girl' on this book but it really is hard to decide which work is the bigger piece of fiction!

I read this book several years ago but returned to it to refresh my memory after being referred to it as a source for Philippa Gregory's The Last Boleyn Girl. While some of Wernicke's assertions are speculative and her writing is a bit dry (especially if you're used to some of the more novelistic writing in popular history these days), she makes a lot of good points, corrects some incorrect assumptions that have been repeated ad nauseam, and generally emphasizes how much we DON'T know.

While there is no definitive evidence for her theory that Anne miscarried a deformed fetus in 1536, it certainly has plausibility and explains a lot of the mystery surrounding Henry's rejection of her and her precipitous downfall. On the other hand, Wernicke makes a good argument that there is virtually NO evidence that George Boleyn's wife was a principal witness against him in the accusations that he had committed incest with his sister, yet as far as I can remember this has been repeated as undoubted fact in just about every book on Anne I have ever read, fiction or nonfiction.

As other reviewers have said, while this book is definitely worth reading, it should NOT be the first biography of Anne that someone newly interested in her or her period picks up.

This is the introductory volume to Pocock's masterful study of Gibbon and the Enlightenment. The volume is readable and intensely well-written--clarifying abstract and arcane philosophical and historical minutiae with finesse and grace. The historian's writing style is easily gotten used to and anyone who's read Gibbon will certainly appreciate the aesthetics of Pocock's narrative. Readers used to Hemingway's style might find some getting used to the longer paragraphs but even the Grand Old Man appreciated master storytellers. And Pocock is surely that and more. This is easily the greatest work by one of the greatest English-speaking historians in history.

Pocock's master-plan is ambitious and you might need to reread some chapters to get the full impact and import of what he's saying. He marshals some powerful analytical tools to arrange his material but the technical apparatus rarely shows, unless you go looking for it. Should yo do so, you'll find not only a master narrativist but also a formidable philosopher working behind the scenes.

The book, as you might guess, is not simply about Gibbon the historian. It is also about how historians write history and how, especially, the historian is influenced by the ideas and assumptions of their lives and the times they live in and through. In this way, Pocock's work here is as much about Gibbon as it is about the Enlightenment. Therefore, in the process of delving into Gibbon's life and thought, we also come into contact with Hume, Voltaire, and Adam Smith.

Pocock unearths some starling angles of interpretation on the Enlightenment that undermine the stereotypes of that era. Perhaps one of Pocock's more arresting assertions is that there was not just one Enlightenment but several Enlightenments. This insight alone is worth the price and time spent on getting the entire series.

This a masterful display of Pocock's ability to marshal the minutia of history over and against the History under discussion - judging great works by a morass of trivia. The difficulty with such a discussion of Gibbon is its ability to tyrannize the reader's perception of a work by appealing to such a vast amount of data. There is no doubt Pocock may be correct concerning every single point, but one cannot know on his authority alone.

The book has scholarly merit, but it should be the last thing on anyone's list who wants to understand Gibbon on Gibbon's own terms.

Fred Halliday has written one of the best book on the effects of internationalism on world politics.Highly recommended.

This is a study of the fascinating topics of politics, wars and revolutions. Unfortunately, however, Halliday has produced a dull and schematic book, academic in the worst sense, just another pessimistic lament for the end of history and the end of revolutions.

He attempts to summarise the origins and effects of revolutions from Franceýs 1789 to Iranýs 1979, and to place them in their international contexts. But he slights both the makers and the achievements of every revolution, and neglects those most important facts, that revolution stopped World War One, won World War Two, and has prevented World War Three (so far).

He also tries to analyse the forms of counter-revolution. But he confusingly describes the counter-revolutions of 1989 as revolutions, even though he helpfully provides us with evidence of how catastrophic they have been for workers: their living standards plummeted, as in every East European country (except Poland) Gross Domestic Product fell by 50% between 1989 and 1997, and in the former Soviet Republics by 44%.

...

The books failings derive from Hallidayýs Trotskyism. In this book, he consistently uses Trotskyýs metaphysical theory of ýcombined and uneven developmentý. Halliday was on the New Left Reviewýs editorial board, and he still promotes their self-flattering beliefs that intellectuals are the vanguard of progress, and that the writings of the European oppositional theorists are the only true Marxism. They all believe that the ruling class dominates the mind of the British working class, which can only avoid incorporation into the state if it acknowledges the leadership of those who understand the works of these theorists. Yet somehow, the British working class has always managed to make its own decisions, keep its independence of mind and escape incorporation.