Book Description
In a world troubled by religious strife and division, Chris Lowney's vividly written new book offers a hopeful historical reminder: Muslims, Christians, and Jews once lived together in Spain, creating a centuries-long flowering of commerce, culture, art, and architecture. Written with a narrative drive reminiscent of Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, this new work takes us back to a medieval Iberia that prefigured the Renaissance.
In 711, a ragtag army of Muslim North Africans conquered Christian Spain and launched Western Europe's first (and to date only) Islamic state. In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella vanquished Spain's last Muslim kingdom, forced Jews to convert or emigrate, and dispatched Christopher Columbus to the New World. In the years between, Spain's Muslims, Christians, and Jews forged a golden age for each faith and distanced Spain from a Europe mired in the Dark Ages.
Medieval Spain's pioneering innovations touched every dimension of Western life: Spaniards introduced Europeans to paper manufacture and to the Hindu-Arabic numerals that supplanted the Roman numeral system. Spanish scholars translated what stood for centuries as Europe's standard medical handbook. Spain's farmers adopted irrigation technology from the Near East to nurture Europe's first crops of citrus and cotton. Spanish artisans graced luxurious homes with the fountains, gardens, and decorative tile that remain hallmarks of southern Spain's distinctive decor. Spain's religious scholars authored works that still profoundly influence their respective faiths, from the masterpiece of the Jewish kabbalah to the meditations of Sufism's "greatest master" to the eloquent arguments of Maimonides that humans can successfully marry religious faith and reasoned philosophical inquiry. No less astonishing than medieval Spain's wide-ranging accomplishments was the simple fact its Muslims, Christians, and Jews often managed to live and work side by side, bestowing tolerance and freedom of worship on the religious minorities in their midst.
A Vanished World chronicles this impossibly panoramic sweep of human history and achievement, encompassing both the agony of jihad, Crusades, and Inquisition, and the glory of a multireligious, multicultural civilization that forever changed the West. One gnarled root of today's religious animosities stretches back to medieval Spain, but so does a more nourishing root of much modern religious wisdom. In a world torn by religious antagonism, Chris Lowney offers enduring lessons learned from medieval Spanish villages where Muslims, Christians, and Jews rubbed shoulders on a daily basis.
Customer Reviews:
'No single tradition has monopolised every human expression of truth..'.......2007-05-11
This book is a great starting point in terms of understanding medieval Spain and appreciating the Iberian contribution to broader European enlightenment. Aptly subtitled 'Medieval Spain's Golden Age of Enlightenment', Chris Lowney draws us into the accomplishments of Muslims, Christians and Jews over seven centuries.
Whether you choose to read this book as an historical statement of past accomplishments, or as a sign of hope for a more co-operative future, it provides a wonderful view of the golden age of the Iberian peninsula.
The book has a wealth of notes and suggested readings for those who would like to obtain more information about specific events or achievements.
Highly recommended to those interested in learning more about medieval Spain as well as those looking for instances of shared learning.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Somewhat interesting, but it delivers less than what it promises.......2007-03-16
The history of Spain between 711 (the date of the Muslim invasion of the Iberian peninsula) and 1492 (when the moors were finally vanquished and the spanish crown got back total control of what is today Spain; coincidentally this was the same year Columbus reached the Americas and Jews were expelled from Spain) is fascinating in itself. This book is kind of interesting, but it delivers less than what it promises. If you know some of the history before reading this book, you will not learn a lot from it. Moreover, it is sometimes overly credulous with its sources. One of the problems appears when you see that all the bibliography is in English; Lowney clearly doesn't speak either Spanish or Arabic, so the book is essentially second hand retelling of previous books. There is no original material here. Lowney is identified in the book as a former Jesuit priest, but he seems prejudiced against Christians, always comparing their supposed backwardness with the Muslims' supposed tolerance and brilliance. Look, if Christians were able to reconquer Spain after almost eight centuries, they must have done something right. Still, the book is not totally without interest, especially as an introduction to the subject.
Religious Tolerance: 21st Century Pipedream? .......2006-10-21
Chris Lowney resurrects with much brio the fascinating history of Medieval Spain, which became the only Islamic state that ever prospered in mainland Europe for more than seven centuries. After a "blitzkrieg" military campaign, Muslim conquerors hailing from North Africa rolled back Christian rule on most of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 C.E. Christian rulers, who were understandably resentful of this occupation, launched their Reconquista from the north of the peninsula after infighting started weakening al-Andalus (the Arabic name for the Muslim-ruled part of Spain) in the eleventh century C.E. Al-Andalus disintegrated itself into more than two dozen rivaling small kingdoms by the 1030s C.E that over time became easy picks for united Christian conquerors. This rivalry among these kingdoms was also a blessing in disguise.
To his credit, Lowney acknowledges and emphasizes the significant contributions of al-Andalus to transition the rest of Europe out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance. Without Islam, much western wisdom from the Antiquity would have been lost forever following the disintegration of the Roman Empire in the West. Furthermore, Medieval Spain became the conduit for bringing the best that the Islamic world had to offer to mostly backward Europeans. Cosmopolis such as Seville, Cordoba, Toledo, and Granada were the cities on the hill economically, culturally, scientifically, and religiously. The architecture of the older parts of these urban centers still reflects this past greatness.
Despite their differences, Medieval Spaniards showed for a time a tolerance for each other's religious and cultural background that remains a marvel to a world plagued by intolerance and obscurantism. Outstanding twelfth-century theologians such as the Jewish Moses Maimonides and the Muslim Ibn Rushd Averroes went as far as to subject their respective religions to rationality. Shias and Sunnis in Modern Iraq, especially in Baghdad, have much to learn from this peaceful religious coexistence. Obscurantism and intolerance were the perfect ingredients for the disastrous recipe that Medieval Spain itself ended up swallowing after the completion of the Reconquista.
With the fall of the Kingdom of Granada in 1491 C.E., the sole remaining Muslim territory in the peninsula, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella completed the Reconquista of Medieval Spain. They did not waste much time to impose Christianity on all their subjects. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella gave their Jewish and Muslim subjects little time to either convert to Christianity or leave most of their possessions behind them and leave Spain forever. The discovery of the New World and its riches bought Spain some time. After Catholic Spain passed by its zenith, it could no longer count on the genius of its former Jewish and Muslim subjects who along Christians had contributed to the greatness of Medieval Spain. Unsurprisingly, Catholic Spain became an increasingly troubled and weak state that only rebounded from its backwardness in the second half of the 20th century C.E.
The richness that was Medieval Spain.......2006-06-28
A first class read for any history buff. Right up there with 'The Ornament of the World' by Maria Rosa Menocal.
Time to move on?.......2006-03-11
This is the third book I've read recently about the Iberian peninsula from the 700s to 1500s during the coexistence of the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I first read Reston's "Dogs of God" (see my review) mostly about the 1400s' Christian reconquest of Spain, and their abuse and expulsion of Jews and Muslims. I then read Menocal's "Ornament of the World" mostly about the flowering of al-Andalus beginning in the 700s under generally tolerant and progressive Muslims.
Lowney's "A Vanished World: Medieval Spain's Golden Age of Enlightenment" is also about the same period as Menocal's book but initially more from the Christians' perspective. And initially I found his writing style somewhat tedious but farther along either it improved or I accommodated to it. Yet Lowney reveals aspects not covered by either Reston or Menocal so it's well worth the read if you want a balanced perspective of the period. And he provides extensive endnotes and annotated further readings.
Lowney concludes by lamenting the squandered opportunities resulting from religious bigotry and greed, and suggests lessons that could be learned by today's Christians, Jews and Muslims. But even here in the US, with our constitutional guaranteed religious freedoms, we still see contending for domination by some religious factions. Perhaps it's time we move beyond obsolescent religious teachings toward a New Enlightenment, as explored in my book "Concepts: A ProtoTheist Quest for Science-Minded Skeptics."
Average customer rating:
- An amazing record
- Alive, at Most, in Memory
- A stunning historical record
- Take A Journey into a Vanished World
- Great book on this subject !!! Please re-print, please !!!
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Vanished World
Roman Vishniac
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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ASIN: 0374282471 |
Amazon.com
Roman Vishniac's A Vanished World is an extraordinary record of the lives of German and Eastern European Jews in the years immediately preceding the Holocaust. Vishniac, a Russian Jew, began to take photographs of village life during World War I, when Russian Jews who lived near the front were accused of being German spies and were deported to Siberia. He later moved to Germany, where he witnessed the horrible events of Kristallnacht and the anti-Jewish legislation that allowed Hitler to declare his enemies stateless and therefore unworthy of international protection. As we study Vishniac's photographs--a surviving fraction of the more than 16,000 he took--we are aware that we are seeing the faces of those soon to die, witnessing a world that has all but perished. Yet that world, of shops and schools, of busy streets and quiet farms, remains with us if only as a ghostly memory, thanks in part to Vishniac's compassionate eye.
Book Description
This pictorial history of Jewish life in Germany in the 1930s before the Holocaust, shows the stories of individuals, their increasing poverty, sad wisdom and enduring love in the years leading up to World War II.
Customer Reviews:
An amazing record.......2007-08-15
What is incredible is how Vishniac captured the variety of Jewish life in late 1930s eastern Europe--from the streets of Warsaw, Cracow, and Lublin, to villages in the Carpathians. His photographs also contrast the extreme poverty many Jews fell into at the time (especially as a result of official boycotts of Jewish establishments) with the richness of intellectual and religious life (the two being inseparable in that time and place).
We are shown grandfathers and babies, sages and porters, tzaddiks and merchants, women in the market, boys in cheder, children at play. While strife, anxiety, and resignation are seen on the faces in many of the photographs, there are also many smiling faces--some shy, some beaming at the camera. The most beautiful are those of small children--a girl returning home with a pot of soup and a bottle of milk for the family's dinner, so pleased; a small boy looking off at something his classmates do not see; a boy on a crowded street giving the photographer a friendly wave.
Also of great value are Vishniac's captions, printed at the front of the book. One hopes that some publisher will bring this valuable book back into print.
Alive, at Most, in Memory.......2001-08-04
One look at the pages of this wrenching book will tell the story. Roman Vishniac, secretly, in some cases, shot thousands of pictures of the Jewish population of Eastern Europe, shortly before they were swallowed up by the Holocaust.
Young, old, in-between are shown going about their ordinary lives, some already paying the price of the prevalent Eastern European anti-Semitism, virtually oblivious to what was coming their way.
You can't look at these pictures and not shudder: certainly no one in these pictures can still be alive, and it's not just because of the passage of time. Most of the people photographed here lived in the smaller villages, segregated in many cases from the Gentiles, wearing clothes that quickly and easily identified them to their destroyers.
Vishniac shot an estimated 16,000 pictures, but managed to get only about 2,000 out when he fled to the United States in 1940. We should be grateful for what he's given us, and mourn all that was lost.
A stunning historical record.......2000-02-12
I was amazed at the quality of the images and the sensitive approach to what has become an amazing record of that,which many of us could only imagine from verbal accounts.It is without doubt the best photographic recording of a society which was to be brutally decimated. Vishniac's photographic artistry in my mind are on a par with Cartier Bresson whom I greatly admire. Thanks to the publisher for printing such a wonderful book.
Take A Journey into a Vanished World.......1999-12-29
Open this book and you will enter a world of the vanished, but not vanquished. Roman Vishniac's stunning black and white photographs of the destroyed Jewish communities of Eastern Europe will surely enter your heart, as they have mine. The simple, sometimes stark compositions are primarily of the faces of Jews long lost in the flames of the Holocaust. Most of the photographs have a brief explanatory comment that gives them context. Vishniac takes us into the tiny basement apartments of Warsaw's Jewish porters, the logging villages of Carpathian Ruthenia, and the narrow streets of Vilna. I found myself drawn into that world where Jews worked, studied, walked on their way to and from synagogues or markets, plowed fields and played in the streets. My own family originated in that world, and I thank Roman Vishniac for giving me a glimpse of it. I highly recommend this book.
Great book on this subject !!! Please re-print, please !!!.......1997-10-04
This book is probably the greatest book I have seen on the subject of the vanished jewish 'shtetls'. It is very moving, and also, at the same time, a wonderful piece of art to put on the table in the living room. If this book were to be re-printed, many people would want to own one. No doubt about that.
Book Description
Between 1935 and 1938 the celebrated photographer Roman Vishniac explored the cities and villages of Eastern Europe, capturing life in the Jewish shtetlekh of Poland, Romania, Russia, and Hungary, communities that even then seemed threatened--not by destruction and extermination, which no one foresaw, but by change. Using a hidden camera and under difficult circumstances, Vishniac was able to take over sixteen thousand photographs; most were left with his father in a village in France for the duration of the war. With the publication of Children of a Vanished World, seventy of those photographs are available, thirty-six for the first time. The book is devoted to a subject Vishniac especially loved, and one whose mystery and spontaneity he captured with particular poignancy: children.
Selected and edited by the photographer's daughter, Mara Vishniac Kohn, and translator and coeditor Miriam Hartman Flacks, these images show children playing, children studying, children in the midst of a world that was about to disappear. They capture the daily life of their subjects, at once ordinary and extraordinary. The photographs are accompanied by a selection of nursery rhymes, songs, poems, and chants for children's games in both Yiddish and English translation. Thanks to Vishniac's visual artistry and the editors' choice of traditional Yiddish verses, a part of this wonderful culture can be preserved for future generations.
Earlier books of Roman Vishniac's photographs include To Give Them Light: The Legacy of Roman Vishniac (1995), A Vanished World (1983), and Polish Jews (1947).
A major exhibition titled "Children of a Vanished World: Photographs byRoman Vishniac" is scheduled at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. The show will open to the public on March 7 and run through June 4, 2000.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful.......2002-05-26
I am an amateur photographer. 90% of good photography is in finding the right subject. These photos are stirring.
HAUNTING IMAGES OF INNOCENTS AND INNOCENCE DESTROYED.......2000-07-02
This is a powerful book. In its pages we find starkly beautiful black and white photographs of children laughing, crying, playing, studying, working, in the course of their daily life... unaware of the horrific nightmare that will overtake them soon and destroy their world.
The children's eyes look at you with all the innocent curiousity and wonder of eternal, universal childhood. You look again and apprehension grips you: in a few short years after being photographed, the future of many of these children will be brutally terminated in an unmarked mass grave or a crematorium. The poignancy of this harsh reality is driven home when you read editor Mara Vishniac Kohn's dramatic description of her father's desperate, futile efforts to use his photographs as a means of arousing the conscience of the world and inspiring action to save these children and their families. We learn that Roman Vishniac sent these photos to the White House, only to recieve a perfunctory note thanking him for "the excellent pictures you sent the President."
I must express my heartfelt compliments and appreciation to the editors, Mara Vishniac Kohn and Miriam Hartman Flacks, for the way in which they have presented these precious images-- accompanying them with the lyrics of appropriate Yiddish children's songs, in the original Yiddish and English transliteration and translation, rather than the standard dry caption text. I am especially grateful to the editors for including the music and annotation for these wonderful songs.
This book belongs in every home and library.
A book that will touch your heart.......2000-06-13
This book moved me a great deal. The black and white images convey such innocence in the children. The simplicity of the beautifully produced photographs juxtaposed with children's songs and rhymes (in Hebrew, Yiddish, and English) gives the impression of viewing the images in a gallery. The photographs, the narrative, and the publication itself are of very fine quality. And the message is unforgettable.
The images are haunting, and the text is charming........1999-10-20
In a haunting collection of black-and-white photographs, Roman Vishniac records the lives of Jewish children in Eastern Europe in the early part of the century, before the start of the Holocaust. The text is a series of children's songs (in Hebrew with English translation), which are touching and show how much children are alike whether they're from one side of the world or another. But the shadow of the Holocaust, while never shown, shades readers' appreciation of the images. This is a book I will not soon forget.
Book Description
A stunning photographic record of cultures at the farthest edges of civilization by the world's greatest living explorer. Wilfred Thesiger's photography career started during a hunting expedition to Ethiopia at age twenty. Three years later he returned to explore the Awash River and photograph the ferocious Danakil, who were reputed to mutilate any traveler they encountered. In the Sudan he photographed the Muslim tribes in Northern Darfur, pagan Nuer in the Western Nile swamps, and magnificent Nuba wrestlers. The visual drama of Arabia's deserts was the backdrop to Thesiger's emergence as a master of the portrait. In that harsh environment he captures the striking faces of Bedu companions posing unselfconsciously for his camera. In contrast, tranquil images of reeds, lagoons, and waterways characterize his matchless portraits of the Marsh Arabs of Iraq, whose way of life has now completely disappeared. Subsequent journeys took him to remote areas of Kurdistan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and finally to northern Kenya, where he lived for many years. This book is the summation of a unique and magnificent career. Duotone photographs.
Customer Reviews:
Great photos.......2007-02-06
some of his most remarkable b&w works from across the globe...keep it in my office of folks to pick up--very good condition
Fabulous book on the roots of Arabic culture.......2007-01-16
Wilfred Thesiger lived an amazing life; he was born in Africa, educated in England, and lived most of his life among the Arabs whom he loved, respected, and emulated. This book features many of his unique and thought-provoking photographs of tribes members in Africa and the Middle East. I spent many years as a portrait photopher and find his compositions, lighting, and photo subject integrity to be among the best I have seen. The text of this book is sparse, so a reader might also like to peruse one of his in-depth studies such as "Arabian Sands" or "The Marsh Arabs."
I bought the books so that I could better understand Islamic people outside what I read in the media. I was both humbled and elated by what Mr. Thesiger recorded.
Excellent collection of Thesiger's Photos!.......2006-07-03
The photos in the book are beautifully reproduced. The richness of strange and exotic cultures, some irreplaceably lost through political upheaval, is apparent fron the photos!
A Vanished World, Wilferd Thesiger.......2002-07-29
A Vanished World is packed full of true-to-the-time photographs of the peoples and places Wilfred Thesiger experienced and so interestingly described in his books.
Like the text of Arabian Sands, Among the Mountains and The Marsh Arabs, Wilfred's photographs are real and gritty, without special effects or photographic manipulations.
In these photos, Wilfred has vividly captured history. Moved by his authentic interest in extremely remote places, as well as in the people of those places, accompanied by his old Leica, he has served well those of us in the later generations.
A Vanished World is the perfect companion book of photographs to Wilfred's literary works. Wonderful.
Book Description
A Testament to the Great Spirit and Success of a Remarkable Woman Explorer
In the early 1920s, the last great age of world explorers, a remarkable young woman, Janet Elliott Wulsin, set out with her husband, Frederick Wulsin, for the far reaches of China, Tibet, and Outer Mongolia to study the people, flora, and fauna of the region. Janet’s strenuous, eventful exploration is detailed by a text enriched with excerpts from her candid personal letters. The journey proved to be a test of the Wulsins’ endurance and of their relationship.
While in Asia, the Wulsins took many extraordinary photographs, which form the heart of this richly produced publication. They documented tribespeople and sublime desert landscapes, and, perhaps most remarkably, were allowed to photograph the interior of several of the great Tibetan Buddhist lamaseries, many of which have since been destroyed. Several dozen rare, hand-painted lantern slides survived and are reproduced here in splendid color.
The photographs from the Wulsin expedition are now in the collection of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, in collaboration with which this volume is being produced.
Customer Reviews:
Vanished Kingdoms.......2007-01-12
Fascinating book of adventure & discovery. For the reader the fact that the photographs, taken in the 1920s are gorgeous and outstanding, is a revelation for us. Also a very interesting human interest story is revealed.
I thouroughly enjoyed it and encourage others to take this journey to a world no longer available to us.
80 years after..........2006-03-20
80 years after, we know a voyage thru the Tibet, Chine and Mongolia for the eyes and the pen of a young lady. A different land and people, a great aventure, great images, someones hand-coloured.
A rich archive of treasures.......2003-12-08
In the early 1920s, explorer Janet Wulsin and her husband Frederick journeyed the far reaches of China and Tibet to study the people and the lands of these remote regions - the photos from their expedition come to life in this collection, along with several dozen hand-painted lantern slides that appear in color. Vanished Kingdomsis a rich archive of treasures which charts the findings and peoples of a bygone world. Any serious collection of Asian treasures - both art and cultural - will find Vanished Kingdoms an essential addition, unparalleled in scope and coverage.
Amazon.com
Most people accurately associate Prussia with duty, discipline, and fervent militarism. They may be hard-pressed, however, to define it geographically or summarize its rise and fall. With The Vanished Kingdom: Travels Through the History of Prussia, James Charles Roy attempts to fill in the gaps of our knowledge about the former German state, from its 12th-century origins to 1945. Founded by Christian knights of the Teutonic Order, Prussia and its hereditary rulers, the Hohenzollerns, reached their political zenith in 1871, when they effectively ruled the Second German Empire. After World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II (the last ruling Hohenzollern), Prussia ceased to exist as a political entity and its territory was incorporated into a greater Germany.
Combining historical documentation with travel narrative and personal interview, Roy's prose is frequently heavy on narration and light on history. The Vanished Kingdom succeeds, however, in succinctly chronicling significant events in Prussian history, such as Bismarck's rise to power and Germany's World War I victory at Tannenberg. Maps, historical and contemporary photographs, and an extensive bibliography supplement Roy's study. An introduction by Amos Elon brings the history of Prussia up to the present day with its examination of East Prussia's former capital, Königsberg, which was incorporated into Russian territory in 1945. The fate of the city, today physically and economically devastated, remains precarious; will it return to Germany or remain a Russian territory? Together, Roy and Elon provide a comprehensive overview of Prussia's past, present, and future. --Bertina Loeffler Sedlack
Book Description
Combining armchair travel, stunning photography, and a keen historical sense, Roy takes us on a moving journey through the tragic past, present, and future of Eastern Europe
Twice in this century, Germany initiated wars of unimagined terror in the name of the German homeland, Prussia. But what was once Prussia is now Eastern Europe, a contested land crisscrossed by war, partitioned by barbed wire, and left in shambles in the wake of communism. Roy has gone to search through the rubble himself and, in the process, sketches a moving portrait of today's Eastern Europe.
Customer Reviews:
A good, but somewhat ideological and outdated trip to Preussen.......2006-12-21
I quite enjoyed this book; Roy has got a very fine ability to make history come alive, and combines it with a sort of "travel journal" from the contemporary Prussia of the early 90's. You can really tell that time has passed since he wrote his account though, and not in a good way. The book serves well as a picture of Prussia and its neighbouring lands just after the Berlin-wall fell, but it's hardly updated for the third millennium. I enjoyed the fact that Roy uses the old and valid idea of race and folk souls in his writing, not many authors dare to do this. I really loved the book when it chronicled early Prussian history, before the more controversial periods, but I started to get a bad taste in my mouth as we were nearing the post-ww1 period.
And suddenly it comes out in full bloom "Anyone that questions the Auschwitz should be whipped" and other emotional tirades in an otherwise wonderful book. He is of course entitled to his opinion, but were it any other subject he would be ostracized for using such language, but for some reason that completely eludes me, the official history of the Jewish troubles during ww2 is holy and beyond research and questioning. What if he had said, "Anyone that dares pry into the history of the conquest of the American continent deserves to be whipped?"
As an end-note I'd like to add that he does give a rather good and objective picture of Prussia and its inhabitants, but when he got to the Holy Cow of the West, he fails miserably. So in other words a conclusion is hard to reach, I can only embrace the first two chapters of the book, the rest should be read with the help of Dr. Kevin Macdonald's book "Separation and its Discontents", it will help you understand the Polish and German attitude better, to say the least.
Eloquent Book........2006-11-15
"The Vanished Kingdom" By James Charles Roy. Subtitled: "Travels Through The History Of Prussia". Westview Press, 1999.
I first was acquainted with James Charles Roy when I read some of his books on Ireland; see, for example: "The Fields Of Athenry: A Journey through Ireland, 2001". More than 50 years ago, I studied the German language, and the "culture" sections exposed me to those forever gone places: Prussia, East Prussia, Pomerania, and Silesia. Also, that small city-state whose postage stamps I collected: Memel. So, I was quite happy to see Roy's book, "The Vanished Kingdom".
James Charles Roy has written an excellent and eloquent book tracing the history of the lands way east, well beyond the Oder and the Elbe rivers. The author goes back to the early Crusades to trace the beginnings of what later became Prussia, and develops the story into more modern times, with Napoleon, and then the Franco Prussian War, Bismark and the Kaiser (William II) and, of course, the two world wars. Interspersed with all this history, Mr. Roy makes personal observations of the present conditions in the lands the book discusses. He spends substantial time on Koenigsberg, the present day Kaliningrad, which, by the way, still employs Russian postage stamps and is nominally Russian. The author is impressed with Koenigsberg's philosopher, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Sorry, Mr. Roy, since I went to a Catholic college, Kant was a footnote to St. Thomas Aquinas.
My fellow Amazon reviewers appear to be of two minds on this book. Those with German-sounding names want to emphasize the recovery of the lost lands to the East. The others want to emphasize the poor opinion the author presents for the Poles he met on his journey. I would remind my Polish co-religionists that James Charles Roy had travelled extensively throughout Ireland where he was undoubtedly met with Irish hospitality: Cead Milte Failte....literally, A Hundred Thousand Welcomes. His journal of this journey shows that the Poles he encountered were not that hospitable; they therefore became fair game for this reporting. I know that the author believes that they were mistakenly identified him as German, and this raised some animosity. I can understand that, but the benefit of the doubt should have been given. Since I have blue eyes, a fair skin, and once had blond hair, I encountered the same animosity at some oil refineries in Europe, especially since my Dutch had a German accent. When I replied that I was of Irish descent, everyone was again all smiles. By the way, I wonder how many of them could pronounce "Athenry" correctly.
I suggest that this is a fair and eloquent book that deserves five stars.
The Vanished Kingdom.......2006-08-19
'The Vanished Kingdom' by James Charles Roy is a fascinating travelogue, combined with the history of this enigmatic land known as Prussia. This land that is so integral to the German identity, is now split between Poland and Russia. Seen by Germany's enemies as a symbol of German expansionism, any talk of reunification is usually met with a less than warm reception. Nevertheless, Prussia remains in the hearts and minds of Germans, and many still hope to reclaim it someday. Roy travels this historically rich land, talking to Poles, Russians, and German tourists engaging in some very interesting conversations along the way. Along with this travelogue, he fluently blends the turbulent history of Prussia, from the Teutonic Knights to Bismarck, and from Frederick the Great to Von Hindenburg. My only criticism is that the author tends to ramble on in certain places, exerting too much time on subjects of limited relevance to Prussia. For example, the several pages he spends discussing Napoleon, I could have done without. Nevertheless, I found 'The Vanished Kingdom' to be enjoyable as well as informative. I would consider it an extremely valuable addition to any student of European history in general and essential for students of German history in particular.
"All the worst Nazi's came from Prussia".......2005-12-22
That was what one coworker told me on the first day of my new job. Yea, awkward. (my ancestors left in the 1880s) Anyway, there is a lot more history to Prussia than Nazism and these days books about Prussia don't exactly pop out of the book shelves; those that do typically refer to places remote in time and place. However, the author has done a tremendous job of joining the past and how they touch and concern lands and locations today. Well researched and organized, it is a great introduction into a history your teacher might have forgotten to cover.
More than history.......2005-09-19
This book is a bonanza for anyone interested in the history of Central and Eastern Europe. Unlike most historical nonfiction, which presents as dry, detached and even stuffy, this work brings its subjects to life, bridging the gap of the centuries and relating history to current events. As an avid student of the complex interrelationship of Germany, Poland and the Baltic countries and its influence on Europe and even the world at large, reading this, for me, was pure joy. However, I think even the most uninitiated into the makeup of this least understood, in the West, part of Europe would derive benefit and interest from delving into Roy's gem of a book!
Amazon.com
Long thought to be unique to the Baltic region, amber--fossilized tree sap, often bearing the remains of ancient plants and animals--is widely distributed throughout the world. Here entomologists George and Roberta Poinar take readers on a tour of one out-of-the-way amber bed, located in the rainforest of the Dominican Republic, that formed over a period between 45 and 15 million years ago. This particular amber, formed mostly from the pungent sap of the algarrobo tree, attracted many curious creatures, including stingless bees and scorpions, as well as bits and pieces of material that happened to be floating by: hairs from a long-extinct Antillean rhinoceros and a saber-toothed tiger, spider webs, and seeds from plants that now take on slightly different forms. The Poinars' findings show that the prehistoric Antilles region, formed from large-scale volcanic and tectonic events, has declined in biodiversity, and they help give a more complete picture of the ancient climate than has hitherto been available.
The Poinars catalog the Dominican remains in great detail, and general readers may find their descriptions to make for slow going. But readers with some knowledge of or interest in paleontology, as well as collectors of amber specimens, will likely be fascinated by the window into the distant past that the New World amber affords. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
In Jurassic Park, amber fossils provided the key to bringing dinosaurs back to life. Scientists in the movie extracted dinosaur blood from mosquitoes preserved for millions of years in amber--hardened tree resin--and used the blood's DNA to revive the creatures that terrified audiences around the globe. In this book, George and Roberta Poinar use amber for a similar act of revival--only they bring back an entire ecosystem. The Poinars are world leaders in the study of amber fossils and have spent years examining the uniquely rich supply that has survived from the ancient forests of the Dominican Republic. They draw on their research here to reconstruct in words, drawings, and spectacular color photographs the ecosystem that existed on the island of Hispaniola between fifteen and forty-five million years ago. The result is the most accurate picture scientists have yet produced of any tropical forest of the past.
The specimens examined by the Poinars reflect amber's extraordinary qualities as a medium for preservation. Millions of years ago, countless plants, invertebrates, and small vertebrates were trapped in the sticky resin that flowed from the trees of ancient forests and, as that resin hardened into translucent, golden amber, they were preserved in almost perfect condition. Samples analyzed and illustrated here include a wide range of insects and plants--many now extinct--as well as such vertebrates as frogs, lizards, birds, and small mammals. There are even frozen scenes of combat: an assassin bug grappling with a stingless bee, for example, and a spider attacking a termite. By examining these plants and animals and comparing them to related forms that exist today, the authors shed new light on the behavior of these organisms as well as the environment and climate in which they lived and died.
The Poinars present richly detailed drawings of how the forests once appeared. They discuss how and when life colonized Hispaniola and what caused some forms to become extinct. Along the way, they describe how amber is formed, how and where it has been preserved, and how it is mined, sold, and occasionally forged for profit today. The book is a beautifully written and produced homage to a remarkable, vanished world.
Customer Reviews:
Bob Newman's review explains everything.......2007-09-23
This is a phenomenal book which will present a very thorough, and brilliant, "lecture" all in a single book. The hard bound edition is beautiful, and is a book I will probably never sell, it is an excellent book!
It really is like sitting through an Ivy League lecture, though it isn't something many will find too difficult to follow (I hope. . .) It is a rare find.
I should note, most people overlook the hardbound editions, which are often cheaper than paperback :)
Bugs, Plants, Frogs in Sap Tip Us to Primeval Jungle.......2004-10-18
Millions of years ago, a meat-eating animal snuck through the primeval forest in what is now the Dominican Republic. Taking a short break in the shade of the towering canopy, it sat on some bamboo shoots which broke off in its fur. As the animal continued on its search for its next meal, the shoots began to irritate it. Growling (as I imagine), it rubbed up against an algarrobo tree. Some of the irritating plant fell out, along with one or two of the animal's hairs. These things fell into some resin or sap which exuded from the tree. The sap preserved them perfectly. Later the large drop of sap fell to the ground, was covered by debris which turned to earth, burying the sap completely. It lay there for a million or more years, then the ocean rose, taking the object to the bottom, where it was polished or preserved for more millions of years. Finally, due to the tectonic movements of the earth's plates, the ocean bottom where the (now) amber lay rose up into the mountains of an island. When Europeans arrived there in the tiny fragment of time known as "history" in this whole unbelievable span, they dug out the amber and found the preserved proof of that one moment in an animal's activities a possible 25 million years ago !
Poinar and Poinar have created a fascinating scientific work with their reconstruction of what the forest of that epoch looked like. Using the thousands of examples of plants, seeds, petals, leaves, pollen, insects, and frogs or lizards that fell into the tree sap and were preserved like time capsules, they describe the ancient jungle long before any man trod this earth. They rely on the principle of behaviorial fixity-that is, the idea that species that fill certain ecological niches today did so in the past as well. They describe dozens of strange creatures, mostly insects (because they were abundant and small enough to get trapped often) that inhabit today's tropical forests as well as those in the past. The majority of the book is devoted to describing as many organisms as possible with an enormous number of black and white photographs and line drawings to help your imagination. They also have a whole section of color photographs of the actual amber pieces. At the end there is a short reconstruction (or summary) of the whole vanished forest as well as an interesting discussion of climatic change and the reason for the disappearance of many species between that time and the present. Not being a person with a scientific background, I found all these things excitingly different from my usual reading fare, but the language used-apart from having to deal with such terms as homozygotic, depurination, dehiscent, and phytotelmata, which don't exactly roll off my tongue-is understandable by any educated lay reader. I found THE AMBER FOREST one of the most fascinating books of science that I have ever read and one of the best books in any field that I've read recently. If learning about the symbiosis of plants and insects, parasites and hosts, ants and fungus, in fact all the biological world of a long-gone jungle, has any appeal to you, don't miss this work.
Amber.......2001-02-25
This book tells of the author's adventures looking for amber as well as facts about it.
Book Description
In 1939 the Polish town of Konin vanished in the wake of Nazi occupation. Twenty-five years later, Theo Richmond set out to find what he could about that vanished world. He traveled across the United States, Europe, and Israel, tracing survivors and sifting through archives and the stories of those he interviewed. A project he thought would take six months took seven years. Finally he confronted the Konin of today. Interweaving past and present,
Konin tells the story of one community--how it began, how it flourished, and how it ended--and in the process re-creates the precariousness, anguish and necessity of human memory.
"A fascinating memorial to a lost community and the people who lived there."--The New York Times Book Review
"One reads [it] sometimes with a smile...always on the edge of tears--as if it were the most gripping adventure story."--Elie Wiesel, New York Newsday
Customer Reviews:
A Journey Into Lives.......2003-08-03
Konin, subtitled A Quest, is indeed exactly that. It is Theo Richmond's quest across time, place, culture, and humanity. It is his quest to learn where he came from, to understand the place his older relatives spoke of so often in his youth, but which he started out knowing rather little about.
Konin is the small Polish town from which Richmond's (originally Ryczke) family emigrated well before the Jewish community was all but destroyed. From the start, Richmond seeks to learn all he can of the town's history and people, particularly the Jewish people and their section of the town. Some of the text is the town's history dating back into the nineteenth century, and there is some mention of even earlier times, but mostly it is the stories told in the words of the surviving people.
Though some did not respond to his requests, Richmond found dozens of old Koniners whose memories seem crystal clear. And from this, we the readers build up a crystal clear picture of their lives in the community. Almost everything is told in stories, long or short, happy or sad, of life. True, in some sections Richmond includes his own narrative, but even there the stories of the people are interwoven into the tapestry. We do not learn about Konin so much as experience it, with all its goods and bads and excitements and boredoms. And as Richmond is no detached observer, we follow him as he passes back through time into pre-war Poland. He tells us not only who the people are then and now, but how he comes to meet them and the impressions they make.
As might be expected, many of the surviving Koniners experienced the Holocaust, or Shoah, firsthand. With their life in Konin and since comes their life during that horrid time. This is Richmond's quest into and away from humanity. Although many of these pages only touch on Konin in that they relate to Koniners, they make up some of the most gripping reading between these two covers. They are included, of course, to complete today's picture of the Konin community.
One need not be Jewish or knowledgeable of Jewish history (I am neither) to appreciate Konin. One need only appreciate good writing, which Richmond provides, gripping drama, which life provides, and a willingness to see the fascinating slice-of-life of a largely ordinary community that is Konin.
Crowning achievement.......2001-08-06
Yes, this is another Holocaust archival work and yes, it is brilliantly researched and written. But Richmond's crowning achievement, I propose, is his ability to create a lengthy work as this, about people many readers could never know, without ever letting it lapse into sentimentality or a wearisome litany of names, faces and facts. And yes, I have tearfully walked the streets of Konin with those Shoah survivors who now live in England, the US, and Israel. Richmond has ensured that the Nazi attempt to relegate Jewish Konin to oblivion has been thwarted. And we are much the better for it. "For the dead and the living we must bear witness." Thank you Mr Richmond. You have witnessed for the murdered of Kazimierz forest and all the other killing fields of Nazi Europe.
Read It.......2001-04-11
There is little I can add to the existing reviews save yet another resounding confirmation of this book's brilliance. Konin is a superbly written, award-winning thing translated into Polish, Hebrew, German and Italian.
The book is impeccable stylistically and intellectually, and the thorny issue of Polish-Jewish relations is penetrated with honesty and insight. The people interviewed and depicted in the book are -- well, simply, REAL.
Well worth reading.......1999-12-28
I found this book absolutely fascinating. My Grandmother came from Konin so for me it was a look into the world my Grandmother left behind.
THIS IS A MUST!.......1999-12-18
My wife Urszula and I had decided to take a day out in London, some sight seeing and shopping. We passed the many book shops on Charing Cross rd, but a book in one shop window caught my eye, 'Konin, a quest'. My wife is Polish, from the town of Konin. But what could this book be about, we wonder? There is nothing in Konin. How wrong we were! The book amazed us. I have read many publications on the holocaust, but nothing moved me quite like this book. The research and the feeling, the hardwork put into this account of a community so thoroughly wiped out that my wife hadn't even been aware that a Jewish community had ever existed and yet she grew up on its streets. In fact, the school she went to, the Gymnasium was built by the jewish people prior to the war. But nothing was or is taught about the jewish people within its walls, no reminders, nothing. Until now. Theo Richmond's work is a priceless reminder of want was lost and what should never be forgotten. We look forward greatly to the day the book is published in polish, when everyone there has a chance to understand just what was lost. We met Theo recently, his powerful charater came across so well in his book, as it is such an honest account, that it felt as though we had known him for years. Buy It! It is the best book you will ever read on the Jewish people.
Book Description
The Library of Alexandria, one of the wonders of the Ancient World, has haunted Western culture for over 2,000 years. The Ptolemaic kings of Egypt--successors of Alexander the Great--had a staggering ambition: to house all of the books ever written under one roof, and the story of the universal library and its destruction still has the power to move us.
But what was the library, and where was it? Did it exist at all? Contemporary descriptions are vague and contradictory. The fate of the precious books themselves is a subject of endless speculation.
Canfora resolves these puzzles in one of the most unusual books of classical history ever written. He recreates the world of Egypt and the Greeks in brief chapters that marry the craft of the novelist and the discipline of the historian. Anecdotes, conversations, and reconstructions give The Vanished Library the compulsion of an exotic tale, yet Canfora bases all of them on historical and literary sources, which he discusses with great panache. As the chilling conclusion to this elegant piece of historical detective work he establishes who burned the books.
This volume has benefited from the collegial support of The Wake Forest University Studium.
Customer Reviews:
The lost library of Alexandria.......2006-09-12
Three hundred years before Christ, the Ptolemy dynasty of Egypt used their enormous wealth to undertake a breathtaking enterprise -- the creation of a great library to contain every book ever written. An immense "museum" was constructed in Alexandria, stuffed with millions of scrolls -- the vast wealth of human literature of every type. Scholars translated the scrolls into Greek, and then later into Latin -- religious texts from Judaism, Zoroastroism, plays, poetry, histories, epics, speeches, philosophy -- humanity's greatest achievements, archived deep within the Ramses II sarcophogous, next to the famous statue of Ozymandius. In the year 48 AD Alexandria was sacked by Julius Caesar. The fire from burning ships in the harbor spread to the town and burned the great library -- incinerating the great treasure of human writings. Luciano Canfora teases threads from the many accounts of the almost mythical story to arrive at a strange conclusion -- the most valuable papyrus scrolls remained within the dilapidated tomb for another six centuries -- until the final 54,000 surviving books were burned at the order of Muslim conquers in order to heat the town's baths. Today, we have only a few scraps -- copied from the few moth-eaten and almost unreadable scrolls that escaped destruction. Canfora's beautiful story blends fictional re-enactment with careful research to create a compelling and magical account of what may be civilization's greatest catastrophe. If you enjoy the smell of ashes, you might want to return to one of my personal favorites -- Kenneth Clark's -- Civilization.
--Auralgo
A fascinating and rewarding read.......2006-02-17
I just couldn't put it down. The first chapters are puzzling and one wonders why Canfora chose this unusual structure for his book. But like a suspense writer, he gives the reader one clue after an other and suddenly everything makes sense. In retrospect one even beliefs that this study could not have been written in a more succinct and lucid way. I finished the 200 pages in five hours and felt like I had read a whole library.
Outstanding Introduction to the Great Library.......2003-08-25
Almost certainly, no other ancient institution has caught the modern imagination so much as has The Library of Alexandria. Begun around 300BC, this remarkable establishment became _the_ center of learning and scholarship in the Mediterranean world for hundreds of years thereafter. Our debt to the great library is incalculable; to it we owe the Septuagint (the Greek translations of the Old Testament), the standardization of Homer and Hesiod to their final forms, and the survival of the great Greek thinkers (Plato, Aristotle) to modern times. The beginnings of modern thought -- science, philosophy, mathematics, medicine -- can all be traced to this unique collection and the people who were a part of its scholarly society. It was the home to writers and thinkers that we are familiar with (Polybius, Appollonius Rhodius) and to far more that we are not but should (Theophrastus, Neleus). And its demise ranks as one of the greatest tragedies in Western history.
In The Vanished Library, Luciano Ganfora (translated here by Martin Ryle) gives a popular account of the history of the Library, from its founding and shadowy beginnings, all the way up to its decline and destruction centuries later. But what makes this book interesting is that Ganfora resists the temptation to slip into the academic spouting of facts, figures, and theories at every opportunity. Rather, his aim is to not only show the reader the library, but to give one a feel for what it was like to _be_ there, to work among the thousands of scrolls, and to live the life of the ancient Greek scholar. His research is grounded firmly in the original sources, many of which he discusses at length in the book's appendix and several of which he quotes at length. The book sometime feels like a novel, because Ganfora frequently adopts a storyteller's tone in order to illustrate some aspect he wishes us to explore. Occasionally, Ganfora also digresses into some of the more controversial areas of the Library's history; he argues, for instance, that Caesar's sacking of Alexandria during the Roman Civil Wars did not destroy the library as many scholars insist, but rather destroyed an annex that was used to house finished scrolls meant for export across the Mediterranean (the Library being also a major source for the dissemination of literary works across the known world). But none of this detracts from the book itself. It does a very good job of introducing one to the subject of the Library and what we know about it, and makes for a rather delightful read along the way.
This is not to say that this is the best introductory book on the subject out there; in my opinion, that would have to go to Derek Adie Flower's The Shores of Wisdom. Ganfora does skip over whole areas of the Library's history that Flower does not, and goes more in depth than Ganfora on some of the academic arguments surrounding such subjects as the Library's demise and its impact on Western culture. But Ganfora's book is easier to read for the layperson, and shorter -- one could read it cover-to-cover in literally a single sitting. And I think Ganfora does a better job of evoking the sense of just what the Library was like than Flower. For this reason I would recommend this book _along with_ The Shores of Wisdom; both work as complementary pieces, with the short comings of the one made up in the other.
I'm glad I didn't spend money on this.......2003-05-24
Luciano Canfora's The Vanished Library stands out as an example of how not to write a historical account. I'm not sure for whom this text was written, but it is weak.
The first half is a meandering novelesque account of events, many of which appear unconnected to the library. Canfora never really put together where he was going with the narrative. I suspect someone already familiar with the subject might have understood why some of these things were important, but my impression was that the book was meant more as a popular history. The back cover states that Canfora has merged the craft of novelist and historian, an unhappy marriage if I ever saw one.
The second half is better, covering source material, and finally providing some elusive references and staying on topic better. He goes through writings of earlier classical sources and their references to the library, comparing their works to try to find out what happened to the library.
If this review sounds confusing, it's because I found the book confusing. It meandered around, sometimes offering two page chapters on subjects that seemed to have no bearing on the topic. The pedagogic style was bad, and the reader is left wondering what the point of reading it was. One can get some useful information here, and it's an interesting enough topic. But I found the writing and analysis weak and haphazard.
One thousand years as a temple of learning and wisdom.......2003-04-15
I found this book both informative, as well as, a joy to read. That is because most of it reads more like a novel than a formal academic study. This is done to put the reader into the overall cultural mindset of Alexandria and the library at various points in it's almost 1000 year history.
Having done my own research on this topic in college I can vouch for the accuracy and completeness of the author's research. The truth is that there is very little surviving hard data about this institution (and absolutely no surviving archeological evidence.) There is however an original revelation that the layout of the Museum may very well have imitated that of the Ramesseum at Thebes. This is due to the fact that the Greek rulers of the Ptolemaic period adhered closely to classical Egyptian forms- at least in a superficial and material manner.
This book clears up some popular misconceptions. First of all, there was no "library" as a separate institution or structure. It was always an inseparable part of the overall Museum. Secondly, the Museum was in no sense a secular institution. It was truly a temple to the Muses, and Holy Wisdom, with sacred functions. Even under Roman control it continued to be administered by a priest.
Finally, it would seem that the Romans had nothing to do with the burning of the Museum, indeed there was no damage during the Roman conquest. The greatest damage is shown to have been done in late antiquity at the hands of Christian fanatics- like so many simular of cases of the mindless destruction of our classical heritage.
Average customer rating:
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Tom Talbert His Life and Times: Voices From a Vanished World of Jazz (Studies in Jazz Series)
Bruce Talbot
Manufacturer: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0810848120 |
Book Description
In Tom Talbert--His Life and Times Talbert--in his own words--describes his progress, his influences, his skirmishes with fate, and his sometimes surprising detours. His account, and the anecdotes and memories of many musicians who played with him conjure up a lost world of music and music-making that has disappeared as completely as last winter's snow.
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