The Disappointed Idealist

The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts My rating: 4 of 5 stars Although the book covers the entire reign of George III, it pays particular attention to the American Revolution. The book has three parts: 1. George's youth, influences, his reign up to the Revolution. 2. The Revolution, described in particular detail. 3. The end of the reign after the Revolution. The first part feels like a buildup meant to explain George's behaviour during the Revolution. You get introduced to his parents, his education, people who influenced his early upbringing. Much of it in the context of what he did later on in life. Part 2 occupies the largest part of the book (despite the fact that we are talking only about a sixth of George's total reign). It has the benefit of an approach that is different to what you would learn in school. Traditional historiography teaches the American Revolution as a heroic effort to escape British tyranny. The book gi...

Unleashing Demons: The Inside Story of Brexit by Craig Oliver My rating: 3 of 5 stars The book is written like a journal, which sometimes can mean events are not presented as linked together. I found myself a few times having to go back to recheck the chain of events. David Cameron is presented in a very positive light and clearly the author has a very good opinion of him. I am not entirely sure it is justified. The part I appreciated the most was the realistic presentation of the bafflement of the Remain campaign in regards to the lengths the Leave campaign was willing to go to and the false information that was being spread around in the name of Leave. I think this is the sort of bafflement that remains to this day in regards to many other topics, which are being pushed around with aggressiveness and shared in the name of "free speech". This is the challenge of today's era of social media and Brexit was just one of the first visible examples. View all my reviews

Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower by David Baldwin My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a well written book on a historical character that, due to recent books and TV Shows, has regained a certain notoriety among the commonfolk. It is a good start if you don't know anything about Elizabeth - as I feel that it manages to cover everything without getting too lost in the details, but also without getting to essay-like. It paints a generally positive picture of her, but it does not refrain from mentioning the less honourable sides of her story. It manages to stay somewhat neutral in the most controversial part of Elizabeth's story - the Princes in the Tower. I appreciate the fact that it does not defend Richard III's more ruthless actions but also does not automatically assume him guilty of killing the Princes. In fact, this book is one of the very few that actually take the Duke of Buckingham seriously as an alternative suspect. This is a particular aspect ...

Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI by Lauren Johnson My rating: 4 of 5 stars It all began with an all-conquering father, who died before he had to face too much struggle to keep what was conquered and some bickering uncles who fought for power and sacrificed the boy king in the process. History is not kind to kind people. Henry VI was a kind man, but a bad king - quite in a similar fashion to Charles I, Louis XVI and Nicholas II, who all were said to be loving, family men and still somehow ended up executed by the people they were meant to rule. Henry VI was a kind man, but a bad king in a similar way in which Edward IV was lecher, but a successful ruler. The antithesis between Henry and his usurper is evident all throughout this book. As is the antithesis between Henry and all the people who fought to keep him in a position of power that he probably would have been better off without. The book starts by saying that it all could have been avoidable and that everything that ...

Sex Lives of the Kings & Queens of England: An Irreverent Expose of the Monarchs from Henry VIII to the Present Day by Nigel Cawthorne My rating: 1 of 5 stars Not entirely accurate. Gossip oriented to the point that even monarchs like Edward VI and Jane Grey (dead in their teens) were included. View all my reviews

Russia: A 1000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East by Martin Sixsmith My rating: 4 of 5 stars Reading a book about Russian history is like watching a battered woman that keeps on ending up in abusive relationships, each one worse than the one before. It should serve as a warning to all of those who think that a strong hand is what is needed to solve a problem. Unfortunately in the geopolitics of today, it seems like nobody is learning the right lesson. Putin wannabes are elected all over the place. Read and learn the trap of the easy fix, rushed evolution without education to help understand the principles behind it and empty populism. It is well written, unbiased and presented from the perspective of someone who lived there long enough to know how things work. Highly recommended. View all my reviews

Royal Monastic: Princess Ileana of Romania by Bev Cooke My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a book about a princess turned nun, written by someone who (from what I understand in the last pages of the book) lived in the monastery she started. Just through that perspective, I suppose it is not unnatural to see the prescient godly touch throughout the book, the somewhat fairytale-like atmosphere created, the continuous emphasis on Ileana's goodness and her fight against the evil forces of this world. A lot of the people in this book are split in good and bad and, while general perception of her brother Carol (for example) is that he was, indeed, one of "the bad ones", opinions on her mother (in this book an angel-like figure) are less universal (depending mostly on people's stance on whether it's more important for a ruler to be moral or efficient). ----SPOILERS AHEAD---- Some points that were "glossed over" in the book: "the good man" of Ileana...

Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles My rating: 4 of 5 stars It is very difficult to find true objective information on Carthage, as the author himself recognizes at the beginning of the book. The writers that wrote about it were usually heavily biased against it, so it's hard to discern fact from propaganda. Archaeological information can only do so much. Mr Miles does a good job of juggling between biased sources and the way archaeology confirms their information. He also uses mythology to show how the Carthaginian culture developed over time. In the end, though, the picture he paints is still quite vague. It is obviously not his fault, but before you start this book maybe you should set your expectations straight: there is not much known about Carthage before Rome. Most of it is supposition. The Punic wars take up about half the book, despite being only the end of the Carthage story. It's only natural - since that's...

The Rival Queens: Catherine de' Medici, Her Daughter Marguerite de Valois, and the Betrayal that Ignited a Kingdom by Nancy Goldstone My rating: 3 of 5 stars The book is very well written, like a gripping story of betrayal, war and religious conflicts, all in one family. But it has one major flaw: its major source is a memoir of its main character. This gives it an air of bias all throughout. For everything Margot did wrong there is an excuse, while the whole world was plotting her downfall. The book might as well be called "an interpretation of queen Margot's memoirs for the general modern public". Those were difficult times to live in, especially in France. Margot's family had a particularly rough deal, despite being placed in a position of privilege. The fact that she managed to survive long after her family went extinct is, of course, testament of her skills but it was also a bit of luck. Just like they plotted against her, she plotted against them. The boo...

Romantic Revolutionary: Simon Bolivar and the Struggle for Independence in Latin America by Robert Harvey My rating: 4 of 5 stars I didn't know enough about Simon Bolivar before reading this book. I knew the basics of what probably most people who paid some attention in their history class but do not live in South America know. As such, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I found it an objective look at Bolivar's life and career. It doesn't shy away from pointing out the flaws of the Liberator, even when his intentions were good. It also doesn't shy away from pointing out his own personal flaws - he was self-centered to a point where sometimes the good of the people did not prevail against his own personal interest (best portrayed in his interaction with General San Martin, the less known liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru). Yet, throughout the book the author does tend to underline that compared to most people of his age, Bolivar was sincerely open-minded a...

First rant here:  I never understood the point of inaccurate historical movies Second rant will refer mostly to the  Wars of the Roses  and how historical vision of what happened has been overturned by historical fiction and the rich imagination of people obsessed with conspiracy theories. Official story is this: You have two families,  House of York  and  House of Lancaster . The House of Lancaster came to the throne by overthrowing  Richard II . In doing so, they opened a bit of a can of worms. Since Richard did not have children, the question was should his heirs be the descendants of an older branch via the female line (this line eventually led to the House of York) or a younger branch via the male line (House of Lancaster). When  Henry VI , Lancaster king, turned out to be a disastrous ruler, the question was back on the table. After years of conflict, the House of York won, Henry VI and his heir was killed and the whole war presumably ov...

A Brief History of the Tudor Age by Jasper Ridley My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is not a book about the Tudors. There is a brief summary of the dynasty and its history in the first chapter. But what this book does is basically study the Tudor age from the perspective of its people, their habits and their ordinary lives. As such, this will not be the most entertaining book you've ever read, as it is basically a description of facts, rather than a description of actions. That being said, it is a very well researched book, very well written, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is building a documentation on the age, either for the purpose of writing about it or for the sake of simple knowledge. View all my reviews

The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones My rating: 4 of 5 stars The book is very well written and has the distinct advantage of being good enough for both the people that are knowledgeable on the subject but also for beginners who read about it for the first time. It has some small minor mistakes - usually in regards to external factors (like stating that Philip the Handsome was the son of Margaret of York when he was the son of her stepdaughter) that do not really influence the outcome or the conclusion of it but may occasionally have the more knowledgeable historians raise an eyebrow. The narrative is mostly centered on the classical view on events, so the Ricardians may feel slightly disappointed (although I don't feel it demonizes Richard III in any way, it does not give much credence to the most common Ricardian theories) - but since most of the Ricardian theories are still yet to have any physical evidence to back them up...

The Story of Che Guevara by Lucía Álvarez de Toledo My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book is written more from a personal perspective, rather than a historical one. It means to introduce us to Che the human being rather than the revolutionary. The author is obviously an admirer of Che's - and she admits so from the start. Her sources are Che's diaries, his letters to his family and the testimonials of people who fought by his side. I do not doubt the accuracy of the sources but we must bare in mind that they are presenting only one point of view: Che's. The author glosses over his less admirable acts and executions and I do not feel that she addresses them strong enough to convince me that the other side did not also have a valid point. If you want an objective view on Che, this may not be the best choice. But it's a good story, it's well written and it's an accurate portrayal of at least one side of things. View all my reviews

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild My rating: 4 of 5 stars Most of the Western civilization as we know today is built on the money brought on from exploiting other people. There is no greater reminder of that than Adam Hochschild's book about Congo, showing that even the less obvious nations (not so famous for their colonial history) like Belgium have such a gruesome history behind them. The book shows clearly how, in a true marketing exercise, King Leopold built an image for himself of a saviour of "poor African souls" while at the same time exploiting them to the maximum without any consideration for their rights as human beings. Descriptions of torture, beatings and regular disregard for human life show how different Europeans looked down on Africans while at the same time fighting for their own rights and democracy in their own native countries. The saddest part of all to me is the ending which shows...

A History of the Middle East by Peter Mansfield My rating: 4 of 5 stars The developed countries in this world are the ones that had the time to develop by themselves, through trial and error, trying out things and establishing what is good for them. Unfortunately, these developed countries are now spending a lot of time not letting other people develop. The history of the Middle East, presented in this book with loads of accuracy and objectivity is showing us what happens when for various reasons areas are not allowed to develop by themselves. At first it was the Christianity vs Islam aspect, then there was the Israel aspect, then there was the oil aspect. For various reasons and for the sake of the interests of countries far away from the Middle East, the Middle East is now the mess that it is. It is a mess of the making of the "Great Powers" (first the British, then the Americans). Yes, there's nothing that we can do about what's done. But it would be great if we...

Blood Sisters: The Women Behind The War Of The Roses by Sarah Gristwood My rating: 3 of 5 stars As much as I don't like Philippa Gregory's works and their totally inaccurate stance on history, there is one thing that she did right: she revived general interest in British history, including some periods of time that, despite their obvious drama and spectacular events, were not really that familiar to people that were not history geeks. I am referring, of course, to the Wars of the Roses, which is my favorite subject in history for various reasons (I cannot think of any other period of time so rich in drama, spectacular turns of events and twists and turns that would make any movie script writer envious - with the added bonus that they all actually happened). This book is obviously inspired by Philippa Gregory's books and, if you have read them or watched The White Queen two years ago and have become interested in what the reality behind the fiction is, this could be r...

Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts My rating: 4 of 5 stars What I like most about this book is that, although the author is clearly fascinated by Napoleon, he does not stop from describing even the less pleasant aspects of his rule and personality. This leads to the book being quite objective, from start to finish, with maybe a touch of an admiring tone. The book focuses more on Napoleon's military skills and touches less of his personal life, but that is to be understood. The battles are described in great detail and someone fascinated with tactics and military will like this book, regardless of their opinion of the main subject. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to know more of Napoleon - it is accessible enough to not require much knowledge of history but accurate enough to please even the more pretentious readers. It contains enough information for everyone, quotes and notes that complete the overall picture and is as objective as it can be. View all my reviews

The Merovingian Kingdoms 450–751 by Ian N. Wood My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book is an essay. If you are specialized in history and are familiar at least to the intermediate level, with the history of the 5th to 7th centuries, this is a good thing. If you are someone who is interested in the subject (which would probably be the reason why you would buy it) but have not read much on the period, I would recommend keeping this shelved up for a later date. The Merovingians were a complicated family, with lots of brothers who all are named Dagobert, Clovis, Childeric or Chilperic, have different mothers and ruling different parts of a kingdom that somehow evolved as a whole. It's difficult to keep up with all the splits in the kingdom, the brothers, their sons, their nephews and even the regions in themselves which are different from generation to generation. Add to that a very thorough analysis of the religion, culture and aristocracy of the time, and this book has made for...

Richard III and the Princes in the Tower by A.J. Pollard My rating: 4 of 5 stars As a person that is fascinated with history, particularly English history and very particularly the Wars of the Roses, I find this book almost perfect. The conclusion it draws is natural, logical and based on fact. But if you are one of those people (that I am meeting more and more frequently in online forums) that believe that everything bad ever written about Richard is Tudor propaganda, you will not like this book. It is not anti-Richard, but it explores the facts, and the facts are that not everything that Richard did can be seen in a positive light and if you are not willing to accept that, you should not read this. I like it when a history book shows the good and the bad, I like the logical approach and I find it well-written and easy enough to be read, even if you are not an expert in history. If that is what matters to you, you will like this book. View all my reviews