Europe Books

Fifteen year old Getorix, the son of a Celtic leader, is captured and is eager to be sacrificed with honor. To his horror, he is selected as a slave to a boy his age. Talk about a major attitude adjustment! The setting is Rome, a hundred years before Christ. The time is before Julius Caesar. Geary's storytelling weaves history and details of the city of Rome into an easily read adventure story of two boys forced to be together who navigate a relationship through culture clashes, status expectations between owner and slave and the bull-headedness of youth. Getorix even takes you through the sewer system of ancient Rome.

This is the type of book you recommend to friends.

Getorix is a teenage son of a Cimbri ruler who is captured, along with his father, and taken to Rome for a triumph and eventual execution. His father is killed, but he is spared and becomes a slave in the household of Quintus Lutatius Catulus, a Roman general and official. The story concerns the developing relationship between Getorix, Catulus' son, Lucius, and Keltus, a Celtic slave of the household. The author gives us a taste of what the life of a Roman household slave would be like, plus a description of some of the politics existing in the time before Julius Caesar becomes absolute ruler. An excellent appendix gives the neophyte reader a list of Latin and 'barbarian' words and what they mean. This book may be boring to adults, but is quite good for pre-teens and teenagers. It is fortunate that the activities and perversions of Sulla are not discussed fully, or it would not be suitable for young readers. The story ends without a satisfactory ending, leading me to believe there will be a sequel as Getorix deals with his status as a slave and his vow to make his father proud of him.

Getorix: The Eagle and the Bull is a story of a young boy's adventures in Rome that is comperable to the Harry Potter novels in that the concept is equally as fascinating. Geary's attention to historical detail paints a vivid image of Rome during a time period that is educational as well as entertaining. Getorix's incessant stubborness in fufilling his promise to his father emphasizes the cultural difference between the Celts and Romans and is the foundation of an unlikely friendship in the end. This book leaves the reader awaiting a young adult adventure series that has the potential to be brilliant.

This is a beautifully written, riveting tale of a Celtic boy on the cusp of manhood, who along with his father, was captured in battle by the Romans. The boy, Getorix, is determined to honor a vow to his father made just before the father is executed. He is spared by General Catulus and given to his son, Lucius, as a slave. However, Getorix will be no one's slave, especially not a slave to a Roman enemy. His growing friendship to a boy who would be his master, and his desperate need to become a man his father would have been proud of sends him on a journey of pain and self-discovery which will ultimately chart his course in life. I see this book as a young adult book only in that there are no scenes of sexuality or obscene language. It is a wealth of insight into the life and politics of Rome before Julius Caesar and has been meticulously researched. The author, Judith Geary, speaks to an intelligent reader with language that propels the reader to another time and commands the reader to experience a slice of history along side her richly developed characters. I was hooked from the first page to the last and can not wait to read it's sequel.

Judith Geary's debut novel, Getorix: The Eagle And The Bull is set in the days of the Roman Republic (rather than the later Roman Empire) and is the story of a young Celt named Getorix. Following the adventurous life of Getorix which includes the depressing defeat of his father in a battle with the Romans, Getorix: The Eagle And The Bull deftly carries readers through a Celtic family struggles and Getorix befriending a Roman soldier who has spared his life. A superbly written novel whose author has taken great pains to be as historically accurate as possible in the little details so important to background settings and plot developments, Getorix: The Eagle And The Bull is very strongly recommended as a thoroughly captivating and intimate story of a young man's struggle with identity and pride. Written for a young adult readership, Getoix: The Eagle And The Bull is the first installment of a three volume trilogy and will leave the reader looking eagerly toward the next two titles in this superbly crafted and original series.

"GIs and Frauleins" presents a comprehensive review of the cultural and economic impact the massive American military machine imposed on a small, agrarian, and relatively poor German state at the peak of the Cold War. This book presents a seminal work for the comprehension of later cultural clashes that dominated both the United States and Germany and continue to the present.

I recommend it for both the serious scholar as well as the casual reader of social and demographic history.

Unlike the previous reviewer, who took issue with the allegedly "academic" style of the book, I found it was very readable, avoiding a lot of the "constructing the other" and "conflicting gender identities" type of language one might expect to find in an academic book of this sort. This does not mean, however, that the book does not address the kind of conceptual, academic issues that are frequently raised in such stilted terms. In no sense is the book merely an antiquarian show-and-tell kind of catalog; it quite thoroughly discusses the "holy Trinity" of race, class, and gender issues. I found the discussion of German and American forms of racism to be especially interesting.

The content of the book has, for the most part, been adequately addressed in the "official" Amazon review as well as in the previous customer review. There is one aspect, however, that deserves further mention, and which I found particularly insightful: Höhn's discussion of whether the changes that came to the rural areas she discusses would be best described as modernization or as Americanization. This sort of issue is something which would interest anyone who is concerned with the cultural issues of globalization and the dominance of American cultural products in today's markets. Because she focuses on an area in which there was a very strong American presence in the immediate post-war years, it is not surprising that her evidence shows a significant American component to the modernization process. It would be interesting to compare her conclusions in this regard to those of someone studying an area where American influence was less direct and personal. This comparison would better demonstrate whether the American influence was a necessary, or merely a contemporary, component of German societal modernization. Such a comparison, however, would not fit very well into a book titled "GIs and Fräuleins." Höhn is to be commended for putting the abundant evidence which she presents into such a larger context of modernization debates, and not faulted for not being more encyclopedic.

To the postwar German churches, the great moral issue was not what the German government and military had done to millions of innocent people in World War II; the "moral" issue was the sexual freedom enjoyed by German women who chose to sleep with American soldiers.

German elites wanted a good relationship with the United States, so plans were dropped to label every German woman who slept with an American a "prostitute." Besides, too many respectable German families acquired American sons-in-law. Germans couldn't help but notice that "Negro" soldiers were despised by their fellow Americans, so women who slept with "black" Americans were the only ones labeled prostitutes.

Interesting fact: One German judge released a mulatto Fräulein who was accused of prostitution for sleeping with a "black" American soldier. He reasoned that, since she wasn't good enough to marry a white man, she was only engaged in some innocent "husband hunting."Passing for Who You Really Are

This book is a truely fascinating study of German-American encounters after World War II. It is full of interesting details and also extremely well written. A MUST for anyone interested in German history!

"GIs and Fraeuleins"
Maria Hoehn
ISBN 0-8078-5375-5

This book explores the culture clash that occurred during the Cold War in the 1950's when American GIs were first stationed in large numbers in the towns of Baumholder and Kaiserslautern in the rural Rhineland-Palatinate state of Germany, between the Rhine and Mosel rivers. Having served in Germany a decade later, I was surprised at the extent to which there had been such problems. In Mannheim, most of the issues that Maria Hoehn describes were not readily apparent. But Mannheim was urban versus the relatively provincial character of Baumholder and Kaiserlautern of the previous decade.

Some of Hoehn's themes in this book include the impact the American soldier's money and lifestyle on rural German society, the German conservatives' attempt to punish German women who associated with GIs, especially black GIs, and the irony of the Germans' rejection of discrimination against Jews in the new Federal democracy vis-à-vis their acceptance of it against black American soldiers. Certainly, Hoehn points out, white attitudes toward fellow black soldiers played a role in the German view.

Hoehn's documentation from publications of the time convincingly demonstrates that there were significant racial problems and that many Germans vehemently opposed intimate associations between German women and American blacks, so much so that the conservative CDU political party and various religious organizations tried to have these women legally classified as prostitutes.

Hoehn writes that many Germans including those who had lost ancestral lands to American military installations began to cash in on the boom by renting rooms to Americans. Barns and attics were transformed into apartments. German families moved into their own kitchens to be able rent out the rest of the house to the Americans who were willing to pay four or five times the going rate. Hoehn quips that in the small towns where everyone usually kept animals that some Germans had to choose between having a pig or an American, an "Ami" in the German parlance of the time.

Due to high unemployment throughout Germany at this time, many young women came to the area hoping for a job as a maid for an American family, a waitress, or a dancer at an establishment that catered to American soldiers. Many, who had lost homes and parents during the war, hoped to escape from a life of poverty. Some were refugees from the former territories or East Germany. These women did not find favor in the traditional view of the residents of the area for their fraternization with American soldiers, especially black American soldiers. Such women were dubbed "Veronikas". A number of them were arrested and subjected to humiliating trials in local courts by extremist judges. Efforts for national legislation classifying these women as prostitutes by the coalition of CDU, Protestant, and Catholic leaders ultimately failed.

This book is an excellent, well-documented piece of research. Although Hoehn's writing is somewhat academic and redundant in places, this is a commendable book of considerable merit. Those interested in postwar German history and even some former GIs may get new insight from it.

The 82nd Airborne Division Association, Winter issue 2003 has a full page book review on "Glide to Glory" Is consists of unedited stories of the 325 Glider Infantry Regiment from North Africa to Berlin and contains the list of honor by Father Thuring, Goesbeek, Holland as the last chapter in the book. Many never seen combat glider photo's. The web site for this book is . It is available for immediate shipment. It has been classified as one of the best books to come out of WWII and the author was a gliderman of Company D.

GLIDE TO GLORY is a fresh breeze in the Book Market. Written in the style of The Greatest Generation, this book fills a void with personal stories of courage, bravery and desparate situations told by the men who lived through them. Serving in the Glider Infantry of the 82nd Airborne Division these men were on the front line of World War II. Their stories have never previously been told. With unpublished photos, this book is a treasure you will want to keep. Wayne Pierce

Glide to Glory is a great collection of stories
submitted by the people who lived them.Jerry has
put them together with pictures that can bring them
to life for all who read the book..

This is a big, impressive book,(coffee table size) written about an impressive war (WWII)and the exceptionally brave young men who had to fight it. The story relates a complete day-to-day account of each combat action for the 325 Glider Infantry Regiemnt of the 82nd Airborne Division. It details the actual experiences of an airborne regiment who landed in North Africa and subsequently fought in every major battle in Europe. This is the story by the men who fought those battles, and in their own unedited words and in GI vernacular, whether good or bad. It is truly their story right from the heart. Father Thuring of Groesbeek, Holland authors the final chapter which includes a memorial of those Airborne Glidermen killed in action (748) The book also contains many photographs out of the "Liberation Museum" Groesbeek, Holland.The book is loaded with photographs never before seen of some actual combat landings and the "Crosses Of Normandy" on how the soldiers killed in action were processed in the first burial. The book is loaded with all kinds of stories --- witty, homorous, gripping, and courageous,too. It's a story of young men at war, filled with bravery and high adventure. It's a story, too, of death in the afternoon. Here is another side of war as stressed in Glide to Glory - often brutal statistics of Death in the Afternoon, in particular, of the 325 Glider Infantry Regiment: 280 KIA, Normandy, June 1944, 217 KIA Holland, September 1944: 205 KIA, the Battle of the Bulge. Records indicate that out of 2500 in the regiment, 2,375 purple hearts were awarded. A minimum of 3,089 were either killed in actin or wounde. Much of their combat time was behind enemy lines for atotal of 190 combat days. This is just the bare stats for one airborne infantry regiment...the 325 GIR. Never Before, Never again will ring forever as combat gliders only were used from 1943 to 1946 by he U.S. Army Airborne. No other book is available on only Glidermen during WWII.

This book is no disappointment. It cuts no corners in its size and quality as well as the number of pages, 457 of them. The book details the experiences of the glider infantry soldiers, specifically the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. Never heard about gliders being used in WWII? Don't know what a glider infantry soldier is? Then this is the book for you. Imagine having to sit aboard a glider having wood wings, a wooden floor, a tubular steel fuselage and covered with fabric being towed behind a C-47 at 100 mph at low altitudes where ground fire and flak ripped through the wings, the floor, the canvas, and you. They were to low to bail out if your glider was hit, so no one had a parachute. Then if you survived the long flight, which could have been up to 4 hours, you hoped the skill of the trained glider pilot could bring you in onto a safe landing. But quite often, the glider pilots had to fly into postage stamp size fields where other gliders had already landed and crashes were inevitable into either another glider or the many hedgerows found along the fields. Then there were the trained German 88 crews just waiting for you to touch down so they could throw a round or two into the glider as you came to a rolling stop or the German troops who peppered the side of your glider as you sat inside watching the holes tear into the fabric hoping you would make it out as you waited for the glider to stop rolling. And if you survived the flight as well as the landing, now you had to unload your cargo of equipment and assemble into your company while being a moving target for German troops. Read about Glider Infantry Heros because that is what these guys were as told by them about them and those who didn't make it back. This book is their story and their history. You will find your emotions being tapped into as you read their personal stories and at times feel your eyes begin to well up. The glidermen played a key role in the war as did the use of the glider. Casualties and injuries were high for the C-47 crews, the glider pilots and glidermen BUT, they did what they had to do in preserving freedom. This book honors them with text, photos, maps, documents, and the names of all who died. You will not be disappointed, unless you don't have a copy of your own.

Nancy Garrison Jenn has taken upon herself the challenge of boiling down a highly fragmented industry into a meaningful knowledge base that can be used by corporate executives and individuals to network to solve both business and career needs. Her summary chapters on how to select a recruiter and advice to both corporations and individuals provides a quick study on critical issues affecting all parties concerned. While some in the industry may quibble with her selection of individuals, without question she has identified the "Who's Who" of the search industry, reflecting a credible balance between US-based and global search professionals. Without question it is the only work of its kind.

In writing The Global 200, Nancy Garrison Jean has combined her enthusiasm for the international executive search industry with rigorous analysis to create a must read for clients, candidates, and search professionals. Bravo, Nancy!

The Global 200 is quite simply the most authoritative work on the global search business. A 'must' for every CEO

Nancy Garrison Jenn has pulled off another first in the retainer executive search field - a comprehensive list of 200 executive search consultants who work in a global environment. This is an excellent cross section of the experienced people in our profession. "The Global 200 Executive Recruiters" should be in every person's library.

The Global 200 Executive Recruiters is another proof of Nancy Garrison Jenn's in-depth knowledge of the world's executive recruitment market. Though interesting for recruiting companies to learn about their sector and their competitive position, the book is particularly of help to their clients and potential clients in assessing executive search firms and the recruiters with those firms. The Global 200 provides very useful and detailed information regarding recruiters and their expertise, both in terms of business sector specialization, as well as local, regional or global orientation. It is an excellent guide for both smaller companies and larger corporations on their path to find the executive talent they need to build a sustainable competitive edge.

un libro altamente recomendable.
lleno de fotografías y lo más interesante ,secuencias enteras de una acción.
Fotografías de alta calidad.

muy bueno.

Really a first class effort, as the other reviewers have stated. The vast majority of photos have not, I believe, been published previously, and the reproduction is crisp and clear. The very detailed captions are a real plus.
For anyone with even a modest interest in the Heer of WWII, this is a must. My only,minor, complaint,is that it ends in 1944, but I surmise that good photos after that were few and far between. Highly recommended.

God, Honor, Fatherland is an excellent pictoral study of one of the Whermacht's truly elite divisions. The author covers "GD" from 1942 to 1944. Although I have a fairly extensive collection of books covering the German Army on the Eastern front, most photos in this book were new to me. The author made contact with numerous "GD" veterans and got many previously unpublished photos, many of which the people in them are listed by name and sub-unit. The author also gives 1 to 2 page narratives of the various major battles GD participated in during this time frame. As well as descriptions of the various sub-units that made up GD, including rarely covered support/maitenance units.

My favorite part of the book were the biographical sketches of various GD personalities. These include not only senior and company grade officers, but several NCO's as well. I recomend this book to anyone interested in German units or the Eastern front of WW2, particularly armor buffs and modelers.

Having purchased many Grossdeutschland photo histories over the years, I was pleasantly surprised to find this outstanding RZM product at a used bookstore. Yep...that doesn't happen every day. Naturally I snapped this gem up and am still amazed at the quality of pictures and narrative.

This volume follows the GD from 1942-1944, which are the years focused on the Soviet front. The pictures cover all aspects of the division from the maintenance and logistics elements to the Infantry, Panzer, and Reconnaissance units. As earlier reviews indicated, the captions are very well done and specific attention is paid to naming the individuals pictured. Another great plus is the large format size of many pictures. For modellers these are a window into details often missed in smaller format photos.

So if you already think you already have enough volumes of GD related history...think again. This volume is one that you don't want to be without.

Another first rate job by RZM.

Not just another mundane collection of photos, this book is perhaps one of the best volumes in English regarding German soldiers, and especially the GD Division. The captions cast light on many arcance areas of study - uniforms, organization, history, tactics - and all the details are consistently correct and well researched. The only minor nit I was able to find is the mis-captioning of an NCO equivalent beamten as a "Hauptmann" - (p. 114)

Overall, a thoroughly excellent photographic record, with emphasis on naming photo subjects (a very nice touch). Of course, as with any collection of WW II photos, most of the pictures in this book are obviously posed, and there is nothing in the way of "real action" shots. This is not a drawback, and few "real action" shots were taken during the war by any of the combatants.

There are also some excellent biographical sketches of Knight' Cross winners and unit commanders.

really intersting read with lots of interesting facts, not for the faint hearted, makes you think and relise alot of different things

Extremely fascinating text! It is no surprise Oxford University Press chose to publish this work. Whether the reader is a scholar specializing in the folklore of the British Isles, a student enrolled in a Viking seminar, or an individual with an interest in the topic, this work is informative and captivating. The text not only aids the reader in his or her study of British Isle folklore, but allows the reader to draw connections between Scandinavian culture on the mainland and other isles. I have read a fair amount of works concerning this topic, but none have kept me as interested as "Gods, Heroes, & Kings." A definite buy!

Gods, Heroes, and Kings: The Battle for Mythic Britain

Gods, Heroes, and Kings, written by Christopher R. Fee and David A. Leeming and published in 2001 by Oxford University Press is a fine overall introduction to the mythologies of the pre-Christian inhabitants of the British Isles, who can be divided into two groups, each of which, in turn, has two subdivisions. First came the Celts, both Goidelic (Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man) and Brythonic (Wales, Cornwall and the French region of Brittany).
Most of the mythology of the Celts was written down long after the coming of Christianity to Ireland and Wales. Many Deities appear in both literatures, but the precise relationship between the religions of the two main branches of the Celts is not completely clear.
Long afterward came the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, a loose assemblage of Germanic tribes who became the English and transformed most of the island of Great Britain into England (Angle-Land). These newcomers wrote down little of their mythology, but a fair amount of it can be reconstructed by comparing off-hand references in works such as Beowulf with the much more extant mythology of Scandinavia, many of whose inhabitants raided and later settled in the British Isles during the Viking Era.
While closely related, certainly more so than the religions of the Goidelic and Brythonic Celts, the precise relationship between the Troth of the Heathen Anglo-Saxons and that of the Viking-Age Scandinavians, as well as the relationship between both of them and the pre-Christian beliefs of the Continental Germanic peoples (German, Dutch, and Frisian speakers) will probably always remain a bone of scholarly contention.
Despite being a work of more recent scholarship, Gods, Heroes, and Kings reflects in many ways the scholarship of the 1970's and 1980's, with considerable influence from the work of the late Joseph Campbell, author of the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces and the Masks of God series. The prominent influence of this scholar rather surprised me, as his ideas seem to be at the present time somewhat out of favor. However, just as in mythology and in clothing fashions, the popularity of ideas and theories in Academia can also have a cyclical element.
The writing style is very readable, and the combination of a section retelling a myth with a section commenting on it is both effective and enjoyable to read. The main idea of this book is that the battle for mythic Britain was not "a struggle between factions of ancient gods and heroes, but rather a war of attrition, a continual reformulation and assertion of age-old archetypes in the garb most appropriate for the audience who heard their stories" (p. 192). Many of the mythic themes survived Christianization amazingly intact, and contributed to the uniqueness of the Christianity of the British Isles.
Much attention is given to heroic themes, and the authors hold that the mythic Hero is actually Everyman (and Everywoman), and the Gods, including by implication Yahweh, are "competing masks of the same ancient beings," and that the masks are just the surface of what they represent (p. 220). Obviously, this is not a theological idea which most Heathens, nor for that matter most Christians would embrace wholeheartedly, but nevertheless it does open the door for fertile theorizing on such topics as the nature and essence of Divinity and the relationship between the Pantheons and Deities of different religions.
The persistence of these mythical themes, both mythological and heroic, is due to the fact that "certain universal concerns remain constant: proper planting, fertile soil, a timely and sufficient harvest (p. 220) and so "the battle for mythic Britain represents the ongoing attempt by humans everywhere to make sense of their present reality by drawing on those aspects of past traditions that fit the most appropriate mask" (p. 221).
The chapter headings of this work provide a good idea of what it contains: The Pantheons, already alluded to in this review, Deity Types, Sacred Objects and Places, Heroes and Heroines, Creation and Apocalypse, and The Sagas (in the broader sense of the term, not just the Icelandic ones). The conclusion of the book is "Five Reflections on the Face of the Hero in the Medieval English Romance - Trials, Tribulations, and Transformative Quests."
As I read Gods, Heroes, and Kings, I found that my overall impression of the book kept going up and down. The lack of footnotes is at least mildly disturbing in a scholarly work. However, the inclusion of fine a "further reading" section together with an impressive bibliography partly makes up for this serious flaw. I am left with the impression that it is trying to be both a scholarly and popular work, with mixed success.
For the Heathen reader, this book is a fine introduction to some of the major extant Celtic myths, and a good overview of our own lore. It is also a good beginning to the important and fascinating Heathen scholarly task of comparing and contrasting Germanic lore with that of the Celts, whose languages are related to the our own tongues, and in terms of geography, history and culture are even more closely our kin. This is a question which most serious Heathen scholars will sooner or later find themselves looking at. The book also provides much material for unraveling how ancient mythological themes continue to influence the core ideas of our culture, and shows one way in which our Gods and Goddesses managed to remain active among us during the centuries in which their worship, where it continued at all, was the furtive undertaking of a very few people.
All in all, I do recommend that you read Gods, Heroes, and Kings. It can be read and enjoyed on a number of different levels, and the fact that Oxford University Press chose to publish it says much. In addition, it is nice for a change to review a book that is in print and readily available at a reasonable price!
Patrick "Jordsvin" Buck
http://home.earthlink.net/~jordsvin

This book is a great read. It's obviously well-researched, and filled with intriguing facts. Furthermore, Fee has a writing style that draws the reader in and keeps him/her interested throughout. Highly recommended!

Drs. Christopher Fee and David Leeming have crafted an extraordinary work examining the marriage of Celtic, Germanic, and Norse cultures and religious beliefs in Britain (particularly as they are seen via the literary traditions that chronicled them) in an effort to understand how the impact of pre-Christian peoples influenced the unique Christianity of Medieval Britain. While Dr. Leeming has provided extensive retellings of pagan myths, Dr. Fee has written insightful analyses of these myths and their import to the creation of a British religious ideology. Beginning with a scrutiny of the various pagan pantheons, the work then moves through detailed examinations of, among other things, types of deities, heroes and heroines, and the different sagas of the individual cultures. As an apocalypticist, I found the retellings and subsequent commentaries on Ragnarok and the Anglo-Saxon Fire of Judgment immensely informative and useful.
This is an extraordinarily accessible book. It is intended for the non-specialist and, as such, would be perfect for an undergraduate survey course, for an upper-level topical course on British mythology/religion, or for any scholar seeking an understanding of Britain's pre-Christian culture. I would also recommend it highly as a handbook for any medievalist who needs quick and informed accounts of any and all of these topics. Not only have Drs. Fee and Leeming eloquently opened up the field of pagan Britain to further inquiry and discussion, but they have done so in a work that is, above all, easy and enjoyable to read.

This book is a major contribution to its field. It contains important details that are missing from many of the previous works on the subject of the famine. The scholarship is sound and is often based on primary sources that have never been examined in this context before. The data are consistently compelling, fresh, and well documented. . . Any college with an Irish studies program will find the book indispensable. (Mary Ellen Cohane, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts)

As a contributor to this volume on the Great Famine in Ireland, I think that this book makes an important contribution to the historiography of the Famine insofar as it may be the only volume to trace the linkage between the U.S. and Ireland during that tragic era. Neil Hogan, author of THE CRY OF THE FAMISHING, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society.

This book is a major contribution to its field. It contains important details that are missing from many of the previous works on the subject of the famine. The scholarship is sound and is often based on primary sources that have never been examined in this context before. The data are consistently compelling, fresh, and well documented. . . Any college with an Irish studies program will find the book indispensable. (Mary Ellen Cohane, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts)

As a contributor to this volume on the Great Famine in Ireland, I think that this book makes an important contribution to the historiography of the Famine insofar as it may be the only volume to trace the linkage between the U.S. and Ireland during that tragic era. Neil Hogan, author of THE CRY OF THE FAMISHING, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society.

A fascinating collection of essays that reveals, often in unexpected ways, the effects of the Irish famine on both sides of the Atlantic. Ranging from the loss of life to the loss of music among the Irish peasantry, from the pages of the Dublin University Magazine to the pages of American newspapers, from Chef Alex Soyer's famine soup to the famine graves at Grosse Ile, from Irish memory to Irish American rage, this scholarly but readable book provides us with the broadest understanding of this far-reaching event. (William H. A. Williams, author of 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream)

English history made fascinating and definitely in the "I could not put it down" category. Great for ALL ages.

This third and final volume by Robert Lacey really finishes the series. Included are tales about the famous and the not so famous. What I really like about his books are that they are stories- great quick reads about events that we may not be familiar with.

I highly recommend this book to any Anglophile, or anyone wanting to learn more about the history of the UK.

Robert Lacey has a most remarkable aptitude for relating history in an engaging manner, while still informing and educating. "The Year 1000" and the first two volumes of "Great Tales" are testaments to this. Lacey also manages to make history relevant and selects figures of note. Also to his credit is his lively, entertaining writing style.

Those who have had the pleasure of reading this author's first two volumes in this series will know what to expect in this third and final volume - and they will not be disappointed. This volume contains 60 short (4 or 5 pages) snippets of English history - often little known but fascinating facts. These span the years from 1690 to 1953. The writing style, as usual for this author, is clear, simple, lively and quite engaging. The book is hard to put down for, I believe, the following two main reasons: 1) the shortness of the chapters and 2) the excellent writing style. This book can be enjoyed by anyone - but especially history buffs.

The author Robert Lacey, writes "The job of the historian is to deal objectively with the available facts. But, history is in the eye of the beholder and also of the historian, who as a human being has feelings and prejudices of his own." In Volume 3, few if any of Lacey's prejudices are apparent as he demonstrates once again that he is one of the best, both as a historian and a storyteller.

Technical, economic, governmental and political advancement dominated this period. The monarchs of the period are succinctly covered including the German George I, the madness of George III, and the coming to the throne of the teenage Queen Victoria. Tomas Paine's idea "that the rights of man, which include equality and liberty, are God-given at birth, and that governments are only good when they protect them" became a part of American doctrine. Curiously, profits of the triangular slave trade helped fuel the spectacular economy of England in the eighteenth century...." England ended slave trade in 1807.

The engineering marvels of the Great Western Railway are noted. In 1842 Queen Victoria chose that railway for her first train trip. This was also a period of great labor unrest and abuse. Labor alliances were formed. The 1888 strike of the "match girls" pioneered techniques of protest still used today, helped the formation of trade unions all over the country and "provided an early grass roots triumph in the struggle for women's rights.

Coverage of the twentieth century is excellent.The World War I trench-warfare truce of 24 December 1914 occurred when both German and Allied troops stopped fighting and celebrated Christmas together. Lacey notes that "such a widespread flowering of peace and friendship had never been seen in the history of war...." In 1915.when a few Allied soldiers trapped behind lines in Belgium were helped to escape by Edith Cavell, matron in a Belgium nurses' training school, the Germans executed her. The worldwide outcry was enormous and the bitterness so great that there were no more Christmas truces. In 1914 the British used volunteers. Young friends marched to recruiting offices, to enlist in what became known as the "pals or chums" battalions. At the Somme nearly twenty thousand British soldiers were killed with another forty thousand wounded: "the greatest ever British loss in a single day of battle.

Most interesting is the account of Edward, Prince of Wales' abdication. Apparently, Edward had been thinking of giving up the throne long before his father's death. Later Edward was involved with Mrs. Simpson, an American divorcee, which was his excuse for abdicating. Brief but sympathetic comments are given Neville Chamberlain's well-meaning attempts to appease Hitler. Robert Lacey asks the rhetorical question regarding Chamberlain "And was he really so wrong to try to stop a conflict which....would claim the lives of more than fifty million people?"

The text coverage of World War II is revealing. The story of the little boats at Dunkirk is exaggerated; "it was the big ships of the Royal Navy that transported the vast majority of the soldiers home.." While Churchill lauded the RAF pilots in the Battle of Britain stating "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few", the text notes "...every fighter pilot depended on a massive and complex pyramid of support staff--radar technicians, the observer crops...." The few were supported by "many." The text's final comment on WWII notes that Winston Churchill, taking up to eight hours,wrote all his own speeches. Churchill phrases are still quoted to this day.

Finally, the text closes with a review of the 1953 discovery of DNA 1953 by Francis Crick and James Watson for which they later received a Nobel Prize

This is an easy and very enjoyable book to read. The reader need not worry about the author's objectivity.

McCabe presents a Greece living now only in the hearts and minds of Yia Yias and Papous but never quite forgotten as this book proves masterfully through the fantastic photography. The reader walks through post-WWII Greece and experiences the simple wonders of the Greek people and land. This book is a journey not to be missed.

The photos in this book are in turn beautiful, warm, moving and joyful. In all of them, McCabe's love of Greece and all things Greek shines through. This book is awesome and wonderful. The reproductions are superb and the images evocative of a time in Greece when life was simpler than today. Find a comfortable chair, open the book, and enjoy the journey!

I have not seen such photography since Cartier Bresson's photos on everyday French life. It brings the people and land to life and presents a marvelous "record" what was and is about to partially disappear. It is a rare work of art. Peter Sichel

This is a spectacular book. Robert McCabe's intimate knowledge of Greece and its people informs the beautiful photographs that are presented in this record of a truly idyllic land. When I first received the book, I did something highly unusual for me: I sat down and went through the entire book, page by page. What a treat that experience was. I recommend this collection of photographs to anyone interested in Greece and to anyone who loves great photography.

Many of these collected black and white photographs, taken with a Rolleiflex in the 8 1/2 inch square format by the photographer during some of his many trips to Greece in the mid 1950's and 1960's, take one's breath away - arresting lansdcapes, portraits, and scenes of life as it was lived then, a vanished era, to quote the author. The pictures were made by someone who undoubtedly knows and loves the people and the country with a passion that shines through. McCabe is not a professional photographer, but rather the best kind of amateur, in the sense of comparing Olympic sports to professional sports. His work has a freshness and vitality that is more amazing considering that the pictures were taken over 40 years ago. The book recalls for me a trip I once made to the Greek Islands. During a night passage, our boat anchored off the coast of Delos, an uninhabited island (then) that is known as a sanctuary and the birthplace of some important Greek Gods and Goddesses. My memory of proximity to the aura of this sanctuary, the way it made me think about history, the ancient Greeks, was summoned back by McCabe's photographs in a way that made clear his understanding of the interconnectedness of people. His pictures make one think about how human intellectual history, our knowledge, began there, in Greece. Whether it is a picture from great height of an amphitheatre where Sophocles' plays were originally performed, or a glimpse of two young girls giggling over a shared secret, the effect of this book is to draw out a fascinating combination of history, landscape and human emotion.

This book is a very good guidebook to visit greek island.
It contains a lot of useful information for tourists.

This is a tremendously useful book. It's even the book we dragged around the sites in Athens with us, while the ones with lovely pictures, specifically for Athens, stayed back in our hotel room.

This was the book I threw in my purse every morning on my cruise through the Greek Islands. I'd highly recommend it to anyone going to one or all. For me, the most important feature was that it detailed every island that we stopped at, including a port in Turkey and some very small islands - something the Frommer's and Eyewitness Travel books didn't do - and included a street map of at least the main town each. Although I did not use the ferry guides, they appeared to be very thorough and easy to use. In addition to the islands, the book also details Athens, the port at Piraeus, and several other ports along the Aegean Sea. This book was a great resource, helping me and everyone who borrowed it on our trip.

Greek Island Hopping is a must-have volume for travelers to the Greek isles: the maps, island descriptions, ferry information, etc. go above and beyond its competitors. I just got back from 2+ weeks in the islands & Athens and used this as my primary companion guide during that time. Sometimes it can come off a bit as too backpacker or party-seeker oriented, but this impression can be deceptive because the guide is nicely balanced with a good deal of information on the history, mythology, and culture of the land as well. It has a wealth of helpful information on Athens, a wise inclusion given that most travelers to the islands will likely throw a few days in Athens into their itineraries as well.

That said, this guide has two significant limitations ... one which manifests itself before you leave for the islands, the other is a problem once you get there. That would be SLEEPING and EATING concerns, respectively. Personally, the lack of hotel information is less of a problem given the wealth of information on the internet from reputable sites these days, but the complete lack of dining information was a large drawback for me. It made the Lonely Planet guide to the islands--which is otherwise inferior to Island Hopping in just about every way--a similarly indispensable resource for that narrow purpose. In the islands, it's very easy to pay a lot for bad food, so having some idea of what places to seek out and which to avoid would be very helpful because the good, the bad, and the ugly are often all located on the same street. It really shouldn't be that hard to list a couple of places for each town or island.

Despite these fairly major drawbacks, I still give this guide 5 stars because the wealth of maps, information, and helpful guidance makes this guide a must-have companion in spite of its warts. I imagine the writers want to avoid making the guide too long, but they really do need to consider adding some eating & sleeping information to compete with the "big names" like Lonely Planet and Frommers.

This book was the perfect companion for our cruise of the Mediterranean. It had a map of all the major towns of each greek island (I looked at almost every other guide for the Greek Islands and this was the only one that had that). We wanted to explore the islands on our own instead of taking a shore excursion so this was exactly what we were looking for. The maps were detailed enough that we could get around without any problems. It also included Athens which was a huge bonus. It had sections on history and the main sights of each place.

Two possible downsides to the book. 1. The information on lodging was pretty skimpy and the book is definitely geared more towards backpackers (it has information on camp sites which might be useful if you are a backpacker). 2. There really is no section on food so if you depend on your guidebooks to point you in the right direction for this, you're out of luck.

If I was doing my own tour of the Greek Islands, this book would have gotten a 3 or 4 star rating given what it lacked in lodging and food. I would have had to buy another book like Frommer's or Fodor's for the information it was missing. For a cruise, this was exactly what I was looking for.