Editorial Review

As Woods Hole oceanographer Robert Ballard demonstrates in his absorbing, profusely illustrated book about his years-long hunt for the wreck of the Read more

Reviews (23)

Very well written account
I bought this book soon after the hype brought on by the film. I have always been a history fan. The stories surrounding the fate of the Titanic have always intrigued me. Very complete description of the discovery of Titanic
This book describes the discovery of the Titanic in a perfect way. Besides telling the sad story of her maiden voyage, that ended so tragically, Dr. Ballard describes his own struggle to complete his long time wish to find Titanic. He talks about troubles raising funds, the tragedy of almost losing the discovery to another expedition and the very exhaustive and mostly boring search. But also about the joy of finally finding the wreck and his emotions during all of this. All this is told from a integer point of view, also crediting the other people for their part in the discovery. The book includes many photographs and two nice full-color foldouts of the wreck. This new edition also includes a chapter in which Dr. Ballard comments on more recent visits, conducted by others, to the Titanic and his views on the (commercial) salvaging of Titanic wreckage.

The actual story of the discovery plus beautiful images...
The ever interesting Titanic lives on.Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. Historiography    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. North Atlantic Ocean    7. Shipwrecks    8. Titanic (Steamship)    9. Underwater exploration    10. History / Historiography   

Subjects:  1. 1945-1989    2. 1989-    3. Foreign relations    4. Historiography    5. History    6. History: World    7. International Relations - General    8. Politics / Current Events    9. United States    10. United States - 20th Century    11. 20th century    12. American history: from c 1900 -    13. History / United States / 20th Century    14. International relations    15. USA    16. United States--Foreign relations--1945-1989   

Subjects:  1. Ancient - Greece    2. General    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Ancient Greece    7. BCE to c 500 CE    8. European history: BCE to c 500 CE    9. Historiography   

Reviews (1)

The ABCs of Oral History
Ritchie covers the topic like a blanket.Everything from how to manage one's collection and stay out of legal trouble with the interviewee (and anyone you may discuss); down to remembering to punch out the little tabs on the back of each cassette in order to prevent accidental erasure.Read more

Subjects:  1. Historiography    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Methodology    6. Oral history    7. History / General    8. History, Other   

Subjects:  1. Handbooks, manuals, etc    2. Historiography    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: American    6. Interviewing    7. Methodology    8. Oral History    9. Reference    10. Non-Classifiable    11. USA   

Subjects:  1. 1858-1945    2. 20th century    3. Asia - Southeast Asia    4. Buddhism    5. Buddhism - History    6. Communism    7. Confucianism    8. Historiography    9. History    10. History - General History    11. Political Ideologies - Communism & Socialism    12. Religion    13. Religion, Politics & State    14. Vietnam    15. Asian / Middle Eastern history   

Reviews (1)

Beautiful book
Organized and well researched. Interesting era in Michigan's history. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. Historiography    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History - U.S.    6. History: American    7. United States - State & Local - Midwest   

Subjects:  1. Historiography    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Periodization    6. Philosophy    7. World - General    8. History / World    9. History--Philosophy    10. History: theory & methods    11. World history   

Reviews (2)

Lucid and Convincing
This work is a key contribution in the debate over the historicity and reliability of the early Islamic tradition.Donner's work provides an alternative, redactionary and critical approach to the rise of narrative and historical texts in early Muslim narratives to the `skeptical' approach-associated primarily with the like of P. Crone, M. Cook, and J. Wansborough among others.In the end, he endorses a critical approach to traditional accounts of Islamic origins but one that does not reject its broad outlines.Though this feature distinguishes and orients the argument of the book, it by no means exhausts the book's contents. An important contribution to the study of how Islam arrived.
A very important study that counters much of the arguments put forth by revisionist historians like Wansborough and Crone. He delves into the nature of the sources, the formation of identity during the earliest phasesand ways of understanding the nature of the Movement (Islam). His style isrefreshingly clear and consice and his scholarship exhaustive. A must readfor any student of Islamic history. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 622-661    2. Historiography    3. History    4. History - General History    5. Islamic Empire    6. Islamic History    7. Religion    8. World - General   

Subjects:  1. (Cyril Lionel Robert),    2. 1901-    3. Anthropology - Cultural    4. Black Jacobins    5. Caribbean & West Indies - General    6. Historiography    7. History    8. James, C. L. R    9. Philosophy    10. Political Process - General    11. Politics / Current Events    12. Postcolonialism    13. Social Science    14. Sociology    15. Toussaint Louverture,    16. Caribbean islands    17. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT   

Reviews (2)

In-depth on Hellenistic history, not a good intro, however
I got this book from the remainders section at my local bookstore. It illuminates a neglected period of ancient history, that is often seen as a period of decline, even though it produced some of the pinnacles of Greek thought like Euclid. An Excellent Introduction to the Hellenistic World
Graham Shipley has written an excellent book for students and others encountering the Hellenistic age (the three tumultous centures between Alexander's death and Octavian's victory at Actium) for the first time.Broadly there are two ways of looking at the history of Eastern mediterranean in this period.One is the `degeneration' framework which sees this period in general terms as a sad falling-off from the classical apogee of Greek achievement.The other is that which sees this as a period of rapid change when the civilization of near east and western mediterranean were drawn together through the rubric provided by the Hellenistic culture.This book falls firmlyin the second group.An important aspect is that this book eschews the functionalist approach.Indeed the author warns through out against anachronisms and retrojecting analysis derived from the experience ofmodern capitalism,Imperialisam or christian descourse to understand the period. The book opens with a chapter revewing the approaches and sources and next traces Alexander and his successors to 276 BCE.The next chapter is a important one on kings and cities and examines the consequeness of the political changes of the period 338 - 276 for the old city states and details the ways which Citiesand Kingsfound of co existing.It questions the received wisdom that the polis met its end at Chaironeia in 338 and shows how the Ptolemaic and Antigouid power relied on keeping cities contented. There are chapters on Macedonia and Greece, the Seleukid Kindom and Pergamon and Ptolemaic Egypt.These are comprehensive and the chapter on Ptolemaic Egypt draws a lot on papyrological evidence and re examines the conclusions reached by conventional wisdom on Ptolemaic Egypt viz that it had a highly interventionist administration or had a very bereaucratic and rational stateeconomy .It also guards against temptations to interpret difficulties in late Ptolemaic Egypt in context of reinterpretation of 20th Century empire by Said and others as a result of `native resistance'. Other chapters are on religion and philosophy, literature and social identity and on Greek'Science' after Aristotle.The book concludes with the coming of the colossus of north - Rome. The book has large number of maps and line diagrams and the text is supported by copious amount of notes and bibliography (150 pages to 400 of text) Overall the approach is refreshingly non-judgemental and allows the diversity of cultures, social forms, and landscapes to emerge.The important topic of Religion and Philosophy though is very summarily treated but that is a minor quibble.It's other competitiors in this fieldviz Peter Greens `Alexander to Actium - The historical evolution of theHellenustic Age' falls firmly in the `degenerate' camp and doesn't take into account the recent scholarship.The `Hellenstic World' by F.W. Walbank is dated. All in all this book will be a standard introduction to the Hellenistic Age for quite some time to come. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient - Greece    2. Greece    3. Hellenism    4. Historiography    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History: World    8. Macedonian Hegemony, 323-281 B.C.    9. To 146 B.C    10. To 146 B.C.    11. Ancient Greece    12. European history: BCE to c 500 CE    13. History / General    14. Social history   

Reviews (7)

In way over his head
Varon has a valuable mission in attempting to draw lessons from the activities, beliefs, and commentaries generated by the Weather Underground and the RAF. It's unfortunate, then, that he settles into the very "pathology" of resistance that he criticizes at the opening of his book. By focusing tightly on individual reflections of these groups' former members, he centers his discussion on emotion, theory, and abstraction. His decision to provide little context for their actions leaves us with the same problems as Aust's study of the RAF: the sense that these people were crazy and disconnected from reality. That might have been the case, but without making some attempt to at least depict that reality, Varon ensures that we can't "read" the Weather Underground or the RAF as anything other than irrational abberations. A more detailed history of the period might provide a better view - it would at the least allow for the possibility that these extremists' actions had concrete roots.
Bringing The War Home ~ An Eclectic Balance
Jeremy Varon's "Bringing The War Home" is simply a "must read" for anyone who wishes to "understand" the '60's and '70's--the very concept of "revolution"--from the perspectives of the Weatherman/Weather Underground, the Red Army Fraction, AND the very governments and societies these groups sought to radically change. Both probing and honest, Varon's narrative and analysis is an important and eclectic cotribution to this critical and defining era. The relevance of this work to contemporary "war on terror" response is impossible to overstate. While a bit "pedantic" in parts--Varon's work is a long overdue illumination of that which defined not only a generation but an entire world. A real "keeper".

Very well written history
Jeremy Varon's "Bringing the War Home" is a well-written and engaging account of the radical student movement in the United States and Germany during the 1960s.Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Baader-Meinhof gang    3. General    4. Germany (West)    5. Historiography    6. History    7. History: American    8. Politics / Current Events    9. Radicalism    10. United States    11. United States - General    12. Weather Underground Organizati    13. Weatherman (Organization)    14. American history: postwar, from c 1945 -    15. European history: postwar, from c 1945 -    16. Germany    17. History / General    18. Political activism    19. Socialism & left-of-centre democratic ideologies    20. USA    21. c 1960 to c 1970    22. c 1970 to c 1980   

Editorial Review

One of America's great Civil War historians recounts his days growing up in Benzonia, a small town in Michigan's lower peninsula. During the first years of the 20th century (Catton was born in 1899), Catton listened to the tales of old Civil War veterans and gained an interest in the War Between the States that would never leave him. But this book, unlike Catton's other works, isn't primarily about the Civil War. It's about growing up in a particular time and a place. Written with grace, warmth, and wit, it describes an era of trains and timber. People who know and love the forests of northern Michigan will appreciate this book immensely, as will anybody who has enjoyed Catton's other books and wants to learn a little bit more about the historian who is one of America's great storytellers. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Boyhood Memoirs of a Literary Giant
I never met Bruce Catton, but I corresponded briefly with him in the mid-1970's.The same qualities that marked him as a correspondent--courtesy, graciousness, and gentle humor--illuminate this lovely memoir of a great historian. A plesant book to read
Bruce Catton was born in 1899 in Bezonia, Mich., a town of about 300 people then and now.Catton tells a lot about lumbering, tho he himself had little to do with lumbering.He graduated from Bezonia Academy in 1916, there being 11 in his class.The Academy closed in 1918.The book ends when Catton goes to college.It is a pleasant book to read, since Catton is a fine writer.But Jimmy Carter's book on his rural childhood I thought a more fetching read.

The boyhood of a giant
My interest in Waiting for the Morning Train lay not so much with Bruce Catton's being a giant of Civil War literature, but rather with his subject: Benzonia, Michigan, the place at which my family has taken vacation for decades (and where several family members now permanently reside). I could see the waters of Crystal Lake, the snow-covered hills of Beulah and Benzonia, and the lush birch, maple and pine forests of Northern Michigan as Catton knew them in his youth. Readers of Waiting for the Morning train will not only catch a glimpse of the spark that ignited Catton's pasion for the Civil War, but more importantly the story of a land that, if one tries hard enough, one will still find. Catton's boyhood stomping grounds come alive with tales of logging, weary travel by train and the fits of small towns being brought into a more modern era. The subtitle is An American Boyhood, and in Catton's childhood memoirs the reader will not only witness Catton's growth to manhood, but also the nation's emergence from adolecence to adulthood. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1899-    2. 20th century    3. Biography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Catton, Bruce,    7. Childhood and youth    8. General    9. Historians    10. Historiography    11. History    12. Logging    13. Michigan    14. United States    15. Biography: historical    16. Catton, Bruce   

Subjects:  1. Afrocentrism    2. Historiography    3. International Relations - General    4. Political Science    5. Politics - Current Events    6. Politics / Current Events    7. Politics/International Relations    8. World History    9. Black studies    10. International relations    11. Political Science / International Relations    12. Political science & theory   

Reviews (3)

New edition better than ever
As a forensic pathologist, and the foremost expert on the pathology of drugs of abuse, Steven Karch is well known around the world.In this new edition, Karch reveals his skill as an historian as well, packing the text with fascinating facts about the centuries of interest this drug has spurred.In some parts, reading like a celebrity tabloid, no person or company is spared the revelation of their involvement in the cocaine business.Freud's testimonials regarding the helpfulness of cocaine in curing morphine addition are worth the price of the book, as are the efforts of the early Parke-Davis, and Merck, to provide enough of the drug to satisfy growing demand.
Well written, unbiased, from an MD-historian
The author writes well.The book is short and not packed with sidelights.Along the way the author draws parallels with today's headlines, and shows they are old news ("war on drugs" was tried by the Spanish; "zero tolerance" by the early FDA in the US during 1905).
an eye-opening chronology of drug use in the world
The author, who is also a physician, has now become a historian as well. His lucid and methodical recounting of the history of drugs use in general and cocaine in particular, truly opened my eyes. As a physician, heexplains why the drug does what it does and why people use it. As ahistorian, he documents all his statements of fact with an extensivebibliography. He does not sound like he is on a crusade either for oragainst drugs, but one can't help come to a conclusion about the currentstate of affairs in the world's "war on drugs." A must-read bookfor anyone who claims to have an opinion on the issue of drugs in oursociety. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Cocaine    2. Forensic Science    3. Historiography    4. History    5. History: World    6. Self-Help    7. Substance Abuse & Addictions - General    8. Law / Forensic Science    9. World history   

Subjects:  1. Europe - General    2. Europe - Germany    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. 20th century    7. Central Europe    8. Germany--Historiography    9. Historiography    10. History / Europe / General   

Reviews (12)

Multiple Views on U.S. History
History may be written by the winners, but that doesn't mean it's the only history that's out there. That's the premise behind "History Lessons: How Textbooks from around the World Portray U.S. History". However the only people that will run to read this book are, history teachers and history hobbyists.That's not to say it's a bad book. It is a great book, but it doesn't lend itself to be read a linier manner. It is more apt as a reference book for high school research papers on American History. The causal reader looking for a smooth mind blowing read will be bored and frustrated. The main reason that the book drags is how it's edited, there is very little writing here. Most of the passages are directly from other text books. The authors/editors do provide some brief insight before a selected passage but this is a compilation work, not aoriginal work of non-fiction.
A Good Idea, Wasted
Viewing American history from the perspective of other nations is a great idea, and could have led to some deep insights into the narrow egocentric self-image most Americans carry.
The most important history book ever published in the US
I won't repeat the excellent synopsis and commentary in the review below. Instead, as a non-Amercian living in the US, I'd like to add my thoughts on the importance of this book.
Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. Historiography    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Study & Teaching    7. United States - General    8. American history    9. History / General    10. Teaching of a specific subject    11. USA   

Reviews (16)

One of the best treatments of Historical understanding.
Having read this book several times, Fischer's insight is not fallacious.I have lent it to friends and never get the copies back.That is why I do not lend books and have two copies of this title.

In-depth, education with its own fallacies
David Fischer's book is a good resource for any reader, specifically those in the discipline of history.It identifies and explains possible pitfalls with any type of investigative reporting.The book is divided into 3 sections: Inquiry, Explanation and Argument which cover the main areas these fallacies can occur.Since everything is relative, others have found fallacies in Fischer's work(s), this one is no different.I was assigned this book for a graduate course on historiography.Historians' Fallacies is a good companion to Mark Gilderhus' History and Historians, Davidson and Lytle's After the Fact and Richard Evans' In Defense of History.

Let's Hear it for Truth
Of David's far-flung corpus, including his Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington's Crossing, Historians' Fallacies particularly interests me.I'm surprised that he has not been hounded out of the profession, because in it he demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that so many of the most prominent historians have committed such gross fallacies of logic.But then again, in history as in law, rhetoric often prevails over reason.I wish only that David had included the Presumption of Heterosexuality among his fallacies.Even if a person is not married, biographers routinely presume exclusive heterosexuality, though aware of the famous examples of Oscar Wilde and Julius Caesar - fathers both.It is as logically impossible to prove beyond reasonable doubt that George Washington ever had sex with a woman as it is to prove that Abraham Lincoln ever had sex with a man.Both of those presidents seem to have been "indictable" cases, i.e., meriting further investigation.In law, cases are closed.Not so in history.The jury is still out and a verdict not soon forthcoming. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Historiography    2. History    3. History - General History    4. Methodology    5. Reference    6. History / Historiography   

Subjects:  1. 18th century    2. 19th century    3. Anthropology - Cultural    4. Hamah (Syria)    5. Historiography    6. History    7. History - General History    8. Middle East - General    9. Social Science    10. Sociology   

Subjects:  1. Historiography    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Language and history    6. Writing    7. History / Historiography