Caribbean Books

I really enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it, and would give it more stars if I could. It is a story of romance and adventure. It's great Christian fiction.

I'm always searching for Christian authors that write novels with depth, yet be entertaining. This is the first book by Chaikin I have read, and I truly enjoyed it. The book premise based in the 1600's in Jamaica is refreshing as well. I admit I was skeptical about this book because the cover looked so ridiculous, however, I have to say that the Buccaneers Series books are among my favorites.

A great start to a series! Intrigue, danger, and adventure are woven into an well-developed plot. Emerald Harwick is quite an inspiring woman who faces hard times in the tropical island of Jamaica; being rejected by her aristocratic family. Baret Buckington, a viscount turned buccaneer, is on a quest to find his imprisoned father though declared dead. Emerald is desperately trying to escape Port Royal with her fiance and cousin Minette. Emerald's father has other ideas regarding Emerald's future and Baret has a part in that plan. What I really hope for in these series that Baret will find his father and Emerald find someone to love and help her deal with the family's obvious rejection and defend her mother's reputation and her own. It leaves you hanging at the end and desperate to get the 2nd book in the series!

I believed this book to be one of the most outstanding books I have ever read! It is amazing how this author captivates you in the way she writes. She makes the world of buccaneering come to life. I reccomend this book to anyone who enjoys adventure and romance!!!

This is a wonderful series--one of Linda Chaikin's best, though she could have wrapped things up in the third novel much better. The first book, however, is almost perfect, and I couldn't put it down. The story is complex enough without being confusing, and it's much less complicated than Chaikin's "Heart of India" series. The story is compelling and exciting, and as usual, Chaikin inserts many historical facts about the time period that kept me interested and made me want to learn for myself about the Caribbean in the early 17th century.

The characters are written so well that you can almost see them, and each character is developed and given plenty of backstory. The romance is amazing; each interaction between Emerald and Baret left me holding my breath, and their conversations and sarcastic banter often made me laugh out loud! The best part about the romance, however, is how gradual it is. Too often in Christian romance, it's "love at first sight"; the characters seem to love each other from the first page! Baret's love for Emerald, however, is extremely refreshing, as there's another woman in the picture, and he's often very unsure of how he feels about everything. You hardly ever see that kind of scenario in Christian romance these days, so I was pleasantly surprised with the relationship between Baret and Emerald and how it progressed.

This is definitely the best book of the three...it goes a little downhill from here, but overall, this is a great series, and one that should not be missed!

Only an author as talented as Gabriel Garcia Marques is able to write a novel which its name tells you the end and you still can't stop reading it. Fantastic!

I have been learning Spanish for 4 years now, and I have had my share at reading very boring and not very well written books in Spanish, and fortunately, some but very few good ones. One is Lazarillo de Tormes, and another is Cronica de Una Muerte Anunciada de Garcia Marquez. I have to say that even if i didn't know that Garcia Marquez was the man that made the literature of Columbia more noticed all over the world, and won the Nobel Prize for this work, and was most well known and famous for One Hundred Years of Solitude (which i hope to read in Spanish as well), i would have still been enamored into his style and what he represents in his works. Obviously, he's speaking for the culture and heritage of the people, and does it very well that from this book alone we learn a lot about it. At times i wish that in Spanish classes we could read books such as these that represent people in Spanish speaking countries in a better light. In other words, i wish we could read Spanish literature like this. I was surprised in how easily i followed this book without constantly relying on my Spanish dictionary. I highly recommend this book.

Don't be fooled by a cute cover and cheap price. The binding for this edition of the book is terrible. I have gone through three books (and I take good care) because all the pages have fallen out just from bending the book back and forth.

I love Garcia Marquez and he is somebody you will want to read again. But this paperback edition won't allow it - the book will break first!!!

Thanks.

En otras palabras, este edicion del libro es de calidad terrible. Ya han roto tres copias del mismo libro en un mes de estudiarlo, que mucho que trato no romperlo.

Escoga otra edicion si quiere comprar este novela fantastica.

Es increible conocer el final de un libro y aun así estar tan intrigado por como sucede o como se llega al final del libro. García Marquez titula claramente su obra Crónica de una Muerte Anunciada porque desde el primer par de hojas ya sabemos que Santiago Nassar va a ser asesinado. Increiblemente las dudas de como? porque? donde? y quien? empiezan a resolverse a lo largo de las páginas. Al final, armamos el rompecabezas, y todo parece caer en su lugar. Definitivamente es una de las mejores obras descriptivas de lengua española, y definitivamente una historia que se debe leer y que se va a recordar.

I might as well write this in English. Since this site is viewed mainly by english speaking readers.

This book is not surprisingly a Very good work by G G Marquez. It is well crafted throughout, and does not bore easily like other books in Spanish (there are lots). It is so well written that you will remember it 5 and 10 years from the first chance.

The othern reviews tell very well what happens in the story. It tells our Latin American cutlure very well, from its names, sounds and traditions/folklore. I am going to purchase 'Amor en tiempos de colera', which is sadi to be a book created as sort of sequel to this one.

Santiago Nasar , and the Vicaria family, along with the rest of the inhabitants of the Colombian town in which the book takes place will startle you as one of the best cronicles written, at 105 pages only.

Nos permite conocer la vida de una mujer que marco grandes cambios en MÉxico.No tiene la aridez general de las biografias, sino un ritmo dinamico, constante, especial...Además, nos da a conocer detalles historicos....

DE UNA MUJER QUE, COMO TODOS NOSOTROS, ODIABA LA TIRANIA Y LUCHABA CONTRA EL INVASOR ESPAÑOL !
Si no te interesa la historia pero te encantan las novelas excelentes, NO DEJES DE LEERLA.
Si te interesa la HISTORIA COMBINADA CON LA HERMOSURA... NO TE LA PIERDAS !!!

I have read the other reviews and they have summed up this marvelous novel much better than I can. I would even recomend it for the homeschooler, keeping it in mind that is it for the mature, but much can be gleaned from its pages into the History of Mexico. Bravo to the Author for bringing this heroine alive.

y nos permite conocer la vida apasionado de una mujer que marco grandes cambios en Mèxico.
No tiene la aridez general de las biografias, sino un ritmo dinamico, constante, especial...

Una vez iniciada la lectura de esta novela perfecta... no se la puede dejar hasta concluirla.
Además, nos da a conocer detalles historicos ( como la la abjuracion final de Hidalgo al final )

This writer is, by own right, the new Spanish speaking queen of writers!
Before her splendor, Isabel Allende and Garcia Marques might as well be dead !
The book is UNIQUE! The writing impeccable, light as the wings of a butterly but deep as the emotions of a great woman!

I love Disney world and I love love The Pirates Of The Carribbean! Great if you like both!

I really enjoed the first chapter on how the concept translated into the final product of a ride. Amazing how these things come together. The second chapter comparing the ride throughs between the four parks I found a bit frustrating - hard to really picture it unless you're there (for me). I was more interested in the ride portion than the movie chapter myself. Worth the buy (though I bought it used).

My daughter just loves all the background information. She's very happy with it.

Know this first: I'm a huge fan of all things Disney, especially POTC the ride.

Imagineer Surrell's book is very well-done. This is one of those (along with his earlier work on the Haunted Mansion) that I go to again and again, like watching a favorite movie or listening to a favorite album. Maybe I'll notice on the 50th reading ONE MORE DETAIL I somehow missed...
I especially enjoyed the look at the other parks' version of the ride. Rock on, Jason!

Con: Woulda liked it in HARDCOVER.

Now, as with any OTHER topical subject, some of the info goes out of date the day the book is published, and will continue to "go stale". The 2nd, 3rd, and even talked-about 4th movies are, of course, not included. The much-publicized ride rehabs are not either. This is the same with Jason's earlier Disney's Haunted Mansion book (a good companion piece, by the way). That said, the HM book goes off into a hopeful description of the actually-miserable HM movie, touting it as the best thing since Bela Lugosi. This was written well in advance of the actual public release of the HM movie, I guess, so they were gambling the public would love what turned out to be a huge embarrasment. ( When I need cheering up, I sometimes imagine HM Director Minkoff at what I hope is his new day job, asking people if they want to add a cherry turnover to their order for just 50 cents more ). Okay, here's your soapbox back.

They shouldn't have pushed the HM movie so hard in THAT book.

Not so in THIS book: Because they "got burned" on the HM movie, there's a decidedly less-throat-cramming push for Curse of the Black Pearl, which, of course, in hindsight, they could have laid on thicker, now that the movie has generated some kind of Star-Wars-level cultural shift.

Buy the book. You know you want it.

I know I want more books on CLASSIC Disney attractions, and I only want 'em writ by Jason Surrell. Amen.

As of November, 2006, a newer, updated version of Mr. Surrell's book is now available! Look for the version with the compass rose in the upper right corner of the cover.

Cheers!

Beck

It's worth picking up a copy, alot of information in there. Good thick book. Glad i bought it.

This book must have taken a life time of research and work. It is the most comprehensive and complete work on the Maya I have read. I was particulary interested in the Maya Calendar history and their methods of working the calendar.

Had this book been less than half its size readers would end up learning much more about the Maya from it. Unfortunately, there's much too much that belongs in an Archeology 101 class here and by the time you get to some discussion of the Maya, you're half asleep. Those of us who are not reading archeology for the first time will wish the author had just kept his discussion to the Maya, as the title suggests he will, and assumed we understood the basics.

Personally, I'm still looking for a book on the Maya so that as I travel from site to site in Quintanaroo, Yucatan, Guatemala and Honduras, I will have a basic understanding of the site I'm driving to. I just booked a trip that will book me in the area of Chac Mool soon. I'll see what I can find.

By far the most thorough book on the Ancient Maya I have ever seen. It covers all the history and gives a great deal of arceological information. There is also a lot of information on the religious, social, and economic life of the Maya. The book covers in great deal the history of each Mayan polity and it is very well organized. If there is anything you want to know about the Maya it will be in this book.

This is by far the most comprehensive book about the ancient Maya. There are several excellent shorter ones; this is the go-to book for thorough reference. It has become almost as "classic" as Maya civilization. Sharer reminisces about being "hooked on" Maya studies by the third edition (by Morley and Brainerd, 1956); so was I, back when it was newly minted. How much has changed since. Scholars can now read Maya. We now can match written history, sculptured portrayals, and archaeological findings to identify the actual skeletons of some of the greatest and most famous Maya kings, such as Yax K'uk' Mo' of Palenque. We have entire dynastic lists covering centuries, for many of the major cities. We can use bone chemistry to find out what the Maya ate. All of this was almost beyond the wildest dreams of the 1950s.
The Maya turn out to have been as brilliant, original and creative as anyone ever thought, a truly homemade civilization, one of the few in a tropical forest environment. They are said to have "collapsed" due to ecological maladjustment, but this book notes that modern research shows the civilization lasted well over 1,000 years before the "collapse" around 900 AD, and it was a fairly local phenomenon. This local collapse was due to drought, warfare, and some ecological overshoot--too many people doing too much (including burning too many trees to make lime for stucco and cement). The Maya kept on. They took on the Spanish and often won. The last independent state held out till 1697, and Maya continued holding out in remote backlands; in 1846 the Mexican Maya rebelled again, and created an independent state, finally reconquered after 1900 and turned into the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. As for what has happened since, suffice it to say that 3 days ago I saw an election sign painted in huge letters on a wall in central Quintana Roo: "PRESERVE YOUR PRIDE IN BEING MAYA!"
There are very few errors in this book, but some need correcting in the 7th edition. Most are in the very early sections, and are often left over from previous editions. Page 5, 16th-century Europeans are said to be "secure in the knowledge that they alone represented civilized life...." No, they revered China, and knew plenty about India, Persia and Arabia. P. 9, coffee is said to have come "soon" with the Europeans; not till the 19th century, at least as a major crop. 23, Nahuatl loanwords reflecting rise of central Mexico in the Postclassic: Well, a lot of those Nahuatl loanwords came with the Spanish (who had Nahuatl soldiers with them). Page 33, caiman: The book confuses the animal called "caiman" in English, an alligator-like creature not found within hundreds of miles of Mayaland, with the crocodile, which is called "caiman" in Mexican Spanish; also, pythons are claimed as native to Mayaland! The nearest they get is Africa; evidently "boa constrictors" are meant. Then nothing till page 640, where a typo (apparently two decimal places missed) has given us a preposterous yield figure for beans (in the table at the top of the page). The yields of maize are also pretty high, though not ridiculous. There are a few other errors in the book, but nothing of consequence that I can pick up.
The book uses the "new" transcription system for Maya languages, but sometimes slips and uses the "old" system, and sometimes mixes them up in the same word (e.g. "dz'onot" on p. 52). One related annoyance--not Sharer's fault; alas, it is becoming standard--is respelling "Yucatec" in the new transcription system. "Yucatec" is a SPANISH word, with no excuse in Maya, and should not be respelled. (For the record, the Spanish coined "Yucatec" from a misunderstood Maya phrase and a Nahuatl ending. They also popularized some Nahuatl ethnic names for Maya peoples. These names, like Huastec and Aguacatec, should be spelled in whatever system in now standard for Nahuatl--not in a Maya system. Better yet, they should be replaced with the actual Mayan names, like Teenek for Huastec.)
The one place I would respectfully disagree with this book is on ancient Maya population. Sharer has "tens of millions" of Maya in the 700s AD and around then. On the basis of some years of field experience with (mostly modern) Maya agriculture, I don't think this is possible. Granted that the old myth of purely-swidden agriculture is long dead, "tens of millions" would require agricultural intensity of a sort found, in preindustrial times, only in the wet-rice lands of east and southeast Asia. Mayaland is small, and only some of it is at all fertile. Sharer's evidence is a couple of surveys showing high densities of settlement in particularly favored areas; not only are they atypical, there is no guarantee the houses discovered were all occupied at once. I would guess the peak total for Mayaland was between 5 and 10 million; at least, the agriculture I know would support that many, if it had some additional intensification of the sort well documented. Beyond that, all is speculative.
One more thought. The Maya were supposed to be "peaceful" back in my student days. Then, with reading the Classic Period texts, scholars found they were pretty warlike. This led to some exaggeration the other way. Fortunately, Sharer is far too careful and comprehensive a scholar to fall for either the "peaceful" or the "warlike" view. The "warlike" view was justified by the big monuments in the Maya city squares. These commemorated wars and victories, just as do those in town squares in the midwestern US. Alas, we lack the ordinary writings--the equivalent of midwestern newspapers, with their record of marriages, births, corn and hog prices, store openings, and the like. Surely the Maya had their equivalents. What interests me here is the incredibly long life spans of Maya kings. Many lived, and even reigned, for 50, 60, even 70 years. Compare that with the Roman or Chinese emperors or the kings of France. Clearly, Mayaland in its glory days was a pretty peaceful, healthy place--though, indeed, not the paradise dreamed by romantic archaeologists of the early 20th century!
The ancient Maya are still a pretty mysterious lot in many ways, and there is a huge amount to learn. We had better do it soon. Sharer provides a long, excellent, very disturbing account of the looting that has destroyed much of the Maya heritage and will destroy all of it (at least in Guatemala) if a massive effort isn't mounted soon.
On the other hand, nothing is more heartening than the number of Maya who are becoming archaeologists and ethnographers, and studying their own past. More power to them.

this is far and away the best book i have read since "krakota" to rebuild a time period. leading up to an historic eruption and its human aftermath which surely altered history. an honest attempt to recreate the human horror and suffering such an event caused. i can only say that as a volcano "fan" i found the book first-class-couldn't-put-it-down-reading. no expert-i, i just enjoyed it. it is enough to make you move inland to an isolated hill free desert. think man is getting smarter ? i believe that no human remains have been found on thera while at st. pierre, many centuries later, about 30,000 died.

An exceptionally well written and documented book. Previously I had read accounts of this disaster, but none had the depth of Dr. Zebrowski's book on the total destruction of the city of St. Pierre and devastation of much of the Islands of Martinique and St. Vincent. He covers the human side of this tragedy with accuracy and compassion. Zebrowski has drawn from many sources and put the accumulated information into a very readable book. Anyone who likes to read about historical/scientific events should enjoy "The Last Days of St. Pierre".

I recently read Simon Winchester's "Krakatoa", and it put me to sleep. But here is a fascinating nonfiction book on a similar subject--a historic volcanic disaster--that doesn't seem to have gotten much promotion from its publisher, yet has all the elements that enthrall the reader-- tension, character development, suspense, surprise, substance... leading the reader to often gaze up at the ceiling and say "hmmm..."

The author has done a marvelous job of bringing alive characters that have been dead for a century. Fundamentally, however, this book is about ignorance-- how a lack of knowledge of natural geological processes led to some egregiously erroneous political decisions that sealed the terrible fate of 30,000 humans on the island of Martinique in 1902.

The author, however, does not insult the reader's intelligence, and your conclusions from this fascinating book will be your own.

This review is unusual in that it compares two books that were published nearly at the same time and both deal with the same event: the devastating 1902 eruption of Montagne Pelée volcano on the Caribbean island of Martinique.

The first of these books is Alwyn Scarth's "LA Catastrophe: The Eruption of Mount Pelée, the Worst Volcanic Disaster of the 20th Century", the second is Ernest Zebrowski's "The Last Days of St. Pierre: The Volcanic Disaster that Claimed 30,000 Lives", published just four months earlier. Both books mark the 100th anniversary of the eruption that virtually exterminated the town of Saint-Pierre along with nearly all of its inhabitants. Both fulfill an important mission: putting an end to the incredible amount and degree of misinformation veiling that tragic event to the present day.

The 1902 Montagne Pelée (commonly translated into Mount Pelée in the English literature) produced a phenomenon called pyroclastic flows (and/or surges), which had until then not been recognized by geologists - although today we know that they occur quite frequently. Just as I write this review (early February 2006), pyroclastic flows are spilling down the slopes of Mount St. Augustine volcano in Alaska. They were produced by nearly all the famous explosive eruptions in history, including Mount St. Helens (1980), Pinatubo (1991), Krakatau (1883), and Vesuvius (79 A.D.).

However, there was no common conscience of pyroclastic flows among scientists and people living on volcanoes in early 1902, when Montagne Pelée stirred and gradually came back to life. What was known at the time about volcanoes was limited to lava flows, ash falls, and tsunamis (the latter are rarely caused by volcanic eruptions). Often, eruptions were confused with earthquakes (which are a completely different geological process). So people in Saint-Pierre most worried about such things, and they had no means to know that Montagne Pelée held something else in store for them.

Many accounts about the 1902 events on Martinique blamed Governor Mouttet for the death of about 28,000 people in the eruption. Some writers accused him even to have posted troops on the roads exiting the threatened town to prevent the inhabitants from evacuating. Just the fact that Mouttet went to stay in Saint-Pierre the night before the tragic eruption says enough - he did not know, and there was no way of knowing, that the volcano would unleash a deadly pyroclastic flow the next morning.

Both Scarth and Zebrowski spend a lot of words and reasoning to clan the memory of Mouttet from these unjustified accusations. They do a lot of similar work concerning the vast amounts of contorted or false information regarding many other aspects of the 1902 events. There are, however, some significant differences between these two books.

Scarth has looked much more profoundly into the French sources of information, which Zebrowski - he himself admits in the introduction to his book that he is not too familiar with French - has done to a much lesser degree. Scarth's slightly higher degree of scrutiny does lead to a more precise result, which goes from the correct spelling of names (e.g., Mouttet's followup governor, whose correct name - as given by Scarth - was Lhuerre, not L'heurre as in Zebrowski) to the numbers of victims of the 1902 events: there were actually three eruptions in that year in the Caribbean that killed each more than 1000 people.

The first, on 7 May 1902, occurred on the island of St. Vincent, where the Soufrière volcano killed some 1560; only 18 hours later, Montagne Pelée snuffed out some 27,000 souls, and the same volcano killed another 1200 on 30 August that year. These numbers are those most likely to represent the real death toll - which is quite a few thousand less than those numbered by Zebrowski. Some of the most accurate scientific accounts of those events are cited in Zebrowski's bibliographic list but little of their information is used in his book. This is most notable in the case of T.Anderson and J.Flett (1903), who wrote a harrowing tale of the Soufrière (St. Vincent) eruption and witnessed one of the major eruptions of Montagne Pelée in July 1902. Interestingly, the most prominent scientist studying Montagne Pelée and its activity in that period was the French professor A. Lacroix, who is mentioned relatively briefly in Zebrowski's book. His monumental monograph "La Montagne Pelée et ses éruptions" (1904) is not even included in the bibliography, which does, however, refer to the less known and somewhat controversial "La Montagne Pelée après ses éruptions", published by Lacroix in 1908.

We find less errors of this kind in Scarth's book. This is partly due to the fact that Scarth has close relationships to volcanologists who have worked, and are working, on the 1902 Montagne Pelée eruption and its effects. Some of them are French. Im am certain that Scarth has indeed read through at least large portions of Lacroix' "La Montagne Pelée et ses éruptions". I know that book fairly well. It does not very much deal with the political and social turmoils preceding and following the eruption. But as for details concerning the eruption itself, and its tremendous effects on human beings and their environment, this is one of the most thrilling things to read - if one is familiar with French. Unfortunately, this makes it quite unaccessible to non-French readers, besides the fact that it is extremely difficult to find (Amazon France has a used copy "in correct state" offered for 995 Euros - more than 1000 US$)...

Without being too critical about the somewhat higher amount of flaws in Zebrowski's book, I find that in the end both Zebrowski and Scarth are definitely worth a read, also because they deal with very different details - so there is not all that much of a repetition there. Both do a precious effort to put things about the 1902 events into the right perspective. I hope that they will help to diminish the vast amount of misinformation currently in circulation.

Catania (Sicily, Italy), 3 February 2006

On the morning of May 8, 1902, a massive pyroclastic flow surged down the flank of Mt Pelee on the island of Martinique in the French West Indies. The searing cloud slammed into the city of St Pierre; within two minutes, the city was a pile of smoking rubble and 30,000 people were dead.

Asked to name the greatest volcanic disasters in history, most people would probably offer up Mt Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum; they might also volunteer the explosion of Krakatoa or the even more recent eruption of Mt. St Helens. Mt Pelee and St Pierre are usually only vaguely recalled, which is remakable given the sheer size of the human tragedy.

Zebrowski's book does a marvelous job of taking the reader back to 1902, when scientists understood far less than they do now about what volcanos can do. The series of eruptions at Mt Pelee were triggered by the rise of a huge bulge of magma from the subduction zone beneath the Lesser Antilles. These forces set off Mt La Soufriere on the island of St Vincent, where pyroclastic flows and lahars killed two thousand people the day before St Pierre was destroyed; the rising magma also erupted in an undersea volcano at a spot called Kick 'em Jenny.

Zebrowski describes the weeks leading to the eruption of Mt Pelee and how the local inhabitants and French bureacracy struggled to understand what they were up against. The blame for the disaster is often laid at the feet of Louis Mouttet, the governor of Martinique, but it is difficult to imagine what else he could have done. At the time, scientists thought of volcanic eruptions in terms of slow moving rivers of lava rather than swift and deadly pyrolastic flows and lahars. If Mouttet had tried to evacuate St. Pierre, he would have had very little support; even if he had succeeded, he would have created an enormous refugee crisis.

Zebrowski explains what life in St Pierre was like before the disaster, how Martinique's inhabitants coped with the increasingly dangerous volcano in their midst, what happened to the city and its people when the volcano erupted and afterward, how the French government handled (or failed to handle) the aftermath of the disaster, and how a courageous group of scientists and journalists explored the still-erupting volcano to understand what had happened. Zebrowski has chosen a rich canvas for a gripping tale, and he makes the most of it in this well-written book.

This is a wonderful collection of poems by Neruda in a bilingual edition. I'm planning to use it in a course I'm teaching in Fall '08.

Que bueno la traduccion y el original... Neruda es lo mejor de los mejores. Un libro exquisito.

I was a rookie when it comes to reading stylized writings like that of Pablo Neruda. I ordered the book as a friend suggested thinking it would be an impressive addition to my library not realizing that I would really enjoy his deep, thought-provoking and yet whimsical poems. My recommendation is to try it, you'll like it!!

Neruda was my companion during a 7 months journey and i remember clearly as water how many times i took this book with me to read it in front of the ocean. I am not very fond to poetry but with Neruda its impossible not in fall in love with the magic of words. You should have this book in your hands and heart.

I actually got this collection to study up on my Spanish, and I found myself emmersed in his tangible words. I found it interesting that some of the translations seem slightly weaker in English, but maybe that's just me.

What I like about Neruda is that his poetry can really talk to a general readership without sacrificing the aestheticism of poetic language. He seems to have an uncanny way of being brutally raw with his lanugaue, while letting the images, hard as they are, float softly, like flower petals.

Maybe I'm in love with the guy. Oh to be a poet.

A scholarly work giving an insight into (Non mainstream) Christian people's attempts to predict both the timing and the intent of a millennium.It has left the Holy Roman church virtually intact despite the attacks made against it; that is it does not pass judgement on the attitudes, teaching and actions of the church during the period presented.

I believed a history book such as this one would not get revised and ordered an old print of 1972 for an alluring bargain. Now I know better, but I was lucky. There was at least one revision, in 1969 of this 1957 book. Among other changes an entire chapter got included.

This by the time of this review half a century old book is on millennianism. Which has nothing to do with the last or the "current" turn of the calendar, but with the expectation of a paradisical kingdom to get introduced by the (returning) messiah, no matter when. Which would last for a millennium. The time frame is half a millennium, from the 11th to the 16th century. The book largely concentrates on north-western Europe, specifically France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Bohemia and England. Only occasionally referencing other territories.

Talk is about the crusades, especially from below. Poor masses embarrassing the official knights for their anarchic conduct, such as cannibalism and genociding Jews and Muslims, but also the rich Christian clergy. This book is primarily about the medievil class struggle. Ultra exploitation and general greed causing desperate mass movements with religious hope and frenzy. Norman Cohn elaborates on the social conditions and transformations from peasantry to urbanization, thus putting historical data into context. While most other authors highlight official history, i.e. the history of kings and popes etc., Norman Cohn focuses on the poor revolting. I have never before heard about a shepherds' crusade, yet there were two of them. Some of those crusades were directed against the Christian clergy and the establishment in general. That's why even today, official history lessons aren't that eager to teach about them. Some insurrections described include the flagellants (who were also genociding Jews), Beguines and Beghards (who inspired the term beggars), Thomas Müntzer, Anabaptists and all sorts of self-declared saviors. Their followers largely jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. Often literally, as the establishment punished with the stake quite liberally. But also for the mostly quick turnovers of the high aspirations of the brave new worlds into lethal absolutism. As such, the ancient Greek-Roman derived ideas of communism turned sour before the 20th century, namely in the European medievil Imes.

Many of the previous reviews put attention to the above. I have three thoughts about that. First, this book has been written and published during the heyday of McCarthyism. Obviously till today it is possible to read the book as anti-communist exclusively. Yet - second -, the author didn't critizise communism alone. In fact, the central focus is rather on the capitalist condition, which caused those mass movements in the first place. He isn't only warning about the dangers of system changes, but also of NOT changing at all. The Bible warns against greed at many places and unequality in general. The opposite has been and still is the condition of the world we live in. No system change is an easy quick fix. Because our meme pool functions within the very same parameters of greed, power and constructs of separation. Even in communism, no matter wether religious or anti-religious, some people quickly become more equal than others. This book is a warning against absolutism. Forcing one's views into other peoples' throats. It is a warning against ever more radical conditions and views until everybody (else) is fed up with those conditions, pushes them from the pedestal ENTIRELY and when in lack of a solution relying on the previous model. Which hadn't been reformed in the first place for nothing. That way, society is circling within the very same dysfunctionality, but under the illusion of system changes. The question therefore is: Were the Dark Ages' wannabe reformers too radical or not radical enough?

Both. As the third thing is that this book doesn't only critisize the radicals, but also the persecuting establishment (which executed atheists just the same). Both persecuting the mystics as sick. Who get described in this book as gnostics, stoics, Free Spirits, Ranters, Spanish Brotherhood of Muslims, Amaurians and by other terms. Unsurprisingly many reviewers blind these mystics as the same ill-advised fanatics. But the book isn't saying that. Though not really pointing out the opposite directly either. The reason for the misoverstanding is that mystics sound crazy to the masses of today no less than the absolutist loonies. Yet, they hold the key to enter the road for a real change. The basic message being: Everything in existence is God/Allah/Jah/the universe, etc, all separations are constructs of the illusory human mind. Overstanding that, equal treatment establishes itself on a different plain than a nice should-be command. The book does provide some mystical texts, including on the divinity of every human, every living thing, in fact everything and a hint of the illusion of the separation of genders (p. 325). The latter of which I find most interesting, as I wasn't aware that medievil Europe harbored a subculture knowing this. Eurocentered, the author puts all of these mystics in the derivation line of Neo-Platonism. Whereas in reality, all of this is derived from ancient Black Egypt.

Unfortunately the book isn't going into what sprang into my mind as a theory immediately and continuously while reading this book. The major religious concern of the masses is against greed and exploitation, still hinting at the Sodom story rather in this context. Whereas today, greed and exploitation isn't such a religious concern anymore. In fact, communism has become severely anti-religious. But the Sodom story is still featuring majorly in religious preachings. But in a completely different context. Most certainly the Noah-Ham story has been misinterpreted in order to justify the exploitation of slavery shortly thereafter. The book doesn't go into it, but mentions that the populace fought adamantly for the abolishment of serfdom anywhere - based on the Bible. It seems obvious that the Sodom story has been misinterpreted to divert attention away from "Thou shall not be greedy!" in the first place, away from the detesting of the rich, who included the Church. In that way the medievil subject of the book hasn't lost its topicality at all indeed.

If you want to find out more about general modern mysticism, read for example The Mystical Journey from Jesus to Christ and based on science From Science to God: A Physicist's Journey into the Mystery of Consciousness. On the schemes of exploitation no matter the superficial system, read Putting It All Together: World Conquest, Global Genocide & African Liberation.

This is an excellent book. According to the above it could be so much more - not only describing history, but changing the present. At the Imes of having been written, those issues couldn't get written about. As I-and-I (we) haven't left the Dark Ages yet, not really. "We" only think we have...

This is a brilliant and fascinating history of Christian millennial movements, cults and apocalyptically-motivated uprisings from earliest times up until the Reformation era. In the sheer bizarre freakishness of this tale of flagellants, messiahs, visionary madmen, heretical saints, reincarnated Jesuses, religious libertines, crazed hordes of rootless paupers, and genocidal prophets who sought to bring on the millennium in a sea of blood, this study is like a deformed sideshow mutant that both mesmerizes and disgusts you. However, it's more than just entertainment. I believe that it is a prophetic work.

The apocalyptic DNA strand was never eradicated from the human animal and will surely resurface in the Christian world when the conditions are right. Those conditions, among which are social dislocation, cultural deracination, political corruption, establishment-religion apathy and hypocrisy, have been rising to an extreme heat since the 1960s. Millions of people have been, and will continue to be, severed from traditional means of understanding the world and will find meaning by turning to the deviant and heterodox forms of Christianity that have proliferated in the past 30 years in America. The powerful leaders of these faith groups provide certainty, spirituality and carnal satisfaction with prophecies, visions, "miracles", divine revelations, new experiences via mind-altering practices, promises of earthly prosperity and a sense of belonging by exacerbating the hostility with "the world". Apocalyptic theology is an ever-present theme. The followers of these televangelist messiahs are peaceable enough now, but should their bellies ever be shrunken by an economic downturn- the last of the necessary conditions- we will see violent millenarian movements like nothing the world has ever known. If you're interested in what that kind of world may look like, read this book.

Cohn's "Pursuit of the Millennium" has aged well and nearing 50 years of age it is deservedly a classic. Its subjet might be considered by some to be esoteric: it deals with prophets from middle age Europe who led others to believe that the end of times was at hand, and that they had been chosen by God to purify the world in preparation for the Kingdom of the Last Days, and with pantheistic mystical anarchists who believed that they could do no evil because they had connected with their divine essences. In most cases these figures are virtual unknowns even for people who like history. The few that still turn up are Thomas Müntzer, the leader of the rebellious peasants who were exterminated in the Battle of Frankenhausen (a character in the historical fiction pastiche "Q" by Luther Blisset) and John of Leyden, the tailor who created a totalitarian kingdom of saints in Münster. For the revolutionary millennarians the tale is a bit repetitive, and it usually went like this: a former priest or a hermit with a violent disposition concludes, after meditating for a long time, that he is living at the end of times and that he is God/ he is a god/ he has been chosen by God or a god to lead the just and the good in a final, apocalyptic, war against Antichrist and his followers, to usher in the millennium of the saints announced by John the Divine, prior to the end of the world and the final reckoning. The hermit or defrocked priest finds some followers and eventually is able to take hold of a town or a castle, which he converts into a stronghold with the help of the rootless rabble. Then he proceeds to plunder from the rich (nobles and clergy) and to purge the unredeemed. Eventually the powers-that-be get their act together and dispatch an army of knights who, after a bloody fight are able to capture the prophet and his main followers, who usually are burnt or beheaded after enduring torture. It is peculiar that even thought they are always defeated and crushed, the sort of people who are drawn to this type of leader will rise up to follow them again and again.

Cohn's book tells the story in just the right detail. He shows that certain regions were particularly sensitive to the millennarian prophets. Many such arose in the Northwestern corner of Europe (Northeastern France, the Benelux countries, the Rhineland in Germany). He also shows that generally poor people have had rational aims: to use pressure in order to improve their lot by acquisition of certain rights. Only a minority has felt the attraction of millennarian revolutions, and these usually have been uprooted people without a settled role. Also, these revolutionary initiatives were able to succeed (even if for a short while) only in times of chaos or unrest (i.e., the Crusades, visitations of the plague or black death, economic crises, etc.). Usually the self-appointed prophets used the social disruption in order to further their cause and take advantage from the momentary weakness of defenders of the status quo.

Cohn is a sober commentator who shows that recent historians have sometimes ignored the evidence to further a political agenda. Thus, leftist historians sometimes refused to acknowledge some activities of the prophets whom they regarded as protorevolutionaries (such as their inclination to institutionalized promiscuity or their remarkably violent language), probably in order to maintain their status as predecessors of current "progressives".

An interesting conclusion from the reading of the book is that, contrary to what many think, ideas are not a neutral good to be chosen by informed customers in an efficient marketplace. Some ideas appeal to dark places in people's minds: these are dangerous ideas, and parents and teachers would do well to instruct their children, so that they do not succumb. One such idea is that "God" is in everything, and that when a person becomes aware of this he or she becomes entirely free and can follow his or her desires without any negative ethical implication. Another way of putting this is that nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so, as Hamlet said. This type of belief might lead a person to the most brutal behaviors without any perception that they had done ill. This is a very common opinion nowadays, and in fact both the millennarists and the mystical anarchists have their successors nowadays. Today, the center of millennarian agitation is surely the USA, were many people believe that the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse) is a play-by-play description of the end of the world and that they will live to see it happen. And many new age sects (including Scientology) appear to hold the belief that we can become gods and be free of conventional morality and ethics.

In his conclusion Cohn suggests that many radical movements of the XX century are in fact new versions of the old millennarian revolutionary heresies. There can be no doubt that this is the case: human motivations change little over time. What changes is the language in which they are articulated. In a religious era, the language and imagery were religious. in a godless age the language attempts to be scientific and logical. But underneath there beats the same old hope: the hope to see evil punished and evildoers destroyed, to be part of a chosen elite with a new understanding of the nature of reality, and an exhilarating vision of a better future through hardship and strife. We can all empathise with these feelings. Action movies, comic books, tragedies, country music and soap operas resonate for many of us because they take their inspiration from some of these elements. I only regret that Cohn did not expand the point, although other authors have done so, most notably Michel Burleigh, who in his recent two volume history on the clashes between politics and religion from the French Revolution to our days has shown that much of what passes for politics is in reality religion by another name, and how the most revolutionary creeds of the XX century were really millennarian sects.

And Cohn's perspective is so pertinent that it even explains the rise of Islamic fundamentalism tinged with visions of a holy war that will redeem the world and turn into the Umma, the community of the believers. The followers of fundamentalism have been the large masses of uprooted peasants without a clear role in a modernizing world, and their leaders have been intellectuals or semi-intellectuals who can understand how the world works but want no part of it, other than to redeem it in an apocalytic struggle. Their counterparts in other religions are very similar to them: people who want to find a meaning for lives that provide none, people who are sensitive to unfairness and who instinctively resonate with violence and retribution, people who yearn for zoroastrian visions of entirely distinct good and bad. As ever, for these people, the new millennium of peace and joy is just around the corner, although sadly it can only come about on mountains of corpses and through rivers of blood.

I have read this book several times: And each time I do; I am still amazed at the brilliant historical research of Christian millennial movements that Norman Cohn gave to the world. This book is timeless, and serves as a great warning to everyone. The apocalyptic movements from the earliest times of Christianity, to the Reformation was not only dangerous in its extremism, but what amazes me, is that it still among us: civilized though we may think we are. Everything is served up in this great book: flagellants, false messiahs, heretical saints, crazed visionaries, and insane prophets of doom. The belief that the apostles lived a life of poverty, and that all men had to share led to a struggle of class warfare, which in turn led to many wars and spilt blood. All in the name of God.

The pages of history are filled with the names of men whose desire for power, be it political or religious, lead many others into the abyss: Those whose own despair with the world around them are led to believe in the false messages and sense of security of divine righteousness. And as such, much blood has been spilled by these deceitful and crazed false teachings. These corrupters of truth have not gone away, they are still among us: No matter what their religion. And that is why this book is as important now, as when it was first published.

In the book, Norman Cohn's research gives light into the revolutionary millennial cults that spread into dangerous movements. Part of this was the mistrust of the established Church in Europe during the middle ages, and resentment of the aristocracy, whose ties and deep connections to the Church was seen as one of depriving the people of a truer and better life. And although these were legitimate complaints by the people, the fact that through there own despair, they were led by others to seek out equality in its most extreme form, is truly frightening. The millennial movements gained most of their members from the poor, and unskilled urban dwellers who were uprooted due to famine in many cases. Seeking the Kingdom of Heaven and God, however, led by demagogues and fanatics, the book goes into much detail of how, where and why these cults thrived. Highly highly recommended. [Stars: 5+]

These recipes are OUTSTANDING! They are so simple and use simple, fresh, flavorful ingredients that most people already have on hand. Some examples of recipes include:
Baguette Stuffed with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Mascarpone, and Basil
Blanchards Corn Chowder
Spicy Coconut and Sweet Potato Soup
Chicken and Green Bean Salad with Kalamata Olive Dressing
Potato Salad with Lime and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Orzo Salad with Corn, Tomatoes, Feta, and Chili-Lime Vinaigrette
Sweet-and-Sour Swordfish with Onions, Raisins, and Tomatoes
Calypso Chicken with Lime
Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon, Olives, and Rosemary
Penne with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Capers, and Olives
Island Rice with Cumin and Coconut
Light-as-a-Cloud Lemon Mousse
Coconut Cheesecake
Homemade Coconut Ice Cream

Believe me when I say that neither you nor your dinner guests will be sorry that you ordered this cookbook!! I promise! It is my absolute FAVORITE cookbook and my go-to when I don't know what to make. Order now...you won't be sorry!!

I met the Blanchards at a book singing where they were demonstrating some of the recipes; that was a few years back and I have not tired of awesome ideas found in this book. I have given this book to several family and friends and they rave about it as well!

The restaurant is beautiful and the cookbook is awesome. I've made several of the recipes and all were fabulous!

I also own a lot of cookbooks. I love to read them. I checked this book out from the library, and it is the only one I have ever checked out for free that I wanted to pay for, not matter how much it cost. Wonderful tips on products, unpretentious - almost apologetic in tone because she didn't graduate from culinary school (neither did I! Perfect!), beautiful photography, many, many recipes I want to try. Sandwiches fillings that become dips that become sauces, terrific adaptation and suggestions. I am so glad to have this cookbook/story. It is an irresistable love story of food and hospitality. Makes me want to go to their restaurant in Anguilla - wherever that is..... At least I can eat and serve the food! Try it at your library and see. Delightful.

This is one of the best cookbooks we own (and we own a lot). Everything we have tried has turned out great and taste wonderful. Well worth owning

Benerson Little, a former Navy SEAL, has written an excellent reference work on how piracy actually worked. In short, it's not anything like the mythical descriptions we get from cinema or novels.

The depth and breadth of his scholarship, as evidenced by this work, is highly commendable. He ranges from detailed descriptions/explorations of weapons and tactics to the dynamics of contracts, leadership, and organization. It was an excellent read and I particularly liked it since it provided me more insight into how warfare, outside the confines of most forms of legality or convention, is waged in a modern context.

For example: He details how a pirate crew is put together, from financing to recruitment to employment contracts (the articles) to financial compensation. To me, this was valuable since many of the financial dynamics he details are present in modern criminal economies, from the cyber crime of the Russian Business Network to the IED cell operating in Iraq.

Another example: Very precise examination of the armaments and ships used by pirates to ply their trade. Everything from the advantages of multi-shot and flintlocks to the efficacy of oars and canoes. For me, it was a very illuminating exploration of how weaponry can be altered to provide tactical advantages to an outnumbered and outgunned attacker.

So, if you are interested in finding out how pirates truly operated - or - you want to gain a more insight into 21st Century guerrilla warfare, this is the book for you. Buy it today, read it, and pass it on to a friend.

Final note: Benerson should be giving classes on this subject at Annapolis and West Point (I am sure he would be oversubscribed).

Hope this helps,

John Robb
Author of: Brave New War: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization

An excellent resource to understand the how-to of piracy. From firing a broadside to boarding, it gives the reader a handle on how the pirates were able to outfight and outsail their prey with smaller ships and sometimes fewer guns.

This book is not an easy read, but it's not intended to be. If you like histories of pirates or Colonial America, this is a vital reference.
The author details every aspect of the sea rover's life - ships, weapons, gear, even their compensation system.

Mr. Little is a retired US Navy SEAL officer and his experience shows, especially when discussing strategy and tactics.

The numerous appendices make this a work I'll refer to many times in the future.

If you want to know how pirates in the America's worked then this book is for you. If like me you have seen too many Hollywood movies this book is an eye-opener.

Piracy was a business. A pirate was a businessman and so any attack would be measured by a commercial cost/benefit analysis first. So it was done as cheaply as possible using commando methods. That is why it is good the writer having been a naval seal knows and understands these methods. Which he discusses well.

One doubt on this book I have is it discusses how a professional pirate would have done it, I am sure that many pirates were amateurish. A few people decide to go pirate take over a ship and learn on-the-job. This book only discusses the ideal tactics. Not how it was often done but how it was suppose to be done.

I also found it fascinating the discussions of the social structure of the ship. The pirate leader does not have a formal chain of command like the military caption have. He is in charge ultimately because the crew want him to be in charge. If he does not match up to the crews expectations he is out.

I hope the writer does a sequel on Muslim and Chinese pirates.

PS I even like the recipes at the end and am keen to try them out. I wonder if one of them the rum punch with lime was popular as it would stop scurvy. The medical benefits of citrus foods was known about this time although not proven till the late 1700s.

I would like to offer a little more balanced review of this book, which otherwise seems to only get rave endorsements.

First, the good part. This book indeed seems to be a scholarly study of all things related to sea rovers. It is funny at times and can be a good read.

However, being a novice in the area of sea faring and sailing I found it hard to understand and less of a satisfying or interesting read than it potentially could have been. It also is dry and heavy on factual statements, like a boring academic course, and low on anecdotes and entertainment. Other reviewers seem to imply that the book is based on personal pirate stories but references to these in the book are rarely more than passing half sentences. The book also lacks maps and illustrations, wich makes the material all the harder to understand, for anyone but sea rovers. Maybe I am not part of the intended audience, so this review is intended for the folks like me who don't have the required background, sea roving 101, or didn't intend to take a course on the subject.