United Kingdom Books

This is the second volume of Cambridge University Press's multi-volume "The Agrarian History of England and Wales" (general editor Joan Thirsk),which traces the history of agrarian/rural economics in England and Wales from prehistory to the present. This particular volume, edited by medieval historian H.E. Hallam, is devoted to the period 1042 (just before the Norman Conquest) through 1348 (the year of the Black Death.

The 1200+ pages of this mammoth study are divided into 10 chapters, although most of these aredivided further into 'sub-chapters' and articles. The ten major chapters are: "England Before the Norman Conquest", "Domeday England", "New Settlements", "Farming Techniques", "Population Movements", "Social Structure", "Prices and Wages", "The Life of the People", "Rural Building in England and Wales", and an overall summary on "Rural England and Wales, 1042-1350". Many of the chapters and articles are written by Hallam himself, but others are written by other noted social and economic historians of medieval England: Sally Harvy, Cristopher Dyer, R. Ian Jack, Edward Miller, J.G. Hurst, David Farmer, L.A.S. Butler, etc. There is a select bibliography at the end, as well as two separate indexes (one for place names, the other for all other items). Dozens-- perhaps even hundreds-- of tables and charts are included, as are several illustrations.

In terms of the substance of the book-- well, it's clear that this is going to be *the* definitive and most comprehensive study of rural economic history in England and Wales in this period for a long, long time to come. However, its' comprehensiveness comes with a certain price (and I'm not just talking about the pricetag). This is an extremely detailed book filled with all sorts of statistics, observations, comparisons, and references to individual villages, practices, etc. At times, the reader can get lost in the specifics-- missing the forest for the trees (or perhaps I should say the wheat stalks for the fields?) That's not to say that general overviews aren't provided, mind you-- it's just that they are followed by so much specific detail that one can sometimes lose track of the big picture. Another trade-off is that, while there is a chapter discussing structures and relations, the work really focuses on economics, without delving deeply into the connections between economics and social life. I don't see either of these as being a *fault* of the book per se, but rather as an inevitable consequence of it treating agrarian economic life so comprehensively.

In truth, this probably isn't a book for the person who is casually interested in medieval history or rural life. The level of detail can be overwhelming at times, and the writing is not exactly what you would call "lively". This is really a work for the scholar-- or for the amateur who's *extremely* interested in the economic life of the the medieval countryside (and who has already read several shorter studies). But for someone who wants a thorough, scholarly, and comprehensive treatment of English/Welsh agrarian life from the Conquest through the Black Death, this book is an unparalleled resource.

Ainsley Harriott is a master of quick cooking and the author of the best-seller MEALS IN MINUTES: here he returns with some eighty new dishes which can be made in under an hour - and which hold international influences. Calypso Pepperpot Chicken with Plantain, Aromatic Pad Thai Chicken, and Mild Mustard Salmon Burgers all sound as if they'd be complicated to fix - but they aren't. Color photos, sidebars of nutritional information, and easy steps make these a snap to produce at home, and with a minimum of exotic ingredients or spices.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Flint's coverage of airbourne armour fills a much needed gap in the wargamers Library.Buy it read it .

During the 1941-45 timeframe the Hawker Hurricane saw action in every theater around the world as day fighters, fighter-bombers, night intruders and nightfighters. These combats added an additional 60+ names to the Hurricane aces list. Andrew Thomas wraps up Osprey's coverage of the Hurri's combat career in this nicely done volume, #57 in the 'Aircraft of the Aces' series.

Thomas summarizes the Hurricane's global combats in chapters devoted to the ETO, Mediterranean, North Africa and Far East, chapters that illustrate how varied the aircraft's later-war career was. In the 'Offence and Defence' chapter for example, Thomas relates Hurricane use in cross-Channel fighter sweeps, nightfighter/intruder ops and service on board CAM ships and Royal Navy carriers in the Atlantic and North Atlantic.

The aces encountered in this book read like a Who's Who of RAF fighter pilots - Pat Pattle, Frank Carey, Bill Vale, 'Boy' Mould, Karel Kuttelwascher, Willie McKnight, Jack Storey and so on. That they accomplished so much, given that by 1941, the Hurricane was getting long in the tooth, speaks volumes for their piloting skills and fighter spirit.

Thomas' book is a well-done, broadbrush chronicle of victories, defeats, rough times and ultimate victory. The comprehensive text is illustrated with over 100 photographs and ten pages of color profiles by John Weal.

Air combat enthusiasts and fans of Hawker's humpbacked warhorse will enjoy this book.

*****
The initial Osprey 'Hurricane Aces' volume, authored by Tony Holmes in 1998, added an extra 32 pages to tell the 1939-40 Hurricane story. I would have liked Osprey to have done the same with Thomas' book. Given the scope of the subject, extra pages would have been great.

Dr George Williams (Air Transport Group at the prestigious Cranfield University,UK) provides one of the finest evaluations of the liberalisation processes in the US and Europe

It's always embarrassing to be wrong in public, but if one is going to learn, it is better to confront one's mistakes than to ignore them as if they had never happened. When I wrote my short review of Vincent Smith's AKBAR THE GREAT MOGUL, I was overly impressed by its Oxford imprimatur, the author's scholarly credentials, and the book's venerable age (1917). It is not surprising that I gained the impression that Akbar had embraced Parsiism, for after asserting that the Emperor had rejected Islam, Smith provides what seems like unmistakable evidence for this conversion: Akbar worshipped fire and the sun. What seems less easy to understand or explain is how I could have overlooked the passages in Smith's book which imply that Akbar, having rejected Islam, began to persecute Muslims. If this is correct, it would greatly tarnish his well-known reputation for toleration.

Trying to decide if I should buy S.M. Burke's AKBAR, THE GREATEST MOGUL from Amazon, I examined a library copy of the more recently-penned biography alongside of Smith's work. And to my relief (for I have had a special affection for Akbar since I read about him years ago in Bamber Gascoigne's THE GREAT MOGHULS), I found in it an excellent refutation of Smith's charges of religious intolerance. To quote Burke: "To have punished anyone solely on the score of religion was alien to Akbar's entire outlook. The seniormost ladies of his own household-- his mother, his aunt Golbadan and his wife Salima-- were all pious Muslims and he always paid them the greatest respect. He arranged for Golbadan and Salima to gain merit by performing the hajj [pilgimmage to Mecca]. If being a fervent Muslim was a crime in Akbar's eyes, as Badauni would have us believe, how did Badauni, the self-confessed zealot, manage to survive at court, so close to Akbar, till the very end of the Emperor's life?" (p. 128). To which I might add, concerning the charge that he banned Arabic letters, that if he had done so he could not have expected to see his own name anywhere, as it is in fact part of the Muslim takbir, the first sentence pronounced daily in the muezzin's call to prayer, "Allahu akbar" or "God is great", and nothing could have been more Arabic.

This still leaves open the question of what religion Akbar ultimately embraced. His "Din-I-Ilahi" was a customized religion wich undoubtedly contained a large measure of self-glorification, for no one denies that Akbar was vain. But there was good reason for him to consider himself to still be a Muslim even after he established it. It so happens that there was a brand of Islam which was popular in Akbar's time and very different from the bigoted Islam of the ulema whose bickering so irritated Akbar. This was Sufisim, a type of mysticism which sought union with the divine through ecstatic attainment of union with God, usually brought about through contemplation and an austere way of life. Sufis were tolerant, believing that there is a core of truth in every religion: like the Persian poet Rumi and the Christan Gnostics, they would have agreed that God is to be found not in a synagogue, church or mosque but in one's own heart. Burke provides much evidence of Akbar's attraction to Sufism. Indeed, Akbar himself experienced mysterious moments of "seizure", in which he became detached from everything that was going on around him and unable to participate in it, as though he were possessed. In one instance, he was engaged in a form of hunting which he greatly enjoyed, in which beaters drove animals into a confined space where they could be slaughtered-- depictions of this form of hunting, as well as Akbar hunting on horseback with cheetahs, still exist in Moghul miniatures. On this particular occasion, after his "seizure", Akbar seemed to lose all his thirst for blood and ordered that the animals be released unharmed. He seemed elated and himself interpreted such "seizures", which recurred on other occasions, as moments of complete union with God such as the Sufis sought.

Smith attempted to explain these episodes by hypothesizing that Akbar was an epileptic, but why then would he have interpreted the seizures in a positive light? As Burke says, it is more plausible to conclude that they were exactly what Akbar thought they were, and it does not matter whether or not WE believe that he had attained union with God on these occasions, only that Akbar, being of a mystical bent, genuinely believed that he had. Interestingly, Akbar may have been afflicted with another disorder, although the possibility has never been raised by any author to my knowledge, including Burke. This is dyslexia. It is well known that Akbar was illiterate. Smith attributes this to youthful idleness, and Burke to "an unsettled childhood and natural aversion to being taught." (p. 31). But given the undeniable intellectual capacity and love of learning that he displayed as an adult, it seems more likely that he had a reading disorder which could have been easily overcome in today's world but which was not even recognized in his own era or Smith's, for that matter.

Smith's assertion that Akbar was "free from a love of cruelty for its own sake," is supported by the edict, cited by both Smith and Burke, which he promulgated against involuntary suttee. As Burke says, "On one occasion Akbar heard that a Rajput princess did not wish to commit suttee after the death of her husband but her son and other relatives were resolved to force her to burn herself. He immediately mounted his horse, speeded to the spot, and prevented the tragedy." (p. 141) It is also supported by the shock Akbar felt at the hideous torture-death inflicted on a man by his son Salim (the future Jahangir) when he was in his cups (p. 208). But there is one question on which debate still rages as it does about his religion. Smith says that "Akbar's whole policy was directed principally toward the acquisition of power and riches, and that "improvement of the condition of the people was quite a secondary consideration." Burke takes strong exception, using numerous examples to demonstrate the falsity of this assertion. For one thing, if Akbar's system of administration was not beneficial to his subjects, why did the British themselves model theirs upon it? (p. 215) Secondly, Akbar expressed his concern for the poor and downtrodden in innumerable ways. He made himself accessible to everyone, even the lowliest of his subjects. He distributed alms in vast amounts and encouraged his nobles to do the same. He built free hospitals and schools, serais (the equivalent of today's hostel) for poor travelers, and constructed wells and dams to help the peasants (pp. 145-221). When one of his ministers pleaded that, because of old age and failing health, he wished to retire and spend his days in "remembering God", Akbar refused to let him go and said that "No worship of God is equal to the soothing of the oppressed."

It seems that Burke is right when he says of Smith and some of his contemporaries who felt the same about Akbar, "they were reluctant to permit any period of Indian history to outshine the British inerregnum in benevolence and enlightenment." (p. 216) Another Englishman felt differently. In an address to the Pakistani parliament, the last viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, said, "When the East India Company received its charter nearly four centuries ago, your great Emperor Akbar was on the throne, whose reign was marked by perhaps as great a degree of political and religious tolerance, as has been known before or since. It was an example by which, I honestly believe, generations of our public men and administrators have been influenced." (p. 221)

This extremely useful book examines Britain's relationship with the European Union. In particular, the author studies the Constitution for Europe, a key part of the EU drive towards a single EU state.

At the `Convention on the Future of Europe', Giscard d'Estaing, the Convention's President, and Sir John Kerr of the Foreign Office presented the supposed drafting body, `The Presidium', with the text of the Constitution. Giscard rejected all the amendments proposed by the other members of the Presidium and refused to take any votes. He then pronounced (wrongly) that the Presidium had unanimously endorsed the Constitution and warned the EU member governments not to upset their achievement.

The Constitution is designed, not to limit the EU's powers, but to allow further extension of these powers without limit and without even the pretence of consultation. Article I-18 says, "If action by the Union should prove necessary ... to attain one the objectives set by the Constitution, and the Constitution has not provided the necessary powers, the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the European Commission, and after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament, shall adopt the appropriate measures." So the EU's institutions can assume whatever powers they want, with no need for further treaties, for reference to national parliaments, for referendums or elections.

As French Prime Minister J-P Raffarin wrote of the Constitution, "This pact is the point of no-return. Europe becomes an irreversible project, irrevocable after the ratification of this treaty."

Article III-305-2 of the Constitution would put an end to Britain's role as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. It says, "Member States which are members of the Security Council will, in the execution of their functions, defend the positions and the interests of the Union ... When the Union has defined a position on a subject which is on the United Nations Security Council agenda, those Member States which sit on the Security Council shall request that the Union Minister for Foreign Affairs be asked to present the Union's position."

Turning to the British economy, Morgan rightly says that industry should be a national responsibility and that Britain should also control its agriculture, food and fisheries. He urges the development of nuclear energy to compensate for the impending reduction in oil output and he points out the "massive scope for invention in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energy resources."

Morgan points out that in 2002, Britain's total stock of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) was $568 billion (payments to inward investors $17 billion), and of outward FDI $921 billion (earning $52 billion). From 1994 to 2003, the cumulative inflows of FDI totalled $463 billion, and cumulative outflows totalled $878 billion - net outflow $415 billion. This all sounds very impressive, but what is the result? As he notes, the inward investment is not creating new productive capacity but is almost all spent on acquisitions and mergers, which create virtually no jobs. For example, all 2002-03's inward investment created just 34,000 jobs, 0.125% of British employment. Similarly, 90% of Britain's outward investment goes on acquisitions. So all the sloshing back and forth of these huge sums of capital does nothing to expand the real productive economy.

This stress on capital rather than on production has resulted in Britain's disastrous industrial decline. The technology component of the British economy is far too small. In 2000, the World Economic Forum ranked Britain only fifteenth in technological progress and we ranked only eighteenth in the number of patents granted by the US Patent Office per million people.

The EU's aim was always, in Giscard d'Estaing's words, "to create a new political structure based on far-reaching integration and led by institutions of a federal type ... it was to organise the United States of Europe." The author rightly concludes that the EU is `a federal state' and that it is `fundamentally illegitimate'. He also denounces the Blair government for saying that it would "have `them' see things `our way'." Yet he proposes the same policy as Blair: "the UK must change the rules of the game" and "bring the EU back on track."

Since the EU's basic design is federal and supranational, not intergovernmental, it cannot be reformed into being intergovernmental. Each country must retrieve its national sovereignty and democracy.

We should do what we need to do to save Britain, whether the other EU members see things our way or not. In particular, we should continue to demand a referendum on the Constitution, as the next step on Britain's road to withdrawal from the EU.

2008's "Albuera" is a thoughtful and well-written examination of Wellington's difficult 1811 campaign in Spain. Wellington would ultimately fail to seize either of the two gateway fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz into Spain. However, hard-fought Allied victories at Barrosa, Fuentes d'Onoro, and Albuera helped mature Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish forces and established a moral ascendency over French forces that would not be surrendered for the duration of the war. Author Peter Edwards therefore identifies 1811 as the turning point of the Peninsular War. Working from a mixture of primary and secondary sources, Edwards captures a nice tactical and operational level perspective on the campaign.

At the beginning of 1811, Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army cleared Portugal for the third and final time, chasing French Marshal Messina's starving French Army back into Spain after a winter before the Lines of Torres Vedra. The movement of French reinforcements to join Massena created the opportunity for an Anglo-Spanish sortie out of Cadiz. When Spanish forces failed to react to a French counterattack at Barrosa, outnumbered British troops under Graham repelled the attack before retiring into Cadiz.

Further North, Wellington divided his army to thrust toward the key avenues of approach into Spain. That Wellington's Army and its commander still were not yet the superb fighting machine of 1813-1814 was evident from the mishandled combats at Sabugal and Campo Mayor, where Allied forces failed to fully exploit positional advantage.

Massena turned back on Wellington in early May, seeking to lift the siege of Almieda by attacking the Allied Army at Fuentes de Onoro. The Allied Army maintained its position in a three-day battle by the narrowest of margins. Edwards' narrative suggests Wellington may have been overconfident in his ability to respond to French battlefield tactics but French forces failed to press home their flank attack on the second day. The French inability to beat British infantry when meeting on anything like equal terms was key to Allied survival.

The major battle of the 1811 campaign was the clash at Albuera, forever remembered as the bloodiest single day of the Peninsular War. Marshal Beresford commanded an Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish force in defense of the siege of Badajoz against a relief attempt by Marshal Soult. Soult cleverly managed to place huge forces on the open right flank of the Allied Army, a situation that would normally have guaranteed a French victory. As Edwards' patient retelling of the battle makes clear, British and Spanish infantry simply refused to acknowledge defeat, engaging in a bloody slugfest from which the French were first to withdraw. Beresford is shown to have lost control of the fight and to have been bailed out by the initiative of his subordinates.

In the closing chapters, the Allied Army learned some hard lessons in a failed hasty siege of Badajoz in June 1811, lessons it would make good in 1812 at both Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz.

Edwards' narrative is a nice mixture of first-person recollections by battle participants and analysis by established historians such as Oman and Napier, stitched together by his perspective as a historian and military officer. The result is a nicely-reasoned analysis of each battle and of the campaign. Edwards pays homage to the British regimental system that produced such outstanding infantry, and finds credit for British cavalry, traditionally much-maligned in Peninsular histories. For all that the campaign failed to accomplish, Edwards establishes that Wellington gained a moral ascendency over his French opponents, who at two confrontations at the Coa in late 1811, and in later years, would lack confidence in attacking even an outnumbered Wellington on ground of his own choosing.

"Albuera" is very highly recommended to students of the Peninsular War as a fresh look at well-traveled ground. The general reader with some military background will also find "Albuera" to be an entertaining and educational read.

Barbara Windsor M.B.E.'s tell all autobiography leaves no stone unturned and is very revealing. While most people outside the UK doesn't know the name, she is one of Britain's best kept secret to themselves. She is blonde, petite, beautiful inside and out as well. She reveals her troubling relationship with her father, her abortions, her marriages and divorces. She talks about the love of her life now, Scott Mitchell, who is the son of her old classmates. She got an M.B.E. in 2000 while Dame Shirley Bassey received her damehood. Still Babs is one of England's prettiest women at 67 years old. If you like reading about celebrities', you will love her book and understand why she is rated one of England's best loved British film actresses with a list including Dame Margaret Rutherford, Dame Judi Dench, and Julie Walters O.B.E. Then you ask yourself, maybe it should be Dame Barbara Windsor. When she begins to doubt earning her M.B.E., you just want to reach in and tell her to shut up. She is very worthy of being honored by the Queen. She should have been made a Dame!

This is a delightful collection of eleven short stories, though the last isn't really a story as much as a tour of the Bandon Fair. Each is about five or six thousand words. One quickly recognizes the style of this duo and their astute observations of Ireland. In one story, a couple is spoken of who hail from England, a place where two and two always come out to be four, whereas in Ireland, it can be three or five or nothing. The humor arises from the situations and the frank, although loquacious, descriptions. There are a couple of moments that are quite tragic. As with most of their work, much horse dealing occurs and hounds and fishing, not to mention the constant added ingredient of recreational spirits. These two were apparently apt to sketch out the entire story line before writing. The momentum of a couple of the tales shows this to be a success. "An Irish Problem" is a great story and one can't help but think of the R.M. A couple of the stories are connected with the same characters, but mostly each stands alone. This is a great thrill for fans of their entertaining style. And the stories are "bite-sized" and can be read in a sitting.