Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone

Book Description

An unprecedented account of life in Baghdad’s Green Zone, a walled-off enclave of towering plants, posh villas, and sparkling swimming pools that was the headquarters for the American occupation of Iraq.

The Washington Post’s former Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran takes us with him into the Zone: into a bubble, cut off from wartime realities, where the task of reconstructing a devastated nation competed with the distractions of a Little America—a half-dozen bars stocked with cold beer, a disco where women showed up in hot pants, a movie theater that screened shoot-’em-up films, an all-you-could-eat buffet piled high with pork, a shopping mall that sold pornographic movies, a parking lot filled with shiny new SUVs, and a snappy dry-cleaning service—much of it run by Halliburton. Most Iraqis were barred from entering the Emerald City for fear they would blow it up.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and internal documents, Chandrasekaran tells the story of the people and ideas that inhabited the Green Zone during the occupation, from the imperial viceroy L. Paul Bremer III to the fleet of twentysomethings hired to implement the idea that Americans could build a Jeffersonian democracy in an embattled Middle Eastern country.

In the vacuum of postwar planning, Bremer ignores what Iraqis tell him they want or need and instead pursues irrelevant neoconservative solutions—a flat tax, a sell-off of Iraqi government assets, and an end to food rationing. His underlings spend their days drawing up pie-in-the-sky policies, among them a new traffic code and a law protecting microchip designs, instead of rebuilding looted buildings and restoring electricity production. His almost comic initiatives anger the locals and help fuel the insurgency.

Chandrasekaran details Bernard Kerik’s ludicrous attempt to train the Iraqi police and brings to light lesser known but typical travesties: the case of the twenty-four-year-old who had never worked in finance put in charge of reestablishing Baghdad’s stock exchange; a contractor with no previous experience paid millions to guard a closed airport; a State Department employee forced to bribe Americans to enlist their help in preventing Iraqi weapons scientists from defecting to Iran; Americans willing to serve in Iraq screened by White House officials for their views on Roe v. Wade; people with prior expertise in the Middle East excluded in favor of lesser-qualified Republican Party loyalists. Finally, he describes Bremer’s ignominious departure in 2004, fleeing secretly in a helicopter two days ahead of schedule.

This is a startling portrait of an Oz-like place where a vital aspect of our government’s folly in Iraq played out. It is a book certain to be talked about for years to come.

Customer Reviews:

Arrogance is not Wise.......2007-10-17

This book is quite well written, and shows the folly of arrogantly trying to rebuild Iraq after the war without having done the necessary homework on that country and with very selfish and dubious motives on the part of the Bush Administration. Nicely written book, informative and objective to the last page.

An outstanding book about the incompetence we have shown in Iraq.......2007-10-11

Any book has bias and I do not doubt that Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a journalist for the Washington Post, saw some things in Iraq in a bias way. Still, this book is a MUST read for anyone to better understand just where we went wrong in Iraq. At times, I felt I was reading a PJ O'Rourke or Carl Hiaasen book about government bureaucrats ruining yet another program. At other times, I just shook my head in disbelief and some of the arrogance and absurdity of the people put in positions of power in Baghdad. As I read the book I realized that it is no wonder that the Iraqi people are tired of us.

The author points out that many Americans were put in positions of power and authority with no real expertise or understanding of Iraqi culture or Islamic culture. Resumes from neoconservatives were all that was needed to head up programs so loyalty meant everything. The drawback, of course, was that people with no real idea of what the heck they were doing ended up bungling up everything they touched.

This book reminds me that our nation needs to stop and think of what our role is supposed to be. George Marshall, creator of the genius Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, is spinning around in his grave right now as the incompetence in Iraq makes me wonder what happened to real leaders in our nation. Bremer? Rumsfeld? Cheney? Clueless. This book points that out with the evidence and it's a chilling reality of the mistakes we are making on an hourly basis in that nation.

Pretty close to the truth...sorry to say.......2007-10-09

I was working at the CPA during the time the author covers in his book. I think I may have been at some of the meetings he describes. He captures the sense of the CPA, a bunch of well-intentioned, hard-working people without much of a clue about how to run an occupation in an Arab country. These were heady times and we believed we were birthing a new democracy. Few of us were equipped to pull it off and the split between DoD and the rest of the US and coalition governments doomed us from the start.

I was there!.......2007-10-06

I did a tour at the American Embassy in 2006, after the events recorded in "Imperial Life." It was fun being able to read about details of the Republican Palace, then go to that particular feature and see it for myself. More importantly, I could put what I read into context, both in the Embassy and in Iraq itself. Even though the CPA no longer occupies the Green Zone, the isolation of the military and state department staff from events occurring around us was similar to what happened to the CPA in "Imperial Life." Most staff (military included) rarely leave the the Green Zone making the average non-Iraqi resident unaware of what goes on beyond the walls. If you want to understand what living in the Green Zone is like, and why progress is slow in Iraq read this book.

Timely information.......2007-09-23

"Imperial Life" is honest, first hand, information. The author has a good grasp of the subject, of the surroundings and above all, of reality. He is able to pick up the essentials and deal with them without exaggerating his importance or his role. He is a well informed man, as he should be. The book is very well put together, and a pleasure to read. It is above all, timely. This means, regretably, that its importance shall pass, as the events he decribe will give in time place to "new improved" versions. The importance for historians to come and to serious readers will not be diminished.

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

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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
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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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.

Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror

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Hit me baby one more time...
Recommended by Osama bin Laden
Author Fails to Drill in on the President
One Of The Best
My Attempt to Understand Jihad

Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror
Michael Scheuer
Manufacturer: Potomac Books Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1574888625

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The war on terror has created near unanimity on many points, at least within the American press and political leadership. One essential point of agreement: al Qaeda specifically and radical Islamism in general are stirred by a hatred of modernity. Or as President George W. Bush has articulated repeatedly, they hate freedom. Nonsense, responds the nameless author of this work and 2003's Through Our Enemies' Eyes (the senior U.S. intelligence official's identity became an open secret by publication date). Indeed, he grimly and methodically discards common wisdom throughout this scathing and compelling take on counterterrorism. Imperial Hubris is not a book that will cheer Americans, regardless of their perspectives on the post-9/11 environment. We are, the author notes, losing the war on terror. Hawks will squirm as the author heaps contempt on U.S. missions in Afghanistan (too little, too late) and Iraq ("a sham causing more instability than it prevents"), but opponents of Bush administration policies may blanch at Anonymous' suggestion that what's needed is for the West to "proceed with relentless, brutal, and, yes, blood-soaked offensive military actions until we have annihilated the Islamists who threaten us." Quoting the at-all-cost likes of William Tecumseh Sherman and Curtis Lemay on one hand and contending that unrelenting military measures be accompanied by concessions to the ideology of the militants on the other are unlikely to curry widespread support from either side of the divide. And how will readers conditioned to references to Osama bin Laden as a deranged gangster or simple-minded fanatic with deep pockets digest the respect accorded "the most popular anti-American leader in the world today"? Imperial Hubris clearly wasn't written to win friends, though the author believes it's essential that his words influence people at the top. Whether it will is debatable, but that this blunt, forceful, urgently argued polemic recharges the discussion is a foregone conclusion. --Steven Stolder

Book Description

Though U.S. leaders try to convince the world of their success in fighting al Qaeda, one anonymous member of the U.S. intelligence community would like to inform the public that we are, in fact, losing the war on terror. Further, until U.S. leaders recognize the errant path they have irresponsibly chosen, he says, our enemies will only grow stronger.

According to the author, the greatest danger for Americans confronting the Islamist threat is to believe—at the urging of U.S. leaders—that Muslims attack us for what we are and what we think rather than for what we do. Blustering political rhetoric “informs” the public that the Islamists are offended by the Western world’s democratic freedoms, civil liberties, inter-mingling of genders, and separation of church and state. However, although aspects of the modern world may offend conservative Muslims, no Islamist leader has fomented jihad to destroy participatory democracy, for example, the national association of credit unions, or coed universities.

Instead, a growing segment of the Islamic world strenuously disapproves of specific U.S. policies and their attendant military, political, and economic implications. Capitalizing on growing anti-U.S. animosity, Osama bin Laden’s genius lies not simply in calling for jihad, but in articulating a consistent and convincing case that Islam is under attack by America. Al Qaeda’s public statements condemn America’s protection of corrupt Muslim regimes, unqualified support for Israel, the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and a further litany of real-world grievances. Bin Laden’s supporters thus identify their problem and believe their solution lies in war. Anonymous contends they will go to any length, not to destroy our secular, democratic way of life, but to deter what they view as specific attacks on their lands, their communities, and their religion. Unless U.S. leaders recognize this fact and adjust their policies abroad accordingly, even moderate Muslims will join the bin Laden camp.

Download the Complete Bibliography for this book.

Customer Reviews:

Hit me baby one more time..........2007-10-10

...Or 8 more times and hit me harder, who knows. But that is in essence what we seem to be saying (among other things) to our enemies as we sit on our hands trying to fight a politically correct and "safe" war.

Mr. Scheuer has raised many points of view gleaned by 17 years of analysis in the very subjects we are fighting, or playing tit for tat with. He gets past the arguments of simpletons that say they attack us because we are free, or hate our pop-culture, clothing, etc. He breaks down the 6 main reasons why bin Laden and company attack us repeatedly. Additionally he breaks down bin Laden himself, even comparing him to - brace yourself - our very own Abe Lincoln. The comparison is in reference to how he is viewed in the Islamic culture, and how he is fighting for the cause and what's right in the Islamic religion. He lays out a very detailed profile of bin Laden, going against the grain in terms of labeling him just a terrorist, a megalomaniac, mass-killer, etc. Basically he gets deep, and honest and some of it is disconcerting to read but none-the-less informative.

Additionally, he breaks down where we (Clinton and Bush) went wrong fighting this war. Why did it take a month to get into Afghanistan after 9/11? Why didn't we use assets we had from assisting in Afghan-Soviet war? Why does it seem we are sitting on our hands? Do these people even want to be "free" and democratized? What about the propping up of puppets in government that don't have the support of their countrymen?

The book also talks of Islam in general and why and how our country and its policies are on a crash course with the insurgents fighting against us. One such example is man-made law vs. God's law. Mr. Scheuer also suggests certain policy changes that we need to make, lest we let our children continue fighting this war. I hate to use a cliché, but he calls for the "gloves to come off", really come off and you may not agree with some of his ideas (bringing back land mines to mine areas of mountain passes we cannot protect or block or basically bombing the country/is into submission, so much so that they lose all hope or at least support from the people of the country, stopping our support of Israel - which is one of the 6 reasons they attack us, and more) but other options need to be on the table because so far we aren't really winning.

The fact that bin Laden himself references this book as the reason we are losing this war, should be seen as a kick in the nuts because he knows that we do not have the stomach to do what is necessary to win. And he may be right.

Recommended by Osama bin Laden.......2007-09-08

Most infamously recommended as "further reading" by Osama bin Laden in his message of 9/7/07, this work by the former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit is a must-read for those wishing to fully educate themselves on the issues in the War vs. Terrorism.

Scheurer's book is a well-reasoned treatise focusing on the strengths of bin Laden's "humiliate/bleed America to death" strategy in the current Iraq campaign. Differentiating himself from the Steve Emerson's and Daniel Pipes of the world, Scheuer paints a politically incorrect picture of the Al Qaeda movement as a very sane response to Western policy rather than simply the rantings and ravings of a group of abhorrent fanatics.

Neither far left or far right, Scheurer is a refreshing centrist who opines that the Islamists rightfully have a bone to pick with the imperial hubris of the US. While we may not want to agree that we're losing the War on Terror, Schuerer makes a very solid case and offers myriad tangible solutions.

Warning: it's not always a comfortable read for those with a great deal of hope for the long-term survival of this country. Scheuer's view is that, collectively as a country, we are "whistling past the graveyard" and that merely the first shot has been fired in this long and bloody war.

"If you want to understand what's going on and if you would like to get to know some of the reasons for your losing the war against us, then read the book of Michael Scheuer." - Osama bin Laden, 9/7/07

Author Fails to Drill in on the President.......2007-08-05

Mr. Scheuer was persuasive with his argument that Americans need to be re-awakened from a wasteful diversion into Iraq and the downgrading of bin Laden as a threat. Mr. Scheuer certainly awakened me to the bin Laden menace and hopefully it will be the catalyst to reawaken an American sleeping giant (again). He puts forth the proposition that U.S. forces have fought incorrectly in Afghanistan by not pursuing an all out war against bin Laden, like the WWII battle against Hitler and Emperor Hiroshima. Civilians standing in the way were not spared in the bombing of the civilian populations in Dresden, Germany and the atomic bombing of two cities in Japan. The WWII U.S. fight was massive with total destruction to both German and Japanese forces. In contrast Mr. Scheuer says our strategy to "fight and win quickly; do not kill many of the enemy, destroy much of his property, or kill many of his civilians; and above all, lose the barest minimum of U.S. soldiers," has been a primary reason for our defeats in wars since WWII.

Mr Scheuer makes a lot out of the fact that the U.S. lost the initiative by delaying for several months attacking bin Laden and his al Qaeda forces. Here he absolutely misses the most important reasons behind the U.S. defeat in Afghanistan and failure to capture bin Laden and his al Qaeda forces. I almost think, as a conservative, he was trying not to offend the radical right; or perhaps he just did not know. Here is what he left out, information that would have made his arguments stand out and given his book more attention.
(1) Troops Moved to Iraq. Two months after 9/11, late November 2001, The Whitehouse distracted top military commanders from the hunt for Bin Laden with rushed plans for a new war in Iraq. About half of the intelligence and Special Forces assets in Afghanistan were diverted to support the war in Iraq. This shifted focus at a critical moment, when US forces thought they had corned Osama in the White Mountains (Spin Ghar). With too few troops, bin Laden was able to escape.
(2) Reinforcements Never Sent. Despite CIA leaders' direct appeals in Dec 2001 to the Whitehouse (by phone) for 1,200 marines, sitting idly in Kandahar, to be deployed to the White Mountains (Spin Ghar), they were never ordered into battle.
(3) Cease-fire Allows Most Al Qaeda Fighters to Escape. A cease-fire was declared on Dec. 12 2001 with Al Qaeda forces in hopes that some would surrender in the White Mountains (Spin Ghar). This allowed a large contengent of al Qaeda forces to slip through the valleys and over the White Mountains into Pakistan.
(4) Whitehouse - Musharraf May Have Cut Deal to Let Bin Laden Go. Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf said that he was sending in Pakistani Special Forces to cut off Bin Laden's escape into Pakistan in Dec 2001 during the battle of Tora Bora in the Spin Ghar mountain range. Those forces never came. His lack of action gives credibility to a 25-Aug-03 report in the UK London based paper, the Guardian, suggesting the Whitehouse and Musharraf had stuck a deal not to seize Bin Laden after the Afghan war for fear of inciting trouble in Pakistan. The Guardian asserts that after Bin Laden's escape the Pakistanis set up three elaborate security rings which stretched 120 miles in diameter around Bin Laden in order to protect him from capture.
(5) Army Misdirects Attack on bin Laden's Retreat. Al United States Central Command in Florida directed the CIA forces to Tora Bora, not Zhawar Kili, in the pursuit of Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda forces in Dec 2001. Bin Laden most likely used Zhawar Kili as his escape route which was 70 miles south of Tora Bora. Tora Bora consisted mostly of natural caves that were not interconnected. By comparison Zhawar was a nine-square-mile complex including tunnels, built with U.S. assistance during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1986. And then in Aug 1998, in retaliation for bombing of U.S. embassies in eastern Africa, it was bombed with cruise missiles as directed by the U.S. Central Command in Florida. Despite having bombed Zhawar Kili, and in a possible attempt to cover up Whitehouse orders to allow Bin Laden's escape, Central Command claimed ignorance about Zhawar. A spokesman for General Tommy R. Franks, the Commander in Chief, United States Central Command, stated, "Had we known in November 2001 of ...the place... we'd have paid more attention to it, I suspect."
(6) Bin Laden Capture Low Priority for Whitehouse. The President has always focused on Iraq (even before becoming President) and has stubbornly refused to consider Osama a serious threat. Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes appeared on Fox September 14, 2006 to discuss his recent meeting with President Bush in the Oval Office. The key takeaway for Barnes was that "bin Laden doesn't fit with the administration's strategy for combating terrorism." Barnes said that Bush told him capturing bin Laden is "not a top priority use of American resources." Mr. Scheuer does say that our involvement in Iraq took the eye off the real enemy, but he never actually drills in on the President. In my opinion, a strategic mistake that takes a lot away from the book.

One Of The Best.......2007-05-13

Michael Scheuer's work is without a doubt the seminal work on how the Muslim world views bin Linden and he points out that we need to pay attention to that. He also notes that the Bush Administration failed to check the CIA "checkables" on Afghanistan and that we will pay for that error. Were I still teaching history at the secondary level, this work would be required reading for all my students. A non-fiction work that reads like a thriller, the academic community needs to make it a part of their curriculum. I intend to acquire additional works by this very polite former CIA analysist.

My Attempt to Understand Jihad.......2007-05-09

Good read. A bit dated now in 2007, but still relevant. Also read "Future Jihad" by Waleed Faras if you want to learn about where these animals are coming from and "Perfect Soldiers", also sheds light on the breeding and conditioning of subhumans who would strap bombs on their children and send them to oblivion or attach innocent civilians in the name of a "prophet" who robbed the cradle, committed puligamy, and robbed and murdered his way to fame.

Islam, the "Religion of Peace"....or is that "Follow Allah and be Blown to Pieces"?

If you aren't serious now about the problem, either you will be after reading these books or there's no hope for you.

The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

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A Story of unending heroism, fortitude and leadership
Excellent
beautiful pictures
Excellent!
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
Caroline Alexander
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375404031
Release Date: 1998-11-03

Amazon.com

Melding superb research and the extraordinary expedition photography of Frank Hurley, The Endurance by Caroline Alexander is a stunning work of history, adventure, and art which chronicles "one of the greatest epics of survival in the annals of exploration." Setting sail as World War I broke out in Europe, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by renowned polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, hoped to become the first to cross the Antarctic continent. But their ship, Endurance, was trapped in the drifting pack ice, eventually to splinter, leaving the expedition stranded on floes--a situation that seemed "not merely desperate but impossible."

Most skillfully Alexander constructs the expedition's character through its personalities--the cast of veteran explorers, scientists, and crew--with aid from many previously unavailable journals and documents. We learn, for instance, that carpenter and shipwright Henry McNish, or "Chippy," was "neither sweet-tempered nor tolerant," and that Mrs. Chippy, his cat, was "full of character." Such firsthand descriptions, paired with 170 of Frank Hurley's intimate photographs, which are comprehensively assembled here for the first time, penetrate the hulls of the Endurance and these tough men. The account successfully reveals the seldom-seen domestic world of expedition life--the singsongs, feasts, lectures, camaraderie--so that when the hardships set in, we know these people beyond the stereotypical guise of mere explorers and long for their safety.

Alexander reveals Shackleton as an inspiring optimist, "a leader who put his men first." Throughout the grueling ordeal, Shackleton and his men show what endurance and greatness are all about. The Endurance is a most intimate portrait of an expedition and of survival. Readers will possess a newfound respect for these daring souls, know better their unthinkable toil and half-forgotten realm of glory. --Byron Ricks

Amazon.com Audiobook Review

Narrators Michael Tezla and Martin Ruben join forces to read Caroline Alexander's extraordinary account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's improbable Antarctic adventure. Tezla narrates the text while Ruben reads diary entries from the ship's crewmembers, employing a variety of native accents. The approach effectively divides the book into listener-friendly chunks, but at times, keeping track of all 27 crewmen requires the fortitude of the explorers themselves. Tezla describes the ice and snow with a haunting beauty but manages maintain the tension throughout, while Ruben injects character and humor into his various vocal interpretations. (Running time: 6 hours, 4 cassettes) --Kimberly Heinrichs

Book Description

In August 1914, days before the outbreak of the First World War, the renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven set sail for the South Atlantic in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize in the history of exploration: the first crossing on foot of the Antarctic continent. Weaving a treacherous path through the freezing Weddell Sea, they had come within eighty-five miles of their destination when their ship, Endurance, was trapped fast in the ice pack. Soon the ship was crushed like matchwood, leaving the crew stranded on the floes. Their ordeal would last for twenty months, and they would make two near-fatal attempts to escape by open boat before their final rescue.

Drawing upon previously unavailable sources, Caroline Alexander gives us a riveting account of Shackleton's expedition--one of history's greatest epics of survival. And she presents the astonishing work of Frank Hurley, the Australian photographer whose visual record of the adventure has never before been published comprehensively. Together, text and image re-create the terrible beauty of Antarctica, the awful destruction of the ship, and the crew's heroic daily struggle to stay alive, a miracle achieved largely through Shackleton's inspiring leadership.

The survival of Hurley's remarkable images is scarcely less miraculous: The original glass plate negatives, from which most of the book's illustrations are superbly reproduced, were stored in hermetically sealed cannisters that survived months on the ice floes, a week in an open boat on the polar seas, and several more months buried in the snows of a rocky outcrop called Elephant Island. Finally Hurley was forced to abandon his professional equipment; he captured some of the most unforgettable images of the struggle with a pocket camera and three rolls of Kodak film.

Published in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History's landmark exhibition on Shackleton's journey, The Endurance thrillingly recounts one of the last great adventures in the Heroic Age of exploration--perhaps the greatest of them all.

Customer Reviews:

A Story of unending heroism, fortitude and leadership.......2007-10-18

My only wish for this world today is that Shackleton could lead us the way he lead the men of the Endurance. Yes, he made mistakes, we all do. But he triumphed over those errors and brought all souls home. He was able to keep his men together emotionally while they were apart physically until they were reunited again. This is a story that I have read numerous times and one that I will return to again and again. Well written and well illustrated with actual photographs from the ship's photographer.

Excellent.......2007-08-30

This book is simply outstanding. A must read for all whould-be-adventurers!
The photos are right up there with Ansel Adams, but with REAL drama.

beautiful pictures.......2007-08-26

There are more complete books out there detailing what Shackleton and his men went through on their Antarctic exploration, and after viewing the haunting, beautiful and often other-worldly photographs presented in this book, I think you will want to further explore this story.

This book is fine in what it offers, giving a good summary of those events, without getting into some of the mind numbing list of stores etc. in the more detailed books, but the photographs are what makes this a special book - one to leave out on the coffee table and pick up on a hot summer day and leaf through and feel the temperature drop eighty degrees.

Excellent!.......2007-06-27

Thank you for a wonderful book in outstanding condition and great price I will keep in mind this dealer!

The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition.......2007-06-26

The book is well writen and easy to read....enjoyable to read!!!! Great pictures and overall a nice solid book...

Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule

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Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule
Ann Laura Stoler
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520231112

Book Description

Why, Ann Laura Stoler asks, was the management of sexual arrangements and affective attachments so critical to the making of colonial categories and to what distinguished ruler from ruled? Contending that social classification is not a benign cultural act but a potent political one, Stoler shows that matters of the intimate were absolutely central to imperial politics. It was, after all, in the intimate sphere of home and servants that European children learned what they were required to learn of place and race. Gender-specific sexual sanctions, too, were squarely at the heart of imperial rule, and European supremacy was asserted in terms of national and racial virility.
Stoler looks discerningly at the way cultural competencies and sensibilities entered into the construction of race in the colonial context and proposes that "cultural racism" in fact predates its postmodern discovery. Her acute analysis of colonial Indonesian society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries yields insights that translate to a global, comparative perspective.

Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome (Chronicle)

Average customer rating:

excellent for reading, browsing, or as a reference book
Great!
Chronicles Rule!
A useful Reference document
Great book for curious beginners in Roman history

Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome (Chronicle)
Chris Scarre , and Christopher Scarre
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0500050775

Customer Reviews:

excellent for reading, browsing, or as a reference book.......2007-08-27

Replete with timelines, maps, sidebars, and photographs, this is a wonderful resource. Whether you're watching a DVD of "I, Claudius" or reading Gibbon, it's a highly useful reference book where you can get a quick read on any emperor. Often, I'll pull it down from the shelf to research a particular emperor, then find myself still reading it an hour later.

What I like best about it are the photographed busts of the emperors which along with the lively writing really bring the Roman rulers to life. They also allow one to trace the change in Roman art from the idealized classicism of Augustus to the grim realism of the mid 3rd century's portrait of Philip the Arab when the Empire was falling apart to the stolid and blank cartoonlike portrait of Constantine the Great in the 4th century when the Empire had been restored, but had become Christian and more medieval.

A real gem, this book is highly recommended for fans of Roman history.

Great!.......2006-11-10

Excellent book, very few errors. Good source of information, very nice colorfull pictures and sketches. Worth the cost.

Chronicles Rule!.......2006-03-19

I bought a second one for a friend a week after the first copy arrived. Great, concise book.

A useful Reference document.......2006-02-01

This is a useful reference that places the lives of the Roman Emperors in chronological order. The detail is useful but not onerous and it is quite an easy read.

Great book for curious beginners in Roman history.......2005-02-21

This book is a superb addition to the library of history buffs. The book is short but packed with information on many different topics on the Roman Emperors. The book covers all Roman Emperors and does contest some myths commonly held regarding some of the more well-known emperors. The book spends a proportionate amount of time in the book compared to the emperor's rule and importance. In each mini-biography of rule, Scarre adds sections concentrating on interesting aspects of that person's rule. For instance, Augustus' section discusses the early lineage of emperors by tracing and discussing the Julio-Claudian family tree. Trajan's section has a two page insert on Trajan's Column. The book acts as a great reference of Roman leadership. Scarre adds hundreds of images consisting of both artistic renderings and archaeological finds from all periods of the Emperors' rule. Scarre ends with a highly abbreviated discussion of the last emperors of the split Roman empire.
Scarre adds at the end a select bibliography and a robust index.
The book is well bound and should be a long lasting addition to the library.

Chinese Women in the Imperial Past: New Perspectives (Sinica Leidensia, V. 44)

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Chinese Women in the Imperial Past: New Perspectives (Sinica Leidensia, V. 44)

Manufacturer: Brill Academic Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9004110658

Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya

Average customer rating:

Interesting and worth reading but clearly not objective at all.
Take with several LARGE pinches of salt
Good and Depressing
An important story interred in academic prose
Compelling

Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya
Caroline Elkins
Manufacturer: Owl Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0805080015
Release Date: 2005-12-27

Amazon.com

Forty years after Kenyan independence from Britain, the words "Mau Mau" still conjure images of crazed savages hacking up hapless white settlers with machetes. The British Colonial Office, struggling to preserve its far-flung empire of dependencies after World War II, spread hysteria about Kenya's Mau Mau independence movement by depicting its supporters among the Kikuyu people as irrational terrorists and monsters. Caroline Elkins, a historian at Harvard University, has done a masterful job setting the record straight in her epic investigation, Imperial Reckoning. After years of research in London and Kenya, including interviews with hundreds of Kenyans, settlers, and former British officials, Elkins has written the first book about the eight-year British war against the Mau Mau.

She concludes that the war, one of the bloodiest and most protracted decolonization struggles of the past century, was anything but the "civilizing mission" portrayed by British propagandists and settlers. Instead, Britain engaged in an amazingly brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing that seemed to border on outright genocide. While only 32 white settlers were killed by Mau Mau insurgents, Elkins reports that tens of thousands of Kenyans were slaughtered, perhaps up to 300,000. The British also interned the entire 1.5 million population of Kikuyu, the colony's largest ethnic group, in barbed-wire villages, forced-labour reserves where famine and disease ran rampant, and prison camps that Elkins describes as the Kenyan "Gulag." The Kikuyu were subjected to unimaginable torture, or "screening," as British officials called it, which included being whipped, beaten, sodomized, castrated, burned, and forced to eat feces and drink urine. British officials later destroyed almost all official records of the campaign. Elkins infuses her account with the riveting stories of individual Kikuyu detainees, settlers, British officials, and soldiers. This is a stunning narrative that finally sheds light on a misunderstood war for which no one has yet been held officially accountable. --Alex Roslin

Book Description

As part of the Allied forces, thousands of Kenyans fought alongside the British in World War II. But just a few years after the defeat of Hitler, the British colonial government detained nearly the entire population of Kenyas largest ethnic minority, the Kikuyusome one and a half million people. The compelling story of the system of prisons and work camps where thousands met their deaths was the victim of a determined effort by the British to destroy all official records of their attempts to stop the Mau Mau uprising. Caroline Elkins spent a decade in London, Nairobi, and the Kenyan countryside interviewing hundreds of survivors of the camps and the British and African loyalists who detained them. The result is an unforgettable account of the unraveling of the British colonial empire in Kenyaa pivotal moment in twentieth- century history with chilling parallels to Americas own imperial project.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting and worth reading but clearly not objective at all........2007-05-14

An earlier reviewer mentions Ruark's books, "Something of Value," and "Uhuru." "Horn of the Hunter," is another good East Africa piece, although it does not go so much into the Mau Mau Emergency. I would definitely recommend reading Ruark's works to get the other extreme of the East Africa/Mau Mau issue.

Clearly, Elkins is biased in favor of Mau Mau & the Kikuyus in general, probably with reasons of her own. There clearly was some outrageous stuff going on in Kenya during the 1950s-60s, and still probably is.

There can be little doubt the British were out of line, to put it mildy and so were the Mau Mau, also to put it mildly.

This book has a great footnote section where anyone who is really interested in the facts can go for further reading. In all, this is an interesting book, though written in a very dry & tawdry style. It is certainly biased far in favor of Mau Mau and against the British and should be looked on as such.

Elkins would have made a far more powerful impression on this reader if she had at least attempted some journalistic objectivity.

Take with several LARGE pinches of salt.......2007-01-18

The book is very biased towards the Mau Mau side first of all.

Second she has relied heavily on oral textimonies which she fails to question the validity of. Some of these testimonies are laugh out loud ridiculous. She may have noted that testimonies like this have been through out of African and European courts for being made up in order to secure financial compensation. Elkins rubbishes similar statements made by European and Black loyalists.

Elkins also ignores or defends Mau Mau atrocities.

Lastly she asserts that 300,000 people died during the course of the emergency, the only evidence for this is the difference between two censuses. Colonial census were notoriously inaccurate and the main reason the British managed to hide any atrocities they did commit was because they were comitted small scale. 300,000 deaths would have been impossible to keep a secret. Anderson claims around 30,000 Mau Mau died during the course of the rebellion which is closer to the truth.

Good and Depressing.......2007-01-04

This book is very well researched and written. It's also very depressing. The story needs to be told. Excellent for understanding post WWII British imperialism.

An important story interred in academic prose.......2006-08-21

Imperial Reckoning is a curiously disappointing book. It exposes us to a shockingly brutal and little known side of late empire British imperialism with overwhelming documentation, but in such flat prose that the horror and indignation proper to such events is leached away in a numbingly endless drizzzle of facts. This book seems a huge body of tragic facts in search of an organizing narrative. So much so that its chapters could be read in any random order without changing the book's overall readability. Historical tragedies, as much as heroic triumphs turn on random quirks of fortune and clashes of strong personalities, but in academic literature they seem to float on a sluggish tide of inevitable events, usually seen in retrospect and shrouded in a sanctified flotsam of documentation.

Professor Elkins gives some capsule vignettes of the principal colonial administrators, but the central player of this historical drama, Jomo Kenyatta--the colony's most famous political prisoner and later to become Kenya's first president, is presumed so familiar to the reader as to warrant almost no further space. Though he is mentioned repeatedly, we learn only enough about him (16 years in Britain, studied at the London School of Economics, wrote a controversial book, organized a pan-African conference) to make us wonder why he's barely a footnote participant in the story. Little of the temper of the colonial times seems to surface except allegations of an extreme and virtually universal British racism. The Mau Mau terror which inspired this ghastly holocaust seems in this account have been a mere handful of assassinations--so wildly disproportionate to the response that one feels uneasily suspicious. Were the colonials really that murderously bigoted or is Ms. Elkins reluctant to portray a real threat of native terror?

It's a book one wishes had been written by Adam Hochschild (King Leopold's Ghost, Bury the Chains). There's a shocking story buried here that needs to get out. My curiosity is aroused, I want to know more, but I'll have to read a different book. I haven't the tolerance for tedium to finish this one.

Compelling.......2006-07-25

This magnificent book shows how the Brits, using methods of immense savagery, broke the Mau Mau terrorist movement in the 1950s, only to lose the entire colony of Kenya partly in response to the brutishness of their own counterterrorism.
Even though the author is an academic, and doesn't write with the verve and polish of a William Manchester, this book is gripping reading. Elkins lets the facts tell the story, and she certainly has the facts. She seems to have read every relevant document and talked with practically everybody still living who participated in the Kenyan gulag as either a victim or a perpetrator. In her acknowledgements she notes that she learned both Kiswahil and the rudiments of Kikuyu to help her with her interviews (she also had an African translator). Indeed, her book would have been impossible without the Africans' contributions.
One of the other reviewers here complains that Elkins didn't read Robert Ruark's pro-settler "Something of Value" or "Uhuru." But Ruark, an American who probably didn't talk to any Africans in Kenya except his askaris and houseboys, was a naive sucker for the settlers' racist world view. Far more tough-minded than Ruark, Elkins talked to plenty of settlers as well as Africans. The sheer accretion of facts and anecdotes, with almost every sentence footnoted, makes for an overwhelmingly persuasive case.
It is a horrific story of a system that Stalin outdid in duration and magnitude, but not in relative cruelty. Pound for pound the Brits' imprisonment of the Kikuyus, rife as it was with mutilating torture, random executions, systematic rape, enforced relocations and treachery, and massacres, was about as brutal as it gets.
And we owe it to Elkins for bringing these facts, only occasionally referenced in journalism and earlier history books, fully into the light. This is a groundbreaking, iconoclastic work that sheds a new, highly unflattering light on British imperialism. It's tough to think of Manchester's hero biographee, Churchill, in quite the same way.

Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914-1918 (New Approaches to European History)

Average customer rating:

Very good book
Central Powers
A Model of Its Kind
Outstanding survey of the topic!
Clear, reliable account of events on Germany's home front

Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914-1918 (New Approaches to European History)
Roger Chickering
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521567548

Book Description

This important new contribution to the successful textbook series New Approaches to European History explores the comprehensive impact of the First World War on Imperial Germany. It examines military aspects of the conflict, as well as the diplomacy, government, politics and industrial mobilization of wartime Germany. Unlike other existing surveys, Roger Chickering also offers a rich portrait of life on the home front: the war’s pervasive effects on wealthy and poor, men and women, young and old, farmers and city-dwellers, Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. At the same time, Roger Chickering analyzes the growing burdens of war and discusses the translation of the hardship of war into political opposition. This excellent, well-illustrated study of the military, political and socio-economic effects of the First World War will be essential reading for all students of German and European history, as well as for those interested in the history of war and society.

Download Description

This book provides a comprehensive survey of Germany's experience during the First World War. Roger Chickering examines the military aspects of the conflict, as well as the diplomacy, government and politics of wartime Germany. However, at the same time, he also provides an important, and rare, portrayal of life on the homefront: the war's pervasive effects on people from all walks of life and from varying religious backgrounds. This well-illustrated study will be essential reading for all students of German and European history.

Customer Reviews:

Very good book.......2002-08-22

This book combines a look at the WW I battlefield with events on the German homefront very well. Chickering focuses on the homefront and details very well the reaction to mobilization and the events of the war, as well as the defeat. One of the best chapters of the book is on the myth of the stab in the back. This book really is a necessary read if one also wants to understand the "other half" of the European Civil War, WW II.

Central Powers.......2002-04-28

As a self taught historian of The Great War, I think this book is excellent.

A Model of Its Kind.......2001-07-18

Imperial Germany and the Great War is a masterful combination of the political, social, and cultural history of the war with the relevant military events. I know of no single book that covers so much territory in so little space. Anyone interested in the what was going on behind the lines will find the answers here!

Outstanding survey of the topic!.......2001-01-11

In a relatively short volume, the author gives a lucid, restrained survey of a complicated and controversial topic. Coverage is of all phases of the war affecting Germany--military, social, economic, and political--though relatively short shrift is given to military matters, so this book is not for World War I military "enthusiasts"--unless they want to go beyond what occurred in combat. A particularly good feature of the book is the wealth of references to the vast amount of scholarly work done on the war in English and German over the last half century. The author's comprehensive "Suggestions for Further Reading" will serve well either the novice historian or the layperson interested in particular aspects of Germany and the Great War.

Clear, reliable account of events on Germany's home front.......1998-10-30

The theme of this well-balanced, well-arranged book is not the German military effort but political and social developments on the home front. In the end, these were to prove almost as decisive as the greater military strength of the Entente powers and the United States in bringing about Germany's defeat. As the author shows, Germany was a deeply divided society going into the war, and the "civic peace" proclaimed in August 1914 among the nation's bitterly opposed social classes and political interests was not to last long. The attempt to sustain a war effort against France, Great Britain and Russia - with only the hopelessly incompetent Austro-Hungarian Empire as an ally - necessitated huge sacrifices on the home front. Ultimately, the majority of the German population was not willing to keep making those sacrifices, particularly on behalf of a political system that had evolved by late 1916 from the semi-authoritarianism of the pre-war Kaiserreich into a pure military dictatorship. Adolf Hitler later came to power exploiting the myth of the "November criminals" - that is, those who led the German revolution of November 1918 and who, in his eyes, traitorously inflicted a defeat on Germany that need never have taken place. However, as Chickering shows in some detail, the truth is that Germany was certain by mid-1918 to lose the war anyway. This is a book for readers who are interested more in the political than the military aspects of the First World War. It holds no surprises but is authoritative and efficiently written.

The Annals of Imperial Rome (Penguin Classics)

Average customer rating:

Not the best Roman history
The Beautiful Sarcasm
Find a Different Publication of this Book!
Great literature, questionable politics.
A "must have" classic

The Annals of Imperial Rome (Penguin Classics)
Tacitus
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140440607

Customer Reviews:

Not the best Roman history.......2007-01-17

In his introduction, Michael Grant tells us Tacitus ranks among Livy and Caesar as one of the best stylists of Roman histories. Either his translation loses this style or Grant is mistaken. I found the 'Annals' to lack many of the features I have come to love about Roman histories. There is little moral instruction. Reading Livy or Plutarch, you can't help but to marvel at the lives of great men and learn either from their virtues or vices. Tacitus does not dwell on such issues. Instead, his history reads more as a catalog of events. First this conspirator died, then this one, then this one, etc. Tacitus defends himself by saying each person deserves to have his name mentioned -- "let each receive his separate, permanent record." But reading the long list of people killed is like visiting a graveyard, the endless gravestones emitting a feeble sense of transience.

Part of the problem may be Tacitus's choice of time period. The bloody and mismanaged era begins with Augustus's death in A.D. 14 and concludes with Nero's 54 years later. This is a time marked by indecency and blood. The emperors, including Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, are as wasteful as they are licentious. The most complete figure to emerge is Tiberius, who though he avoids Rome because of his debauchery with Roman children comes across as well-spoken and involved in state affairs. Subsequent emperors go no further than stick-figures, their reins filled with internal divisiveness and forced suicides.

I would recommend this book to readers who already have some knowledge of Roman history. There are some parts, such as the only mention in pagan Latin of Christ's killer, Pontius Pilate, that will interest readers. But for new readers I would recommend Livy and Plutarch. They are the true stylists of ancient Rome.

The Beautiful Sarcasm.......2006-03-24

I read Tacitus for a college humanities course, and although I had to read the entirety of the Annales over two days, it was quite an enjoyable, if daunting, task. The other reviews discuss his historical importance, so I'll limit myself to commenting that his sarcasm and turns of phrase (particularly in this translation) are biting and funny (at least for those of us for whom Nero and the corrupt emperors are not a reality). Plenty of interesting happenings for someone who is not a classics scholar.

Find a Different Publication of this Book!.......2005-11-29

This is a monumentally bad translation and Penguin should be ashamed of themselves for having kept publishing it for forty odd years. While Grant's style is quite good, his awful, clashing, illogical translations of familiar Roman terms renders it unreadable. Everyone who has any interest in Roman History (and let's face it, who else would be reading this book?) knows what a legion is. But how many people know what a division is, or a brigade? The same goes for company commanders instead of centurions. This is not only confusing and anachronistic, its simply innaccurate. As far as i'm aware a modern company numbers about 120 men (please let me know if i'm wrong!) whereas a century had only 80. Also to call a Roman legion either a division or a brigade is also innaccurate. A division is made up of several brigades but a full legion is not made up of two or three smaller legions. Grant is just being difficult. Also the index infuriatingly insists on listing people by their correct family names instead of the names by which they are commonly called. Hence, you look up references to Corbulo and find "See Domitius" so you look up Domitius, go to one of the pages mentioned and there you find "Corbulo", repeatedly called Corbulo on every page by Tacitus. Finally, the maps. Penguin Classics maps are generaly bad and these are no different. A one page map of all of Northern Europe with all the various placenames and features squeezed awkwardly in through lack of space, and with no outstanding line to dilineate the roman frontier, then on another page a whole page map of africa with a grand total of SEVEN places mentioned on it. This may all seem picky, but it spoils the whole reading experience. I'm afraid it's symptomatic of Penguin Classics who have been resting on their laurels for far too long. They've been very good at constantly changing the covers and folio size of their books but seem to have no real interest in the CONTENT. ( I have binned my copy and bought a very nice secondhand Dent and Sons edition, with "legions" in it! )

Great literature, questionable politics........2005-01-03

The more I've read and re-read this book, the less Tacitus' politics appeal to me, and I wonder that his antiquarian, narrow idealization of Old Republican Rome as against the realities of his own time must have made him a superlative bore to his colleagues in the Roman Senate, who must have wondered that, if the Old Republic was so much better, then how the Empire could even begin existing? However, there's his grasp of the art of the psychological portrait, an art in which he excelled, and that made him the first historian of mentalities and ideologies ever, something for which he used his oppulent, crisp prose, something that in my view fares far better than, say, Caesar's dry record of his military campaigns. Therefore, one cannot but surrender to his powers of expression and read his book for the nth. time as we allow ourselves to become, again, and again, fascinated by it.

A "must have" classic.......2004-06-27

If you love history, this has got to be one of the most important books you could have. This, along with Caesars War Commentaries rank at the highest for their historical significance. Talk about eyewitness accounts! It doesn't get any better than this.

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