Book Description
Praise for Blood and Thunder
“Kit Carson’s role in the conquest of the Navajo during and after the Civil War remains one of the most dramatic and significant episodes in the history of the American West. Hampton Sides portrays Carson in the larger context of the conquest of the entire West, including his frequent and often lethal encounters with hostile Native Americans. Unusually, Sides gives full voice to Indian leaders themselves about their trials and tribulations in their dealings with the whites. Here is a national hero on the level of Daniel Boone, presented with all of his flaws and virtues, in the context of American people’s belief that it was their Manifest Destiny to occupy the entire West.”
—Howard Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University and editor of The New Encyclopedia of the American West
“The story of the American West has seldom been told with such intimacy and immediacy. Legendary figures like Kit Carson leap to life and history moves at a pulse-pounding pace—sweeping the reader along with it. Hampton Sides is a terrific storyteller.”
—Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt
“Hampton Sides doesn't just write a book, he transports the reader to another time and place. With his keen sense of drama and his crackling writing style, this master storyteller has bequeathed us a majestic history of the Old West.”
—James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys
“Blood and Thunder is a big-hearted book whose subject is as expansive as they come. Hampton Sides tackles it with naked pleasure and narrative cunning: In his telling, the vast saga of America’s westward push has a logical center. The dusty town of Santa Fe becomes the nexus around which swirl the fortunes and strategies of a mixed set of serious overachievers, from Kit Carson, the original mountain man, to James K. Polk, the enigmatic president whose achievements, in the dreaded name of Manifest Destiny, were almost biblical in scope. Sides is alive to the exuberance and alert to the tragedy of the taking of the West.”
—Russell Shorto, author of Island at the Center of the World
“For a huge percentage of us immigrant Americans (those whose ancestors arrived after 1492), Hampton Sides fills a gaping hole in our knowledge of American history—a vivid account of how ‘The New Men’ swept away the thriving civilizations of the Native Americans in their conquest of the West.”
—Tony Hillerman
"BLOOD AND THUNDER is a balanced, thoughtful summary of the American conquistadors in the 19th century Southwest. Hampton Sides has re-created violent events and such inflammatory figures as Kit Carson without bias. Carefully researched, thoroughly enjoyable."
-Evan S. Connell, author of SON OF THE MORNING STAR, CUSTER AND THE LITTLE BIGHORN
A Magnificent History of How the West Was Really Won—a Sweeping Tale of Shame and Glory
In the fall of 1846 the venerable Navajo warrior Narbona, greatest of his people’s chieftains, looked down upon the small town of Santa Fe, the stronghold of the Mexican settlers he had been fighting his whole long life. He had come to see if the rumors were true—if an army of blue-suited soldiers had swept in from the East and utterly defeated his ancestral enemies. As Narbona gazed down on the battlements and cannons of a mighty fort the invaders had built, he realized his foes had been vanquished—but what did the arrival of these “New Men” portend for the Navajo?
Narbona could not have known that “The Army of the West,” in the midst of the longest march in American military history, was merely the vanguard of an inexorable tide fueled by a self-righteous ideology now known as “Manifest Destiny.” For twenty years the Navajo, elusive lords of a huge swath of mountainous desert and pasturelands, would ferociously resist the flood of soldiers and settlers who wished to change their ancient way of life or destroy them.
Hampton Sides’s extraordinary book brings the history of the American conquest of the West to ringing life. It is a tale with many heroes and villains, but as is found in the best history, the same person might be both. At the center of it all stands the remarkable figure of Kit Carson—the legendary trapper, scout, and soldier who embodies all the contradictions and ambiguities of the American experience in the West. Brave and clever, beloved by his contemporaries, Carson was an illiterate mountain man who twice married Indian women and understood and respected the tribes better than any other American alive. Yet he was also a cold-blooded killer who willingly followed orders tantamount to massacre. Carson’s almost unimaginable exploits made him a household name when they were written up in pulp novels known as “blood-and-thunders,” but now that name is a bitter curse for contemporary Navajo, who cannot forget his role in the travails of their ancestors.
Customer Reviews:
Fremont's Reputation.......2007-10-14
This is an excellent book except for the Fremont-bashing that seems to be fashionable. It is especially distressing that the material about Fremont came from a non-historical work with no scholarly background entitled "A Newer World". The author would have been better advised to supply his own supporting references. That is enough of a reason to knock off a star.
one of the best.......2007-10-13
If you have any interest in American History please read this book. We read the entire book outloud, quite an undertaking, so I'm glad to see that is available as an audiobook. The writing is riveting, the bibliography reassuring, the story enlightening. This book is a springboard into the conquest of the Western United States and will give you new eyes if and when traveling through these areas. Read the book.
Thoroughly engrossing biography of Kit Carson.......2007-10-12
This is an excellent biography of a famous American pioneer--Kit Carson. What sets it apart is its humane treatment of a complex figure. Carson appears to have been the "real deal," not a manufactured hero.
The book proceeds by interweaving several story lines, which can be somewhat confusing at times but, in the end, this serves the author well. Among the story lines--Kit Carson's exploits, the Navajo leader Narbona's story, General Stephen Kearney's episodes, and so on.
Kit Carson's role--from trapper to hunter to scout to military officer--is the glue that holds this book together. In the process, the reader learns a great deal about the events of the 1830s through 1860s that transformed the United States. The Mexican War dramatically expanded the size of the country; the American conflicts with the Indian nations opened new territories for settlement and economic development; the Civil War ended slavery (although, ironically, perhaps not in the southwest, as Native Americans sometimes served a similar role after the Civil War); the West was opened for development.
What humanizes this book is the treatment of Carson. He was sometimes mercurial (with an occasional burst of temper); he was a person of action, and he sometimes was cruel and brutal; he was also a person of honor; he had a perception of the larger picture in the West, and could see that white aggression was the real problem--not marauding Indians.
On a personal note, the book traces Carson's family lives (he had at least two real families, one with a native American wife), his struggle to be a good husband and father while he was off on one adventure or another most of his life.
This is a strong biography which is set in a larger context. It is well worth looking at.
Reads almost like a novel!.......2007-10-12
I first encountered this book when I heard the author speak at our local bookstore. I am a history lover and wanted to know if this man could pull of another interesting book on American History. I had a copy of the book ready and took copious notes on the blank pages in the back. The author was fascinating to listen to.
Since then, I have read the book thoroughly and found it read almost like a novel. Each chapter led you to want to read on.
I have purchased copies as gifts for friends and even gave a copy to my American Indian History professor and he was enthralled.
Good work. Loved it. You will, too.
Blood and Thunder.......2007-10-09
This is a highly readable and comprehensive account of the adult life and times of Kit Carson and the people/places he touched. It's not a biography, but a series of vignettes documenting his involvement in a variety of professions -- from mountain man to military man -- as the needs of the West evolved. There's a great deal of information about Carson's contemporaries as well. I read the book with a map of New Mexico at hand to more closely identify the places mentioned. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Western history, including the several battles of the Civil War fought in New Mexico.
Book Description
American Southwest Indian artists working in metal, clay, wood, textiles, and paint have proudly left their individual hallmarks on their work-and until now there has not been a comprehensive source for identifying the marks. Barton Wright, the pre-eminent historian, curator, and proponent of these native crafts-people, has filled that void by collecting and organizing these hallmarks into a useful book. Compiled over many years of work with the craftspeople, and with the cooperation of one of their main organizing bodies, the Indian Arts and Crafts Association, Mr. Wright has with this book both made a useful tool for identification and left an important record of the work of these talented people. The information is alphabetically arranged with important personal data, tribal affiliation, working dates, materials used, and facsimiles of their marks.
Customer Reviews:
Hallmarks.......2007-05-26
We have had previous editions of this book by Barton Wirght for years. This up-dated edition is just more current, but overall it is a very helpful bood to us.
Hallmarks of the Southwest.......2007-03-20
Although the exchange process was easy, both copies of the book that Amazon sent had pages either missing or hugely out of order. I wished there was a way for Amazon to check the copies, under such circumstances, before sending them out.
I've waited a long time for this book!.......2006-12-27
This is the eagerly-awaited second edition of Hallmarks of the Southwest; as a longtime collector of Native American jewelry, I'm happy to finally have a copy of this book.
Naturally, not every craftsman can be represented in such a comprehensive work, and complicating this is that not every piece is stamped with identifying marks. (Some of my favorite jewelry isn't stamped at all, even with "Sterling.") Many of the references are a carry-over from the first edition; since silversmithing is often a family tradition, certian respected craftsmen working today may not be represented but their families are.
It's a valuable overview, and leaves the reader [me, at least] wanting more.
Excellent reference - but a work in progress.......2006-01-11
I have been using this book since this edition was published. It is an excellent compilation of summary information about makers of Native American jewelry and other collectible wares. I expect that this has - to this point - only about one-third or one-half of the people listed who make jewelry. I annotate mine with added marks for unlisted jewelry makers, together with summary information on them. When I can, I ask the artisan to autograph the book, preferably near the added information.
Hallmarks of the Southwest.......2001-06-30
This book is an excellent reference to anyone who collects or sells Native American Jewelry. It shows the mark of the well know artists in Native American silver jewelry. The Navajo , Hopi , Zuni Indians are all included in this book. Very detailed, I highly recommend it.
Book Description
John Kantner traces the evolution of Pueblo society in the American Southwest from the emergence of the Chaco and Mimbres in the AD 1000s through the early decades of contact with the Spanish in the sixteenth century. Based on a diverse range of archaeological data, historical accounts, oral history and ethnographic records, this introduction for students of the Pueblo Southwest is vital reading for any archaeologist concerned with the origins of early civilizations.
Customer Reviews:
The "Old Ones" -- from Origins to Spaniards .......2007-10-10
Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, and Wuptaki are three of the best known of the Indian ruins that dot the landscape in the high desert country of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. To this day it is difficult to comprehend how these Indians thrived in a region of short hot summers, little rain, and poor soil -- and not only fed themselves but left behind spectacular monumental buildings. Adding to the mystery is their sudden abandonment of their major sites in the 1100s and 1200s.
The author surveys the knowledge and theories about the ancient peoples who became the modern day Pueblo Indians. He follows the development of the Anasazi and Mogollon traditions from their beginnings thousands of years ago until the 1700s, after the arrival of the Spaniards. The book is illustrated with more than 100 photos, maps, and charts and 25 sidebars that take up interesting topics such as cannibalism, construction methods, domestic animals, ballcourts, burials, and leadership. The emphasis is on thoroughness as the author briefly describes the findings and gives a hearing to the theories of hundreds of archaeologists and other scholars. The bibliography runs to more than 30 pages.
There is much of environmental determinism here for in the climate of the Southwest small changes in the weather made all the difference in the lives of the inhabitants. Scholars have meticulously reconstructed temperature and precipitation records for the last 2,000 years and the author attempts to correlate the rise and fall of Indian cultures with precipitation and temperature averages.
"Ancient Puebloan Southwest" is probably a bit too dense for the casual reader, but offers those interested in archaeology and the Southwest a thorough and up-to-date account of the Anasazi the Mogollon and the proto-historic Zuni, Hopi, and Rio Grande Pueblos.
Smallchief
Book Description
The works of contemporary Native artists from the Northwest Coast and desert Southwest regions of North America are enormously popular today, especially in the realm of jewelry. This handsome book-and the traveling exhibition it accompanies-explores how the cultures from each region continue to communicate beliefs and traditions through visual adornment, and examines the cross-cultural influences between the peoples of these very different areas.
The core of the book consists of personal statements by 39 artists, who discuss their lives, their beliefs, and their approach to art- and jewelry-making. Lavish illustrations, both historical images and new photographs by noted photographer Togashi, bring the subject to life, while supporting texts by general editor Kari Chalker, curators Lois Sherr Dubin and Peter M. Whiteley, Haida artist Jim Hart, and anthropologist Martine Reid provide background and insight. Totems to Turquoise will be an important resource for students, scholars, and designers, as well as anyone who loves beautiful and well-made objects. AUTHOR BIO: Kari Chalker is an anthropological writer, researcher, and editor. She was formerly assistant director of cultural explorations at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado. Lois Sherr Dubin is a noted authority on beads and jewelry and the author of Abrams' History of Beads and North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment. Peter M. Whiteley is curator of North American ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Dubin and Whiteley are the curators of "Totems to Turquoise."
Customer Reviews:
A truly well-rounded treasury.......2005-02-08
Totems To Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts Of The Northwest And Southwest is a lavish artbook filled cover-to-cover with full-color photographs not only of beautiful Native American jewelry, but also portraits of the individual artists crafters who create it. Brief descriptions of each piece and broader essays enlighten the reader as to how and why these visually stunning articles were created, and the symbolism underlying their design. Many pieces feature short commentaries by the creators themselves. A truly well-rounded treasury and a welcome addition to contemporary Native American art shelves.
Book Description
This beautiful book examines the first century of Navajo and Pueblo metal jewelry-making in the American Southwest. Beginning in the late 1860s, the region's native peoples learned metalworking and became accomplished silversmiths. Their work was united with a long-standing native traditon of beads and ornaments made from turquoise and other natural materials. The cross-cultural appeal of this jewelry continued into the mid-1900s, despite competition from tourist jewelry and mass-produced imitations. By the 1950s and 1960s, masters such as innovators Kenneth Begay and Charles Loloma created a legacy of fine art jewelry that is prized today. This development is discussed in the context of social changes and adaptations over the century. A values reference guide is also provided.
Customer Reviews:
Recommended reading with minor caveats - 4.75 stars.......2005-05-04
This book is a visual feast and factual whopper! With vintage Indian Jewelry gaining popularity, this 200 page hardback book is a 'must read' if, for no other reason than to enjoy the pictures . . . fabulous! Also, much credit is deservedly given to artisans; it was refreshing to see the old timers names alive once again. The price guide is nice but very wide ranging. I spotted one or two factual errors but in a book of this scope, they are minor. I am always concerned about 'back scratching' when a high volume of the photo credits go to such a limited number of sources (owners/collectors/sellers), which is prevalent in this volume; otherwise, I believe you can rely on the very well written facts and figures. The historical overview is excellent and detailed. But most important, if you have any old Indian jewelry similar to those found in these pages, you have something of significance and value. You can bet online auctions will be replete with references to this beautifully illustrated book. Like I said, must read . . . even more . . . must own!
Southwestern silver jewelry.......2003-02-06
I like this book.I have other books by Paula Baxter, and I new that this one was going to be just as good. I make Indian jewelry and I'm always looking for picture books on the old Indian jewelry and this book is "chuck full of pictures of old jewelry and tools that were used to make the jewelry". The pictures are clear,clean,and big. If you like the way the indian jewelry looked back in the early part of the 1900's this is the book for you. Paula, did a vary nice job and I wish to thank her for this book.
Average customer rating:
- Coyote wants to fly!
- Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest
- A great book about a funny coyote!
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Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest
Gerald McDermott
Manufacturer: Voyager Books
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Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest
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Jabuti the Tortoise: A Trickster Tale from the Amazon
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Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa
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Papagayo: The Mischief Maker
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Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale (Picture Puffin)
ASIN: 0152019588 |
Book Description
Wherever Coyote goes you can be sure he’ll find trouble. Now he wants to sing, dance, and fly like the crows, so he begs them to teach him how. The crows agree but soon tire of Coyote’s bragging and boasting. They decide to teach the great trickster a lesson. This time, Coyote has found real trouble!
Customer Reviews:
Coyote wants to fly!.......2006-10-21
My son ([...] years old) enjoys a lot this funny story about the silliness of the coyote and the tricky birds. We read it often and have a little song for the dancing of the craws.
The design makes it easy for children eyes to understand the story without words.
Another lovely book from Gerald McDermott, but not as good as Zomo The Rabbit or Papagayo. These are really great!!
Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest.......2006-01-15
This was a fair tale children seemed to follow the story better but did not want to hear this book again and again,I was disappointed.
A great book about a funny coyote!.......2000-03-30
I like it because when the Coyote meets some birds he wants to fly with, all the birds give him one of their right feathers, but he didn't balance. So they each gave him left feathers, but he still didn't balance. And the reason he didn't balance was because he needed one left feather and one right feather. - AMD, Age 7.
Average customer rating:
- Informative and thought-provoking
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Captives and Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands
James F. Brooks
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
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Similar Items:
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ASIN: 0807853828
Release Date: 2001-12-04 |
Book Description
This sweeping, richly evocative study examines the origins and legacies of a flourishing captive exchange economy within and among native American and Euramerican communities throughout the Southwest Borderlands from the Spanish colonial era to the end of the nineteenth century.
Indigenous and colonial traditions of capture, servitude, and kinship met and meshed in the borderlands, forming a "slave system" in which victims symbolized social wealth, performed services for their masters, and produced material goods under the threat of violence. Slave and livestock raiding and trading among Apaches, Comanches, Kiowas, Navajos, Utes, and Spaniards provided labor resources, redistributed wealth, and fostered kin connections that integrated disparate and antagonistic groups even as these practices renewed cycles of violence and warfare.
Always attentive to the corrosive effects of the "slave trade" on Indian and colonial societies, the book also explores slavery's centrality in intercultural trade, alliances, and "communities of interest" among groups often antagonistic to Spanish, Mexican, and American modernizing strategies. The extension of the moral and military campaigns of the American Civil War to the Southwest in a regional "war against slavery" brought differing forms of social stability but cost local communities much of their economic vitality and cultural flexibility.
Customer Reviews:
Informative and thought-provoking.......2003-06-24
It would be foolish to give a book that won three prestigious professional awards (the Bancroft, Turner, and Parkman prizes) all in one year anything less than five stars, but the stars I have given this book can only hint at its remarkable contents. Captives and Cousins is based on prodigious research in original sources, and the research is wedded to a compelling and innovative analysis.
Brooks is not the first historian to show that the practice of taking captives and subjecting them to involuntary servitude was widespread in the American Southwest, but I don't think that anyone else has demonstrated so convincingly how deep and wide the cycle of capture and slavery was. Virtually all of the peoples who lived in and around New Mexico in the three centuries following the Spanish entrada (Native Americans and Europeans alike) took captives and engaged to one degree or another in the slave trade. Indians preyed on Spanish and Mexicans, and on themselves, and the Spanish and Mexicans returned the favor. To a degree, even Americans played a role in the trade after they became the controlling force in the region. They offered rewards for the return of captives and thus provided incentives for further captures. Brooks shows that the system of capture and slavery contributed in significant ways to the political, economic, and cultural development of the Southwest, providing a ready source of labor (and wives), knitting disparate peoples into webs of kinship (some biological, some adoptive, some deriving from Catholic godparenthood), helping to equalize wealth, and provoking endless cycles of revenge and retaliation. The system (a kind of "war of all against all") had its own logic, though the logic was crude and in many respects cruel.
Brooks does not saddle Europeans with all of the blame for the system. He makes it clear that capture and enslavement were practiced before the Spanish first arrived in the Southwest. But they participated in it and added refinements derived from their own Iberian traditions. In one sense, the book helps to challenge the myth of Indians as indigenous peoples "operating within subsistence-and-exchange economies that produced little intergroup conflict." Conflict there was, and in spades.
Brooks is an academic, and the book is addressed primarily to his fellow academics. General readers will find the text too dense for easy reading. I found some parts of the book slow going, but I persisted and, in the end, was glad I did. Captives and Cousins not only informed me; it made me think.
Book Description
The book presents the jewelry colection through its founding collector Millicent Rogers, bringing to life the Taos she discovered in the late 1940s and showcasing the authentic, classic-era jewerly that she collected when Fred Harvey and others were popularizing Indian-made tourist pieces.
This lavishly illustrated book serves as a solid overview of southwest Indian jewelry from prehistory to present.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Reference Book on Southwest Indian Jewelry.......2007-05-31
If you like Indian Jewelry but can't get to the museum in Taos this is a great first book on the subject. If you do go to the Millicent Rodgers Museum, this is the book to help you savor that grand experience for many years to come. And it's a great reference work if you are contemplating investing in Zuni or Navajo jewelry.
Wilford's Trading Post
Gallup, New Mexico
must-have book for Southwest Indian Jewelry coll;ectors.......2007-03-14
This is a glorious book of Southwest Indian Jewelry with interesting info on Millicent Rogers, who herself was a work of art.
A must-have for collectors of Southwest Indian Jewelry.
GOOD SERVICE.......2007-02-07
I HAVE ORDERED SEVERAL BOOKS FROM AMAZON AND THEY ARE EXPEDIENT AND HAVE A GOOD BOOKS AT A GREAT PRICE. AVAILABILITY GREAT. I WILL CONTINUE TO DO BUSINESS WITH AMAZON AND THEIR SERVICE. THANK YOU, BECKY DYER
A recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library Native American Studies reference collections.......2006-08-07
Painstakingly compiled and with an expert, knowledgeable commentary by Shelby J. Tisdale, Fine Indian Jewelry Of The Southwest: The Millicent Rogers Museum Collection offers an impressively informative history and survey of the southwestern Native American jewelry that is represented in the collection of the Millicent Rogers Museum as the result of art patron and passionate collector Millicent Rogers who assembled a spectacular collection of Navajo and Zuni silver and turquoise, Hopi silverwork, and Pueblo stone and shell jewelry during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Of special interest is the chapter devoted to "The Origins of Indian Jewelry in the Southwest". Profusely illustrated and a very strongly recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library Native American Studies reference collections, Fine Indian Jewelry Of The Southwest is enhanced for scholars and non-specialist general readers alike with the inclusion of a glossary, references, and an index.
Customer Reviews:
A Favorite......................2007-01-14
I wanted this book for some time. I must say, I love it and don't know why I did not buy it sooner. An all time favorite of mine for sure.
very good information. and good for research........2001-10-20
Hi I bouhgt Southwestern Indian Jewelry and it arrived with no plastic wrap and the jacket was damaged. Please let me know how to go about exchanging it for another in perfect condition. I am a collector and condition is important. Thank You, Joe Garcia.
The one book on American Indian jewelery you must own........1999-08-16
As a collector of Indian art, jewelery, pottery and rugs, I had the wonderful good fortune to know and consider the Hopi Master jeweler Charles Loloma my friend.
Finding a book on American Indian jewelery was almost impossible to come by until this great book by Dexter came out in 1992. The artists, their work in magnificent color will move anyone to want to own some of this jewelry.
From it's beginings late in the 19th century jewelery was the Indian method of carrying their wealth around in the form of necklaces, braclets etc, Indian jewery was mainly of two schools. Most prominent was the Navajo and the other Zuni.
Then in the mid 1960's came a Hopi indian Charles Loloma. He was the Picasso that was going to revolutionize American Indian jewelery and he did. This book is a testament to Charlie's followers who now produce jewlery that is both modern and magnificant. Buy the book then go out to an Indian Art shop anywhere in CA, AZ, NM or even NJ and you will not be able to resist owning someting.
Amazon.com
William Dalrymple has proved himself to be one of the most perceptive and enjoyable travel writers of the 1990s. His first book, In Xanadu, became an instant backpacker's classic, winning a stream of literary prizes. City of Djinns and From the Holy Mountain soon followed, to universal critical praise. Yet it is India that Dalrymple continues to return to in his travels, and his fourth book, The Age of Kali, is his most reflective book to date.
The result of 10 year's living and traveling throughout the Indian subcontinent, The Age of Kali emerges from Dalrymple's uneasy sense that the region is slipping into the most fearsome of all epochs in ancient Hindu cosmology: "the Kali Yug, the Age of Kali, the lowest possible throw, an epoch of strife, corruption, darkness, and disintegration." The brilliance of this book lies in its refusal to reflect any cultural pessimism. Dalrymple's love for the subcontinent, and his feel for its diverse cultural identity, comes across in every page, which makes its chronicles of political corruption, ethnic violence, and social disintegration all the more poignant. The scope of the book is particularly impressive, from the vivid opening chapters portraying the lawless caste violence of Bihar, to interviews with the drug barons on the North-West Frontier, and Dalrymple's extraordinary encounter with the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. Some of the most fascinating sections of the book are Dalrymple's interviews with Imran Khan and Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, which read like nonfiction companion pieces to Salman Rushdie's bitterly satirical Shame. The Age of Kali is a dark, disturbing book that takes the pulse of a continent facing some tough questions. --Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
William Dalrymple chronicles ten years of living and traveling in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India. Here he discovers a region falling into a time of darkness, discord and disintegration which according to ancient Hindu cosmology is known as the Age of Kali. Despite the area's strife and discontent, Dalrymple's attitude does not fall to pessimism, rather every page reveals his passion for the people and culture of the Indian subcontinent. He encounters such figures as Benazir Bhutto and Imran Khan and meets with ostracised inmates of a widows' home. Critical yet sympathetic, The Age of Kali is must-have reading for anyone wanting to understand the countries of the subcontinent.
Customer Reviews:
Really good read, really crappy book.......2007-05-13
Wonderfull stories from India and Pakistan - unusual and well-told, but my Lonely Planet edition began to fall apart the moment I opened the book. After three days, all the pages fell out. Sorry about that, sez LP. Uh, yeah, thanks.
Fascinating and Intriguing.......2007-04-06
Age of Kali is a fascinating read. I have been to or lived at many places Dalrymple writes about in this book and so I can relate to what he says.
I must admit that insights that he brings out are much deeper than my own even when I spent years living in those places. The most interesting chapters are that of Vrindavan, Sri Lanka and Hyderabad. The section on Bombay was a bit of a drag, particularly when after having written so brilliantly so far he got stuck with Baba Sehgal and Shobha De (the latter only a few English speaking people know anyway) and missed the pulse of Bombay.
Both Bihar and Pakistan were equally depressing (not because of Mr Dalrymple), though insightful at the same time.
This is a great read, cover to cover but appears more of a collection of essays written at different times rather than a fluent continuous travelogue. Imran Khan's story could have been cut short by several pages and the author's journey into Reunion Island, though fascinating in its own right, seems like a chapter from another book.
There are flashes of brilliance in a wonderfully written piece but also dots of passable text.
Overall a brilliantly written book about an extremely complex people and difficult times with the elegance of a master story teller and pathos of a native.
Fearless and enlightening plunge into the conflict centers in India.......2006-12-20
In this relevant and political travelogue, it's hard to tell whether Dalrymple is playing devil's advocate in order to provoke the passions of his interview subjects, or if he can just be, at times, pigheadedly judgemental and narrow-minded. For example, he acts as if he doesn't recognize the symbolism of the first Kentucky Fried Chicken in Bangalore ("Three thousand tandoori restaurants in London don't seem to have destroyed British culture."); later, he questions Pakistan's failure to cede Kashmir to India based on India's superior military strength.
But you have to realize that the persona of Dalrymple as the interviewer doesn't really matter here. His itinerary is fearless (he visits conflict zones in both Sri Lanka and Pakistan), and his approach to history/travel writing through interviewing important political figures succeeds in making modern history come to life. Selflessly, he asks the toughest questions imaginable, as if he's looking for trouble (for example, insisting on probing the intra-familial feuding in Benazir Bhutto's family). The result is an intense and colorful portrayal of India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka- revealing the conflicts between Hinduism and Islam, between tradition and modernization, and between corruption and idealism.
While Dalrymple lightheartedly captures some of the colorful eccentricities of his subjects (e.g. listening to someone describe a holy man who reputedly appeared to be talking to a wall, when "if you got close enough you could hear what sounded like the wall talking to him"), at other times he ruthlessly exposes the character flaws of his subjects (at one point he describes a Tamil revolutionary in Sri Lanka as "the textbook revolutionary intellectual: quick-witted and intense, fond of gesticulation and dogmatic generalisation"; more colorfully, he portrays Benazir Bhutto ignoring his repeated attempts to interrupt her monologue with his own relevant questions).
In the end it's really up to the reader to discern the truth; for example, whether integrity really is a luxury in Pakistan, where police officers take bribes to augment their below-living-wage salaries, and whether it's okay for teenage girls to be so accepting of the violence that is part of their lives in Sri Lanka.
While Dalrymple's genius in this work stems from his in-depth research and use of dialogue to create lively characters, I found myself longing for the continuous narrative thread that makes another one of his works, City of Djinns, as readable as a novel and perhaps the greatest bit of travel and history writing I've read to date. But given the scope and format of this work, a series of political travelogues across the Indian subcontinent, it is right on the mark.
Fantastic account of the problems and promise of the subcontinent .......2006-05-31
_The Age of Kali_ by William Dalrymple is a fantastic and informative book on the Indian subcontinent, primarily abut India but with a section on Pakistan and essays as well on Sri Lank and the partially Indian island of Reunion. It is a result of ten years of travel by the author throughout the region, Dalrymple noting at the beginning of each essay in the book when he wrote it and in several cases following it up with a postscript (the earliest essay dates from the late 1980s and the book was published in 1998).
In his introduction, Darlymple stated that the great question facing India now was whether the prosperity of the south and west of the country can overcome the "disorder and decay" of the east and the north. The author adopted a more or less regional organization of his essays accordingly.
The first section was on the north and consisted of five essays. The first essay focused on the state of Bihar in the northeast of the country and on what the author termed the "Bihar effect;" Bihar has been gripped by corruption, caste conflict, government breakdown, and general lawlessness, something he feared might spread to other areas of India. Bihar has been subjected to nearly open warfare and outright massacres between armed Untouchables and high-caste Indians, criminal politicians (in 1997 thirty-three of its state assembly lawmakers had criminal records; one individual, Dular Chand Yadav, had fifty counts of murder pending against him), armed gangs robbing cars in broad daylight, kidnappings, and upwards of ten private armies roaming the countryside. Some of the problems of Bihar may be the result of a revolution in much of India, one in which lower caste politicians are supplanting upper-caste elites, a revolution which has had positive effects (among other things blunting the Hindu revivalist movement and anti-Muslim actions) and negative effects (the "emergence of a cadre of semi-literate village thugs" in some areas).
Other essays in this section focused on the once beautiful city of Lucknow (capital of the former Kingdom of Avadh, "indisputably" the largest, wealthiest, and most beautiful pre-Raj city in India), its palaces, pleasure gardens, and gilded dome mosques decaying due to poverty, neglect, corruption, and being replaced by shanty-huts and ugly concrete tower-blocks; the city of Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, a "temple town" where many devout Hindus believe Krishna still lives, destination for hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims, and also heartbreakingly many thousands of widows, who live lives of terrible poverty and suffering, the result of traditional Hindu society views on widows, which with the death of their husband lose all status and are often exiled from their homes and even villages; an interview with Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia, seen as both a "madwoman and a saint," a leader of the militant Hindu revivalists and once heir to Gwalior, a Portugal-sized kingdom dissolved at Independence in 1947; and a visit to English schools, legacy of the Raj, fragile "archipelagoes of Englishness" in a "choppy Indian sea" facing very uncertain futures.
The second section had three essays on Rajasthan (in the north and west of the country). The first essay was titled "The sad tale of Bahveri Devi" and was indeed a sad tale of brave sathins (informal social workers among village women) and their struggle to stop infanticide and child marriages and promote education for all children, the essay focusing on a lower-caste sathin who was raped and faced both caste and gender-based bias as result of her efforts and of the rape. The second essay focused on caste conflicts and what Indian opponents called "caste-apartheid." The third essay was on sati (the act of a widow throwing herself on her husband's funeral pyre); regrettably despite efforts to eradicate it sati is still deeply engrained in many parts of rural India and Rajasthan is a center for the cult of the goddess Sati Mata.
The third section was one the author titled "the new India," with one essay somewhat light-hearted, profiling a Hindi rap star and a Bombay-based romance novelist, and another more serious essay on protests against Western businesses in India, the author focusing in particular on rapidly developing and prosperous Bangalore, which has quadrupled in size in 25 years thanks to among other things its computer industry but like much of India faces huge problems thanks to hyper-development and the massive strains its puts on infrastructure and on the growing disparity in wealth between rich and poor.
The fourth section was on the south of India, the author taking the reader to the Tamil temple town of Madurai and the ancient worship of the goddess Meenakshi; to witness the decay of the culture and architecture of Hyderabad, a once Italy-sized state within India on the Deccan plateau, that thanks to its Golconda diamond mines once rivaled Belgium in wealth but was forcibly annexed by India in 1948 during Operation Polo; and to see an exorcism at a temple of the goddess Parashakti in Cochin.
Section five was titled "On the Indian Ocean" and was fascinating; "At Donna Georgina's" detailed the city of Goa, still heavy with Portuguese influence (the Portuguese having set up shop in 1510 and not having left until the locally unpopular "liberation" of Goa by India in 1961), a place like Lucknow and Hyderabad that was having its culture and architecture forcibly and deliberately eroded; another essay provided an excellent summation of the Tamil Tigers and the war in Sri Lanka; and the third essay was a wonderful account of Reunion.
The final section was on Pakistan, with essays on Imran Khan, ultra-famous sports star turned politician (and what his fame and life said about Pakistan as a whole); a very interesting tour of the tribal states of Pakistan and the ruins of the fascinating Gandhara civilization (a composite civilization influenced by the Alexander the Great, its greatest icon a meditating Buddha in a Greek toga), and an interview with and account of Benazir Bhutto and her family.
A great look into what makes India tick.......2004-09-02
William Dalrymple has done what many travel writers have tried to do and failed at: He has written a book that actually enables the reader to envision what it is he's writing, and how the people in these narratives act and live.
This book is a collection of extremely engaging essays that explores the attitudes and psyche of the Subcontinent through analysis and research into issues that plague the region. For example, he goes into the divisiveness of the nationalist movement in India through his contact with the Rajmata. He examines the rampant corruption through his interviews and observations of Bihari politicians and the elections process in Pakistan, etc.
The point is, in each essay, you feel as if you are right there in the trenches with Dalrymple. Every subject, no matter how big or small, is thoroughly examined.
I would most definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain insight into the India-Pakistan conflict or into the Subcontinent in general.
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