No comments about Clint Eastwood: A Cultural Production (American Culture, Vol 8).

1 comments about Frederick The Great: The Ruler, The Writer, The Man.

1. What strikes me most, what attracts me greatly in this book is that unlike Thomas Carlyle, the celebrated British historian in 19th-Century, who, with unbounded admiration, wrote the extensive and titanic biography about Frederick the Great, which is charged with a full accounts about this extraordinary and great historical personality and his time based on his unparalleled sweeping knowledge of history, the author G.P.Gooch concentrates his book much on revealing the inner world of the great King by providing comprehensive correspondence of this remarkable historical giant. Except for Carlyle, I do not see any other author who ever employs so many precious writings of Frederick the Great as G.P. Gooch. Under his pen, we see such a great King as an emotional and tender man, whose passion was so touching that I was always reduced to the captive of it when I was reading the book : Tears could hardly be checked but rolling down on my cheeks, as a philosopher whose thoughts were of profound and of universal magnificence, as a man of letters whose compositions shone beautiful elegance, effused strong and touching emotion, as a political stateman whose statements always emitted his intelligence and charming wits, his power and strengh, his assurance and confidence, vividly displaying on paper. Unlike most of biographies which express history according to chronology, this one singls out the first Silesian War as its beginning which immediately arrests readers. The author does not put much ink on the campaigns themselves, but paints how the war was an ordeal for both the King and his country by citing what the King passionately described in his correspondence with Voltaire, with his other close friends and with his beloved sister, which always showed his unconquerable will, his steel-iron stoicism, and his overwhelming determination, although sometimes mingled with thrilling lament about his misfortune. The author states Frederick the Great as an eminent diplomat by depicting how he wisely dealt with the heads of Austria, France and Russia by employing his exquiste diplomatic skills and wisdom. The author spent a length of space, running three chaptes, to unfold the amazing relationship between the King and the famous French poet Voltaire, their mutual love and respect, their harmony and conflicts. The author draws us a special attention to the unique passionate relationship between the King and his beloved sister,Wilhelmina, who was three years senior his age: Their mostly deep and moving affection which drew them close for decades and occaionally discord which shadowed them for short time. The author also records the respectable but a kind of cool relationship between the King and his yourger broher Henry who distinguished himself as a trascendent general and diplomat of his century. The author places a special chapter for the King's magnificent political works which have laid the foundation for the unification of Germany one hundred years later, and his important military writings which even today are still ranked as brilliant military classic works. Overall, this is one of the best biographies of Frederick the Great I have ever read, which has engraved such an impression and affection in me so deeply and magnificently that I could scarcely not to give rein to my stirred feeling when I read it, that I can not persuade myself not to rank myself to those who highly recommend this marvelous book which by its unique way portraits such a unsurpassed great historical giant.

1 comments about Prince Henry Sinclair: His Expedition to the New World in 1398.

1. Pohl takes the letters of the Italian navigator Zeno investigates his connection to Henry Sinclair. The theory is that Zeno helped Sinclair navigate to Newfoundland. Pohl's initial findings are in Zeno's letters themselves. In 1398, according to the Zeno narrative, Zeno sailed across the Atlantic with a "Prince of the Islands" (Sinclair). Pohl does some astonishing calligraphy detective work on Zeno's maps and examines the Micmac Indian legend of Glooscap. According the Micmac legends, Glooscap sailed on an island with tall trees and was white. Pohl's detective work makes for a good argument that in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, but got beat to the punch by a Scotsman. The only evidence I am truly surprised Pohl did not introduce was the carvings of Indian Corn at the Sinclair's Rosslyn Chapel in Edinburgh. The construction on the Chapel began in 1446, 50 years before anyone in Europe should have know of the existence of corn.

2 comments about Scanty Particulars: The Scandalous Life and Astonishing Secret of James Barry, Queen Victoria's Most Eminent Military Doctor.

1. With the attention that we pay these days to sexual issues, and sexual inclinations, and with the increasing realization that there are anatomical and psychological gradations in the spectrum between strictly male and strictly female, it was a sure thing that someone would be retelling the story of Dr. James Barry, one of the truly unique characters of the Victorian era. Rachel Holmes has done so in _Scanty Particulars: The Scandalous Life and Astonishing Secret of Queen Victoria's Most Eminent Military Doctor_ (Random House). Barry's story would have been worth retelling anyway; he was a crusading medical reformer who insisted on novel ideas about health and the running of hospitals that we now take for granted. He made plenty of friends and enemies, many highly placed, and no one seems to have known his secret when he died, although there were those who came out afterwards to say they had known all along. Holmes hints at it throughout her fully researched biography, but does not reveal it until after she has told all that can be known of Barry's eventful life; there will be no explicit spoiler in this review.

   Barry was born about 1790 in Edinburgh, the "about" being necessary because his origins are murky and part of his secret. He was a precocious medical student at the University of Edinburgh, which was then at the height of its international prestige for its practical and academic study of diseases. He graduated from the university in 1812, and then served his apprenticeship in London. He was a fashionable dandy, dying his hair red, sporting the longest dress sword he could find, and wearing boots with the highest heels. He was a flirt with all the ladies, and he never seems to have courted any of them. He never married. He was posted as an army doctor in a series of far-flung outposts of the British Empire. He eventually became a medical inspector, with the power to report on the treatment of prisoners and lepers; he refused to accept the hellish accommodations offered such outcasts and would not back down in his reports. His reforms included an insistence on fresh air, good diet (he advocated vegetables especially, as he was a vegetarian), and cleanliness. He extended his protection to slaves, prostitutes, children, and the mentally ill. Holmes says that he was "a radical and progressive modernizer in an age of quacks and mountebanks."

   In 1865, afflicted by diseases he had himself picked up during his long battles against them, he died in retirement in England. His tutors before him had decreed that their bodies be given up for autopsy and dissection, and Barry would have been expected to have done the same. However, he repeatedly had insisted that he simply be wrapped in whatever sheets he died upon and buried with no ceremony. (A maidservant, however, saw the body, and her report led to sensational, and naturally erroneous, claims in the press.) He had also been reluctant to be examined by any medical men, and had been fussy about being seen while dressing. Holmes's findings on the truth about Barry are consistent with his life devoted to science and anatomy. There will be no sure answers to the sexual riddle Barry poses, Holmes admits, but her speculations based on Barry's writings, especially his medical writings, are satisfying. _Scanty Particulars_ gives an eventual answer to the puzzle of Barry's "astonishing secret," but even without this key, it is an entertaining biography that includes fascinating details of colony life and of medical practice of the time.




2. Nothing like a good "dandy" scandal to heat one's blood!!!!

No comments about Elizabeth I.

No comments about King Rufus: The Life and Mysterious Death of William II of England.

5 comments about Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor.

1. David Abulafia's "Frederick II" was a dry book of average quality about a Holy Roman Emperor with a reputation of being enlightened. Abulafia debunks some popular myths about that, and tells of the events of his reign, some with detail that I could not understand. Apparently then in the 13th century as it is now, there was conflict between church and state, each with their own agenda, and only one, pope or emperor could be supreme. Abulafia does make the best of few resources(many records were destroyed in a cowardly act of WWII in 1944), but he doesn't try to explain certain concepts well, and this is the downfall of this work



2. This book is generally acknowledged as an excellent, recent account of the life of Frederick II. Frederick is famous in the German-speaking world for being an inspiration to the Nazi party. The earlier biography by Kantorowicz(who later taught in America), was seized on by Nazi's and Nazi sympathizers in support for a strong, mystical leader who would bring Germany back to greatness. Although Abulafia notes this troubled history in the notes, he account is mostly concerned with Frederick II's actual life and times. In a way, he is trying to debunk the superstition and legend that was built up around Frederick II in the early part of the twentieth century.
   
   So who was Frederick II? He was the heir to the kingdom of Sicily and the Holy Roman Empire. He managed to unify his vast kingdom during his lifetime, he re-conquered Jerusalem without a fight, he wrote a subperb book on Falconry, corresponded with Arab scholars and, oh yes, fought bitterly with a succesion of Popes who just hated his guts.
   
   In fact, these Popes, more then Frederick himself, emerge as the focal point of this book. More then anything it was their unreasoning hatred for Frederick's power that defined his life. Particularly, it seemed like Frederick spent the majority of his life fighting rebels in Lombardy who were supported by the Pope.
   
   Recommended.



3. In spite of his erudite mastery of a great diversity of detail in this study, Mr. Abulafia succumbs to the tendency of certain historians today to be first and foremost, a "revisionist". At times an iconoclastic need to "remake" his subject in a new image overshadows his otherwise constructive insights; leading one to wonder if perhaps the presentation of conclusions that overturn previously-held conceptions has not become too much of an end in itself, and certainly a way to establish one's reputation in the historical profession!



4. Abulafia has written a wonderful biography of one of the most important rulers of European history. His biography is detailed and precise, a well documented look at Frederick's life from childhood to his death, even ending the book with a great chapter to quickly tell what happened to the Hohenstaufen dynasty. Throughout the book you get an even non-biased representation of what Abulafia interpreted through his extensive research.
   
   I did feel that there were two chapters out of place and did not belong in the scope of the biography. Towards the end we read "Culture at Court" and "Remote Control". "Culture at Court" is a nice chapter to evaluate the culture of the times - such as falconry, hunting, music, poetry, fashion - but did not add anything to the biography of Frederick II. "Remote Control" reads more like an appendix chapter to explain the registers and how much of the information is known. Both chapters are good but they do not figure into the overall structure that Abulafia used to write about Frederick II.
   
   I am amazed to see this book trashed because one reviewer calls Abulafia a revisionist. Is not history furthered through new research and interpretations? Or should we accept the prevailing notion of history revolving around a subject as the one and true way? Abulafia has looked at the facts and interpreted them the way he saw it, and his arguments are very sound. I've always saw Frederick II this way and agree with Abulafia's interpretation. If you don't like a book because of its research or prose than discredit the book, but not because a historian writes a different view than the prevailing view.
   
   All in all this biography is one of the better ones I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor to anyone.
   
   4.5 stars.



5. This is an easy read that stays on track and manages to convey what the period must have been like. Though David dispels some of the mystique, he also brings home the life of Frederick II. I have read this several times now and enjoy it every time.

2 comments about ROYAL BLUE: A Novel.

1. It would be easy to dismiss this novel as the self-pitying ramblings of a poor little rich girl, but this one can write with assurance and even humour about the kind of events and personalities which most of us would barely believe. Oxenberg - daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia - fictionalises the horrors of what one supposes is her own dysfunctional childhood with the kind of cool eye which makes her revelations all the more shocking. Proof- if you needed any - that privilege is no defence against misery, loneliness or abuse.



2. Disregard the "glamorous tale of royalty" blurb of the dust jacket sales pitch for this novel is much darker and disturbing than that. The novelist is strongest in her protrayal of the complexities, fears and frustrations of childhood as well as conveying a wonderfully, evocative sense of place. I could forgive the tweeness of the grown up sequences and the inconclusive ending for the joys of Oxenburg's insight into childhood's ambiguities.

No comments about The Inventory of King Henry VIII: Transcript of the Inventory (Studies in Medieval and Early Renaissance Art History, 23) (Studies in Medieval and Early Renaissance Art History, 23).

No comments about The G.I. Prince: A Pleasant Assortment of Narrative Vignettes About Some of the Special People and Unusual Circumstances Encountered in the Eventful.