5 comments about Cromwell: The Lord Protector (Historical Biography Series).

1. Cromwell is perhaps the single most controversial figure in English history. Only John and Richard III have attracted as much venom as he has, and there are still people alive today who hate him -- see some of the other reviews here for at least one example. Naturally the truth is complicated, and Fraser lays out a good deal of detail in support of her case, which is that Cromwell was much maligned, and was on the whole a good and religious man trying hard to do what he thought was right.

   I had no prior belief about Cromwell, but I have to say Fraser convinced me rather of the opposite -- that he was a religious fanatic, brilliant but limited, who was neither a great ruler nor personally very admirable. Her apologies for some of his worst sins, such as the terrible events in Ireland, are outlandish.

   On the plus side, this is a thorough and detailed book, with enough information to allow a reader to make up their own mind. Fraser does at least keep the facts separate from her opinions. The book is excellent on Cromwell himself; it's pretty good on details of the Civil Wars, though it doesn't go to the level that an exclusively military history might. However, it's surprisingly weak on the overall political background. To truly understand Cromwell you need to know what came before and after. I would have liked to see more about the religious state of the country, and why it got that way, and also about the Revolution of only thirty years after his death. But in concentrating on Cromwell the man (at perhaps too great a length), Fraser has skimped on the surrounding politics.

   Overall, I'd recommend this only if you're deeply interested in knowing a lot about Cromwell's life, or if you already know the political and religious framework of the years 1640-1660. If you know both, this is a fine book (allowing for Fraser's open bias) but it's no place to start.

   One other note: the paperback edition (which is what I have) does not have any of the photographs or other plates that are apparently in the hardback -- Fraser makes occasional reference to "the plate opposite page 709" and so on, so I would bear that in mind in choosing between the two editions.




2. Most of my review will echo the discontents expressed by my fellow reviewers, but I hope I can provide an original analysis. If you are deliberating on whether to read this book, do not delve into the lengthy journey without prior knowledge of Cromwell. A more terse and concise biography is more suitable for the beginner. Antonia Fraser knows this time period intimately, and she would probably be incapable to produce a more superficial work on such a massive figure in English history. Although there is a small amount of side information and exposition about the historical events surrounding Cromwell (e.g., The English Civil War), the reader gets the feeling that the author assumes that we know much of the pertinent information already. This causes the novice reader on Cromwell to tend to find herself lost during some of the key events in his life. With some prior knowledge of the time period, this confusion could be avoided.
   
   Antonia Fraser is an erudite writer with stylistic flair, but is also painfully verbose. The sentences are often long and protracted, often with frequent use of the characteristic British punctuation, the semicolon. The result is a biography that is over a hundred pages too long. This is especially true when one considers that this biography is purely a narrative, and there is little writing that delves into the theoretical and political ideas that motivated Cromwell. This may be because Cromwell was motivated by fanatical and zealous devotion to his religion. When one is so enthralled by an unsubstantiated, uncouth dogma, there is little room to ponder questions when an inept but clear answer is to be found. Cromwell was not a theoretician, but a pragmatic man. This is interesting because most of his language and actions are littered with references to the metaphysical, however crude and obtuse those references and underlying thoughts are.
   
   Fraser paints Cromwell as an avuncular, charming man whose religious ethics seeped into his daily actions. While this may be true when applied to his personal life, it is impossible to reconcile this image with the man who sanctioned and even performed atrocities during his invasion of Ireland. The motivation for Fraser's subtle attempt at vindicating Cromwell can only be speculated on, but perhaps she is so enamored with English history that it became nature for her to fall in love with one of its heroes. Whatever the motivation, the bias is there, and needs to be acknowledged.
   
   For those that merely want to get a sense of who Cromwell was and the time period he lived in, a shorter biography will suffice. Try and pick one without the verbosity and slight sycophancy of Fraser.



3. Growing up an Irish Catholic American, I grew up hating Oliver Cromwell without really knowing why (an influence of my Irish grandmother). Fraser's biography of this brilliant and driven soldier is thoroughly researched and surprisingly sympathetic. She gives a great insight into what drove this man as well as giving a broad look at the political, cultural, and religious influences behind the brutal English Civil War. Cromwell was a brilliant general whose strategic and tactical genious beat the King's trained forces. His genius, unfortunately, did not extend to the political sphere. This is a great account of a flawed individual.



4. Fraser's book is best at trying to place Cromwell in his time. It is pointless to upbraid her for writing a book about someone who could be an unpleasant, violent and designing character - Europe was full of even more violent generals and religous fanatics at the time
   
   By carefully following his career and the people around him she shows how he rose from mediocrity to high office AND was a brilliant general even though he started as at the age of 40
   
   I thought it was well written and a good introduction to a complex character in a complex time



5. This was a concise and thoroughly researched book on Oliver Cromwell. I have only one complaint - Antonia Fraser eludes to illustrations that are not present in the book. Either a cost cutting decision or gross incompetence on behalf of the publisher, it is a major distraction. If deciding to purchase this softcover edition, keep that fact in mind.

No comments about Left to the Wolves: Irish Victims of Stalinist Terror.

2 comments about The Sorrows of the Quaker Jesus: James Nayler and the Puritan Crackdown on the Free Spirit.

1. Friends; I have finished a new book, "The Sorrows of the Quaker Jesus; James Nayler and the Puritan Crackdown on the free Spirit", by Leo Damrosch, Prof of Literature, Harvard. One of Prof. Damrosch's main interests is the Puritan reaction to Quakers, to do this he develops, as background, a description of mid-17th Century Quakerism. I wish he had done as well for Puritanism. Another interest is the shoddy treatment Nayler received from Parliament (which really had no business dealing with Nayler, but since there was no Constitution, who is to say) and the shoddy (but different) treatment Nayler received from G. Fox and other Quakers. Since Damrosch is not trying to "convince" to Qism this was a refreshing treatment for me. He has worked with a concordance to find the Biblical allusions of Quaker speech and writing to fair success, missing only a few important ones. University presses are pricey, this is $40, but I am glad I paid the price. Joseph H. Condon, Engineer, Quaker



2. Damrosch's book is the most definitive treatment of Nayler (also spelled Naylor), the controversial contemporary od George Fox, who was tried byt he English Parliament for blasphemy. It corrects many of the factual errors in Bittle's book on the same subject.

5 comments about Midlife Irish: Discovering My Family and Myself.

1. This book, which is not a travel book nor a psychological treatise although it has elements of both, will bring a feeling of recognition and self discovery to many Irish-Americans like myself. Gannon accurately reflects the upbringing in an Irish home where many things are left unsaid and much of family history is shrouded in mystery. His trip to Ireland to learn more about his parents and his forebears is a treat--enlightening, educational and very funny. It is also dead-on in its take on Ireland and the Irish. It is a fascinating trip that will keep the reader laughing and engrossed. Highly recommended.



2. 
   I had never seen nor heard of this book or its author when I picked it up.I must admit, it didn't do much for me,particularly in the first quarter of the book.Like another reviewer, it also hit me as disjointed and in need of a lot of editing.As a matter of fact, I nearly gave up on it.That would have been a big mistake.After finishing it,I still feel the book gets a lot better,from every respect,the further you get into it.
   I have been to Ireland three times and find it an absolutely fascinating country.The people,history,landscape,music,literature
   and all, fail to amaze me.
   Gannon is impressed with the Irish skill in the use of language as I am and he is a writer,and he should know.What the Irish can do with language does not come from a book,can't be taught in school;it comes from the soul--and as far as I can tell-it has to come from an Irish soul.
   I was really taken by Gannon's concept of "thin places".He mentions several and made me think of some too: Sitting on the base of Molly Malone's statute talking to a couple of street people,Kennys Bookstore in Galway,A stroll up Fall's Road in Belfast,B&B at Trinity College,Blarney Castle,Grafton Street,Gogarty's in Temple Bar,Shop Street in Galway,Sitting in the Lord Mayor,s chair in Belfast,Joseph Plunkett's cell and the Chapel where he married Grace Gifford before being executed in Kilmainham Gaol in 1916,just to name few.
   You'll surely enjoy this book if you've ever been to or plan to visit Ireland.



3. On page 71 the author says that Irish is a Germanic language like English. It is NOT! It is a Celtic language very distant from Germanic languages like English. The author goes on to say, "The English language is very ancient in Ireland. Despite what people say, English as a language is not something that was `imposed' on the people by outsiders." That is the most blatantly false statement on the Irish language I have ever read. Anyone who knows anything about the Irish language knows what the author said above is absolutely wrong and damaging to the Irish language. These statements alone should tell you NOT to buy this book or even check it out from a library. After reading that I put the book away. Don't even bother with it.



4. That attitude is also, by the way, a healthy one to take to Ireland. While there, I was simultaneously reading Nuala O'Faolain's "Are You Somebody? -The Accidental Autobiography of a Dublin Woman", which may have been unfair to Gannon's book, since O'Faolain is a fantastic artist with the English language (as spoken by the silver-tongued Irish.) Gannon is nowhere near the writer that O'Faolain is, but his account is still touching in its simplicity and lack of pretension. Gannon is who he is, his parents were who they were, and his book is what it is. Accept that, and you'll have an enjoyable reading experience.



5. Why has this author not written any other books? This book is a very good read, full of irish history and humor. This book had me r
   iveted from the very first page. I must go to Ireland one day to see where my Mother and Grandmother were born ( in Co. Clare and Cork .)
   
   I hope you write another book soon Francis

2 comments about Field of Fire: Diary of a Gunner Officer.

1. This barely edited publication of the authors wartime diaries offers a very good view of the kinds of day-to-day, hum-drum things that keeps soldiers going and gets their attention. At times the Swaab seems vaguely aware of the enormity of the events of which he is involved, but generally he seems more concerned about how many cigarettes he has, what brand they are, how much mail has arrived, fleas, issue of alcohol rations, and petty office politics within his battery. In that regard he is much like Colonel Cathcart in "Catch-22", ever alert for Black Eyes and Feathers In His Cap.
   
   I was hoping that more information about details of the authors job would come through, a'la George Blackburn in "The Guns of War", details about the mechanics of artillery fire and control from a man who did it in action for the better part of 2 years, but somewhat-unfortunately Swaab stuck mainly to the details of his life when writing his diaries.
   
   There is an interesting passage in the days immediately before 6th June 1944, with his unit tucked up in a pre-embarkation compound in London. The glorious weather gives way to storms and high winds - an event the significance of which Swaab could have no idea, but in retrospect provides a fascinating real-life perspective on Group Captain Stagg's concurrent intellectual trial.
   
   During the section on Swaab's experiences in Tunisia and Sicily I had the somewhat surreal experience of finding myself reading this book and Spike Milligans memoirs of Tunisia and Salerno at the same time. The contrast between Milligan's lunacy and hilarity and Swaab's matter of fact recitation of each days ups and downs is amusing in it's own right.
   
   Unfortunately some of the diary has either been lost or omitted. Certainly the first diary has been lost to history, so the authors experiences from enlistment up till just before he joins a regiment on operations is only occasionally hinted at in relation to other events. But there are also gaps between the end of the Tunisian campaign and the start of the Sicilian, and between when the regiment arrives back in England in late 1943 and a few days before D-Day. Personally, I would have been interested in the amount and kinds of training that he carried out in the build-up to OVERLORD. The reason for this gap isn't stated - it could well be that he simply didn't keep his diary during this period.
   
   Overall the diaries present a rather unflattering glimpse of a junior officer in the second half of World War II, and details of the life he led. Nevertheless, if you take a reasonable background knowledge of the events in which Swaab was involved, you should find this a rewarding read.



2. An interesting book as it focuses on the personal as much if not more than the combat the author took part in during his many campaigns during WWII.
   
   People keep diaries for many reasons and if they choose to record what is important to them during a war then we have no right to judge them 60 years later. One can draw a good comparison with Evelyn Waugh's thinly fictional "Sword of Honor" series.
   
   On the military side, it is very interesting to read of a junior officer's experiences from the Artillery perspective which is very different from the Infantry point of view i.e. not "quite" as close up as the man with the rifle and bayonet even though there was no shortage of danger and many casualties in his unit. In WWII perhaps 75% of battlefield casualties were caused by the guns of the artillery.
   
   The author was brave in battle and brave enough to publish his personal opinions recorded at the time. A fine book and a good addition to anyone's military history library.

No comments about The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Critical Biography (Blackwell Critical Biographies).

No comments about The Columbus Conspiracy.

1 comments about Fortress of My Youth: Memoir of a Terezín Survivor.

1. Renée was 13 years old when the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia. Born of Czech-speaking Jewish parents who lived in Josefov (Josephstadt), she had been baptized as child, but of course the Nazi race laws applied to the entire family (except to a much loved non-Jewish step-grandfather). For the next three years restriction followed restriction. During that time Renée kept a diary, which has certain elements in common with Anne Franks', recording all the passionate feelings of an adolescent girl, eventually cooped up with edgy parents in their home (which they had to share with a Yiddish-speaking family from Ruthenia), rebelling against her fate, fantasizing about being in love. She did in fact have a passionate and touching, mainly epistolatory, friendship with Jarmila, a non-Jewish girl two years older than herself whom she had met on a train. For sometimes Renée and her mother ran the risk of defying the Nazi restrictions on Jews leaving their neighbourhood and visited the grandparents in nearby Mnichovo Hradiste (Münchengrätz): in their house they could temporarily put their worries to the back of their minds and even sing and play - music had always meant much to the family.
   
   More and more people were being ordered to report for deportation. The Nazis took the Ruthenian family without their two small children, aged four and 18 months, and fourteen-year old Renée took over the mothering of them. But then in December 1942 it was the turn of Renée and her family: they were deported to Theresienstadt (Terezin).
   
   We know that the Nazis presented Theresienstadt as a `model camp' to visitors from the Red Cross. Did these take in the atrociously overcrowded accommodation, with well over 50,000 inmates in buildings that had been built for one-tenth of that number, so that each inmate had less than 1.6 square meters of floor-space? Did they take in its nature as a transit camp, from which thousands of people were transported to death camps to make room for thousands of newcomers? Did they notice the filthy conditions that prevailed in most of the camp? The tormenting infestation of bedbugs and lice? The carts which wheeled away the 100 to 150 dead each day (nearly 30,000 died there)?
   
   And yet, in the midst of all this, there were remarkable affirmations of life. The Nazis left the detailed running of the camp to its inmates, and even gave permission for some children to be accommodated in separate buildings, which were run by the most wonderful men and women who made it their mission to stimulate and educate these children (often to a higher standard than they would have experienced at school), to give them as positive an attitude to life as was possible under these circumstances, to make them be as clean and tidy as possible, above all to inculcate into them a strong ethical sense, so that, for example, they would help each other and share the few small food parcels that were initially admitted from the outside.
   
   As part of the `model camp' image, the Nazis permitted the inmates to stage concerts, choral works in the beginning, then instrumental music on instruments that had been confiscated. Famous musicians among the inmates insisted on the highest standards from ensembles who rehearsed after ten hours of hard labour in the fields or workshops and whose composition was constantly changing as the result of deportations. Renée herself took part in performances of Smetana's The Bartered Bride (with its opening chorus Let's rejoice, let's be merry) and The Kiss, and Verdi's Requiem.
   
   So there were exhilarating experiences in Theresienstadt (and I was reminded of the title of another such memoir - A Garden of Eden in Hell - see my Amazon review). They included intense personal, often sexual, attachments between these adolescents, only too often violently ending when one of them was selected for further deportation. Renée herself experienced this: there was passionate love between her and a young man called Milan, who would leave Theresienstadt on the same transport as her father.
   
   Renée's father and Milan were on one of the last transports out of Theresienstadt. She and her mother were due to go on one soon after, but by a miracle they were spared. And then there were no more transports. Only a few people, mostly women, were left in Theresienstadt to cope as best they could that winter until the Russians arrived to liberate the camp in May 1945.
   
   It was a desolate return home - so many people had perished: her father and her beloved grandparents among them. Jarmila had been arrested, but released because she was dying of tuberculosis: Renée managed to see her on the day she died. Milan had survived the death march from his concentration camp, but did not marry Renée. When the Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia he had emigrated to Chile
   
   Renée's mother had managed to re-establish the family business, which was lost for the second time when it was taken over by the State. Renée herself went to university. She had accidentally left a letter from Milan in a library book, in which Milan had made flippant remarks about the East and about his `capitalist' activities in Chile, which nearly cost her the right to sit her final examination. But the letter remained on her police files and would cause more problems in later years. She still lives in Prague - but she certainly could not have published the last chapter of her book if the Communists were still in power there.
   
   A most memorable addition to the memoirs of Holocaust survivors.

No comments about Founded on Fear: Letterfrack Industrial School, War And Exile.

3 comments about Henry Plantagenet.

1. In Henry Plantagenet, Richard Barber has produced a short, lively, commendably readable account of Henry Plantagenet's life and reign. The book never drags and is related in a novel-like narrative that keeps one's interest through every page. Henry II was one of Englands most intriguing rulers at battle with France and family. The husband of Eleanor of Aquitane, the father of Richard the Lion Heart and John Lackland, his story is one to behold and Barber's effort is a top notch resource with which to do so.



2. This is a average summary of this great King of England. It summarizes the challenges Henry Plangagenet faced when he assumed control of the Kingdom and his consolidation of his holdings in France. Henry II was one of the true great rulers
   of his time, defying the Church and France to lead his realm. Since Barber wrote this book back in the sixties, it is not up to date on new research into Plantagenet rulers. Also Barber confuses the reader with the names of many people that were not a central theme of the King's time. The names are the most confusing aspect of this book, and thus the rating of three stars.



3. Richard Barber published his first book at the age of 20, followed by this title in 1964 when he was 23. That may be why "Henry Plantagenet" reads and moves well, as if narrated rather than written, with the youthful enthusiasm of a young scholar not yet burdened by the need to justify every fact to academics. Barber released his current edition in 2003.
   
   He does a fine job of breathing life into Henry II's 34-year reign, which needs his touch because Henry II may be the most under-appreciated king in English history. This formidable, life-long warrior is eclipsed by his son Richard Lionheart's military feats. A decisive man with extraordinary energy, Henry is upstaged for glamor and charisma by his consort through 36 years of love and hate, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Even as a villain - women by the score, anger-management problems to rival Zeus, a tirade that may have ended Thomas Becket's life and a rampage that exiled Eleanor to England for fifteen years - even as a villain, Henry II is upstaged by his youngest, King John.
   
   What did Henry do well? Apart from winning wars and battling prelates, he made major, enduring changes to English law and jurisprudence, including property and contract law, moves that stimulated commerce. But that makes poor press. Barber captures the moods and actions of the young king and his maturing reign of constancy amidst constant strife and domestic chaos. He integrates Henry and a large supporting cast into their turbulent times very well.
   
   In addition to writing about Arthurian legend and medieval history, Barber has been a publisher of medieval studies for almost four decades. His breadth of knowledge shows. "Henry Plantagenet" makes subtle links across time and dynasties that might escape a lesser historian's art.
   
   Robert Fripp, author of
   "Power of a Woman. Memoirs of a turbulent life: Eleanor of Aquitaine"