Book Description
Includes: Stephansdom Quarter, Hofburg Quarter, Schottenring, Alsergrund, Town Hall, the Museum Quarter, Opera, Naschmarkt, and the Belvedere Quarter.-
Customer Reviews:
Use for sightseeing, not restaurants or hotels information.......2007-10-18
Restaurants and hotels pricing was off, but, as usual, DK Publishing Eyewitness guides are like having a personal historical/architectural
guide by your side - 24/7/365. It's simply.. perfect.
Make sure to visit Budapest while in Vienna - only 3 hours away by train. Also consider Bratislava for a one-day trip - the historical center is pretty.
Great City, Great Guide.......2006-12-17
Vienna is a fascinating place to visit and this is a great book to use. For once I did not find the subdivisions as useful in this book. Vienna can be a very confusing city to get around until you get the hang of it and sometimes the street maps in the book cut off in odd places. Despite that the recommendations of things to see and do and the smaller maps were top notch. I saw almost everything this book recommends within one jam packed three day weekend. Highly recommend.
Eyewitness Travel Guide Vienna (2003).......2006-08-13
Rugged bound handbook for touring Vienna. Outside cover is plastic coated card stock, doesn't soak up water when lying on the lunch table, easily cleaned. Glossy paper throughout its 288 information packed pages: a district map on inside front cover and public transport map on the inside back cover.
"Introducing Vienna" is the first chapter devoting 60 pages to an overview Vienna from a geographical, historical and cultural perspective. Then brief descriptions of major attractions, even the brief descriptions take 20 pages because Vienna offers so much to the visitor.
Next comes "Vienna by Area" with more detailed information on attractions with highlights of St Stephans Cathedral, the Hofburg area which was the Habsburg center of power now converted to civic and cultural uses, museums, palaces etc, too much to describe here as the book devotes 120 pages to guide the reader to sites, dining and maps.
Next comes "Further Afield" with adjacent areas like the Prater recreation area with it famous Ferris Wheel "der reisenrad" and more museums. Schoenbrunn palace also in this chapter as are recommended day trips outside the city and along the Danube river. Concluding the chapter are detailed walking guides for self directed excursions.
The section "Travelers Needs" has restaurants, hotels etc plus photos of local cuisine along with the German language name including the famous Sachertorte, it makes me hungry just looking at it.
Closing the book are suggested entertainment venues, casinos, music theaters followed with practical information on exchanging money, public transportation, how to use public telephones, posting letters and cards, street maps and index.
I selected this guide because it has plenty of information on sites and cultural attractions, its sturdy binding which will outlast me on the trip and its convenient size. I have travelled may places and a good practical guide is great for me, the explorer. I like to explore and discover on my own rather than join guided tours and be shown what others believe should interest me. This book givens me so much information I should not overlook anything major unless I choose to, and that's the point, I will choose for myself what to see and do. Vienna has so much to offer, the guide helps me sort it out.
I intend to spend a full day at the KHM Art History Museum, watch an Opera at the world famous State Opera House, listen to a Mozart concert by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the Music Hall, attend Sunday mass with Vienna Boys Choir, see Schoenbrunn, Belvedere etc. Still time in my schedule for day trips up the Danube to Durnstein to see the Castle where Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned and if my wife is up to it, a day trip to Budapest. Of course each day in Vienna we plan to visit pastry shops and coffee houses to get the full "flavor" of Vienna. A ride on the ferris wheel is almost mandatory.
If there is anything more in the guide I could ask for, it would be more web site listings for music attractions as many of the venue tickets can be purchased in advance to be sure of getting seats. The guide has some web sites addresses, but a self planner like me could use more.
As rich as a piece of Viennese cake.......2006-04-03
The Eyewitness DK guides are beautiful books in their own right--you would enjoy reading them even if you didn't make the trip. The text is well organized and extensively illustrated with artwork and 3-D pictures of the major tourist attractions. The directions are excellent and they direct you to the important things to see at each location.
A particularly helpful feature is a section with specific instructions on how to use Vienna's extensive public transportation system including a description of the various types of tickets and pictures of the ticket machines.
This guide blows the competition out of the water.
Excellent reference material to plan your Viennese vacation.......2005-10-21
There are two kinds of travel guides, and both are useful: those guides that help you to plan your trip, and those to carry in your shirt pocket when the shoes hit the pavement. This Eyewitness Travel Guide is one of the best, if not the best, guidebook to use for planning your Vienna trip before you go. There is a tremendous amount of material, so the book uses small fonts and thin glossy paper; still, it has quite a bit of heft and may not be convenient to carry in your shirt pocket (and if you think this is thick, you should see the China guidebook). But I read about a lot of attractions here that I couldn't find in other reputable publications, and found more details in DK.
If you want a quick guide to the sights while you are out and about the town, you may want to consider the compact DK Top Ten Guidebook. The two books have a great deal of overlap, but there's some information that was unique to the top ten guide.
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
|
History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
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Similar Items:
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History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
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History: Fiction or Science? Astronomical methods as applied to chronology. Ptolemy's Almagest. Chronology III
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Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America: Lost History And Legends, Unearthed And Explored
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They Cast No Shadows: A Collection of Essays on the Illuminati, Revisionist History, and Suppressed Technologies
ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Average customer rating:
- Mystery Fan
- Bernie Gunther at it again
- Bernie Gunther's my current favorite former SS officer.
- A very compelling read
- War or Peace, the Mystery Continues
|
The One from the Other
Philip Kerr
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
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Berlin Noir (Crime, Penguin)
-
Hitler's Peace
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The Hidden Assassins
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A German Requiem
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The Foreign Correspondent: A Novel
ASIN: 0399152997 |
Book Description
Germany, 1949: Amid the chaos of defeat, it's a place of dirty deals, rampant greed, fleeing Nazis, and all the intrigue and deceit readers have come to expect from this immensely talented thriller writer. In The One from the Other, Hitler's legacy lives on. For Bernie Gunther, Berlin has become too dangerous, and he now works as a private detective in Munich. Business is slow and his funds are dwindling when a woman hires him to investigate her husband's disappearance. No, she doesn't want him back-he's a war criminal. She merely wants confirmation that he is dead. It's a simple job, but in postwar Germany, nothing is simple-nothing is what it appears to be. Accepting the case,Bernie takes on far more than he'd bargained for, and before long, he is on the run, facing enemies from every side.
Customer Reviews:
Mystery Fan.......2007-10-02
The One from the Other
This is my first Bernie Gunther book, but it will not be my last. Kerr does a great job of creating a mood and building an interesting character. Bernie is humorous, brave, unlucky, smart, cocky, and vulnerable. The history of the pre and post WWII era seems authentic and well-researched. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. History and mystery make a great combination.
Bernie Gunther at it again.......2007-09-07
The fourth in the Bernie Gunther series of detective novels has him caught up in another Post World War II mystery this time involving the CIA, Jewish vigilantes and more nasty Nazis. I have read and reread the first three novels featuring Bernie Gunther as I have found them and the world he inhabits to be fascinating. The reader follow Bernie on his cases as Germany slides into Nazism, surrenders to its leadership, falls and slowly rises from the rubble to began the process of rebuilding physically and emotionally. All is backdrop to Bernie's sleuthing. Read them for the characters and the dramatic irony that readers of historical fiction find so delicious. I cannot wait to see what Bernie gets involved with next.
Bernie Gunther's my current favorite former SS officer........2007-07-10
Bernie Gunther is a smart cookie but not quite clever enough to avoid getting gulled by some Nazi medical "researchers" into impersonating one of them in their scheme to slip out of postwar Germany before the war-crimes court can slip a noose over their heads. Bernie is a durable guy with an appropriately wry comment for every occasion, even when he's about to be consigned to an icy grave by Israeli assassins. It's all pretty improbable but a lot of fun for those of us who like tough private eyes who have a way with the ladies and a wisecrack at the ready.
A very compelling read.......2007-07-02
I have been a recent reader of Mr. Kerr. I have read all of the trilogy and the recent Hitler's Peace. I am a fan, but one who sees Mr. Kerr's occassional short comings, and idiosyncracies. I thought this book was exceptional, and perhaps the best I have read. There are many good reviews here which capture my thoughts. Instead let me make 5 quick points:
1) Kerr is that magical writer who puts you in Munich in 1947. His attention to detail and detail of feeling is remarkable.
2) His stories are always set up well. His strongest point is his plot set ups, and characters.
3) To me, his challenge has always been his endings. In general there are several logic or other issues which occur in the end of his books. This book i felt was his best thought through until the end.
4) He is able to hold to complex themes without patronizing or lecturing the reader.
5) I enjoyed reading this book more than the others (which i liked)
War or Peace, the Mystery Continues.......2007-05-26
Sorry, Mr, Kerr, I missed reading Berlin Noir mysteries. I shall forthright give myself a few demerits and immediately order the book (s).
Impressive beginning, grabs one's attention and great for a mystery novel, connects up in the end in a very amusing manner, as if anything amusing can be attributed to the War. And this is where Mr. Kerr or his detective Bernard Gunther scores. He treats the entire momentous second world war in Germany from the perpective of one who lived through it and survived.
He's a detective. He knows all the secret police, SS and whoever else. He met Himmler. But again, all in its place.
The mystery is suitably devious and classical in nature. Yes, Mr. Chandler and Hammett, it is search for a person, one who died (?) in the war. Mr. Gunther works hard, gets beat up, and in a scene reminiscent of China Town, gets his finger amputated.
Don't close your eyes. A very important clue will appear.
The ending is stunning and one leaves the book with the satisfaction of time well spent.
But is Mr. Gunther a Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade?
He's less wisecracking, which is a relief (Parker's Spenser's prattle is dreadful to the ears) but he's smart, hardworking, and he has a family. That's a no-no for a tough guy but Mr. Gunther, surely in keeping future is mind, deals with it.
I have not, being both a writer and an avid mystery reader, found a more engaging, spontaneous and excellently penned book in a long, long time.
If There Wasn't Death
Customer Reviews:
I am a history buff and I also liked these books.......2006-07-27
These books are good, even if you are really interested in historical accuracy. The great thing about them is they can really inspire one to do their own research and learn themselves about what was going on during that time. The interactions between the characters and famous historical figures aren't factual, of course, but the major events are accurate. These books really inspired me to do my own research and to visit the cities that the characters inhabit. I really enjoyed reading them, so if you love history, don't let the fiction aspect scare you away, it often serves as a fun backdrop in which real learning can take place.
A MUST READ, MUST BUY!.......2003-05-26
I have only recently been introduced to Bodie Thoene, but I became an instant fan with Vienna Prelude. Some of the twists in the book had my mouth dropping open. In the world of espionage, you don't know who to trust and who not to--these books brought that alive. They are written about a time before even my parents were born, and it's mouth-droolingly interesting to see what could have happened in this totally foreign world. I've never read anything like these and am in the process of buying all of Thoene's books. I'm even buying for my mother and telling everyone else about them. OUTSTANDING READ!
Must Read.......2002-08-22
Vienna Prelude is the first book in an amazing series. The characters are intriguing and Thoene's ability to show the struggle of the Jewish resistance in pre-WWII Europe is incredible.
Am I the only one to criticize these books?.......2002-01-18
I'll say that the books are interesting. They definitely have that in their favor. However, I have just finished reading some of the other online reviews for the Zion Covenant Series, and it seems that everyone loved them instantly, without finding anything to criticize about them. Well, I'll give you a more critical opinion to help guide you in your book purchases:
If you DON'T care for books in which....
1. ...the characters are very stereotypical;
2. ...the authors take great liberties with the thoughts, words, and actions of actual historical figures and make them say and do things that you know they never did, or would have done;
3. ...the main characters are great pals with the actual historical figures, and are rich, are beautiful, are witty- in short, have absolutely everything they need to accomplish the story and aren't very believable;
4. ...the plot isn't believable;
Then, these books might not be just right for you.
Yes, the books are very interesting. The plots aren't very believable, but they are interesting. The history contained in them is written well, and the books are worth reading for that alone. Unfortunately, these books are more of the same historical fiction in which overall unbelievability prevails, and that spoiled the books for me. Now, if you are not picky about having great people in history meddled with (for example, at one point in the third book Winston Churchill gets involved in a plot to kidnap the heroine, because she would be so exceedingly valuable as a spy for the Allies), and you don't worry about the other points in my list either, then you probably will like the books. For reading for amusement, they are fine. But if you want really great historical fiction, I wouldn't suggest the Zion Covenant.
I love these books!.......2001-10-16
If you start reading this series, you will not be able to put the books down! Against the backdrop of pre-WWII Europe, the Thoenes create characters that are true to life, and that you can't help but root for -- or against. These books are incredibly well-researched and well written, and a great investment of your time and money. You won't be disappointed!
Book Description
"John Stoye is the master of every aspect of his subject."-
Daily Telegraph
"A fine historical work. . . . Well worth reading."-Otto von Habsburg,
The Catholic Herald
"Worthy of the pen of a Herodotus. . . . It is a measure of the fascination of Mr. Stoye's subject that one should think of comparing his treatment of it with the work of the greatest historians."-
The Times Literary Supplement
The siege of Vienna in 1683 was one of the turning points in European history. It was the last serious threat to Western Christendom and so great was its impact that countries normally jealous and hostile sank their differences to throw back the armies of Islam and their savage Tartar allies.
The consequences of defeat were momentous: The Ottomans lost half of their European territories and began the long decline that led to the final collapse of their empire, and the Habsburgs turned their attention from France and the Rhine frontier to the rich pickings of the Balkans. That hot September day in 1683 witnessed the last great trial of strength between cross and crescent-and opened an epoch in European history that lasted until the cataclysm of the First World War.
Customer Reviews:
Exceedingly Tedious.......2007-09-25
If you're a generalist, or looking for a book that will help you to appreciate what the defenders of Vienna felt, thought, or endured, this book is not for you. Though undeniably informative, the great bulk of this work is devoted to extremely detailed descriptions of the dozens of political negotiations and troop conscriptions carried on by Hapsburg envoys and the political chess game between the Empire's foes and its myriad lukewarm allies. This is a valuable source for further research, and a great neutral description of the political climate and negotiations that led to Vienna's redemption, but of the siege itself, it will provide you with little insight as to what it was like to be in Vienna in 1683, and will not impart any of the stories, legends, or heroic deeds of the City's defenders - to which the author occasionally and tantalizingly alludes.
Meticulous and Tedious.......2007-07-29
The failure of the Turkish army to take Vienna in 1683 marks the beginning of the long decline of the Ottoman state but it was a close-run affair. Kara Mustafa's janissaries laid siege to the Austrian imperial capital while allied horsemen ravaged the surrounding countryside. Leopold III and his court had fled leaving the rescue of Vienna to Charles, Duke of Lorraine and John Sobieski of Poland. Had Mustafa been a little less reckless in failing to fortify his positions the outcome of the battle (and the history of Europe) might have been different.
Stoye has done an excellent job in painstakingly recounting each detail of the negotiations among the Christian princes and charting the march of the various armies. Where his sources have been unclear or lacking he is honest in not speculating too freely. However, if any battle cried out for a historian with a sense of colour and drama this was it. Massacres of prisoners, hand-to-hand fighting in trenches and tunnels, banners with crosses and crescents waving over blood-drenched salients, wild Tartars from the steppes duelling with hussars clad in armour and angel wings, vizirs strangled with bow-strings: the siege of Vienna had all this and more but Stoye is the not the man who can breathe life into such a story. Nor are the maps and illustrations much help.
This book is a noble effort and will certainly serve readers interested in the minutiae of central-European politics but the siege still awaits a better story-teller.
A very readable and informative history of an important event in the struggles between Islam and the West.......2007-03-19
What an interesting book! The present War on Terror does have certain overtones of the past struggles between Christianity and Islam. The Jihadists refer to the Western nations as Crusaders and while most in the West make a distinction between Islam per se and the Jihadists, they are not blind to the fact that the Jihadists (or Islamofacists or whatever you want to call them) are almost completely Muslim.
And certainly, the Christianity of Europe is nominal at best and is not a motivating factor in the West's approach to the current situation. There are other more overriding interests. If one went on Sunday to the Cathedrals and traditional Christian denominations and conscripted the congregants into an army, it would consist mostly of older women and some children. And it would be small.
It was not always so. This book recounts the time in the late seventeenth century (mostly in 1683 to be precise) when the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (and ruler of the Muslim world) and his Grand Vizir took a hundred thousand men (or more) into and through the Hungarian territories into Austria on a quest for new lands to tax (more than for converts) and after conquering lesser cities on the way, laid siege to Vienna.
Europe was very much different than the Europe of the past two centuries. There were nations, but not so much nation states as the two great kingdoms of France ruled by Louis XIV and the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire ruled out of Austria and Spain. Both also had relationship with ancillary and related smaller states and territories. The complex web of treaties were often, but not always, related to whether the ruler and the population were primarily Roman Catholic or Protestant.
This was not the first time that the Ottomans came out of Turkey to attack Vienna. In 1529 they came and laid siege to the city until disease forced them back. In 1683, they came and were making progress in undermining the walls of the city until the King of Poland, Jon Sobieski and came from the north and drove the Turks out. This led to a more extended war with the Ottomans that lasted until 1699 and captured Hungary for the Habsburgs.
John Toye has written a very concise telling of the second siege. There are nine chapters in just fewer than two hundred pages. The first chapter provides the origins of the Ottoman attack. Understanding the court politics and the names and titles of all the players is probably the most difficult part of the book. However, once the reader has that under control, all goes smoothly. The author provides a helpful list of key names and titles on pages x and xi. There are also some maps up front and provided within the text as needed.
The second chapter informs the reader about the situation in Austria and Vienna. We learn about the court of Leopold his character, talents, his key advisors, and I. The third chapter gives us a broader picture of the Habsburg Empire and its competitive relations with France and what its true condition was late in the seventeenth century.
The fourth chapter tells us about the move of the Ottomans through Hungary and how Vienna began its preparations. This involved getting some people out (including Leopold I) and other people in. It also involved getting as many supplies as possible (such as money, wood and food). In chapter five we get the description of how the siege began and what the techniques were for the attackers and the defenders.
Chapter six takes us outside of Vienna and what was going on between the city and its allies as well as the maneuvering of the Ottoman camps. In chapter seven the author gives us the movements of Sobieski and the others who would come to the aid of the beleaguered city.
All of this is prelude to the climax of the book in chapter eight when the armies come out of the north and sweep the Ottomans off the walls of Vienna and into a panicked rout. The last chapter ties up what happened in Europe after the battle. Like most victories, it leads to claims by many as the reason for the success. Offenses are taken at real, perceived, or manufactured slights, advantage is taken by those still strong over those weakened by the struggle (read Louis XIV trying to take advantage of the limited resources of the Hapsburgs now fighting in Hungary).
This was a very important event in the history of Europe, of the relations between the West and Islam (at the time the Ottomans were essentially synonymous with the faith - the Sultan held the key to the Kabah and flew what was believed to be Mohammed's banner). It is an event that everyone should understand better. The troubles didn't begin on 9/11 nor were the Crusades of the eleventh century the only armed struggle before that event. It is a long and rather aggressive history, from both sides.
While some claim history to be bunk, it is critical to learn the true history of what has happened in the past and how it has flowed into and created the world we inherited.
A superbly presented and accurately detailed account .......2007-01-06
The siege by the Islamic Turks of the Christian city of Vienna in 1683 was a watershed incident in European history. Had the Turks been successful, there well might have been no Christian Europe to dominate the world stage for the next 500 years. Facing that magnitude of threat, European powers that were normally jealous and hostile to one another suppressed their mutual antagonisms to defeat the armies of Islam and their brutal Tartar Allies. The Ottoman empire lost control of half of their European territories which led to the long, slow, decline and inevitable collapse, even as the Hapbsburgs were able to parley the Viennese victory into control of the Balkans and expand their influence into France and the Rhine country. An enthusiastic recommendation for inclusion into both academic and community library World History collections, "The Siege of Vienna: The Last Great Trial Between Cross & Crescent" by John Stoye (Fellow in Modern History, Magdalen College, Oxford, England) is a superbly presented and accurately detailed account of this pivotal incident between the forces of a militant Islam and the armies of a European Christendom.
Book Description
The secret diaries of a twenty-three-year-old White Russian princess who worked in the German Foreign Office from 1940 to 1944 and then as a nurse, these pages give us a unique picture of wartime life in that sector of German society from which the 20th of July Plot -- the conspiracy to kill Hitler -- was born.
Customer Reviews:
Good.......2007-03-11
This is a good book. Not like other diaries I've read. Had to hold your interest but it's a true diary.
An view from the fiery depths of Hitler's capital........2006-11-21
"The Berlin Diaries" by Marie Vassiltchikov is an account of wartime Germany from the vantage point of a young White Russian aristocrat. Although not a native German, Ms. Vassiltchikov and her sister penetrated the upper echelons of German society--the surnames of those who they socialize with read like a "Who's Who Among Central Europeon Royalty." Despite their privileged lifestyle, the Vassiltchikov sisters are not insulated from the trappings of the war raging around them: their acquaintances die in battle, they experience rationing, cold offices, nurse duty, and most memorable of all, the punishing bombings of Berlin.
If the suspense of who will live and perish around Ms. Vassiltchikov were not enough, many of her coworkers in the Abwehr are secret anti-Nazis and were thus implicated with varying roles in the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate der Fuehrer with a breifcase bomb. Her writings provide an excellent insider's glimpse of the German Resistance and will force any reader to sympathize with Vassiltchikov; even if they see her as "the enemy" as a result of her residence in Nazi Germany.
The book's readability is a final strength that I will mention. Ms. Vassiltchikov's diary entries are often interrupted by factual passages from the editors, one of which was her brother. These passages explain the course of the war at that particular entry and thus renders the diary easily understandable for those with even a limited knowledge on the Second World War. Even as a frequent reader of World War II, I thoroughly enjoyed "The Berlin Diaries," and so did my co-workers who care little for military history or the time-period. The fact that the book can appeal to such a wide audience is undoubtedly one of its most admirable qualities.
Berlin Diaries.......2006-11-04
The best and most insightful book I have read about what life must have been like in Berlin during WW II. The writer, through his sister's diary, gives a vivid description of the top Nazi party members, and how the plot to kill Hitler was hatched and then failed. It is amazing the hero - Missie - survived the war. I could not put it down.
The princess can tell a story.......2006-09-29
Princess Marie Vassiltchikov, a member of some minor branch of the Russian nobility who ended up in Lithuania and then in Germany for World War II, can sure tell a story. Her diary is a good page turner. You always know what is going on. You're always want to find out what is going to happen next. I finished this book in a day or two and took it everywhere I went, because I had to find out what happened.
She is direct and never gets too intwined in her personal musings (although the curious would want to know more about personal/romantic and other dirt in a private diary).
Her story is intensified by the big events she is involved in.
She begins with Germany's descent into World War. Then, a number of her associates and probably herself (the editor says she is circumspect about this in her diary lest the diary be found)are involved in the aristocratic attempt to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazi government in the fall of 1944. Finally, the Princess, as a Russian aristocrat emirge who spent World War II working for Germany, flees first Berlin and then Austria in fear of the advancing Soviet Army.
While the princess lives modestly on jobs translating and clipping English periodicals for various German foreign policy enterprises, her world is one of the titled wealthy in Germany and Austria. She's continually mixing it up with the descendants of the Royal Houses of Prussia, Russia, Austria and of Germany principalities like Bavaria and Hanover. Her friends are descendants of Bismark and Metternick. Most of her friends are also princesses, counts, countesses, princes, and even lowly barons.
For all the ravages of the War she faces, there is always a great estate or castle to stay in if her home is bombed out. Influential friends are able to send a car to fetch her even when she is stranded in the most remote Alpine villages. There is always a friend in high places to sign a special pass, get her an impossible-to-get ticket, offer her a new job, or pull strings for a transfer out of harm's way once she becomes a nurse. While sometimes there is a shortage of meat, there is always champagne. When there is no oil to heat lamps and cooking burners, there is always enough perfume to use for these purposes. While Germans are starving and millions are being murdered by the Nazis, there are often fine meals on provisions sent from friends in the embassies, from a friend's baronial estate, or from their diplomatic posts in Rumania or Hungary.
The marketing of the book attempts to paint Princess Marie Vassiltchikov
as a progressive fighter given her association with the Von Stauffenberg attempt to kill Hitler and take over the government. Alas, her aristocratic friends were not against the real setup in Germany. They were attempting to bail out of the war now that Germany was being beaten. They had not opposed Hitler when he outlawed Germany's working class political parties and unions and sent their leaders to concentration camps in the early 1930s. In fact, their party, the German National Party, a party more right wing in social policy than the Nazis, merged with the Nazis in the early 1930s. Most of her mail associates had held important posts in the German government for much of Hitler's regime: ambassadors, provincial governors, police chiefs, staff generals, and other officials. None of them were known for sticking up for human rights, democracy, or workers and farmers.
Indeed, what's shocking is the apparent indifference that Princess Marie Vassiltchikov and her pals show to the total suffering that ordinary Germans and Austrians faced, ordinary folk who didnt have castles to repair to when they needed housing, retainers to shoot or harvest food from estates when the food system broke down, who struggled to find bread and milk and never touched champagne. If the Princess and her ilk do face such genuine suffering during these years, what became of German factory workers, small farmers, family shop keepers?
This does not mean the good Princess doesn't suffer. At the end she suffers from starvation and its complications. Between the lines you can read in fears and anxiety that must have continued for the rest of her life, no matter how successful it may have been.
Above all, whether you like her or love her or not, the Princess knows how to tell a story you will follow through to the end.
Best and most original book on WWII ever written.......2006-07-29
Don't pay any attention to the one or two negative views in this section. This is a terrific book written from the weird persepective of the Blue Bloods, the European royalty the Nazis hated as much as they hated Jews. The fact that these people, all opposed to Hitler, could land on their feet over and over again in spite of everything is as funny as anything can be. I would have been a Top Ten TV Series had somebody had the sense to pick it up. Risk the few dollars cost, you won't be sorryl
Book Description
ECPA Gold Medallion Award winner!
Opening in 1936, the Zion Covenant series tells the courageous and compelling stories of those who risk everything to stand against the growing tide of Nazi terrorism that is sweeping through central Europe under the dangerous and deceitful guise of Hitler's Third Reich. A new study guide is included in each book.
Customer Reviews:
Well researched and well written.......2007-08-20
Elisa Lindheim is young, beautiful, and gifted. The oldest child of retired Luftwaffe officer Theo Lindheim has grown up in Berlin, enjoying the privileges of her father's heroic World War I reputation and of his financial success as owner of Lindheim's Department Store. The shadows cast by Hitler's rise to power are darkening her life, though, in 1936. Estranged from her lifelong love and former fiance who's chosen to give her up on orders from his military superiors, Elisa lives in her Gentile mother's native Vienna and calls herself Elisa Linder. She plays in the opera house's first violin section, and - like so many other Jewish or part-Jewish Germans and Austrians - refuses to believe that things will continue to get worse. Any day now, the German military will have had enough of the mad paper hanger; and after that, life will be normal again.
Of course that's not what happens during the year that follows. As Theo Lindheim moves to get his family to safety, but fails to get himself out of Germany successfully, history in the making catches up with Elisa and forces her to make choices she never imagined anyone might have to face.
This is that rare book, a "faith based" novel that's worth any reader's attention. Well researched and well written, VIENNA PRELUDE moves along at a steady clip and then races to a suitably tense climax. The authors understand what far too many writers (especially of faith based fiction) don't "get" at all: that characters' actions must flow from who they are, not from what the book's chosen theme requires them to do. While the coincidences that keep parting and reuniting Elisa and American journalist John Murphy become strained from overuse, somewhere in the tale's second half, and a few of the characters' lines of dialog sound more like a sermon than an individual's words in conversation, the overall effect is just what it should be. The reader quickly becomes invested in knowing what will happen to Elisa and the others, and the triumph of their faith is all the more real because of the struggles that living it costs them. I expect to read more in this series, and that's the best compliment one can pay to any author.
Moving, Thought Provoking.......2007-06-07
A beautiful story, wonderfully written and a pleasure to read. You won't be able to put it down!
Bodie Thoene is awesome.......2007-02-10
Bodie is an excellent writer. She makes the past come alive; she makes history have heart and soul, she gives facts and events faces, names and personalities. She has the ability to transport me in time and I love traveling with her.
Amazing!.......2005-09-21
I just purchased this series because after 10 years, 3 more books have been added to the series. So I just read Vienna Prelude again for probably the 4th time. It is as great as it was the 1st time. The story is beautiful, you fall in love with the characters. You really have to read the Zion Chronicles and the Zion Legacy which continues the saga!
What a great book!!.......2005-08-02
What a great author!! I couldn't put this book down and then read all the other ones in the series. It really brings the realities of pre-WWII to life. The characters are extremely well-developed and you can't wait for the next book so you can see what they're up to. Don't miss reading this great book and great series.
Book Description
"I had to do something to escape Hitler's clutches," writes Esti Freud. Yet she waits with her then-16-year-old daughter, Sophie in Paris, until German canons can be heard in the distance, before deciding to escape by bicycle across France as Sophie keeps looking back to see whether German tanks will overtake them. Both women survive by sheer miracle and, in their own ways, come to feel a need to keep a personal record of those tumultuous times. In a memoir written at age 79, Esti Freud, daughter-in-law of Sigmund Freud and wife of his oldest son Martin, looks back on her life that began before the 20th century, was lived on three continents, and stretched through two world wars and the Holocaust. Twenty years after her mother's death, daughter Sophie turned to Esti's memoir as a scaffold for this book, expanding it through family letters and archival material. Out of these documents the author has created a fascinating, many-voiced mosaic--the story of a famous family and of a century seen through the eyes of many characters. Indomitable Esti was not an easy person to love. While she establishes herself professionally three times, in three different languages, her troubled family relationships leave her lonely, often deeply unhappy. Sophie confides that Esti died without son or daughter at her side. This work gives an insider's, in-law view of the family Freud, its foundations, and flaws. The relationship between Esti, daughter of a wealthy Vienna attorney and her husband Martin Freud is foreshadowed by the young lovers' fathers. At first meeting Esti, Sigmund told his son the glamorous woman was "too beautiful" for the clan, meaning her splendor belied a lifestyle not conducive to the frugal Freud ways. And Esti's father, on hearing of her love for Martin, expressed regret she was involved with a man who was "not a financially favorable linkage," and that his family was not respectable since patriarch Sigmund was "just another psychiatrist, and one who writes pornography books at that." Thus begins the ill-fated relationship that would rock two families and a generation of children to come. Sophie weaves into the text letters she inherited, including letters from Martin while he was a prisoner of war, and excerpts from her own diary, kept as an adolescent. The resulting mosaic will fascinate--and perhaps disturb--readers interested in Freud and psychoanalysis, as well as those intrigued by relationships and family.
Customer Reviews:
It is more than a family portrait........2007-08-08
Sophie Freud's new book is more than a history of a famous family in the 20thc, but a history of the century in itself. The long arc of Germany's attempt to achieve at least European, if not worldwide, supremacy, is told through the eyes of a family that lived it.
The book is neither long nor hard to read, therefore, I was disappointed when Sophie thanks her editors for helping her cut it down. I want to read it all. Basically the book is Sophie's mother's autobiography. Said Ernestine, who liked to be called Esti married Martin Freud, one of Sigmund Freud's sons. She wrote her book late in her life, and her writings are in Roman type, whereas Sophie's comments are in italics, and thus this whole book which was written AND edited by Sophie becomes a dual biography.
Accompanying the stories of these 2 women are many, many letters written by other members of the Freud family, and from them we can make our own judgements about the people and compare them to the ones that Sophie makes. These other letters are in various fonts.
The mother, Esti, seems at first to be a simple lovely girl in love with Martin, but Sigmund says of her "she is not only maliciously meshugge but also mad in the medical sense." We see this in the early years of their marriage. Talk about dysfunctional families!
The family split up in 1938: Esti and Sophie went to Paris, and Martin and his son, Walter, went to London. For the next 4 years mother and daughter struggled to keep alive, to find decent lodging and food, and to keep barely one step ahead of Hitler as he ran down France. Vichy France became a haven for the Freuds for a while, but eventually they went to Casablanca and then to Lisbon, and finally to the USA. (The movie "Casablanca" may have been fiction, but it was a fiction that many people really lived.)
I have to admire both women who essentially became trilingual in a very short time. For all of Esti's complaining and bitterness (her letters to Walter during the war years must have been devastating to the young man who could do nothing to help). But as a speech therapist, Esti, who first taught in Vienna, learned to teach both in France and then in the USA. Sophie went straight from the lycee in France (already a 2nd language for her) to Radcliffe College. Both women earned Ph.Ds.
Don't be dismayed by the family tree at the beginning. In fact, ignore it at first. However, I wish that dates had been included. The important characters will become clear upon reading. At times the book sounds like a novel, but it is not. Sophie and her brother were thus separated for most of their lives. Walter died not long before Sophie finished the book and his children found about 200 letters from their mother to him. Although most of this book was finished, Sophie had to incorporate many of them into her new publication.
This is a sad book, but who cannot say that the 20th c, esp. the first half, was not sad, in the deepest sense of the word? I enoyed the book thoroughly and I think you will as well. Do not expect to find out much about Sigmund however - that is reserved for other books. You will find out about many members of both the Freud and Drucker (Esti's family) families - some uplifting news and some destructive habits. Many of the Freud family were able to escape Austria, but many were not and were thus exterminated. The last page of the book which contains the final words of both Esti and Sophie (for now at least - let's hope she writes more) is indeed sad. I did not mind reading it early on. You choose.
A compelling memoir.......2007-08-01
Sophie Freud's recent book, Living Under the Shadow of the Freud Family, is most interesting and compelling. She masterfully interweaves perspectives on the private (and public) lives of her family and herself, thus offering a memoir that at times reads like a first-rate novel.
Professor Freud's wit, mischievousness, and clear-eyed vision pervades the various narratives and adds a most important and entertaining dimension--not only in her diary entries but in her numerous candid and often wonderfully blunt assessments of others (family members, professors, etc.) and in her self-reflexive comments (e.g. when she reflects puckishly that she may be writing this book to display her own achievements for the Annee Scolaire prize--"who knows, perhaps I am writing this book just for that purpose"). It is this kind of serious play, throughout, that makes this memoir so very readable and revealing, at the same time Sophie Freud's commentary or her mother's autobiographical narrative or numerous letters continue to remind readers of the shadow of her grandfather and other relatives (Tante Janne, her brother, her father, et al. ) and of the sinister shadow of Hitler and WW2 which impinges trenchantly on the lives of the Freud family, not to mention the world. I am reminded of the author, W.G, Sebald, photos included. In short, among other things, I have come away with a very deep and complex feeling for Professor Freud's mother, along with multiple insights into her own fascinating self.
Excellent book.......2007-06-13
This book is a fascinating read, both in terms of family dynamics and world history. Through letters, diaries and commentary from various family members, Sophie Freud (Sigmund Freud's granddaughter) gives life to her mother Esti, including her troubled marriage to Freud's son Martin, her struggle to be accepted by the Freud family, and her difficult relationships with her children. The book also has moments of historic drama, such as when Sophie and her mother flee Paris by bicycle two days before the Nazis invade. There are also bits of humor, such as when the teenage Sophie's diary reveals that she is much more concerned about boys, her figure, and finishing her qualifying exams than she is about the approaching Nazis. Overall, the book provides unique insight into a complicated (and famous) family at an especially charged time in history. I really enjoyed it.Living in the Shadow of the Freud Family
Living History.......2007-06-04
Sophie Freud, the author of this wonderful book, has kept a diary most of her life, as did her mother, Esti, along with many letters and documents of her fractured family. These documents are the scaffolding of a compelling story of romance, marriage, betrayal, escape and ultimately, the need to reinvent one's self in another country. Ms.Freud uses these papers (in French and German), along with her own commentary and that of her brother. The tale of her escape from Paris on a bicycle with her mother is vivid. She also uses photographs of her family and documents which increase the appeal of the book.
For anyone interested in a life of the twentieth century, with war, loss and emigration, this is a wonderful book.
Average customer rating:
- Check and see
- Suprise! Suprise!
- Prescient St Augustine?
- Something of a disappointment
- Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..
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History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 2913621066 |
Product Description
`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.
Customer Reviews:
Check and see.......2007-06-21
I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.
Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22
Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.
Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05
We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:
a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;
b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;
c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.
Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:
It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.
- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.
- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.
Fomenko goes by the following axioms:
- Chronology is the basis of history;
- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;
- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;
- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;
- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;
- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.
Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?
The Russians:
Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.
The Westerners:
Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.
The Chinese:
Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.
The Arabs:
Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.
The Divinity:
Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.
According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.
St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."
Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09
After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.
However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:
- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.
I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.
The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.
It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?
Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.
Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30
If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?
Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.
Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..
Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.
Book Description
A landmark book from one of the truly original scholars of our time: a magnificent revelation of turn-of-the-century Vienna where out of a crisis of political and social disintegration so much of modern art and thought was born.
"Not only is it a splendid exploration of several aspects of early modernism in their political context; it is an indicator of how the discipline of intellectual history is currently practiced by its most able and ambitious craftsmen. It is also a moving vindication of historical study itself, in the face of modernism's defiant suggestion that history is obsolete."
-- David A. Hollinger, History Book Club Review
"Each of [the seven separate studies] can be read separately....Yet they are so artfully designed and integrated that one who reads them in order is impressed by the book's wholeness and the momentum of its argument."
-- Gordon A. Craig, The New Republic
"A profound work...on one of the most important chapters of modern intellectual history" -- H.R. Trevor-Roper, front page, The New York Times Book Review
"Invaluable to the social and political historian...as well as to those more concerned with the arts" -- John Willett, The New York Review of Books
"A work of original synthesis and scholarship. Engrossing."
-- Newsweek
Customer Reviews:
Enter, stage right, anxiety.......2007-01-14
We are drawn to Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century because of Adolf Hitler, as much as or more than by its own curious modes of art, music, architecture, science, literature, city design and medicine. What a strange brew it was!
Cultural historian Schorske has nothing to say about science or medicine or Hitler, and little enough about the setting of his chosen few subjects, despite the word "politics" in the subtitle. The Germans and German Jews of Wien were a small fraction of the population, which was a small fraction of the German-speaking population of the empire, which was in turn a small fraction of the emperor's subjects, who were overwhelmingly Slavs, Hungarians, Romanians. Possibly Schorske could assume his readers would understand that part of the background. It is not so clear that, today, many people understand the makeup of the multinational empire.
To me, the most interesting section of "Fin-de-Siecle Vienna" was the longest chapter, on the building of the Ringstrasse. This effort, permitted but not managed by the sovereign, was, he says, a more complete rebuilding of a capital even than the contemporary work in Paris, done at the behest of an emperor.
In Vienna, the briefly ascendant and confident liberal bourgeoisie did it.
Pause a moment. Schorske uses the word "liberal" without explanation or caveat, but German liberals of Austria were different from other liberals in that they did not embrace the national principle. Schorske mentions this without discussing it, but it is a question whether the Vienna bourgeoisie and its few aristocratic allies can properly be called liberals at all.
In any event, it seems likely that the decay of their political power, leading to the crisis of confidence at the end of the century, was largely caused by the fact that they were not, in fact, liberals. (If they really had been liberals, their power might have decayed even sooner, but that is another issue.)
Schorske attributes all to a failure to continue to believe in progress, history and community; and thus a reaction toward psychology, individualism running to narcissism and despair. Antisemitism rears its ugly head, but Schorske treats it almost as background noise. Soon enough, it would drown out everything.
He examines writers like Hofmannsthal and Schindler, Freud, painters like Kokoscha and Klimt, one composer (Schoenberg) and a host of characters who will be unfamiliar to English readers, like Saar.
It is almost too pat that the Viennese cultural mafia chose a few themes (such as the garden) that Schorske is able to use as threads to weave a remarkably dense, almost impermeable cloth.
Yet the themes seem valid.
Occasionally Schorske descends (or ascends: he is clearly in soaring mode in these episodes) into high-falutin' gobbledygook of the kind all too common in cultural criticism. This goes with the territory, I suppose. (He is also capable, more than once, of astoundingly wrong obiter dicta: "The European mind lost its capacity to project satisfying utopias." This is exactly backwards; Europe was rushing to fall on antisemitic and nationalistic and ideological utopias. What Europe had lost was its capacity to be practical.)
More damaging to the overall persuasiveness of his analysis is his uncritical Freudianism. "Fin-de-Siecle Vienna" was published in 1961 and could hardly have been written even a few years later. Schorske explicitly says that in writing about the various thought-modes of his subjects he is keeping his historian's distance and not embracing any of them. He obviously tries to do this in the chapter about Freud, but later in the book he falls into an (unconscious?) easy Freudianism, chatting blithely about a whole class of men suffering from castration anxiety and similar imaginary maladies.
Ah ,well, the unconscious mind is the universal solvent for the uncritical critic: On the slenderest of evidence, he can attribute motives and causes to his subjects that, by definition, they did not even know about themselves; and assign to them any symbolism and significance he cares to. Schorske is fairly restrained about this with his earlier figures, but with Kokoscha and Schoenberg, anything goes.
In comparison with some other mid-206th century muggers of historiography, Schorske is a mere hubcap-stealer. Still, his brush with psychoanalysis seriously debilitates an otherwise interesting book.
Need Your Home Interior Remodeled? Call an Historian! .......2005-01-13
How does an historian, whose job it is to interpret the past, come to terms with a cultural movement built upon the concept of modernity rejoicing in the death of history? This is exactly the question posed by Carl E. Schorske in his book Fin-De-Siecle Vienna Politics and Culture. In a series of essays, which the author admits are not meant to be interlaced, Schorske examines Vienna's cultural reaction to both the decline of Liberalism and the end of the Habsburg Empire. The task of merging politics and culture is not an easy undertaking and the faint-hearted reader should beware. "Just as a knowledge of the critical methods of modern science is necessary for interpreting that science historically," writes Schorske, "so a knowledge of the kinds of analysis practiced by modern humanists is necessary for coming to grips with the makers of twentieth-century non scientific knowledge" (p. xxi). Yet this brand of historical analysis is not that simple as Schorske goes on to explain. It appears, still more separates the historian from the humanist. According to Schorske, a dual approach is required when attempting to analyze cultural history. This binary-method is analogous, he argues, to a vertical and diagonal line. In the "diachronic" or vertical line, the historian more or less places the cultural in its historical context. In the "synchronic" or horizontal line, he or she looks at the relationship of the particular element of culture studied with what else is going on in the world of art, music, literature, and architecture. In a useful analogy, the author believes "The diachronic thread is the warp, the synchronic one is the woof in the fabric of cultural history. The historian is the weaver, but the quality of his cloth depends on the strength and color of the thread" (p. xxii). But what does this all mean? The essays that follow, though providing an enjoyable read, raise some doubts about Schorske's conclusions. The strength lies in the author's ability to place the culture of late nineteenth century Vienna in its historical context. In the opening "Politics and Psyche: Schnitz and Hofmannsthal," Schorske successfully ties the other essays together by introducing the two strands of Austrian fin-de-siecle culture:moralistic-scientific and the aesthetic. A conventional historian may feel more at home with the former, however, the aesthetic aspect is more difficult for many of us, to borrow a trite cliche, to carve in stone. Arguing functionality versus aesthetically appealing, or the placing of ancient Greek statuary on the steps of the Parliament building because Vienna had no past, therefore, it had no political heroes of its own to memorialize in sculpture, needless to say is unconvincing. Since Schorske cites no government documents, to back up his claims of Liberal motives and intentions in urban modernization, for example, his analysis of the connection between politics and culture borders on pure conjecture. The Freudian injection, resulting in the weakest essay of the book should have been omitted. Aside from the above-mentioned flaws, the book is interesting. Schorske's possesses a clear literary style, that helps the reader survive this graduate level sleeper. The addition of color plates, an anachronism in today's budgeted publishing industry was a welcome sight indeed. Yet, one wonders if such abstract concepts as modernity and aesthetics ought to be left to those more qualified outside the historical profession. Such studies, as art criticism itself, surely leave room for varying interpretations that open the doors for open debate.
Just like a time machine!.......2004-01-03
Reading Schorske is like riding a time machine to Vienna around the tumultuous late 1800s to 1900. He covers an electic array of topics. However, he has a central focus: to show the radical changes and interconnection between arts & politics at the turn of the century vienna (fin de siecle). But, be warned, Schorske is an intellectual historian, and though his exposition is easy to read, his themes are academic and copiously detailed.
Schorske first lays out the setting of a growing city. He describes the monumental architectural project of the Ringstrasse (the Ring Street around central Vienna) and the rising liberalism and shifting wealth this represented.
The more interesting, and key, episode of the book involves the reactions to this change in Austria, in the form of new politics, anti-semitism, Zionism, and of the ramifications in Arts, Sciences and Music. Specifically, Schorske writes about transformations of viennese politicians, medical doctor Sigmund Freud, artist Gustav Klimt, and musician Arnold Shoenberg. The "vignettes" of these figures are academic and marvelously entertaining. What's surprising is how closely these key figures in 20th century intellectual development were connected; Vienna was a small city, after all. As I said, you'll feel like you're walking through the bustling streets of Vienna, and spotting Freud or Mahler (though Schoerske doesn't cover Mahler) on a leisurely stroll.
i want to kill myself!.......2003-11-23
read this book to fall asleep, actaully no, read the chapter on Freud's interpretation of dreams and then fall asleep. in the morning interpret your dreams! a load of mind numbingly boring, non-sesical drivel!
Challenging but exemplary read !!.......2003-09-11
This is simply a phenomenal book. Schorske jumpstarted an interest in fin-de-siecle Vienna in the 1960's and opened the door for a plethora of scholars to build upon his work. Schorske's ideas are nothing short of brilliant and profound.
Granted, this is a tough read. The language is difficult, often verbiose. But never unnecessarily so. The subject matter is intrinsically complex and Schorske's diction only mirrors that.
One need not be a specialist to read this, though perhaps a good level of intelligence and fortitude to make it through some very complex ideas. It is a book to be read and re-read, at various intervals in life, particularly after a visit to Vienna where Schorske's words really come to life.
I lived in Vienna for two years, and in fact wrote my Masters thesis on the Viennese identity crisis at the fin-de-siecle. Schorske's book is one I can always go back to and still get something out of. It is ever-challenging and ever-fascinating.
If you are interested in a particular spin to traditional theories on Viennese modernity, read Jacques LeRider's "Modernity and Identity Crisis," whose thesis is that turn-of-the-century Vienna forshadowed postmodernism. LeRider takes Schorske up several notches, and therefore the two books are good to read one after another.
This book in not for everyone, but at the same time I feel it does not exclude either. If you've come across this review with no particular interest in Viennese modernity or intellectual history, I urge you to try this book anyway. It is rich enough to enrapture even the mildly curious mind.
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