Category: Book Reviews
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Book Review: Joan of Arc in the English Imagination
In this book review published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, I examine Gail Orgelfinger’s new Joan of Arc book that uncovers four centuries of English opinions on Joan, a messy collage of misogyny, nationalism, guilt, justification, inquisition, and awe surrounding her legacy.
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Two books make the case for the greatness of Philly’s Benjamin Rush
Buried in Christ Church Cemetery is Philadelphia’s homegrown Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), a figure whose credentials will baffle anyone unfamiliar with his legacy. A short resumé would include signer of the Declaration of Independence, founder of Dickinson College, and treasurer of the U.S. Mint. He was a proponent of abolitionism, voting rights for women and…
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Book Review: Joan of Arc: La Pucelle
In Joan of Arc: La Pucelle, Craig Taylor tells us that the trial against Joan of Arc “is perhaps the best recorded heresy trial of the middle ages.” This only scratches the surface, as there is so much more in this volume of English translations of documents, transcripts, journal entries, and chronicles related to her…
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Paul B. Sturtevant’s ‘Middle Ages’: Learning a little history from popular culture
Paul B. Sturtevant is tired of quantitative studies that aim to broadcast the public’s ignorance of history. To him, they reduce history to memorizing facts and dates while taking “an explicitly negative position when framing the results,” typically focusing on the small minority of people who failed the test. Sturtevant, an American with a Ph.D.…
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7 weeks with the Kindle Oasis
When I first heard Amazon made a waterproof Kindle, I scoffed at them. Then I found myself commuting on public transportation every day. After 15 years of driving, I suddenly don’t have to keep my eyes on the road for 2 hours a day, so I’ve got time to read. I initially used the Kindle…
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Book Review: Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology
I wish I could delete the first few chapters of Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, or at least move them to the back. Like any book of myths, it’s difficult not to glaze over the initial inundation of unpronounceable names (e.g., Yggdrasil, Hvergelmir), origins, and outrageous creation tales. But once you make it past there, this…
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Book Review: Roman Empire at War
Taylor, Don. Roman Empire at War: A Compendium of Battles from 31 BC to AD 565. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2016. Don Taylor has produced a handsome volume on the battles of the Roman Empire. While the book does provide some introductory material on the Roman army and the ancient and early medieval sources about…
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Book Review: Caesar in the USA
Wyke, Maria. Caesar in the USA. Berkely: University of California Press, 2012. xii + 306 pp. Julius Caesar has ebbed and flowed in American memory, but he remains entrenched in pop culture, which is the main thesis of Maria Wyke, author of Caesar in the USA (2012). Wyke is a professor of Latin at University College…
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‘Agincourt’: A battle made famous by Shakespeare
No other medieval engagement has a “greater cultural legacy” than the Battle of Agincourt, according to Anne Curry, professor of medieval history at the University of Southampton. Shakespeare’s Henry V, and popular lore before and after, has portrayed it as the miraculous victory of outnumbered, God-favored English underdogs against the overwhelming superiority of the French,…
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Book Review: Hannibal: A Hellenistic Life
MacDonald, Eve. Hannibal: A Hellenistic Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015. Pp. 323. ISBN 978-0-300-15204-3. $38.00. Using the prisms of the Roman perspective and the Hellenistic world (chapter 1), Eve MacDonald crafts a narrative that follows Rome and Carthage through the First Punic War and Carthage’s own civil war (chapter 2), the rise of…
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Barry Strauss’ storytelling drives ‘Death of Caesar’
It took 60 conspirators guarded by as many as 100 gladiators to assassinate Julius Caesar in the middle of a Senate session. Of his 23 wounds, only one was fatal. Meanwhile, the rest of Rome – including Mark Antony, Cleopatra, and Cicero – was clueless.
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Book Review: Protecting the Flank at Gettysburg
Clausewitz tells us “war is nothing but a duel on a larger scale. Countless duels go to make up war.” We can go one-step further in that countless duels make up a battle, especially larger battles. Historians such as Eric J. Wittenberg understand this and with a seemingly over-analyzed battle such as Gettysburg, he continues…