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

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

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Outgrowing The Earth by Lester Brown
enlightening review of the upcoming global food crisis
A sober, apparently scientific presentation of relevent facts
Outgrowing the Earth: An Imaginary Problem and Fanciful Solutions
must read for people who expect to eat in the future

Outgrowing The Earth
Lester R. Brown
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393327256

Book Description

How human demands are outstripping the earth's capacities—and what we need to do about it.

Ever since 9/11, many have considered al Queda to be the leading threat to global security, but falling water tables in countries that contain more than half the world's people and rising temperatures worldwide pose a far more serious threat. Spreading water shortages and crop-withering heat waves are shrinking grain harvests in more and more countries, making it difficult for the world's farmers to feed 70 million more people each year. The risk is that tightening food supplies could drive up food prices, destabilizing governments in low-income grain-importing countries and disrupting global economic progress. Future security, Brown says, now depends on raising water productivity, stabilizing climate by moving beyond fossil fuels, and stabilizing population by filling the family planning gap and educating young people everywhere.

If Osama bin Laden and his colleagues succeed in diverting our attention from the real threats to our future security, they may reach their goals for reasons that even they have not imagined.

Customer Reviews:

Outgrowing The Earth by Lester Brown.......2007-08-11

Excellent work as all of this author's are. This book should be required reading for all government ministers of all stated globally.
Nick Robson, South Asian Strategic Stability Institute.

enlightening review of the upcoming global food crisis.......2007-01-03

"Outgrowing the Earth" is another great contribution by Lester Brown. In ten concise chapters the author reviews the relationship between continuing human population growth and the finite land and water resources of the planet. I found the discussion of falling water tables especially interesting and important. I was also glad to see the increasing food needs of China as well as the potential for increasing food production in Brazil were both covered from several angles. There were also extensive endnotes and a decent index, both of which I found useful. In summary, this is another important and well-researched publication for anyone interested in issues of food security in these times of diminishing fuel reserves, rising temperatures, and falling water tables.

A sober, apparently scientific presentation of relevent facts .......2006-07-02

I'm not a scienttist. I recently became interested, however, in the issue of the sustanability of the human race. Much of my concern has been due to political uncertainties, but I also wondered about some fundamental environmental issues.

Since I have not read much in the field of environmentalism, I can not say for certain how solid Brown's facts are, but it does appear he presents many claims, in this book and in the web site that the book refers to, which would enable his claims (and priorities) to be tested. It would be unusual for one person to have everything right on such complex issues but if Brown has presented what he sees clearly and verifiably, that seems a great help to us all. It seems a big help to me personally.

Brown does not focus on catastrophe in this relatlively subdued 2005 book: it is clearly instead stated many times to be about food security. He is concerned, but doesn't speculate, as to how polticians and nations will react if the food security challenge is not met. Beyong warming, which dominates the news, Brown raises concerns about issues I was less familar with such as the water tables.

I definitely plan now to read Brown's "Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble" which does sound more alarmist. Even if scientists ran the world, it seems we might be in grave danger but with our current set of politicians, how can we feel confident? This may be a time when every good world citizen sets aside national boundaries and steps forward to seek a solution to the earth's woes for the sake of the future of our descendants.

Outgrowing the Earth: An Imaginary Problem and Fanciful Solutions.......2005-12-11

Brown's thesis is that humanity is outgrowing the earth and putting world food security at risk. One might assume that Brown would support his thesis with charts and statistics on hunger, starvation, famine, nutrition and food prices... but one would be wrong. Outgrowing the Earth eschews all of this and instead focuses on global warming, dust storms, grain stocks, water tables and world population which are only indirectly related to food security.

The key to understanding world food security, Brown argues, is to understand world grain production. For example, the "Japan Syndrome" is a pattern of rapid industrialization followed by rising grain consumption, shrinking grainland and falling grain production (p10). Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have all followed this pattern and today they are heavily dependant on grain imports. Brown predicts that very soon China will also tumble down this path and that the world will be unable to produce enough grain to feed 1.2 billion Chinese. Brown warns that catastrophic starvation looms large in China's future.

Brown presents his discussions of water and livestock also in terms of grain production. Livestock is analyzed in terms of "protein efficiency." Fish are the most efficient at converting grain feed into live weight whereas steer are the least efficient (p44). Therefore, diets will need to shift from less efficient livestock to more efficient livestock as grain becomes increasingly scarce in the near future. In the chapter on water tables, Brown argues that when nations import grain they are, in a sense, importing water "since it takes a thousand tons of water to produce one ton of grain" (p111).

Brown's ideas about the Japan Syndrome, protein efficiency, and grain markets (i.e. water markets) are among the highlights of Outgrowing the Earth. Unfortunately, these are overshadowed by a fundamentally flawed thesis.

The problem with Brown's thesis is that recent history does not indicate an impending food catastrophe. The past 50-100 years have produced trends of falling food prices, better diets, improved nutrition, better access to clean water, less hunger, less famine and ever increasing agricultural productivity and efficiency. Brown concedes all of this but he chooses to wave such facts aside and treats his own tenuous predictions of future catastrophe as more compelling than the current real-life long-term trends of declining hunger and improving diets.

Often, Brown's ideas are plain silly. Brown believes that we can use arable land for either cropland or roads but not both. Hence, to preserve cropland Brown argues for more bicycles, more public transportation and less automobiles. He even engages in some class warfare: the competition between roads and cropland is "a struggle between the rich and the poor-between those who can afford automobiles and those who are struggling to get enough food to survive" (p93). Brown argues that wind erosion is carrying away precious topsoil and depositing it in the ocean. Wind erosion is such a serious problem in Africa that it is literally "draining the continent of its fertility" (p85). Apparently, Brown has no trouble believing that wind can carry away an entire continent's worth of topsoil! Fortunately, Brown has a solution: "for areas with strong winds and in need of electricity, such as northwestern China, wind turbines can simultaneously slow wind speeds and provide cheap electricity" (p93).

Over the past decades, plant breeders have greatly increased crop productivity by breeding hardier and pesticide resistant crops. Brown concedes that this is a good thing but he laments that plant breeders have been unable to "fundamentally improve the efficiency of photosynthesis." In fact the photosynthesis of today's crops "remains unchanged from that of their wild ancestors" (p62). Brown believes that this bodes ill for world food security.

Drip irrigation is more water efficient that current methods of irrigation, but alas, it's also very labor intensive (p113). Undeterred by the labor needs, Brown proposes that drip irrigation is well suited to countries suffering from both water shortages and high unemployment! Other deep thoughts from Outgrowing the Earth are that there are no substitutes for water and that people can "live for only a matter of days without water" (p99). Brown believes that governments should "coordinate population policy with water availability" and he's bewildered that "there appears to be no effort to do so" (p105). Notice that Brown's argument is not that water policy should be based on population but that "population policy" should be based on water availability! "Population policy" sounds like a euphemism for government restrictions on family size but Brown declines to go into specifics. In all seriousness, Brown proposes that wind power and bicycles are good for food security whereas automobiles are bad for food security. By the time Brown claims that water prices are "irrational" (p114) this reviewer was laughing out loud. I imagine that much of the world appears "irrational" to Brown.

The bulk of Outgrowing the Earth consists of many such imaginary problems and Brown's fanciful solutions. If you would also like to worry about paving over cropland, the stagnant efficiency of photosynthesis, and the soil-pilfering wind then I recommend Outgrowing the Earth for you.

must read for people who expect to eat in the future .......2005-06-07

This is an outstanding work, highlighting the very likely risk of future global food shortages and food price inflation. During most of our western-world memory there was on oversupply of basic food and governments were concerned about too much grain and prices dropping too low. Lester Brown makes a very convincing case that the opposite is likely to happen in the future. His opinions are very well documented and based on plenty of statistics.

Heathcliff and the Great Hunger: Studies in Irish Culture

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Heathcliff and the Great Hunger: Studies in Irish Culture
Terry Eagleton
Manufacturer: Verso
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Potato Famine
Nory Ryan's Song
Talissa's book review
The English holocaust
A great historical fiction!

Nory Ryan's Song
Patricia Reilly Giff
Manufacturer: Yearling
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0440418291
Release Date: 2002-09-10

Amazon.com

Life is hard for poor Irish potato farmers, but 12-year-old Nory Ryan and her family have always scraped by... until one morning, Nory wakes to the foul, rotting smell of diseased potatoes dying in the fields. And just like that, all their hopes for the harvest--for this year and next--are dashed. Hunger sets in quickly. The beaches are stripped of edible seaweed, the shore is emptied of fish, desperate souls even chew on grass for the nourishment. As her community falls apart, Nory scrambles to find food for her family. Meanwhile, the specter of America lurks, where, the word is, no one is ever hungry, and horses carry milk in huge cans down cobblestone streets.

As Patricia Reilly Giff writes in her note to the reader, the Great Hunger of 1845 to 1852 was a tragic time for the Irish. Enough food to feed double the population was sent out across the sea, while an indifferent government ignored the starving masses. More than one million of the eight million people in Ireland died. Nory Ryan's Song, a fictionalized account based on this terrible era in history, describes the heroic struggles of one girl who refuses to give in to hunger, exhaustion, and hopeless circumstances. Young readers may have heard of the Irish Potato Famine, but they won't truly understand it until they meet Nory. Giff is the author of many beloved books for children, including the Newbery Honor Book Lily's Crossing and the Polk Street School series. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter

Book Description

Nory Ryan's family has lived on Maidin Bay on the west coast of Ireland for generations, raising a pig and a few chickens, planting potatoes, getting by. Every year Nory's father goes away on a fishing boat and returns with the rent money for the English lord who owns their cottage and fields, the English lord bent upon forcing the Irish from their land so he can tumble the cottages and clear the fields for grazing. Times are never easy on Maidin Bay, but this year, a terrible blight attacks the potatoes. No crop means starvation. Twelve-year-old Nory must summon the courage and ingenuity to find food, to find hope, to find a way to help her family survive.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Potato Famine.......2007-06-14

Nory is a typical twelve-year-old girl living in Ireland in the mid-1800s. Her mother died giving birth to her little brother, so she and her two older sisters and grandfather take care of each other while her father leaves on long fishing trips to earn their rent money. The English lord who owns their land, though, would rather they couldn't pay their rent. Then he would be free to destroy their home and use that land for his sheep to graze.

Things have gone reasonably well for awhile, though, and Nory's family has been able to pay their rent and live mostly off of the potatoes that are planted in their yard. Nory's oldest sister is saving up money to marry a neighbor. Then one of their other neighbors falls too far behind on rent and can't stop the lord from destroying her home. Nory's sister is worried, and she and her fiance use their money to take a ship to the United States, to try to find a better life there.

After Nory's sister leaves, things get even worse. Her father is taking much longer to return from fishing than he usually does, and the lord has come to their home to warn them about not paying their rent. Then all of the potatoes in their yard and the yards of their neighbors turn black and give off a horrible smell. There is no way they can be eaten, but the people have no other food. Will Nory and her family be able to survive?

I liked the history behind this book. It was interesting to read what life was like in Ireland, and to see what people may have been thinking when the potato famine hit. I liked the character of Anna. She was strong and sympathetic although she must have been suffering herself.

I didn't like the idea that everyone thought life in America would be so much better than life in Ireland. I know my history, and know that things weren't much better for the Irish immigrants in America.

Nory Ryan's Song.......2007-04-19

Nory Ryan's Song is about a girl who lives on the west coast of Ireland in Maidin Bay with her family in 1845. It's very beautiful there. But life there isn't easy. Nory's family plants potatoes there for a living. Nory's dad sailed away on a boat to go fishing to earn rent money for Lord Cunningham. The English lord forced the Irish to leave their land, so he can tear down their cottages and clear fields for sheep. Many people left Maidin Bay, and never returned. Nory's sister Maggie set off for Brooklyn. Nory dreams where all the Ryan's would live together as a family. A blight attacks the potatoes, which means everybody will go into starvation. And Nory's dad doesn't return when he usually does. Nory has to use courage and ingenuity to find food, find hope, and a way for her family to survive.

Talissa's book review .......2006-10-25

This book is about were a girl named Nory and her family are going through a rough time becausse there is a potato deease going arournd and thaat makes it were they dont have anything to eat for the winter so they run out of money and have to pay lord cunnigham their chicken and pigglets beccause her dad hasn't came home from his job on a boat . So her father and sister go looking for him and she is stuck looking after her little brother . She ends up falling in love with a young boy and he ends up moving to America after her older sister Maggie moves to America to but she has a old lady and they take care of each other and finally at the end of the storie her father ends up sending tickets to America for Nory and her little brother .She invites Anna the old lady but she is stubern and wont go . Nory ends up getting married to the man and they have 3 childern . this book was really good and if i was you i read it because even i dont read but my teacher made us for a bookreport so read it its really good.

The English holocaust.......2005-07-09

It seems uniquely challenging. The idea of making a readable children's book out of something so bleak and depressing as the Irish Potato Famine. Yet as an author, Giff has never shied away from difficult subjects. Whether you're following the trials of a 1870 German immigrant to Brooklyn in "The House of Tailors", or a 1940's Hungarian escapee in "Lily's Crossing", Giff has become one of those go-to historical fiction writers. With an emphasis on immigration, emigration, and forced transplantation, her books strain to find a balance between absolute historical accuracy and something your ten-year-old would actually (willingly) pick up on their own. Personally, when I was ten years of age I wouldn't have picked up "Nory Ryan's Song" for all the gold in King Solomon's mines. For those children that have strong stomachs and even stronger nerves, however, the book is a distinctly well-written explanation of why many of us in America sport Irish-American heritage.

Yeah, Nory's got a pretty nice life. True, her mother's dead and her father's away at sea to fish and pay the family's bills. Still, she has her two older sisters, her grandfather, her little brother Patch, and her best friend Sean to keep her company. And then one day she detects an odd smell in the air.... And even odder screams of panic from over the hills. The smell, as it turns out, is that of potatoes dying of a particularly nasty blight. The screams are the people who realize that death is staring them in the face. Before she knows it, Nory's potato patch is infested as well and the family is left with zero food to get by on. The English lord, Cunningham, who owns the land isn't about to show any mercy to his Irish tenants, and people begin to grow more and more desperate as he takes their lifestock for rent. In the end, Nory must decide what's most important to her as she takes amazing risks to find a way to keep the people she loves alive.

In writing this tale, Giff fast-forwards the tragedy a bit more than is strictly necessary. For example, the residents of Nory's village discover the potato blight one day and exactly two days later literally everybody's starving. Surely they weren't eating the underripe potatoes until now. It seems an odd way to write the book. Of course there's no faulting the language. Giff knows how to write something gripping and more than a little compelling. She parallels Nory's desperation with the hope that her father will, soon, return with money for food. Still, there are some moments in the book where it gets so downright depressing that it's all the reader can do to keep slogging on. For some kids, of course, this is a bonus. And certainly it would have been a far greater crime if Giff had played off the entire tragedy in a happy-go-lightly manner. All I'm saying is that this book, rather than being required reading for EVERY child in a certain grade, should only be given to kids who already enjoy historical fiction, tragedy, and a strong female narrator.

It's difficult to fault this novel. Giff knows from whence she writes and nobody in her field does a better job of describing degradation. No one. I don't see this book as the most pleasurable reading out there, but it's undoubtedly one of the best written. For the full effects of the Irish Potato Famine, there is nowhere else to turn.

A great historical fiction!.......2005-05-04

Most students know that the Irish potato famine killed millions of people, but they may not understand any more than that. Nory Ryan's Song takes students back to Ireland in 1845 and shows them what life was like. The oppression of the English was a terrible problem for the Irish at that time. The Great Hunger killed many, but it is also the reason that many Irish came to America. It took great strength for them to make the journey. It is an important book for children to read. It helps explain what really happened and what life was like for these people.
Children will be able to relate to the main character, Nory Ryan. She is a young girl with many responsibilities. This book is a wonderful tool for teaching about Ireland and the Great Hunger. It might also be a good tool when talking about family history. Students with Irish ancestry may be very interested in the story. A glossary of Irish terms included at the front of the book and a letter from the author at the end makes this story even more real. The author explains that it was her family history that caused her to write this book. She wanted people to know the truth about what happened during that horrible time in history. She accomplished her goal with the publication of this book.

All Rivers To The Sea (Galway Chronicles, No. 4)

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Depressing Finish to the Series
Intricately woven tale of famine, dispair and hope.....
The last chapter of a brilliant series.
An excellent finale
Masterfully Researched, Conceived, Woven and Delivered

All Rivers To The Sea (Galway Chronicles, No. 4)
Bodie Thoene , and Brock Thoene
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Western Ireland rejoiced in October 1844 because the potato crop was the best it had been. But by the next year, the Irish would see the potato blight destroy the crops and thousands will die of starvation. Soon a great migration to America would begin as the hopelessness of the situation finally sinks in. In this fourth and final book of the Galway Chronicles, the story of Kate, Joseph, and the inhabitants of the village of Ballyknockanor continues with Joseph's dramatic return to his estate and the beginning of the terrible years of the Irish potato famine.

Customer Reviews:

Depressing Finish to the Series.......2005-06-11

Things were looking up in the fall of 1844 for the residence of Ballyknockanor. Kate is just about to pop with her and Joseph's son. Colonel Mahon is dead. And Joseph, still thinking he's a fugitive, has arrived back in London. But all is not well. Personal tragedy awaits the Burkes and the English will use anything to crack down on the Irish. Plus the biggest roadblock to Irish independence may be just around the corner in the form of rotten potatoes.

It's been way too long since I read the third book in the series and I had forgotten some of the details of it. The important pieces did come back to me as I read the events of this one, however. My problem with it is the story. All the events of the story pile on top of each other to make for a depressing read. I realize it was what was happening in Ireland during that time, but it still isn't pleasant to read.

The Thoenes have a gift of bring history to life. Unfortunately, it's not always happy. This is one such case. Wonderfully written book, it's just a shame the subject matter is such a downer.

Intricately woven tale of famine, dispair and hope............2003-03-24

The final book of the Galway Chronicles is a masterfully woven tale. Joseph Connor Burke is finally reunited with his wife and family after learning that he has been pardoned for treason.

Shortly after his return the potato famine begins. Joseph and Kate are faced with anguish and dispair as they try to keep their family and their people from starving. Their unfailing trust in God is what keeps them hopeful in this tormented time.
The addition of the Grogan family only adds to the story.

As you read this book you will learn more about the people of Ireland in the 1840's then you have ever before. The treatment of the Irish people by the English is deplorable. I was surprised that as the people of Ireland are starving ships are being sent to England full of grain and livestock to feed the English. Always new that the famine was horrible to Ireland but now I know the whole history of why it was so horrible.

I think I now have some insight as to why my Great-great-grandparents came to America.

As you read the books in the Galway chronicle you feel like you are witnessing first hand their joys and sorrows and their steadfast faith in God.

The last chapter of a brilliant series........2002-01-14

If you have not read the three previous entries in "The Galway Chronicles" series, you simply must read them first. But if you who have read them, you will not want to miss "All Rivers to the Sea", the immensely satisfying conclusion to the series. The novel commences where volume three left off, with newlyweds Joseph and Kate separated by adversity, and Kate expecting their first child. But there is hardship on both fronts. Away in London, Joseph finds his life threatened by murderers. At home in Ireland, Kate suffers the agony of the death of her own child. When Joseph and Kate are finally reunited, their suffering continues in the form of a potato blight which destroys the food supply of their staple produce, results in more suffering, pain and death. Even Joseph and Kate's marriage relationship is strained by sorrow and misunderstanding.

In "All Rivers to the Sea" the Thoenes not only portray the suffering of Joseph and Kate Burke, but also that of another family told in a sub-plot - the Grogan family. Suffering is epitomized in the Grogan family when they are cast out of their home, totally destitute. Daniel Grogan first suffers the loss of his wife, and then is forced to place his children in a workhouse. The horror of the workhouses is painted with stark reality, demonstrating the heartbreak of impoverished parents faced with death, and forced to part with their children by placing them in workhouses, where they suffered under the "charity" of a corrupt state church (p.117). The only light in the darkness is that one child of the Grogan family enters the Burke home. But even this is shadowed with darkness, because it occurs in a manner that has overtones of the birth of Moses (with the older sister watching the cast out child) and the birth of Jesus (with the family not finding room in the "inn" - in this case, shepherds). This is no coincidence, because the Thoenes make a strong connection between the suffering of believers and the suffering of Christ. Kate reminds herself that the scars of suffering "make you more like Him" (p.185), and some hungry children with simple childlike faith state that they must eat "The bread of Christ ... the bread of suffering." (p.199). And when the suffering are cast out of their homeland, they are reminded by angels "Remember Christ the Savior, the child for whom there was no room!" (p.302). The only flaw here is that Kate incorrectly insists that suffering must not be accepted as God's will (p.163), although what she means by this is correct: Don't be passive in suffering, but "Pray instead for a clear eye and a firm plan to bring your people relief. Work hard to make this hard life better for as many as you can." (p.163).

The significance of the title "All Rivers to the Sea" also has to do with suffering. Mad Molly says prophetically "We'll none of us survive! The river flows, don't ye know? It carried off man and beast, grass and flower, to the sea. Always to the sea! It's over for us." (p.153) Joseph later explains: "Life is about people, and not about things or places or land. A river that rises in the mountains only to die in a bog is a sad, useless thing, Martin. We must be like the stream that bursts through all dams and finds its way to the sea. To a new life in a new way." (p.270-1) And the angels admonish at the end: "Remember the River from whence you came! Remember the Sea which all are bound to cross one day!" (p.302) At the end of the novel there is some taste of justice and redemption. Yet the bitter taste of suffering remains, forcing Joseph and Kate and the people of Ballynockanor to take drastic measures to ensure their ongoing survival. With the last chapter of "All Rivers to the Sea", one chapter of their lives is at an end. The characters must move on to a new chapter, even if it is clouded with adversity and suffering.

Yet it is precisely this that makes "The Galway Chronicles" so appealing. Unlike many contemporary Christian writers, the Thoenes' do not offer us a "feel-good" pill with a "they all lived happily ever after" ending. In the "Galway Chronicles" they are not afraid to make their readers journey through the depths of tragedy and despair, nor to leave them with a bitter taste in their mouth. Some readers might prefer a fairy tale ending, but this is real life, not a fairy tale. And in real life, the presence of sin and suffering is ongoing, even at the end of a book. The solution is not found in a pretend perfect life, but the solution is found in the work of Jesus Christ who gives hope in the midst of a life of sin and suffering. The happy ending comes only when this last chapter of history comes to an end, and when He returns. In this sense the Thoenes' boldness in presenting a harsh picture of a life of suffering, and their refusal to provide a "happy" ending, is heartily refreshing. They do not do the gospel a disservice - as so many other writers do - by suggesting that believers on earth can expect happy endings here on earth, before heaven. These novels show that there is no heaven here on earth, but that the hope of heaven offers real encouragement in a life of earthly suffering. And that certainly makes them worth reading.

An excellent finale.......2000-04-06

All Rivers to the Sea was a wonderful way to end the Galway Chronicles. Once more I was moved to laughter and tears as I followed the lives of the people of Ballyknockanor. Martin's character was fleshed out nicely, Corrie and Ceili's story made a heart wringing sub-plot, and Mad Molly was as wise, humorous, and prophetic as ever.

Though it's nice to think of Kate and Joseph living "happily ever after," I would love it if the authors would continue this story in a different series as they have done with their Zion sagas.

Masterfully Researched, Conceived, Woven and Delivered.......2000-02-22

This work, the fourth in "The Galway Chronicle" series, has afforded me a much deeper understanding of "things Irish" in the 19th century. Frankly, I could have gleaned much information from textbooks or historical treatises. But this series goes deeper: it incarnates the history. My daily encounters with Joseph Burke have encouraged me to more deeply consider the challenge and possibility of squaring off against today's rampant and relativist postmodern mindset with truly biblical moral courage, compassion, and Christlikeness. So sorry to see this series completed; I would devour more.

All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty

Average customer rating:

Funny as hell
Humor and logic... two great tastes that taste great together.
Laugh and Learn
Funny...but not convincing.
Skewer the liberals and roast their ideas.

All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty
P. J. O'Rourke
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0871136112

Book Description

With All the Trouble in the World, P. J. O'Rourke once again landed on best-seller lists around the country, confirming his reputation as the pre-eminent political humorist of our time. Attacking fashionable worries - all those terrible problems that are constantly on our minds and in the news, but about which most of us have no real clue - P. J. crisscrosses the globe in search of solutions to today's most vexing issues, including overpopulation, famine, plague, and multiculturalism, and in the process produces a hilarious and informative book which ensures that the concept of political correctness will never be the same again. "One of the funniest, most insightful, dead-on-the-money books of the year." - Los Angeles Times; "All the Trouble in the World is O'Rourke's best work since Parliament of Whores." - The Houston Post; "The dispatches are unfailingly funny....Mr. O'Rourke gets to the heart of the matter with a steady stream of wisecracks....Economists, political scientists and sociologists are inclined to approach the ills of society with regression analysis. P. J. O'Rourke just points and laughs. Not surprisingly, it is Mr. O'Rourke who gets it right." - The Washington Times; "Bottom line: Buy the book." - The Wall Street Journal.

Customer Reviews:

Funny as hell.......2007-07-04

Some disclosure - I'm a huge PJ O'Rourke Fan. Even so, this book, along with "Eat the Rich" is a classic.

Everytime you hear how messed up the US is, or how bad things are, or any other Chicken Little squawking pick this up. I've read it at least three times and it still cracks me up. It's a great perspective and makes you feel lucky if you live in the US. His books give me some of my best one-liners.

Humor and logic... two great tastes that taste great together........2005-11-25

Even those who disagree with P.J. O'Rourke's conclusions will usually tell you that his manner of expressing those conclusions is highly entertaining. O'Rourke's dry wit and bizarely appropriate analogies are absolutely hysterical. I listened to this book at the gym and had several of those "weird guy laughing at nothing" moments that can make you an outcast in a hurry.

But besides being funny, O'Rourke applies sound fundamentals of economics and history to a very logical dissection of the world around us. Being written in 1993, some of this book's examples are dated, but the logic used to analyze them is just as instructive today as it was then, and most of today's issues possess close parrallels in O'Rourke's 90s examples.

The book reads lightly, but O'Rourke traveled to Somalia, Haiti, the Amazon, Vietnam and other hot spots in writing this book - he did serious work and has a serious philosophy underlying his humor.

Give this one a read and see the world the way the politicians would rather we didn't.

Laugh and Learn .......2004-10-29

P.J. O'Rourke is the thinking man's John Stewart. Where Stewart is merely snarky and cutesy, O'Rourke has some actual working knowledge of the world, of history, and of human nature. In this book, he adroitly and hilariously skewers all of the "Henny Penny" sky-is-falling enviro-nazis who's holier-than-thou worship of nature is about to snuff out the human race. If you wonder why ideas like the Kyoto Protocol are so insane and ill-advised, read this book. If you've ever wondered about terrorist groups such as E.L.F., read this book. If you've ever had an unexplainable urge to snicker and hoot with derision whenever some earnest WASPy wannabe rasta mon tie-dyed tree-hugger begins to blather on about alar, read this book. In the midst of all of his cynicism and sarcasm, P.J. actually sheds a lot of light on some of the motivations, emotionalism, and deceptions of the far leftist enviro-whacko movement...how it is based in inaccuracy and ideological lunacy. He presents solid, well-researched facts in a way that is not dry, but delightfully pointed. This book is the archenemy of Al Gore's sci-fi thriller, EARTH IN THE BALANCE, and it blows the ex-Veep's book all to hell, and will leave the reader in tears of laughter. Check it out!

Funny...but not convincing........2003-07-08

Before I go on: Yes, I'm a liberal--I had to read this book in a English Comp II class taught by a libertarian professor.

O'Rourke's analysis, while scathingly funny, falls short of the mark due to sheer lack of evidence. His essay skewering environmentalism, for instance, provides NO scientific evidence for his claims (which was also a criticism levied by my professor). The pollution essay provides merely circumstancial evidence, and O'Rourke even admits he gave up trying to write about plague in Hatiti, and goes to talk about his visit to the black market and a voodoo shrine (which, I will admit, is terribly interesting).

Look, I think O'Rourke is hysterical. His one-liners are great, and yeah, he makes a few points. But the guy doesn't offer solid evidence, and the way he treats EVERY SINGLE liberal as a communist sympathizer is annoying.

Of course, if you do lean to the libertarian/fringe Republican side of the political spectrum then this review won't matter. For the rest of us, I give you fair warning.

It is fair to note that the book was last published in 1994, so it is rather out of date, if you are interested in purchasing it.

Skewer the liberals and roast their ideas........2003-02-18

P.J. O'Rourke gets it right. First time and everytime. I appreciate the logical perspective he puts on his selected issues. From population to pollution, he shows the liberal slant in reporting is not reality. Funny how the population of Bangladesh is frightening, but not in Fremont, California, though both places have the same density. O'Rourke has a fun writing style and a propensity to use words that makes many readers cringe as they reach for their dictionaries. The man is truely a master of his craft.

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The Great Famine

The Great Famine
William Chester Jordan
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691011346

Amazon.com

The early 1300s must have seemed like the end of the world to the unfortunate inhabitants of Europe: brutally severe winters gave way to lightning storms and torrential, crop-destroying rains in spring, followed by cold summers and then bitter winters again. "The whole world was troubled," wrote one Austrian chronicler; yet that was only the beginning. Princeton University historian William Chester Jordan reconstructs the terrible decades when climatological change led to famine, disease, rampant inflation, and social breakdown across the European continent, a time when every prayer for relief was met by even crueler turns of fate.

Book Description

The horrors of the Great Famine (1315-1322), one of the severest catastrophes ever to strike northern Europe, lived on for centuries in the minds of Europeans who recalled tales of widespread hunger, class warfare, epidemic disease, frighteningly high mortality, and unspeakable crimes. Until now, no one has offered a perspective of what daily life was actually like throughout the entire region devastated by this crisis, nor has anyone probed far into its causes. Here, the distinguished historian William Jordan provides the first comprehensive inquiry into the Famine from Ireland to western Poland, from Scandinavia to central France and western Germany. He produces a rich cultural history of medieval community life, drawing his evidence from such sources as meteorological and agricultural records, accounts kept by monasteries providing for the needy, and documentation of military campaigns. Whereas there has been a tendency to describe the food shortages as a result of simply bad weather or else poor economic planning, Jordan sets the stage so that we see the complex interplay of social and environmental factors that caused this particular disaster and allowed it to continue for so long.

Jordan begins with a description of medieval northern Europe at its demographic peak around 1300, by which time the region had achieved a sophisticated level of economic integration. He then looks at problems that, when combined with years of inundating rains and brutal winters, gnawed away at economic stability. From animal diseases and harvest failures to volatile prices, class antagonism, and distribution breakdowns brought on by constant war, northern Europeans felt helplessly besieged by acts of an angry God--although a cessation of war and a more equitable distribution of resources might have lessened the severity of the food shortages.

Throughout Jordan interweaves vivid historical detail with a sharp analysis of why certain responses to the famine failed. He ultimately shows that while the northern European economy did recover quickly, the Great Famine ushered in a period of social instability that had serious repercussions for generations to come.

Download Description

The horrors of the Great Famine (1315 1322), one of the severest catastrophes ever to strike northern Europe, lived on for centuries in the minds of Europeans who recalled tales of widespread hunger, class warfare, epidemic disease, frighteningly high mortality, and unspeakable crimes. Until now, no one has offered a perspective of what daily life was actually like throughout the entire region devastated by this crisis, nor has anyone probed far into its causes. Here, the distinguished historian William Jordan provides the first comprehensive inquiry into the Famine from Ireland to western Poland, from Scandinavia to central France and western Germany. He produces a rich cultural history of medieval community life, drawing his evidence from such sources as meteorological and agricultural records, accounts kept by monasteries providing for the needy, and documentation of military campaigns. Whereas there has been a tendency to describe the food shortages as a result of simply bad weather or else poor economic planning, Jordan sets the stage so that we see the complex interplay of social and environmental factors that caused this particular disaster and allowed it to continue for so long. Jordan begins with a description of medieval northern Europe at its demographic peak around 1300, by which time the region had achieved a sophisticated level of economic integration. He then looks at problems that, when combined with years of inundating rains and brutal winters, gnawed away at economic stability. From animal diseases and harvest failures to volatile prices, class antagonism, and distribution breakdowns brought on by constant war, northern Europeans felt helplessly besieged by acts of an angry God--although a cessation of war and a more equitable distribution of resources might have lessened the severity of the food shortages. Throughout Jordan interweaves vivid historical detail with a sharp analysis of why certain responses to the famine failed.

Customer Reviews:

The Great Famine.......2007-04-28

Read this for graduate history course in medieval history.
William Jordan Book is great as a source material book. Excellent scholar. One of the 1st Economic, environmental historicists. A Good multi disciplinary approach. His mortality numbers tend to be on the conservative side. A food shortage is when 1 staple is unavailable or food unavailable for 1 year. Those items people crave are more expensive but are attainable. Great Famine is a catastrophic failure of agriculture. All food groups fail items unavailable for any price. Because of famine, you get weir foods like acorn bread, awful taste. 1315-22, does not affect Spain, Italy, Greece, and Scotland. Bad in Germany N. France, Scandinavia England, Ireland. 400,000sq. miles, 30 million people. Famine follows big population explosion 1100-1300. 1250 agricultural productivity is declining. As population increases technology in food production can't keep up. 3 field crop rotation means 1/3 of field is fallow. Harness technology goes to animal shoulder to increase productivity, better plough blades thus soil gets better aeration. Green manure is bean plants rich in nitrogen get plowed into ground, brown manure is animal and human waste. Cattle graze on land leaving droppings. 14 century animals not producing enough manure as #'s dwindle, Increase in population means more marginal land is being farmed not working out well, also means more calories burned working marginal land than being produced. Also means livestock have less land to graze on.

Page 12-13 Looks at David Arnolds 4 scenarios for the inset of famine. 1. Population numbers are higher than productive means. 2. Sustained failure of appropriate weather. 3. Problems of food distribution, from transportation and war. 4. Peasants not changing their growing methods to meet the problem. Jordan thinks the most troubling scenario is the last one.

We have good skeletal remains to show that their was a lot of bone problems from people working hard in the fields. Biggest cost for medieval people is food, 70% of income; housing is only 10% of income. When food in Paris increases 800% you know you will have food riots. No good social systems to deal with the problem. They ate their seed corn, grains, and rye susceptible to molds, and fungi poisoning people. Can't store grain for long periods of time, rats eat allot of grain in storage. There is no fallback for people agriculturally. Seeds produce 4 or 5 to 1. You get 4 seeds for 1 planted. Less animals means less manure. Chicken eggs are used to pay rent, chickens are the size of today's game hen's chickens get eaten fast.

Jordan says this won't happen today because we have global agriculture and world wide distribution system. Only happen in regions as political tool, like Darfur, or what Stalin did using food as a weapon. Long term suffering and starvation was more routine to these people's lives, did not affect them psychologically as the Black Death when you look at manuscript records. City people even send pirates out to take grain ships. Women survive better than men because they have more body fat.

Food hoarders, Jews as money lenders do not fair well with starving people going after them. Government starts to control food production like standardizing weight and size of bread loafs, some still do this today. Bread is important to people because of Eucharist. High prices cause a slow down of consumption, but it doesn't solve the problem. People will eat what you put in front of them. Stomachs will shrink.

Pigs survive best, they eat anything, rain doesn't bother them, they don't get rinderpest hooves don't rot. Cattle sheep get disease, sheep susceptible to cold. Horses stolen by the army. Short term 50% in herds, 75% drop long term. Wool income in England goes down. Who profits? Salt producers, need salt to make dairy products like cheese and to salt meat to preserve it. They use a lot of forest wood to make salt because they steam seawater. Some Lords and Abbots make profits. Many church lands are sold off, peasants are able to buy it cheap for those that have money, and some do, this makes them landed gentry in next century. Charity fails. Church can't run soup kitchens any more, but they do make money running a form of nursing home. Beggars increase, people turn to strange diets, roots, dirt, bark, shoes, etc.

Grains are known as cereals, British historians call grains corn not the same as Maze which we call corn. Corn is New World crop.

Primary cereal grain is wheat, high in gluttons, protein 13% in white bread, very desirable, for aristocracy. Easier to chew, 35-50% grain milled out of it. Average monastic person gets 2500-3000 calories, one of the better diets of the time. Rich eat no fruits because of sin of fruit from Tree of Knowledge. Peasant 2000-2200 calories, subsistence living. They are living on the margins. Livestock of the time smaller by 40%, people are smaller average height 5' 6". Protein intake is reason for this. Rickets, scurvy all problems. Cabbage only source of vitamin C for most Europeans. Pigs last longest since they eat anything.

1320-1330 2nd worst cold period in middle ages, 1310-1320 2nd worst time for excessive rains. 1314 bad rains in Summer in Germany. 1315 Baltic salt sea freezes over. All Rivers in Europe freeze over. This persists until 1322 in Baltic of that year snow stays on the ground all year round. Wars make things worse for people. People psychologically spooked by increase in meteor and comet activity.

The Great Famine of 1315-1317 (or to 1322) was the first of a series of large-scale crises that struck Europe early in the 14th century, causing millions of deaths over an extended number of years and marking a clear end to an earlier period of growth and prosperity during the 11th through 13th centuries. Starting with bad weather in the spring of 1315, universal crop failures lasted through 1316 until the summer of 1317; Europe did not fully recover until 1322. It was a period marked by extreme levels of criminal activity, disease and mass death, infanticide, and cannibalism. It had consequences for Church, State, European society and future calamities to follow in the 14th century.

Famine in the Medieval European context meant that people died of starvation on a massive scale. As brutal as they were, famines were familiar occurrences in Medieval Europe. As an example, localized famines occurred in France during the 14th century in 1304, 1305, 1310, 1315-1317 (the Great Famine), 1330-1334, 1349-1351, 1358-1360, 1371, 1374-1375 and 1390. In England, the most prosperous kingdom affected by the Great Famine, there were famines in 1315-1317, 1321, 1351, 1369, and more. For most people there was usually never enough to eat and life was a relatively short and brutal struggle to survive to old age, which might mean as young as 30 years old. According to official records of the British Royal family, the best off in society, the average life expectancy in 1276 was 35.28 years. Between 1301 and 1325 during the Great Famine, it was 29.84 while between 1348-1375 during the Plague it went to 17.33.

The Great Famine was restricted to Northern Europe, from Russia in the east to Ireland in the west, from Scandinavia in the north and bounded in the south by the Alps and the Pyrenees. During the Medieval Warm Period (the period prior to 1350) the population of Europe had exploded, reaching levels that were not matched again in some places until the 19th century (parts of France today are less populous than at the beginning of the 14th century). However, the yield ratios of wheat (the number of seeds one could eat per seed planted) had been dropping since 1280 and food prices had been climbing. In good weather the ratio could be as high as 7:1, while during bad years as low as 2:1--that is, for every seed planted, two seeds were harvested, one for next year's seed, and one for food. By comparison, modern farming has ratios of 200:1 or more.

However, there was one catastrophic dip in the weather during the Medieval Warm Period that coincided with the onset of the Great Famine. Between 1310 and 1330 northern Europe saw some of the worst and most sustained periods of bad weather in the entire Middle Ages, characterized by severe winters and rainy and cold summers. Changing weather patterns, the ineffectiveness of medieval governments in dealing with crises and a population level at a historical high water mark made it a time when there was little margin for error.

Great Famine
In the spring of 1315, unusually heavy rain began in much of Europe. Throughout the spring and summer, it continued to rain and the temperature remained cool. Under these conditions grain could not ripen. Grain was brought indoors in urns and pots. The straw and hay for the animals could not be cured and there was no fodder for the livestock. The price of food began to rise. In England, food that had sold for 20 shillings in the spring sold for 40 shillings by June, doubling in price. Salt, the only way to cure and preserve meat, was difficult to obtain because it could not be evaporated in the wet weather; it went from 30 shillings to 40 shillings. In Lorraine, wheat prices grew by 320 percent, making bread unaffordable to peasants. Stores of grain for long-term emergencies were limited to the lords and nobles. Because of the general increased population pressures, even lower-than-average harvests meant some people would go hungry; there was little margin for failure. People began to harvest wild edible roots, plants, grasses, nuts, and bark in the forests.

There are a number of documented incidents that show the extent of the famine. Edward II, King of England, stopped at Saint Albans on August 10, 1315 and no bread could be found for him or his entourage; it was a rare occasion in which the King of England, the most prosperous nation in Europe, was unable to eat. The French, under Louis X, tried to invade Flanders, but being in the low country of the Netherlands, the fields were soaked and the army became so bogged down they were forced to retreat, burning their provisions where they left them, unable to carry them out.

In the spring of 1316, it continued to rain on a European population deprived of energy and reserve to sustain itself. All segments of society from nobles to peasants were affected, most of all the peasants, who represented 95% of the population and who had no safety nets. To provide some measure of relief, the future was mortgaged by slaughtering the draft animals; eating the seed grain; abandoning children to fend for themselves (see "Hansel and Gretel"); and, among old people, voluntarily refusing food in hopes of the younger generation surviving. The chroniclers of the time wrote of many incidents of cannibalism. The height of the famine was reached in 1317 as the wet weather hung on. Finally, in the summer the weather returned to its normal patterns. By now, however, people were so weakened by diseases such as pneumonia, bronchitis, tuberculosis, and other sicknesses, and much of the seed stock had been eaten, that it was not until 1325 that the food supply returned to relatively normal conditions and the population began to increase again. Historians debate the toll but it is estimated that between 10%-25% of the population of many cities and towns died. While the Black Death (1338-1375) would kill more, for many the Great Famine was worse. While the plague swept through an area in a matter of months, the Great Famine lingered for years, drawing out the suffering of those who would slowly starve to death, face cannibalism, child-murder, and rampant crime.

Consequences
The famine is called the Great Famine not only because of the number of people who died, or the vast geographic area that was affected, or the length of time it lasted, but also because of the lasting consequences. The first consequence was for the Church. No amount of prayer seemed effective against the causes of the famine. In a society where the final recourse to all problems had been religion, no amount of prayer was helping and the famine undermined the institutional authority of the Catholic Church. This helped lay the foundations for later movements that were deemed heretical by the Church because they opposed the Papacy. Second was the increase in criminal activity. Medieval Europe in the 13th century had already been a violent culture where rape and murder were demonstrably more common than in modern times. With the famine even those who were not normally inclined to criminal activity would resort to any means to feed themselves or their family. After the famine, Europe took on a tougher and more violent edge; it had become an even less amicable place than during the 12th and 13th centuries. The effects of this could be seen across all segments of society, perhaps the most striking in the way warfare was conducted in the 14th century during the bloody 100 Years War, versus the 12th and 13th centuries when nobles were more likely to die by accident in tournament games than on the field of battle. Third was the failure of the medieval governments to deal with the crisis. Just as God seemed unable or unwilling to answer prayers, the earthly powers were equally ineffective, eroding and undermining their power and authority. Fourthly, the Great Famine marked a clear end to an unprecedented period of population growth that had started around 1050; although some believe this had been slowing down for a few decades already, there is no doubt the Great Famine was a clear end of high population growth. Finally, the Great Famine would have consequences for future events in the 14th century such as the Black Death when an already weakened population would be struck again.

Recommended reading for those interested in medieval history.

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Worthwhile
A must read book
More excellent information here..!
World's best kept Communist tragedy
The greatest peacetime disaster of the 20th century

Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine
Jasper Becker
Manufacturer: Holt Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0805056688

Amazon.com

This first authoritative expose of the 1958-1962 famine prompted by China's collectivization plan, "The Great Leap Forward," comes at a time when the cult of Mao is alive and well inside China, and while agents of Chinese influence are able to arrange audiences with a President. Via his painstaking research and reporting that included two treks through interior Chinese provinces, Becker tells how the famine occurred because ill-trained peasants were forced to undertake a gigantic and centralized industrial and agricultural expansion. The new factories, canals, and irrigation systems failed spectacularly, and in contrast to propaganda boasts of having economically outstripped the U.S., when in reality the populace was driven by starvation to cannibalism, slavery, and madness.

Book Description

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Chinese people suffered what may have been the worst famine in history. Over thirty million perished in a grain shortage brought on not by flood, drought, or infestation, but by the insanely irresponsible dictates of Chairman Mao Ze-dong's "Great Leap Forward," an attempt at utopian engineering gone horribly wrong. Journalist Jasper Becker conducted hundreds of interviews and spent years immersed in painstaking detective work to produce Hungry Ghosts, the first full account of this dark chapter in Chinese history. In this horrific story of state-sponsored terror, cannibalism, torture, and murder, China's communist leadership boasted of record harvests and actually increased grain exports, while refusing imports and international assistance. With China's reclamation of Hong Kong now a fait accompli, removing the historical blinders is more timely than ever. As reviewer Richard Bernstein wrote in the New York Times, "Mr. Becker's remarkable book....strikes a heavy blow against willed ignorance of what took place."

Customer Reviews:

Worthwhile.......2006-02-25

I find this book a most fascinating one . . . and a "required" reading for those interested not just in China's history but modern genocide, mass media control by state press, Communist theory development, among many other topics. It is easy to read and gruesome aspects of the famine are dealt with respectfully and with sensitivity.

I give it only four stars (rather than five) because I feel there is, at times, repetition of facts. All in all I highly recommend this book. Every person should read it to better understand and bring to light shameful acts against humanity.

A must read book.......2006-01-24

This book isn't especially well written from a literary perspective. In the reviews below you will find one or two criticisms such as an incomplete understanding of ancient Chinese history, which may well be valid. Unfortunately some people have obviously got hung up on the "30 million" deaths claim, but Becker does little to independently research the size of the death toll. He just summarises the various research that has been carried out, with what looks to me like a fair-minded commentary of the problems of estimating an accurate number.

However this is not the point of the book, which is firstly to gather together evidence that this famine did happen and secondly to piece together the complex strands explaining why it happened.

Ultimate blame is placed at the foot of Mao who firstly was the architect of the radical and in some cases barmy social and agricultural reforms which initiated the famine and secondly put in place a regime of terror which led most non-heroic subordinates to feedback the information they thought he wanted to hear regardless of the reality on the ground. Most of those who dared to tell the truth, ultimately paid with their life, either immediately or a few years later in the Cultural Revolution, which itself is seen by Becker as the way Mao sought to regain control of the party from the more moderate voices who had eventually managed to put in place the reforms to Mao's policies which ended the famine.

To his credit, Becker spends some time discussing the previous famines and periods of war and unrest which provide a backdrop to the situation. He also recognises, though does not emphasis some of Mao's achievements. His overall thesis is I think not, as some seem to suggest, that Mao deliberately and consciously murdered his own people in the way that Stalin did. It's more that Mao though he might have been a master political and military tactician had little understanding of human nature or science and was so drunk on his own propaganda that he refused to see how he could have been mistaken. Becker leaves open the morally important question of the extent to which Mao had deluded himself about the suffering of his people, and the extent to which he believed that such suffering was of little consequence in the greater scheme of things.

Becker also correctly lays considerable blame at the doors of those western commentators, China watchers and academics who were duped by Mao's propaganda - way up until the early 1990s, thus paving the way for a series of disasters around the world as various third world governments from Cambodia to Tanzania tried to emulate the apparent achievements of Mao's China with disastrous policies of their own.

I believe that Becker puts forward a fair minded and highly plausible analysis of what happened during this period, and given its importance not only from a moral perspective but in understanding the history of China and the world during the subsequent 50 years, it's a book that as many people as possible should be encouraged to carefully and open mindedly read.

More excellent information here..!.......2005-08-23

After reading this book, I also went to this website http://www.theepochtimes.com/jiuping.asp and read its articles entitled, "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party". The information is very in-depth and goes steps further in exposing the CCP during its bloody rise to power and its current efforts to maintain absolute control. I would highly recommend checking it out.. All the materials are FREE and they even have free audio book format mp3's

World's best kept Communist tragedy .......2004-10-03

The tragedy of the massive famine that devoured untold numbers of lives in China during the 1959 - 1961 "Great Leap Forward" campaign was that the official stand of the Chinese Communist Party refused to acknowledge it as a man-made mistake.

This book acts like Spielberg's "Shoah Foundation", it's a testament to a fatalistic catastrophe of biblical proportions. It contains testimonies of survivors which the author had interviewed. Simple as it may seem, but some of the testimonies are indeed moving, touching and shows how hunger can reveal the bestial and the monstrosity of what a human being is capable of.

The greatest peacetime disaster of the 20th century.......2003-12-26

-----------------------------------------------------------
A horrifying and well-researched history of how Mao's "Great
Leap Forward" became the worst famine in history, killing
perhaps 30 million Chinese (1958 - 1960) -- it appears
unlikely an exact fatality figure will ever be known. Which
adds to the horror, I think, that millions of people, with hopes
and dreams like our own, could vanish without leaving
a trace, even a number, in the world outside their homes.
Not to mention uncounted millions of children whose lives
were blighted by brain-damage from malnutrition....

FWIW, Jasper concludes that Mao's Great Famine was more
omission than commission (in contrast to Stalin's): Mao's
absurd ideas of backyard industrialization, plus turning
loose the Red Guards chaos, ruined the harvests. Then
Communist Party officials simply denied the problem, and
concocted elaborate coverups -- even painting the tree
trunks to hide that the bark had been eaten by starving
people -- when Mao or senior officials were to visit famine
areas. And a smiling-peasants "Big Lie" for foreigners,
which worked for years.

It's a remarkable, and depressing, account. Highly recommended.

review copyright 1999 by Peter D. Tillman

Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death

Average customer rating:

Exposes the Media's Voyeuristic, Shock And Awe Tendencies
Good read, but cliche conclusions
Profoundly important and a good read to boot.
The Perfect Holiday Gift
This is a very important book.

Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death
Susan D Moeller
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0415920973

Book Description

From outbreaks of the flesh eating viruses Ebola and Strep A, to death camps in Bosnia and massacres in Rwanda, the media seem to careen from one trauma to another, in a breathless tour of poverty, disease and death. First we're horrified, but each time they turn up the pitch, show us one image more hideous than the next, it gets harder and harder to feel. Meet compassion fatigue--a modern syndrome, Susan Moeller argues, that results from formulaic media coverage, sensationalized language and overly Americanized metaphors.

In her impassioned new book, Compassion Fatigue, Moeller warns that the American media threatens our ability to understand the world around us. Why do the media cover the world in the way that they do? Are they simply following the marketplace demand for tabloid-style international news? Or are they creating an audience that has seen too much--or too little--to care? Through a series of case studies of the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"--disease, famine, death and war--Moeller investigates how newspapers, newsmagazines and television have covered international crises over the last two decades, identifying the ruts into which the media have fallen and revealing why.

Throughout, we hear from industry insiders who tell of the chilling effect of the mega-media mergers, the tyranny of the bottom-line hunt for profits, and the decline of the American attention span as they struggle to both tell and sell a story. But Moeller is insistent that the media need not, and should not, be run like any other business. The media have a special responsibility to the public, and when they abdicate this responsibility and the public lapses into a compassion fatigue stupor, we become a public at great danger to ourselves.

Customer Reviews:

Exposes the Media's Voyeuristic, Shock And Awe Tendencies.......2005-01-24

"At breakfast and at dinner, we can sharpen our own appetites with a plentiful dose of the pornography of war, genocide, destitution and disease." So says one of the first lines in introduction to Compassion Fatigue. With that statement as simultaneously an opener and a teaser of the things to come, Professor Moeller takes the reader on a guided tour of the presentation and commodification of human tragedy and suffering.

Compassion Fatigue tells you the how and the why behind what makes the nightly news, and also reveals why a great many other things do not make the news. While mostly a critique of US based media and journalism, it does reveal the gradual trend towards the 'One World' view of things and events that has come to typify reporting of any sort.

Without intending to do so, the book does much to demonstrate that the media, always locked in competition with other forms of 'programming' for our attention, has resorted to marketing information- current events, as a form of entertainment. In place of in-depth, investigative journalism, we now have soundbites featuring 'talking heads', and the cuter or more obscene the personality (and increasingly both), the better.

Each of the so-called 'Four Horsemen'- war, disease, famine and death, are presented and profiled in turn, with detailed discussion about the mechanics behind their delivery to readers and viewers. This book differs from most critiques of the media because it tells the narrative with the assistance of journalists themselves, in the words of the journalists.

Many people in the media know what they are doing is not only questionable, but in some cases, flat out wrong. However, marketability (how well something will go over with viewers) matters more than anything else. Marketability makes for high ratings, and high ratings in turn makes for fat profits for the parent company. Ergo, the trend towards to self-interested and self-centered journalism, and the tendency to feature celebrity involvement with current events. The latter trend is most pernicious, because it is not necessarily the event, but what they think of it that matters most, as being able to get people's attention is the most important thing, not what's really going on in the world. This in turn is both related to and feeds into the Body Count Syndrome, whereby each tragedy or documented depravity has to be bigger and obscence than the one before it, once again, to get our attention.

Although the book was a bit wearying at points (mostly because of the nine point font of the text), overall the content was top-notch. I especially liked the final chapter, where Professor Moeller compared and contrasted the funerals of Princess Diana and Mother Theresa, both of whom died at the same time. One was tabloid fodder, and th