Book Description
Why, Ann Laura Stoler asks, was the management of sexual arrangements and affective attachments so critical to the making of colonial categories and to what distinguished ruler from ruled? Contending that social classification is not a benign cultural act but a potent political one, Stoler shows that matters of the intimate were absolutely central to imperial politics. It was, after all, in the intimate sphere of home and servants that European children learned what they were required to learn of place and race. Gender-specific sexual sanctions, too, were squarely at the heart of imperial rule, and European supremacy was asserted in terms of national and racial virility.
Stoler looks discerningly at the way cultural competencies and sensibilities entered into the construction of race in the colonial context and proposes that "cultural racism" in fact predates its postmodern discovery. Her acute analysis of colonial Indonesian society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries yields insights that translate to a global, comparative perspective.
Book Description
To Rule the Waves tells the extraordinary story of how the British Royal Navy allowed one nation to rise to a level of power unprecedented in history. From the navy's beginnings under Henry VIII to the age of computer warfare and special ops, historian Arthur Herman tells the spellbinding tale of great battles at sea, heroic sailors, violent conflict, and personal tragedy -- of the way one mighty institution forged a nation, an empire, and a new world.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Customer Reviews:
Forget Johnny Depp. This is the real thing........2007-10-08
Chapter 1, page 1, a hurricane in the Caribbean of 1568. The author casts us upon the pitching deck of the "Jesus", a leaking old tub commanded by John Hawkins. His approved mission for queen and country? Why, theft, of course. Take your dramamine and hang on, mates. You are on an unrelenting voyage that won't end until the Falklands War. Sure, some priggish reviewers can nibble away at Mr. Herman's occasional errors. Let it go! On a 400-year voyage there are bound to be a few minor errors. Frankly, the man writes well. This isn't your college history book. It's more like a compelling sea adventure. The author at his most insightful? Herman's description of Captain Bligh and the HMS Bounty mutiny, and the story of the rise of the complex Admiral Nelson should have been part of my MBA management class. Herman at his weakest? His description of Napoleon as a terrorist. Terrorist? A Corsican-born military dictator, yes, but a terrorist? No way. Herman describes John Paul Jones as a vengeful Scot, deprived of a Royal Navy midshipman's billet, who becomes a blood thirsty U.S. Navy captain. Provocative words, but an egregious misread of history. OK, both darts and laurels for Mr. Herman. My recomendation? Buy the book. Herman goes beyond the cold facts. He provides the elusive "Why" so often lacking when reading history. Nicely done.
Interesting read, but ..........2007-06-14
An interesting read for the most part, and a lot of history fairly well organized. However, I can't understand the multi-page rant about the French Revolution and the "terrorist" Napoleon. What in the world got into Herman?
Excellent Overview.......2007-04-23
This is an excellent overview of the history of the Royal Navy from medieval times to the modern era. The book dispells a few myths along the way and makes a splendid read.
Nice read but battles descriptions slightly short.......2007-04-10
Saw this book off the shelf and decided to get it due to its interesting title. The book covers from San Juan de Ulloa right up to the Falklands War and beyond. Reading is straightforward and enjoyable. Content are generally well covered with both on-shore and off-shore history well described. However some battles are too skimpy on details whereas some like the San Juan are covered more.
Overall a good book for reading on the British Royal navy. For more details on any specific events will need to specifically hunt for some other books that are more dedicated.
Good read, poor history.......2007-03-30
Having been much taken with Arthur Herman's "How the Scots Invented the Modern World," I anticipated "To Rule the Waves" to be just as informative and illuminating. My disappointment, instead, was immense. The book is unquestionably well-written, and is a delight to read. But its flaws far outweigh its virtues.
There are numerous errors of fact--many recounted by other reviewers--which could have been avoided by doing more than the most superficial research. (Wellington's Army of the Peninsula was NOT armed with rifled muskets, only two regiments were, and Col. Shrapnel's spherical case shot was not a revolution in artillery which gave Wellington's army a tactical superiority over the French, by way of just one example.) Also missing is an examination of just how British sea power kept the Peninsular War going, not just by supplying the British army in Spain, but also by supplying the Spanish insurgents with guns and gold. It was that effort which kept the insurgency going, allowed Wellington's army to achieve its string of victories, and compelled Bonaparte to devote more than a quarter of his empire's resources to that one isolated corner of Europe.
More disturbing, however, is the sense that Herman was writing with the idea in mind that Adm. Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar were the climax of his story, and everything after that is merely tying up loose ends. It is in his analysis of the two World Wars where Herman genuinely fails. In the case of the First World War, he succumbs to presenting an already dated and disproven "conventional wisdom" regarding German strategy, giving G-Adm. Tirpitz credit for strategies which he never developed, let alone implemented. Herman's presentation of Jutland is superficial at best, and nowhere does he go into depth about the various German and British strategies (and strategic necessities) which brought about the battle. He also blames the Royal Navy for refusing to adopt a convoy system for merchant shipping until it was almost too late, when in truth it was the merchant fleet itself which resisted implementing it.
Herman's treatment of the Second World War is even sketchier--the reader gets the feeling that by now he's just trying to get this thing over with. There is no examination of how the naval war influenced the land campaigns, or of how the particular strengths and weaknesses of the Royal Navy from 1939 to 1945 often dictated how and where the Allies could and would fight. THE decisive campaign of the war--the Battle of the Atlantic--is dismissed in a handful of paragraphs, when in point of fact it had to be factored into every strategic decision the Allies made until well after D-Day.
Ultimately the problem is that the flaws in his analysis and conclusions regarding the World Wars at sea cause the reader to wonder about the validity of his earlier conclusions, causing the entire work to be thrown into doubt. There is almost a feeling that Herman devoted the lion's share of his research to the Royal Navy's history up to 1805, and after that he simply borrowed from his graduate students' work--and it shows.
Book Description
Born to Rule tells the fascinating stories of five royal granddaughters of Queen Victoria: Alexandra, whose faith in Rasputin and tragic end have become the stuff of legend; Marie, the eccentric queen who battled her way through a life of intrigues and was also the mother of two Balkan queens and of the scandalous Carol II of Romania; Victoria Eugenie, Spain's very English queen who, like Alexandra, introduced hemophilia into her husbands family, with devastating consequences for her marriage; Maud, King Edward VII's daughter, independent Norway's reluctant queen; and Sophie, Kaiser Wilhelm II's much maligned sister, daughter of an Emperor and herself the mother of no less than three kings and a queen, who ended her days in bitter exile. Rich in scope and detail, Born to Rule is a captivating collection of historical portraits.
Customer Reviews:
Bad writing can ruin even the most fascinating of stories........2007-06-23
This book is just awful. The story of five reigning consorts is theoretically fascinating reading, but the writing is so bad, you just feel irritated. Awkward, stilted prose -- often repetitive, often cliched, often overly dramatic -- this book is a pain to read.
excellent research - horrible writing.......2007-06-03
This is an interesting book and is very well researched, but the author has very little talent for writing - especially a narrative presenting 5 subjects which she keeps badly fumbling to the ground as a bad juggler would. First, Charles Spicer at St. Martin's Press is credited by the author as being the editor. I think it's about time for the reading public to hold some of these extraordinarily inept and careless and lazy editors accountable for delivering to us such extremely flawed and poorly constructed books. The author has a awkward style which is further hindered by bad sentence construction - very bad paragraph progression, and numerous typos which should have been easily caught. Worst of all, the sheer repitition in this book is apalling! If a fact or observation is stated once, it's stated a hundred times. There is, of course, always an intelligent and carefully measured use of reference, refreshing the reader of important points which may have been forgotten and are needed to help explain or expand the action or characters. However the author is so outrageously beyond any reasonable limit of referencing that this text is the most absurdly redundent and repititious text I have ever encountered. It is almost as if it were a remedial volume for the learning impaired. Never in my life have I read a book which so deliberately insults the reader's intelligence by constantly restating the same points over and over again as each paragraph proceeds and an element of new information is introduced. As I said, the effect is very insulting and I constantly felt like I was reading something intended for someone with a two digit IQ. Also, the constant dropping off with one story and abruptly picking up where another subject's story was previously abandoned, then suddenly dropping that story and shifting to another and another, and then back again. Who in the world at St. Martin's thought this was either an effective or acceptable way to deal with the broad subject matter. I'm a historian and I was severely distracted and often confused by this hodge podge style. There was all the material here for a great book to be saviored and enjoyed - instead a writer of very limited talent and an editor who seemingly couldn't care less have delivered to us a very sorry mess. Shame on all of you for not doing your job. With the intense competition in publishing today, it's miraculous that you have kept them!
Fascinating, but flawed.......2007-04-10
I came across this when buying a present for my history buff aunt, and put it on my own list. I love history and did even take a higher-level Russian History class in college, so Alix's story was very familiar.
The stories are very interesting, and the book had me running back and forth to the internet to find out more - always a good sign.
As others have mentioned, the author herself says that this can't be comprehensive, but I do wish there could have been a little more. I also agree with the reviewer who thought it would have been better to do a section on each woman, rather than try to follow a timeline. These 5 particular cousins don't seem to have been very close, so we wouldn't have lost anything in their interactions to each other.
I'm an avid reader, and still sometimes lost the thread because of the slightly fawning and erratic writing style. I also would have appreciated a more thorough family tree, though again I do realize that this was not meant to be comprehensive. The nickname problems came into play as well - Victoria's family (as any royal family) used the same names over and over, so I understand the need for nicknames, but wish they had been used more consistently. I was not always sure if "Marie" was "Missy" or her mother, or an aunt I'd lost track of, for example.
Maud seems sadly neglected, and I agree that the material at the end of the book seemed stretched.
Overall, though, I stayed up late to finish it, and learned quite a bit. I do now want to read some more comprehensive histories to find out what I missed, but it's a good intro to the family. If you're interested in European history, but don't know a lot about the families involved around the turn of the century, this is a tantalizing place to start.
Insights into the Lives of Women born into Royalty.......2007-02-09
This is a very interesting and informative history of the fates of five of the granddaughters of Queen Victoria. Being a Princess in that day and time was not generally good for one's health and absolutely did not guarantee "happily ever after". Only one of the five had a happy and fairly normal life. It was very interesting to gain insights into the lives of European royalty and get to know about the situations that these women married into.
Could have been better.......2006-12-30
And I was looking forward to reading this! One major element that kept me from enjoying the book was the numerous typos, sentence fragments and bad punctuation; whoever edited this book was definitely asleep at the wheel.
Also, there was a great deal of confusion with regards to people/relationships and I think this was due to two things: The first is due to the writing; the author tends to interrupt her narrative flow, mentioning other people at odd moments or breaking one story to start/resume another. The other is the book's set-up; I think the reader would be better served by "profiling" each granddaughter separately, instead of trying to tie all five lives together. This would have helped with keeping family lines straight, and perhaps help keep the overviews more concise.
All in all, a disappointment.
Book Description
With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, former Communist Party leaders in Central Asia were faced with the daunting task of building states where they previously had not existed -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Their task was complicated by the institutional and ideological legacy of the Soviet system as well as by a more actively engaged international community. These nascent states inherited a set of institutions that included bloated bureaucracies, centralized economic planning, and patronage networks. Some of these institutions survived, others have mutated, and new institutions have been created.
Experts on Central Asia here examine the emerging relationship between state actors and social forces in the region. Through the prism of local institutions, the authors reassess both our understanding of Central Asia and of the state-building process more broadly. They scrutinize a wide array of institutional actors, ranging from regional governments and neighborhood committees to transnational and non-governmental organizations. With original empirical research and theoretical insight, the volume's contributors illuminate an obscure but resource-rich and strategically significant region.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting topics, no overview or logic.......2006-12-12
This book combines a number of interesting topics. Especially important is the topic of bride-kidnapping, but like everything else in modern academia this has to be white washed, therefore kidnapping and forced marriage and rape is called "non-consenual" which is a nice civilized term, but it implies the typical view of elite westerners, that no one is ever allowed to judge the 'other'. Therefore bride kidnapping is explained, which is better than not analyzing it, but there is no context, there is no voice of the woman and there is no analysis of why such a practice is inherently wrong.
Secondly there is an interesting discussion of language policy in Kazakhstan, but again there is little context of this. The Soviets transformed central Asia, they built states out of gatherings of tribes, they deported millions of Germans, Poles, Russians and Koreans to these lands, millions of Russians immigrated and most all the Soviet union gave written languages where only dialect had been, they also gave women equal rights and a say in the state. But they had their shortcomings, they maintained local elites by transforming local chiefs into soviet commisars.
But there is no context for this in these essays, there is no history, nothing that ties these countries to together. There is not one word about Islamism and the rise of terrorism, there is not one word on the fate of minorities, especially in Tajikistan. So in the end this book is mostly a failure, either that or it is mis-packaged, it should have just been called 'insights' into central Asia.
Seth J. Frantzman
Misleading title.......2006-06-03
I was assigned this book as part of the reading for a class I took at Princeton on Central Asia. I have very mixed feelings about it.
Each section is written by a different author. Some are almost unreadable. Most chapters focus on very small (and often, seemingly unimportant) issues in state and society. At times it seems the authors are more concerned with citing each other (as indeed, every one of them does) than with teaching the reader about Central Asia
But worse, reading this book will give you no insight into the actual transformation of the region. If I had to single out the biggest problem with the book, it is the misleading title. Nowhere in this book will you find the history of Central Asia dealt with in a comprehensive--much less, thorough--way. I did not come away from it with a sense of the "transformation" of Central Asia.
What this book is good for, is learning about the contradictions and problems faced by the societies of the Central Asian Republics. All the same, I would counsel you against spending your money on this book.
Book Description
No period in British history has more resonance and mystery today than the sixteenth century. New Worlds, Lost Worlds brings the atmosphere and events of this great epoch to life. Exploring the underlying religious motivations for the savage violence and turbulence of the period-from Henry VIII's break with Rome to the overwhelming threat of the Spanish Armada-Susan Brigden investigates the actions and influences of such near-mythical figures as Elizabeth I, Thomas More, Bloody Mary, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Authoritative and accessible, New Worlds, Lost Worlds, the latest in the Penguin History of Britain series, provides a superb introduction to one of the most important, compelling, and intriguing periods in the history of the Western world.
Customer Reviews:
Strong on events poor on analysis.......2005-01-21
Susan Brigden, Reader in Modern History, Fellow, and Tutor at Oxford, has written New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors 1485-1603. This book replaces the 1950 work Tudor England by S.T. Bindoff in the updated Penguin History of Britain series. The volume is suited for use as an introductory college textbook providing a strong narrative of the period.
Brigden's main goal is to show the Tudor period as one of transition between a series of 'old worlds' and outlooks as opposed to modern viewpoints and 'new worlds'. During this highly eventful period, according to the author, the Protestant Reformation, the conversion of the nobility to one of personal service to the monarch and the exploration of new lands across the Atlantic all were new worlds. The old worlds such as those of a strong independent feudal monarchy, the stability of the old religion and the certainty of an established landscape were all gone by the end of the period.
The text primarily concentrates on a political narrative of the times; it is laden with facts and events. Towards the start of the period, a chapter is spent on the social life of the common man and the social orders. Near the end of the book, there are diversions from the political narrative to cover the beginnings of colonization in North America and events in Ireland. A concluding chapter showcases Shakespeare and the literature at the close of Elizabeth's reign.
The book is both too much and too little to succeed in its goals. While presenting a strong narrative and displaying a wide knowledge of the facts, the work is short on context and analysis. Characters appear on the political stage with little introduction and the reader is left to his own devices to understand the motivations behind the actions. Personalities are often pithily described but without any additional background. Events are well chronicled but the need to cover so broad an area permits little depth. One bright spot is the coverage of Ireland, much more in-depth than is usually found in a British overview of the period.
New Worlds, Lost Worlds, leaves the reader understanding that there were many important events in during the Tudor years. What motivated the people, and how the events related to one another is less well presented. Readers who need to find out "Just the facts" will be very pleased with this book.
Great book, sometimes a little tedious.......2004-02-23
The book is a wonderful read. Though required for my course in early modern European history, I still enjoyed it. Everything appears to be historically accurate and cited properly (citations are at the end of the book). However, it appears that Bridgen seems to have a habit of repeating the point from her book over and over again in each chapter, which gets a little tedious. Nevertheless, it's a good book for anyone interested in English royalty.
makes history fun.......2003-09-25
Wow! This is a great history of one of the most exciting periods of english history. Brigden does a fantastic job integrating politics, religion, popular culture, discoveries and exploration and so on. She has a natural talent for compelling narrative and detailed description. Buy this book, and you won't be sorry!
Unfocused and Uninteresting.......2003-03-16
I was excited when I first picked up New Worlds, Lost Worlds, looking forward to reading about the Tudors, a dynasty I knew something but not a lot about. However, two pages into the author's prologue I began to have doubts. Brigdon provides a recitation of what her book is *not* about, without ever really telling us what the book *is* about - almost as if she is unsure herself. And the book itself seems aimless, endlessly wallowing in topics then meandering onto something else.
Brigdon's choices about what information to impart is also less than satisfying. For example, the book opens with Henry VII landing in South Wales. We are given precious little of Henry's background, however - pretty much nothing more than that he was born in Pembroke in 1457 and hid there thirteen years later. Nothing about what shaped him in exile, how he marshalled support for his return, what had brought Richard III to deposition. Instead, we are given a long-winded expose of the land Henry marched through on his way to Bosworth Field. Such is typical of the book, with such long meanderings that the reader feels as if he is wading through waist-high water, able to see the shore but unable to reach it. Far from being "vivid and stylish," as one reviewer has described it, Brigdon's prose seems all fluff and no substance.
Excellent, Wonderful.......2001-06-30
This is a superb history book, sometimes wonderful. The Tudors are one of the most deeply-researched and pored-over dynasties in English history, and it is easy to think we know the story and the actors all too well. Yet this book, written, as Brigden says, "with awe and excitement", is alight with enthusiasm, curiousity and passion on every page.
The things I liked especially included: the author's vivid and stylish prose, so far from the bland puddings of most history textbook; her ability to tell a great story, so that for once you are genuinely curious to turn the page and find out what happened; and the way the book is driven forward by the interlocking forces of politics and religion. History here is no grand impersonal scheme, nor is the 16th century either 'the start of the modern era' or 'the high road to the civil war' - but a tale of complexity and chance. It would all have ended very differently if Mary had a baby.
Some things I liked less, though...
1. Ireland, so fashionable in British historiography at the moment, is given a lot of space, perhaps disproportionately. Brigden is clearly not an Ireland expert, and these sections are some of the weakest. They lack the deep reading in primary texts that so colours the rest of the book, and to someone ignorant of Irish history I suspect this book will still leave them thinking it was all a blur of O'Neills and Kildares. Brigden also doesn't really connect the story either - she never convincingly argues that Ireland influenced English affairs, I think.
2. The absence of Wales. This a sad loss, since the Tudors had far more impact on Wales than perhaps any other dynasty, even forgetting their Welsh precedents. Henry VIII's acts of 1536 centralised and united Wales for the first time since Glendower, and far more decisively, while the Welsh Reformation is probably THE decisive event in Welsh history - an event that preserved the Welsh language and laid the basis for Welsh literacy. None of this is in Brigden's story.
3. Economic history is almost totally ignored - which is fine so far as it goes (who wants to read about agricultural prices anyway?), but leads to a perhaps more grievous omission: there is almost nothing here about the urban classes, rising in wealth and numbers, who did much to shape the religion and intellectual history of this period.
4. Some chapters are quite weak: I suspect where Brigden is either really out of her speciality, or just knows too much. "Family and Friends" reads like an edited version of a much longer piece, with all the bones and examples taken out, making it dry and dull. The chapter on the 'Governors and the Governed' is very weak, far too vague to be helpful and a lot of it is covered elsewhere in the book. The static picture it presents is also very misleading. The chapter on 'Elizabethan World Views' is unbelievably sketchy, and the chapter on the New World even more so. It is really the narrative chapters that drive this book, and make it worthwhile - the chapter on Henry VIII ('Imperium') is absolutely outstanding, for example, as is the one on Edward and Mary. These are the shining gems here.
5. Judging by the other two volumes, I think the editor of the Penguin History of Britain has instructed his authors not to discuss the historiography of their periods explicitly. You will strive in vain to find the name of a single historian in the text - apart from Thomas More and Francis Bacon. This is very refreshing, but conceals from the reader many of the foundations of Brigden's arguments - in fact, you could put away this book unaware that probably no period in the history of England or any other country has been as ferociously debated as this one. It would have been better, perhaps, for Brigden to have written her massive bibliography as a true essay, drawing out some of these debates.
6. Finally, perhaps unfairly, I'd like to have known a little more of Brigden's own opinion - what, at the end of it all, did she think was going on here? The problem with the new trend in historical writing such as this, that is reluctant to fit historical events into grand patterns, that emphasizes contingency over inevitability and events over process, is that it can leave the general reader with more questions than it answers. For many, surely for Brigden (and me!), the fascination of the past is more than enough to warrant study of it. But many will want more - and it is sad that a work of such breadth, intelligence, style and passion may still leave its readers asking where to fit the Tudors into the grand scheme of things...
Customer Reviews:
Likely to be good.......2006-02-02
I have not yet received this item from Amazon so have a little bit of difficulty knowing what it is lke, but I expect it will be good.
Outstanding History!.......1998-06-12
I was fortunate enought to read this book while taking a class taught by the author, Dr. Peter Sugar, at the Unversity of Washington in 1983. This is not light reading, but will be engrossing to those to whom History is a passion. I would also recommend any of Dr. Sugar's books regarding the History of Eastern Europe and the Balkan States (Dr. Sugar is a Bosnian, raised in Hungary who came to the United States at about the time of WWII, as I recall) as the author's insights and clarity are superb!!
Book Description
The Lone Wolf and the Bear examines the Russo-Chechen conflict, from early Russian expansion into the Caucasus in the sixteenth century to the current war between Russia and Chechnya. Moshe Gammer offers a comprehensive study of modern Chechen history, its people and cultures, and the factors of Russo/Soviet influence and modernization that have molded Chechen self-perception and enflamed the passions of separatism. Perhaps the most ethnically diverse region in the world, Chechnya claims over seventy native groups, yet it is unified in its opposition to Russian control and the quest for nationhood.
Through difficult research (many historic documents on Chechnya have been destroyed by Russian authorities, and Chechen documentation is scarce), Gammer assembles the stories of a fiercely independent people and their three-hundred-year struggle against domination by the world power of Russia, a conflict that continues today.
Customer Reviews:
Cebtral Asia.......2007-06-09
This is a well written and informative book. I believe Central Asia is one of the future areas of trouble in the world, and this is a good introduction at a reasonable price. I recommend it along with Tolstoy's Hadji Murad, translated by Aylmer Maude and Blanch's The Sabres of Paradise.
The Deadly Dance of the Lone Wolf and the Bear.......2006-01-28
This is a book which should not be missed if you are interested in the Caucasuses in general and Chechnya in particular. It should be required reading for all students of Russian history and all counter terrorist experts who may not specialize in the Chechen situation. Gammer has written an eloquent, witty, compassionate and utterly fascinating book jam packed with cultural tidbits which make understandable the recalcitrant nature of the conflict between Russia and the clannish Mountaineers. It is, also, unusual to encounter a nuanced understanding of the reception of Islam into Chechnya and how it has played out vis a vis the gazavat, evolving into jihad, in some sectors. One of my few quibbles would be that I would have liked more on family and gender relations though this is not to say that there is not valuable references to be found here. It seems to me that this book had to be written first but it is hoped that in the next, more space will be given to this underlying conflict. On the geo-political scale, Gammer aptly identified the problematic issue of pathological control, the desire to engineer 'peoples' lives and language' which inevitably fails. This is a stellar book which is sure to be come a classic.
Book Description
Among the many states of late medieval Italy, one stands out for its unfamiliarity to an English audience and for its neglect in historical research: that of the Este family, lords (later Dukes) of the cities of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio in northern Italy. This book is the first modern attempt to provide a detailed analysis of the political structure of this state based on archive sources. Much of the book is concerned with the ways by which the Este used their vast landed resources in and around Ferrara to build up and reinforce their personal political authority both within and outside their dominions. Among the major themes examined are the continuing presence of political feudalism in the relations between the Este and their supporters, the place of the court in Ferrarese noble society, and the violent imposition of Este authority over the powerful nobles of the Apennine hills.
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|
The Privilege of Poverty: Clare of Assisi, Agnes of Prague, and the Struggle for a Franciscan Rule for Women
Joan Mueller
Manufacturer: Pennsylvania State University Press
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Clare of Assisi: A Heart Full of Love
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Such is the Power of Love
ASIN: 0271028939 |
Book Description
Early in the thirteenth century a young woman named Clare was so moved by the teachings of Francis of Assisi that she renounced her possessions, vowing to live a life of radical poverty. Today Clare is remembered for her relationship with Francis, but her own dedication to poverty and her struggle to gain papal approval for a Franciscan Rule for women is a fascinating story that has not received the attention it deserves. In The Privilege of Poverty, Joan Mueller tells this story, and in so doing she reshapes our understanding of early Franciscan history.
Clare knew, as did Francis, that she needed a Rule to preserve the "privilege of poverty"--a papal exemption that gave monasteries of women permission not to rely on endowment income. Early Franciscan women gave their dowries to the poor and were as passionately holy and shrewdly political in this choice as were their male counterparts. Mueller shows the crucial role played in this by Agnes of Prague, one of Clare's closest collaborators. A Bohemian princess who declined an engagement to Emperor Frederick II in order to found a monastery of Poor Ladies in Prague, Agnes capitalized on the papal need for a political alliance with the kingdom of Bohemia to negotiate the privilege of poverty for her monastery and set up a hospital for the poor in Prague.
The efforts of Clare and Agnes ultimately paid off, as Pope Innocent IV approved a Franciscan Rule for women with the privilege of poverty at its core on Clare's deathbed in 1253. Only two years later, Clare was canonized, and the Poor Clares--as they came to be known--continue today as contemplative and active communities devoted to the same ideals that inspired Francis and Clare.
The Privilege of Poverty not only contributes new insight into Franciscan history but also redefines it. No longer can we view early Franciscanism as primarily a male story. Franciscan women were courted by their brothers and by the papacy for their essential contributions to the early Franciscan movement.
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- Germans do invade Great Britain in WWII
|
The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands Under German Rule 1940-1945
Madeleine Bunting
Manufacturer: Harpercollins
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Channel Islands at War: A German Perspective
ASIN: 0002552426 |
Customer Reviews:
Germans do invade Great Britain in WWII.......1997-08-07
One of Hitler's aims in World War II is to invade
Great Britain. Many people believe that the Royal
Air Force's efforts in the Battle of Britain thwarted
that aim. Not so. The Germans did invade and
occupy a series of British islands off the French
coast.
Madeleine Bunting writes a fairly interesting
account of the invasion and occupation. The book
also covers the miniscule and not too succesful
underground movement to defy German occupation.
The book questions whether the Channel Islanders
were guilty of collaboration with the Germans.
Afterall, Bunting mentions that several of the
local women married Germans and that the under-
ground movement never took hold.
Some of the stories about occupation life are quite
interesting, but not everything Bunting brings up
is satisfactorily answered. Case in point is the
concentration camp on the island of Alderney. She
mentions that it existed, but doesn't dig deep
enough to discover the full extent of possible
atrocities.
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Orientalism
