4 comments about Chesterton.

1. G.K. Chesterton has to be one of the most towering figures of the 20th Century. He has a paradoxical quote for almost every subject. This, however, is not a typical biography of events tempered with anecdotes to keep the reader's interest. Rather, Garry Wills ventures to chart Chesterton's intellectual development through his works. After reading Wills' [literary] biography, you have to wonder how society has forgotten perhaps the greatest writer of prose, not to mention greatest mind, the past century has seen. Read this book and marvel...



2. Chesterton is one of the most towering intellectual writers of the 20th century. Garry Wills does an amazing feat in exploring the literary development of Chesterton (instead of a normal biography as the events of one's life.) Reading Wills' book really illuminates the genius of Chesterton through his works and is a must read for all Chesterton fans.



3. There's no new ground covered here, which is a major flaw for a work by an "historian; moreover, the author's writing style is hackneyed, and that's in its most readable passages. Also, Chesterton was an Orthodox Catholic, where the author of this work is not - their perspectives are at polar ends. Chesterton probably would have been appalled to have such an adversary of the Church to be so bold as to write about his life.

   If you want to know Chesterton read his "Autobiography of G. K. Chesterton".




4. This work is written by a radical who opposes Church teachings. Wills allows his own opinions to influence his scholarship. See much better accounts by Chesterton himself, Ahlquist, or many other reliable biographers.

No comments about Art and Forbidden Fruit: Hidden Passion in the Life of William Morris.

No comments about S.T. Coleridge: Interviews and Recollections.

No comments about The Wit & Wisdom of Winston Churchill: A Treasury of More Than 1,000 Quotations and Anecdotes.

No comments about The First Summit: Roosevelt and Churchill at Placentia Bay, 1941: Revised Edition.

3 comments about The Life and Campaigns of the Black Prince: from contemporary letters, diaries and chronicles, including Chandos Herald's Life of the Black Prince.

1. LONG LIVE THE PRINCE OF WALES.

   THE BLACK PRINCE ALWAYS TRIUMPHS.

   KILLER RABBITS




2. I gave this book five stars for its originality. I loved that the author (who has a number of great works) pretty much steps back and allows the people of the 14th century to do most of the talking. After all, who better then them to tell their own story?
   It was also interesting to read how the Black Prince's contemporaries viewed him. Which was not at all like the tyrant recent historians have made him to be. But this book was more then just about the Black Prince, it gave an insight into medieval warfare and what these soldiers truly lived.



3. Read this for graduate history course in medieval history.
   Richard Barber's edited works of "The Life and Campaigns of the Black Prince," is one of the best primary sources of the fourteenth-century. Unlike many historians' accounts, Edward's prose make for an engaging read. Edward's writings may be short on the type of battlefield details that modern historians yearn for; however, they are rich in explaining some of the tactical decision-making made by Edward III before and during the Crécy campaign.
   
   The Black Prince noted that Edward III's purpose for the invasion of France, which started the military action in the Hundred Years War, was to conduct a chevauchée, which was essentially a procession of the army through the countryside that pillaged as it traveled. Edward III then intended to use his superior mobility to make his escape up the coast to Flanders without having to fight a major battle with the numerically superior French forces. However, Crécy was the sight of the first major battle of The Hundred Years' War and was a rousing success for the invading English army of Edward III. The battle, which took place on just two days in August of 1346, was emblematic of the tactical successes that the British enjoyed at the battles of Poitiers and Agincourt.
   
   The book accounts the skill and courage that the Black Prince and his men fought with as they fended off several waves of French attacks on that day and the next day as well. The book has an excellent account about the sixteen-year-old Black Prince's baptism by fire in battle. "There he learnt that knightly skill which he later put to excellent use at the battle of Poitiers, where he captured the French king." Although heavily outnumbered, Edward III's longbow men were the force multiplier that garnered a stunning victory for the British over the French. Most estimates of the longbow tactics used in the battle state the over one-half million arrows fired by the English easily cut down the French cavalry. Thus, the longbow, and the brilliant way in which it was employed, was responsible for the lopsided casualty figures of the battle. Although casualty figures are somewhat unreliable, most sources put the French losses at one-third of the French nobility-about 12,000 men in all, against the English losses of 150 to 1,000 total. Froissart sums up the mastery of the longbow men and the tactics they employed turning them into a weapon of mass destruction and a force multiplier. "They were some of the finest, most highly trained and militarily efficient troops that any nation ever put into the field of battle." The battle of Crécy taught all the armies of Europe that the longbow would reign as the supreme weapon in battle for the next 100 years.
   
   Ten years later in 1356, and a few years after the ravages of the Black Death, the Black Prince conducted and won the most valuable battle of the Hundred Year's War, at Poitiers. The Black Prince won a stunning victory over King John II of France, culminating with the king being captured and killing and capturing of thousands of other French noblemen. Clearly, this action far surpassed the victory won at Crécy. France's military was decimated. The country was pushed to the brink of political collapse, and was left with a tremendous debt in both money and territory to pay for the king's ransom.
   
   Recommended reading for those interested in medieval history.

2 comments about Brief Lives (Penguin Classics).

1. Because its author never completed most of the entries for this biographical work, and never published it, what he did set down about his varied noble and ignoble subjects is uncensored, gossipy, perhaps unsubstantiated, and delightful. If you like browsing in Pepys' diary, or are fascinated by English life in the 17th century, this is the book to leave about for the occasional free moment.



2. It's fun reading this collection of digressive informal anecdotes about famous (and some obscure) Englishmen. If you enjoyed "An Instance of the Fingerpost" (where some of thc characters appear) you'd like this. As a primary source for information it gets less reliable the further back it goes. Aubrey was born in 1626 so his accounts of Shakespeare and Elizathans are a generation removed, but he had met Harvey and Penn and had been through the Civil War and the rule of Cromwell.

No comments about My Darling Margy: The World War II Diaries and Letters of Surgeon Charles Francis Chunn, M.d..

2 comments about Freud's Wizard: Ernest Jones and the Transformation of Psychoanalysis.

1. For those interested in the history of psychoanalysis in general and Freud's inner circle in particular, Freud's Wizard is a laudable contribution to the literature. It manages to be scholarly in its attention to historical detail while at the same time, readable for the interested layperson who is not steeped in knowledge of psychoanalysis. It will especially appeal to practicing analysts and those of a psychodynamic orientation. How Ernest Jones develops his interest in Freud's new theories, joins his inner circle, and his tireless efforts in promoting both the "cause" and his own career are smoothly presented by biographer Maddox.
   
   Despite her admitted admiration for Jones, Maddox fairly presents Jones's character weaknesses as well as his strengths. She doesn't shy away from facing some of the questionable moral indiscretions in Jones's life-both personally and professionally- nor does she paint an overly positive portrait of his motivations in dealing with colleagues, Freud, or the numerous women in his life.
   
   As might be expected, the most interesting sections have to do with the interactions through letter and personal meetings with Freud himself and the other eminent members of Freud's inner circle. We see how a very short man who worries about overcoming his common name becomes a "true believer" in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis and is able to make a distinguished life for himself on the heels of one of the giants of his time.
   
   Jones appears to have been the right person at the right time, attaching himself to Freud and becoming, as he liked to boast, "the pre-eminent psychoanalyst in the English-speaking world." His strong personal presence, intellectual and administrative abilities, skill at political in-fighting, and faithfulness to Freud all made him, if not a "wizard," at least an indispensable right-hand man who stayed true to his master until the end. If nothing else, we owe Jones a debt of gratitude for his courageous act of personally orchestrating the immigration of Freud and his entourage out of Vienna during the Nazi take-over and his crowning achievement of his three volume biography of Freud.
   
   I enjoyed reading this biography, learning a good deal more about Ernest Jones than I had known, and came away with a sharper appreciation for his place in the pantheon of central early psychoanalytic figures.



2. FREUD'S WIZARD: ERNEST JONES AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF PSYCHOANALYSIS discusses Freud's disciple and colleague who brought the international psychoanalytic movement to London and fostered its spread to the U.S. With so many books considering both Freud's life and theory, it's satisfying to find an adjunct which details a contemporary who had a dramatic impact both on Freud's personal life and in the promotion of his theories. FREUD'S WIZARD is essential for any college-level or general-interest collection that already houses biographies and discussions of Freud: it considers the history and evolution of early psychoanalysis and the man who vastly contributed to Freud's theory's promotion.

No comments about The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. 3: 1662 (Diary of Samuel Pepys).