The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857

The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857
Average customer rating:

A poisenous book

no dry history book

Simply Magnificent

timely

"The light has gone out of India. The land is lampless."

The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857
William Dalrymple
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

India | Asia | History | Subjects | Books | Ancient
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1400043107
Release Date: 2007-03-27

Book Description

On a hazy November afternoon in Rangoon, 1862, a shrouded corpse was escorted by a small group of British soldiers to an anonymous grave in a prison enclosure. As the British Commissioner in charge insisted, “No vestige will remain to distinguish where the last of the Great Moghuls rests.”

Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last Mughal Emperor, was a mystic, an accomplished poet and a skilled calligrapher. But while his Mughal ancestors had controlled most of India, the aged Zafar was king in name only. Deprived of real political power by the East India Company, he nevertheless succeeded in creating a court of great brilliance, and presided over one of the great cultural renaissances of Indian history.

Then, in 1857, Zafar gave his blessing to a rebellion among the Company’s own Indian troops, thereby transforming an army mutiny into the largest uprising any empire had to face in the entire course of the nineteenth century. The Siege of Delhi was the Raj’s Stalingrad: one of the most horrific events in the history of Empire, in which thousands on both sides died. And when the British took the city—securing their hold on the subcontinent for the next ninety years—tens of thousands more Indians were executed, including all but two of Zafar’s sixteen sons. By the end of the four-month siege, Delhi was reduced to a battered, empty ruin, and Zafar was sentenced to exile in Burma. There he died, the last Mughal ruler in a line that stretched back to the sixteenth century.

Award-winning historian and travel writer William Dalrymple shapes his powerful retelling of this fateful course of events from groundbreaking material: previously unexamined Urdu and Persian manuscripts that include Indian eyewitness accounts and records of the Delhi courts, police and administration during the siege. The Last Mughal is a revelatory work—the first to present the Indian perspective on the fall of Delhi—and has as its heart both the dazzling capital personified by Zafar and the stories of the individuals tragically caught up in one of the bloodiest upheavals in history.

Customer Reviews:

A poisenous book.......2007-09-25

Exquisitely researched and well written, describing past lives and events that appear as real as if the reader had been a material witness, this book's quality of writing reminds me of Dalrymple's "White Mughals", dealing with British servants of the East India Company who "went native" by adopting Muslim customs in the early decades of the Raj. In "The Last Mughal", however, Dalrymple has gone native himself, by trumpeting Muslim culture as superior to all things Western at every turn. Especially irritating are the infrequent but none-too-subtle parallels he draws with the present : it seems America is the new Raj, whose "undisguised imperial arrogance" rose after the fall of the Berlin Wall - a gratuitous opinion lacking any bearing on this book's subject, the end of the Mughal Dynasty in India. Dalrymple rants between the lines, describing the West - then and now - as nothing but a bunch of rapacious pilferers and murderers, who uproot delicately balanced, refined, pacifist, tolerant, and multicultural Muslim societies, composed solely of courtiers, courtesans and poets. This was, to use a British understatement, a trifle at variance with reality, as both Hindu and Muslim ruling classes of the period wallowed in disgusting wealth while their subjects lived miserable lives in abject poverty. The imperialist, but now long gone Raj at least curbed the worst excesses of the Indian princes and laid the foundations of modern India, from the civil service to railroad infrastructure, but not a word of this is whispered here. One virtue of the book is that it shows the true character of the disciples of the Prophet, who managed to turn a Hindu mutiny into a jihad in no time. Also instructive is Dalrymple's enthousiastic, gushing descriptions of sword-wielding jihadis "duly dispatching" helpless British women and children during the "Uprising", in stark contrast with the "brutal killings" by British "psychopaths". No doubt atrocities were committed on both sides, but the double standard in describing them rankles, while references to present "Western arrogance and imperialism" reveals the bias of the author who, by the way, prefers living in the arrogant West over residing in a delicately balanced, refined, pacifist, tolerant, and multicultural Muslim society. This is a poisonous book, unworthy of being termed objective historical writing.

no dry history book.......2007-09-15

A surprisingly readable history of a dark and troubled time in India's history. Britain rode roughshod over thousands of years of civilisation on the sub-Continent seeking to impose Christianity on an unwilling populace. The invaders believed that their way of life was simply superior to that of that of the subjugated masses. History continues to repeat these terrble crimes into the 20th and 21st centuries.

Simply Magnificent.......2007-09-07

Live in the Delhi of 1857. Watch and feel the vibrancy of the sophisticated and cultured life of Delhi. Read the most understandable account of the whats and whys of the Indian Mutiny. Literally watch an entire city of 150,000 people destroyed. Move along the roads and alleys of Delhi as its citizens are slaughtered by the avenging British Army greatly assisted by Indians themselves with a substantial part of the genocide underwritten by Indian moneylenders. You will get a first hand view of the end of the 300 year old Mughal rule on the subcontinent, and understand why religious extremism (represented in this book largely by evangalical christians) has done the world no good for centuries. You will be reminded about how very thin is the veneer of civilization and tolerance and that when it comes to slaughtering their own species there is no parallel to us humans.

A book of great beauty based on immaculate research with great relevance to today's world.

The standard by which all books on this subject will henceforth be judged.

timely.......2007-08-29

a fascinating commentary on british colonialism. dalrymple makes a convincing case for the mutiny being a harbinger of the empire's collapse. there are some clear parallels with the united states' current embroglios in afghanistan and iraq.
this is a must read, and is made much more enjoyable by an abundance of newly presented (and translated) historical documents that provide insight to ongoings of zafar's court and east india company. such documentation sheds light on the diverse religious/social dynamics of both sides of the conflict. i was astounded to hear that 60 % of the soldiers used by the british to control the sepoys were of indian descent (mostly sikhs, if memory serves).

"The light has gone out of India. The land is lampless.".......2007-08-12

A great strength of 'The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857' by William Dalrymple (White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India) is its use not only of more familiar British sources, but also many Indian (Urdu and Persian) sources on one of pivotal events in the history of both India and the British Empire, the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 or the First War of Indian Independence as it is also sometimes called.

Dalrymple describes his excitement at discovering some 20,000 Persian and Urdu documents in the Indian national Archives. A particularly important source was the 'Dihli Urdu Akhbar' a principal Urdu newspaper that continued to publish during the revolt. These sources allow Dalrymple to give voice to the Indian as well the British point of view.

In 1857 the sepoys of the British Raj's Bengal Army mutinied (the reasons are explored in the book, but were at least partly due to a clash of newly arrived Christian evangelicals and adherents of Islam and Hindu). What began as mutiny became something larger at least in part because the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II endorsed it.

Dalrymple centers his telling of the tale on Zafar, the man destined to become the last Mughal emperor. By 1857 the Mughal Emperor possessed no real tangible power and was nothing more than the King of Delhi as he was derisively called. An aesthete himself, Zafar was singularly well-suited to his role as head of a court that elevated culture, poetry in particular, but wholly unsuited by temperament and age (he was 82 years old) to a role as leader of an armed revolt.

Delhi before 1857 was a remarkably tolerant mix of Hindu and Islam - roughly a 50/50 split - in part because of Zafar's manner of ruling. Zafar's acceptance of a titular leadership in the revolt meant that both Muslims and Hindi rallied to the cause. That symbolic role, however, was about all Zafar brought to the war.

The revolt began to flounder almost immediately due a lack of proper direction and discipline. The Sepoy regiments each acted independently and allowed a much smaller British force (ostensibly come to lay siege to the city) to survive repeated but serial attacks. The early stages of the revolt also saw horrific slaughter of noncombatant and unarmed British residents.

Eventually the British took the city and the revenge they took is described by Dalrymple in bloody detail. The killings were nothing short of mass murder and heartily endorsed by nearly every Britisher with any knowledge of it (William Howard Russell was one exception). Men who had lost family in the initial outbreak were allowed to massacre at will for months - Theo Metcalfe is the most notable example. Those locals not killed were left homeless and starving.

The British executed nearly the entire Mughal royal family and would have done so for Zafar, but for the promise that his life would be spared if he surrendered. It was a promise that the British determined they were bound to keep even though they didn't like it much.

One supposes this example represents Victorian attitudes about rectitude that the British somehow held in their heads at the same time that they authored unspeakable murdering sprees. In a somewhat lighter example, Dalrymple quotes a British soldier's letter written to his mum on the eve of battle in which the youth expresses his fear that engaging in the fight may cause him to swear!

As stated at the outset the rich sources give 'The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857' its strength, but Dalrymple's over-reliance on the raw materials makes the book drag to its conclusion. For the last 100+ pages, Dalrymple sometimes gives over the narrative to his primary sources as page after page consists substantially of quotes from letters, reports, or memoirs. Dalrymple also spends only the briefest time placing the events of 1857 in a larger historical framework.

Nonetheless, the book is a triumph of research and offers that rarity in historical writing, the truly fresh perspective. Dalrymple gives voice to the Indian perspective of the fall of Delhi. As the great court poet Ghalib so poignantly expressed it, "The light has gone out of India. The land is lampless."

Highly recommended.

A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East

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A Major Source of Historical Perspective
Supporting Links and Passing Praise
Not 5 star good.
A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing...
Extraordinary! A monumental book.

A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
David Fromkin
Manufacturer: Owl Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World
Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph
Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789-1923
What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East
From Beirut to Jerusalem

ASIN: 0805068848

Book Description

Wonderful....No book published in recent years has more lasting relevance to our understanding of the Middle East. Los Angeles Times

Customer Reviews:

A Major Source of Historical Perspective.......2007-10-01

I wish to second Robert Steele's 5-star review of "A Peace to End All Peace", which was posted yesterday. I had ample time to read the book thoroughly, not in the stands at my son's Little League game, some years ago. It's worth a careful and thoughtful reading; no other book I know of sets the stage for understanding the Middle East in the 20th C as conprehensively. And after you finish it, I'd recommend "All the Shah's Men" as the key text for understanding America's embroglio with Iran.

Supporting Links and Passing Praise.......2007-09-25

I am forty books behind in actual reading, but I had the pleasure of scanning this book while on the sidelines of my son's football practice, and it is, as so aptly described by the best of the reviews, breathtaking.

The sentence that grabbed me is in the final paragraph, where the author sums up the roots of the Middle Eastern troubles as being directly on the heads of the English in particular, who lied, cheated, and stole without mercy. He says of Loyd George: "His political deviousness and his moral and financial laxness were never forgotten." Would that this were so, for Dick Cheney and George Bush are our Lloyd George.

I have written a full summative review of a book that complement's this author's sensible account, and reading that review before reading this book could be helpful. The other books also support the view that we are our own worst enemy, that there is plenty of money with which to make the world heaven on earth, but rule by secrecy, predatory capitalism, and fascism disguised as democracy has looted the planet and picked the pocket of the individual taxpayer while destroying the middle class. We are repeating history, in part because we have one of the most poorly educated populations with respect to history and global cultures, than ever before. The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency has taken to complaining recently that he cannot find enough qualified recruits in our shallow pool of "worldly" talent.

The Health of Nations: Society and Law beyond the State

The key point of the above book is that the Treaty of Westphalia and the creation of nation-states as soverign entities with unrestricted powers within their own borders--borders created by the English and other invasive colonizing powers with the US the most active in the last 200 years--were huge mistakes. We should instead have at least made Indigenous Peoples co-equal, and understood, and respected, tribal boundaries established over centuries. Ignorance and hubris/arrogance combine with greed at the corporate and dictator levels (see Ambassador Palmer's book on "Breaking the Real Axis of Evil" to understand why our White House loves 42 of the 44 dictators on the planet, and Tim Weiner's "Legacy of Ashies" for why CIA went straight into the business of supporting dictators as proxy bullies). Paul Bremer had it right: the root cause of terrorism is us. See my comment for a note on Chinese Irregular Warfare that just took force off the table as a US option.

See also
The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage)
The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA, Fourth Edition
Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions
Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders

On the positive side, but Amazon only allows ten active links, see
Yochai Benkler, Wealth of Networks
Barry Carter, Infinite Wealth
C.K. Prahalad, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid
J. F. Rischard, HIGH NOON: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them
Robert Steele, The New Craft of Intelligence
Robert Steele, The Smart Nation Act: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest
Thomas Stewart, Wealth of Knowledge
Alvin Toffler, Revolutionary Wealth
E. O. Wilson, The Future of Life
Medaard Gabel, Seven Billion Billionaires (forthcoming)

I hope this contextual connecting of some dots is viewed as helpful. This is not a "pretend" review!

Not 5 star good........2007-09-08

I have bought this book after looking at all the 5 star reviews on this site and was aghast when I read it through. The book is not terrrible. It provides an extremely elitist interpretation of history which still teaches many things. The author, aside from several exception, illustrates individuals as caricatures. Does not analyze the cultural social and economical structures any more than skin deep and appears to have very limited access to any knowlegde about the Ottoman empire. Many contentious issues are glossed over. I would not have written this review cause as I said the book is not terrible but it certainly does not deserve all the 5 stars that it got. If you have read real history books, just read the first chapter and you will understand exactly what I mean. If you just want to have some hazy idea about the "Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East" than this book is good for you. Note however that you have only that, a hazy idea.

A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing..........2007-09-02

I agree with all the rave reviews--this book is a "must-read" in order to understand what is going on in the world today. The title refers ironically to the justification that World War I was a war to end all war. The peace that followed the First World War, including the carve-up of the former Ottoman Empire by the Allied powers and encouragement of nationalism by Woodrow Wilson, led to disaster. A good companion for Barbara Tuchman's "The March of Folly".

Extraordinary! A monumental book........2007-08-25

This is a well researched, comprehensive narrative on how the middle east was formed, centered on the British side of events, where the most important decisions were taken. Reading these pages, I can only think of the mess that the middle east was in those days, mostly because the major constituents of this region, that is to say Mesopotamia, Arabia and Palestine, had more than one internal player interested in holding part of the dismembered Ottoman Empire, and with the major external players at war trying also to get a piece of the cake and install or retain its influence on this important region, strategically important for its oil resources and geographic location. Added to this scenario was the zionist question, Turkey and its confilcts in central Asia and the internal problems faced by Britain, politically and economically.

Those were very complex times indeed, where the best of British diplomacy was deployed in order to forge peace and stabilize the region according to the situation in those years. Sadly, the settlement of 1922 didn't consider the Kurdish people and the Palestinian Arabs. In spite of all these problems, the book also allowed me to know more about the Arab people and part of its history and religion, its tribes and sects. I cannot say this book is the best in this subject, but certainly a must reading.

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [8 Volumes Complete Book Set] (Volumes 1-4, and Volumes 5-8, I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII)

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Brilliant, beautiful classic

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [8 Volumes Complete Book Set] (Volumes 1-4, and Volumes 5-8, I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII)

Manufacturer: Folio Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000BRUDMM

Product Description

2 boxed set, each wrapped in the original cellophane. Each box contains 4 books. Volumes 1-4, and Volumes 5-8

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant, beautiful classic.......2007-01-25

This classic presented by the Folio Society, cream leather bound, and gold leafed was a nice touch.

Hours of some of the best history reading that many authors have used as referance. Everything you wanted to know about the Roman Empire, to Attila the Hun, Constantine the Great, The Byzantines, Mohammud, and onwards.

Encyclopeadic knowledge at its finest.

The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians

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Why the Western Roman Empire collapsed
Excellent Account of a Monumental Event
Dont invite a barbarian to lunch
excellent, clear analysis
A departure from tradition

The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
Peter Heather
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Rome | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Medieval | World | History | Subjects | Books

Western | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization
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ASIN: 0195159543

Book Description

The death of the Roman Empire is one of the perennial mysteries of world history. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Peter Heather proposes a stunning new solution: Rome generated its own nemesis. Centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors it called barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling the Empire that had dominated their lives for so long. Heather is a leading authority on the late Roman Empire and on the barbarians. In The Fall of the Roman Empire, he explores the extraordinary success story that was the Roman Empire and uses a new understanding of its continued strength and enduring limitations to show how Europe's barbarians, transformed by centuries of contact with Rome on every possible level, eventually pulled it apart. He shows first how the Huns overturned the existing strategic balance of power on Rome's European frontiers, to force the Goths and others to seek refuge inside the Empire. This prompted two generations of struggle, during which new barbarian coalitions, formed in response to Roman hostility, brought the Roman west to its knees. The Goths first destroyed a Roman army at the battle of Hadrianople in 378, and went on to sack Rome in 410. The Vandals spread devastation in Gaul and Spain, before conquering North Africa, the breadbasket of the Western Empire, in 439. We then meet Attila the Hun, whose reign of terror swept from Constantinople to Paris, but whose death in 453 ironically precipitated a final desperate phase of Roman collapse culminating in the Vandals' defeat of the massive Byzantine Armada: the west's last chance for survival. Peter Heather convincingly argues that the Roman Empire was not on the brink of social or moral collapse. What brought it to an end were the barbarians.

Customer Reviews:

Why the Western Roman Empire collapsed.......2007-09-30

Many causes have been given for the fall of the Roman Empire. Some speculate that the increasing wealth of Roman citizens caused economic and military senescence. Other claim the introduction of Christianity softened the military edge of Roman leaders. Even the presence of lead in the water supply (from the pipes) has been blamed. Often these conclusions were based on historical bias (naturally, a Marxist-leaning historian would look to economic causes) or lack of proper information (only recently has it been archaeologically proven that Roman farm output did not decline over the course of the 5th century). Exacerbating the problem is the fact that most of the records of the Roman Empire have been destroyed over the years, and records from outside the Western Empire are non-existent due to the illiteracy of the Germanic and other "barbarian" peoples.

Author Peter Heather is an historian and expert on the late Western Empire and its Germanic and Hunnic neighbours. Using the latest archaeological discoveries, and sifting through original papers and classic histories (e.g. Gibbons), he brings us this new and eminently readable treatise on the fall of the Western Empire over the course of one hundred years from 376 (when two Gothic tribes arrive on the Imperial frontier demanding asylum) to the deposition of the last Western emporer (476). In that time, he builds a convincing argument that the Barbarian invasions over those 100 years were directly responsible for the fall of Rome. That this is the most obvious explanation based on the historical record does not diminish his thesis, as he successfully demolishes the more esoteric "deeper" arguments of his predescessor historians (such as Gibbon, who pointed to Christianity as the cause).

Thus: At a time when the Persian Empire was rejuvenated as a united political entity (and thus pressuring the Eastern Empire as a rival superpower), the Huns invaded the lands of eastern Europe, displacing the Goths and others westward into the lands of the Romans. Over the course of the previous 300 years, diplomatic interference in the Germani's internal affairs, periodic punitive expeditions, and especially trade had transformed their cultures to a point where they were able to coalesce into supergroups (Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals) capable of directly challenging Roman military forces. As they carved out niches for themselves (Vandals in Africa, Visigoths in Gaul/Spain, etc.), the losses in tax revenues sapped the strength of the military (unable to pay for soldiers). Thus, when Attila himself appeared, the Roman military was already in a downward spiral. Basically, the loss of tax income caused by wave after wave of Barbarian invasion (ultimately fueled by Hunnic expansion) crippled Rome's ability to field enough military strength to preserve the Empire.

Such an analysis could be dry and academic, but Heather brings the book to life with vivid portraits of everyone from the smallest Imperial usurpers to Attila the Hun. He even instills sly humour (he describes an experiment with his 11-year-old son on how long it would take to shout the obligatory acclamations to the Emporer in the Senate) and deliberate anachronisms (comparing one archaeologist to Indiana Jones) to bring variety to the narrative. There is also an ample supply of maps and some pictures. Thus, it's an entertaining book to read. Unfortunately, it lasts a bit too long for my tastes, and becomes a little repetitive, thus robbing it of a 5th star. Still, recommended for anyone interested in the latest thoughts on the demise of the Western Roman Empire.

Excellent Account of a Monumental Event.......2007-07-28

The "Fall of the Roman Empire" casts a huge shadow. A vast Empire, one of the great civilisations of history, went in barely a century from being the "sole superpower" to a mere plaything of barbarian tribes.

Why did it happen? All sorts of reasons can be offered, and Heather offers several, but what it comes down to is that this is simply what empires do - they rise, they exist for a time - years, decades or (as in Romes's case) centuries - and then they fall. Rome had already had a better "innings" than most, and in the fifth century its luck ran out.

It is usual to blame the Fall on the Empire's internal problems, and say that it became "decadent" or whatever. Heather, probably rightly, focuses more on what was happening outside Rome's borders. The Barbarian tribes, living for centuries with that 800 pound Roman "gorilla" next door, combined into larger units like the Frankish or Gothic kingdoms, which were a tougher proposition for Rome to cope with. Everlasting warfare with these states gradually wore the Empire down, and finally another barbarian, Attila, drove many tribes from their old homes and forced them to try their luck migrating into Roman territory. This proved more than Rome (or at least its western half) could cope with. So down the tubes it went.

No doubt, had Rome not fallen from this cause, it would eventually have fallen another way. Empires are usually longer lived than individuals, but are no more immortal. But Heather does a magnificent job of showing how and why it fell as and when it did.

One minor regret. Perhaps a little more "afterword" about post-Roman Europe might have been in order. For the significant thing about the Roman Empire is not that it fell (which was bound to happen sometime) but that it was never rebuilt. By contrast, China fell to Mongol "barbarians" in the 13C, an invasion probably as devastating as anything Western Rome underwent, yet within a century had gotten its breath back, expelled the invaders, and installed a native Ming Dynasty. Similarly, Egypt was able to spit out the Hyksos and other intruders. Yet Rome's former subjects not only didn't do this, but (unless the Arthurian legends count) seem never to have even tried. Rather, they appear to have largely shrugged their shoulders and made the best of things under their barbarian rulers. While purely external factors can explain the fall itself, they can't explain this apparent acceptance of it. Even when Roman lands were "liberated" by Justinian, the inhabitants seldom rallied round, and when Byzantium's grip loosened they just flopped back into barbarian hands. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that, however traumatic the Empire's fall had been, a lot of its subjects soon found they didn't really miss it all that much. This calls for explanation.

Still, that's quibbling. Heather has written a great book (even if his 21C idioms are irritating at times) and it needs to be read by anyone interested in this subject.

Dont invite a barbarian to lunch.......2007-07-27

Two Oxford classicists, working independently, have simultaneously published books on the fall of the Roman Empire. Peter Heather is an historian of the later Empire and of Barbarian Northern Europe. Bryan Ward-Perkins is an archaeologist specialising in rural society during the fall. Both historians decisively contradict recent rather dotty arguments that the Barbarians were not all that bad; that their conquest of the Western Empire would hardly have been noticed by the mass of the people; and that only the rich would have experienced a drop in living standards. Ward-Perkins' conclusion from extensive digging on former Roman villages is stark: the invasions were violent disasters. The drop in living standards was so catastrophic that they would not regain Empire levels for fifteen hundred years. His full title is uncompromising: The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilisation. Despite some empathy with the Barbarians, Heather agrees with Ward-Perkins that the destruction of the Western Empire was an apocalyptic event. His 500 page book employs well-honed analysis combined with splendid narrative, to address the age-old question: why did the Western half of the empire, so apparently all powerful, almost unassailable, worried only by the threat of Persia in the east, fall to the Barbarian invaders from the north in less than a century? In the early fourth century the Western Empire (pace Gibbon) had not been weakened by Christianity, was not in decline, was very prosperous, and the army was far from enfeebled. Heather's analysis, sinewy, cogent and informed, is too complex for adequate summary here but he believes that after the Huns caused a seismic shift in the balance of power in the North Roman failure came less from Roman weakness than from Barbarian desperation. After the destruction the long-term winner, oddly enough, was the Church. With the old Roman bureaucracy destroyed in the West priests came to monopolise literacy for more than a thousand years. Secular culture would reside with the Arabs!

excellent, clear analysis.......2007-07-07

This book explains with amazing clarity how and why the western Roman empire fell apart between 376 and 476 AD. It covers roughly the same ground as the third volume of Gibbon (minus the obsession with Christianity), but with much better analysis of the political and military calculations of the various parties. It also gives a very coherent account of who the various "barbarian" groups were, and how they formed and interacted: a topic which I have found incredibly confusing in other books. (Apparently this is the author's specialty.)

Note that the word "decline" is not in the title. The author's thesis is that the western empire did not collapse from within; it always had its problems, but in the fourth century it was as strong as ever. Rather, what caused it to fall was that unfriendly interaction with the Romans encouraged Germanic peoples on the frontier to become stronger and more unified; these groups were then impelled into the empire by the onslaught of the Huns, where they began taking over parts of the empire. This triggered a downward spiral in which decreased tax revenues resulting from the lost or ravaged territories made it more difficult for the Romans to fund the military, whereby they lost more territory, and so on. This process is explained in fascinating detail in the book. A last-ditch rescue attempt by the eastern empire in 468 failed in a disastrous naval battle, and it was game over for the west. The eastern empire, meanwhile, continued to prosper through the sixth century; while it had internal problems similar to those of the west, accidents of geography protected it for the time being.

In conclusion, if you are looking for clarity regarding what the heck was going on in fifth century Europe, this is the book for you. It is written in a colloquial style which makes it easy and amusing to read. It includes a number of maps, a dramatis personae, a glossary, and extensive notes, all of which are very useful.

A departure from tradition.......2007-06-26

This book is excellent. The author puts for a break from the traditional Gibbon approach to why the Romans fell apart. The author's work is extremely well documented. He lays out his arguments in a logical manner. Each point sort of builds on the next one in the book. The book seems to be told from the Barbarian's point of view. The book does seem to take the long way though to get to the meat of the argument. The work is very well documented. An average reader might get lost some in the names. You almost have to have a good background on the subject to truly appreciate the book. The main point of the book is that successive Barbarian invasions just wore out the Romans. That created conditions that launched independence movements in the outlying provinces like Great Britain. The author argues convincingly that the further success of the eastern half of the empire showed that internal rot didn't do the Romans in. As a reader reads this it is hard not to draw comparisons to events today for the US. The book showed how multiple problems stretched the Romans to the point of breaking. Then a reader sees the newspapers and wonder if the stretched US Army might lead to conditions similar to what the Romans went through.

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Modern Library Classics)

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the decline and fall of the roman empire
Lots of Info
Gibbon's Magnum Opus
Gibbons Decline and fall of Rome
Dramatic and Informative audio book version

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Modern Library Classics)
Edward Gibbon
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Rome | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich

ASIN: 0375758119
Release Date: 2003-08-12

Amazon.com

British parliamentarian and soldier Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) conceived of his plan for Decline and Fall while "musing amid the ruins of the Capitol" on a visit to Rome. For the next 10 years he worked away at his great history, which traces the decadence of the late empire from the time of the Antonines and the rise of Western Christianity. "The confusion of the times, and the scarcity of authentic memorials, pose equal difficulties to the historian, who attempts to preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration," he writes. Despite these obstacles, Decline and Fall remains a model of historical exposition, and required reading for students of European history.

Book Description

Gibbon’s masterpiece, which narrates the history of the Roman Empire from the second century a.d. to its collapse in the west in the fifth century and in the east in the fifteenth century, is widely considered the greatest work of history ever written. This abridgment retains the full scope of the original, but in a compass equivalent to a long novel. Casual readers now have access to the full sweep of Gibbon’s narrative, while instructors and students have a volume that can be read in a single term. This unique edition emphasizes elements ignored in all other abridgments—in particular the role of religion in the empire and the rise of Islam.

Download Description

"It was Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amid the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind," recorded Edward Gibbon with characteristic exactitude. Over a period of some twenty years, the luminous eighteenth-century historian--a precise, dapper, idiosyncratic little gentleman famous for rapping his snuff-box--devoted his considerable genius to writing an epic chronicle of the entire Roman Empire's decline. His single flash of inspiration produced what is arguably the greatest historical work in any language--and surely the most magnificent narrative history ever written in English. "Gibbon is one of those few who hold as high a place in the history of literature as in the roll of great historians," noted Professor J.B. Bury, his most celebrated editor.

Customer Reviews:

the decline and fall of the roman empire.......2007-08-26

very good detail on the history , most Caesars were killed and the army rulled.

Lots of Info.......2007-07-09

Tremendous amount of information and lots of historical data. Problem is the guy who wrote the book can speak the real english language and I often thought I was listning to a foreign language tape. I learned a lot and woud recomend this to anyone who wonders how something as great as the empire was, fell apart. Great learning experience.

Gibbon's Magnum Opus.......2007-05-12

It's a literary work of art. Gibbon's style of narration is breathtaking. On every page he comes out as the true scholar that he really is. His choice of words and his style of sentence construction is consummate on every level.

Other than that, the whole account is Gibbon's perspective of the Roman Empire on a strict level. While most will concur with him on the insanity of the likes of say, Caligula, Nero; or the politically cunning inclinations of Augustus, his treatment of Christianity is open to debate. Gibbon places Christianity at the top in his list of the factors that could possibly have accelerated the empire towards decadence and its ultimate disintegration. Though this can be true on some accounts, he offers no clear explanation on how the Eastern empire could have carried on for more centuries with the religion at its very centre. It's an unwritten edict that the Byzantines were more passionate about Jesus than Western christendom.

Also, in some pages, Gibbon argues that the Roman emperors, say Marcus Aurelius for example, never really would have had an inclination towards persecuting christians on grounds of political gains. For Gibbon argues that the political elite of Rome were well aware of the fact that some kind of religion maintained social order. But his arguments are at considerable, if not complete, loggerheads with the several accounts from other historians that Rome continued to persecute Christianity until Constantine.

Persecution of Christianity might necessarily not have completely been primary disdain for the christian concept which totally conflicts with the Roman edicts of deifying dead emperors. Christianity came in handy for rogue emperors to have this sect of minorities scapegoated for their own excesses (remember Nero's fire?) or to appease the minds of a disgruntled majority which preferred to suspect them.

Finally, his stand that the "whole" empire prospered and preferred Roman rule in the age of the five good emperors is open to debate. Pax Romana might have worked for the Italian mainland at best, but not necessarily in provinces even as close as, say, Gaul.

Gibbons Decline and fall of Rome.......2007-03-11

This is the definitive History of the Empire from the first emperor (Agustus or Octavian, if you wish). However given the time and hence style of English, it was written in it is not for the faint hearted. Stick with it though and it is a very rewarding reference book which you will have for life.

One thing I fail to understand is what Amazon sells Vols 1-3 and 4-6 as seperate items. By the lot in one go otherwise it's a bit like owning the old testement bible and not having set eyes on the New Testement.!!

Dramatic and Informative audio book version.......2007-03-09

Philip Madoc convincingly relates Gibbon's great insights into the history and significance of the final centuries of the Roman Empire in this 6 CD set. Abridged by neccesity, nevertheless Neville Jason comments between Gibbon's passage recited by Philip Madoc, and fills the gaps with a coherent narration. The whole production flows smoothly and dramatically, quite easy to follow. This is one of the most worthwhile audio book puchases I've ever made.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: (In 3 Volumes) (Allen Lane History)

Average customer rating:

Hard to Read
Understand that any civilization may fail.
MISUNDERSTANDING OF BYZANTIUM
Considered the most scholarly collection of Gibbon's work
Overrated

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: (In 3 Volumes) (Allen Lane History)
Edward Gibbon , and David P. Womersley
Manufacturer: Penguin Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Rome | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0713991240

Book Description

In the greatest work of history in the English language, Edward Gibbon compresses thirteen turbulent centuries into a gripping epic narrative. It is history in the grand eighteenth-century manner, a well-researched drama charged with insight, irony, and incisive character analysis. In elegant prose, Gibbon presents both the broad pattern of events and the significant revealing detail. He delves into religion, politics, sexuality, and social mores with equal authority and aplomb. While subsequent research revealed minor factual errors about the early Empire, Gibbon's bold vision, witty descriptions of a vast cast of characters, and readiness to display his own beliefs and prejudices result in an astonishing work of history and literature, at once powerfully intelligent and enormously entertaining.

Based on David Womersley's definitive three-volume Penguin Classics edition of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, this abridgement contains complete chapters from all three volumes, linked by extended bridging passages, vividly capture the style, the argument, and the architecture of the whole work.

Customer Reviews:

Hard to Read.......2006-11-11

Not what I was expecting. Very hard to read as it was written back in the dark ages and the english used is tough.

Understand that any civilization may fail........2006-02-24

Gibbon is one of the first historians of the Enlightenment. He does not have a favorable opinion of Christianity or the times he lived. This bias does not detract from this book. Nor is this book an effective argument against Christianity. His thesis is Christianity helped bring down Rome. The Christian mindset made it impossible to defend their empire in a way similar to how they made their empire. If you lose your basic traditions your empire will crumble. An excellent book, a must read.

MISUNDERSTANDING OF BYZANTIUM.......2005-06-29

Historians agree today that this book is responsible for the modern misunderstanding of Byzantium. Think of only what the labeling "Byzantine" means today. If you want to know more about Byzantium start with one of the books on the empire by Sir Steven Runciman.

Considered the most scholarly collection of Gibbon's work.......2005-06-06

I do not recommend buying an edition of "The Decline and Fall" based upon price alone, because for many reasons, which will become clearer to you after reading this complicated and scholarly work, the editions vary in content and price, nor does price alone guarantee quality.

For many hours prior to purchasing, I researched the numerous editions offered by different publishers and read reviews, and discovered a consensus among Gibbon fans in favor of Womersley's unabridged edition, in part because it includes a complete and unmodernized text, Gibbon's own comments and notes, and his famous Vindication, a final and thorough answer to scurrilous critics of his time. All of this is provided at a quite reasonable price, considering the length of the work (in excess of 1,300 pages), albeit in soft cover which I find makes a book easier to read, if slightly less durable.

I recommend buying this new edition from Amazon, instead of the used editions also offered here, because many of them, I discovered after investigating, are not the same as this one I am reviewing (ISBN 0-14-043393-7, which is Volume I). Like I said, there are many editions of Gibbon's masterpiece floating about, old and new, of varying quality and content. The vendors' failure to disclose the ISBN in their descriptions prohibits any purchase by the discriminating. Just pay the seventeen or so bucks for the new book, which is dirt cheap for a work of this magnitude.

There should be no need to defend Gibbon nor his work, which is simply the best I have yet read. I loved history as a boy, even while reading the simple and often stupid books offered in school. Imagine how much more I enjoyed history written by such a master of prose as Gibbon, the most thorough, meticulous and honest historian I have yet encountered.

We owe a debt of gratitude to a historian who has perused enormous quantities of ancient texts in Latin and Greek and other languages, such as would confound the vast majority of readers today, and with his formidable powers of intellect, analyzed their veracity, by comparing one against the other, and judged keenly of their worth. Gibbon had for his time a vast encyclopedic knowledge, for by his own admission, he devoted his life to reading. Gibbon's love was not among humans, but among books. He possessed an excellent understanding of government, which is the more understandable when you discover he served as a Member of Parliament for a number of years. His grasp of military science is explained in part by his service in the militia as an officer. To all these things, we must add an innate, profound understanding of human nature.

Why bother with Gibbon? Why not read the original, the ancient and medieval writers, from whom Gibbon based his work? That is a good question that I asked myself. Here is the answer. We cannot trust the ancient writers to be truthful or accurate in every event. For one thing, they sometimes contradict each other, which means one or both are lying. Also, they leave out important details, which can be pieced together by circumstantial evidence, if you have found it by exhaustive research.

This is where Gibbon comes in. He has performed exhaustive research that consumed a large portion of his scholarly and reflective lifetime. Gibbon is no fool, and never succumbs to the usual vices of enthusiasm or its opposite, cynicism. He is calm, rational, penetrative; just the guide and the mentor you want. He never takes an ancient historian at face value without considering their motives, prejudices, passions, and even their personal histories. Gibbon has studied not just the history, but the historians, and the history of the historian's countries. Not only has Gibbon accumulated and summarized the ancient and medieval texts, but interpreted and analyzed with his considerable deductive powers, to form a whole that is greater than the parts. Thus a novice does better with Gibbon than with the original. Gibbon's copious notes explain where has made interpretations, leaving you free to form different conclusions, should you desire.

Some reviewers are peeved that Gibbon suffers an opinion that disagrees with their own, and for this reason alone, they degrade his work. I experience the same treatment by those who are alarmed that my reviews have an actual opinion instead of being a rubber stamp marked "PERFECTION". If this intolerant philosophy were carried on, then no-one should dare express an unseasonable opinion of anything at all, and we should all become a tribe of dullards. Of course Gibbon expresses many opinions, some the inevitable product of his country, class and times; and this is the mark of intellectual honesty. You should never read without a critical mind, and should be prepared to disagree with an author on some issues, as I do with Gibbon, while agreeing with him on others. I especially favor his ideas concerning the causes and effects of the rise of Christianity, many of which can be observed today.

Look to find a better history than this, in any language, written during any time since the advent of letters. Look far and wide, as long as you like... and then revisit Gibbon, and see whether you have yet found an equal.

Overrated.......2004-07-16

I enjoyed this book, but some of the praise for it ("the best history book ever written in the English language!!") is over the top. It is no coincidence that intellectuals have embraced this history of the Roman empire above all others - the author is openly skeptical of Christianity and sympathetic to barbarians.

Book Description

Why did Rome fall? Vicious barbarian invasions during the fifth century resulted in the cataclysmic end of the world's most powerful civilization, and a 'dark age' for its conquered peoples. Or did it? The dominant view of this period today is that the 'fall of Rome' was a largely peaceful transition to Germanic rule, and the start of a positive cultural transformation. Bryan Ward-Perkins encourages every reader to think again by reclaiming the drama and violence of the last days of the Roman world, and reminding us of the very real horrors of barbarian occupation. Attacking new sources with relish and making use of a range of contemporary archaeological evidence, he looks at both the wider explanations for the disintegration of the Roman world and also the consequences for the lives of everyday Romans, in a world of economic collapse, marauding barbarians, and the rise of a new religious orthodoxy. He also looks at how and why successive generations have understood this period differently, and why the story is still so significant today.

Customer Reviews:

Decline and Fall.......2007-10-01

I thought this was a good little book that presents archaeological evidence for the old fashion "decline and fall of western civilization" viewpoint. He makes the interesting observation that the decline did not occur uniformly over the whole empire, and in the east, it did not really occur at all. It also seems from his evidence that the loss of technology in the west happened over 50-100 years, which depending on how you look at it, is or is not a collapse. I would recommend this book, and a more critical reading of books focusing on the whole empire(in most cases the more literary eastern empire).

One Man's Civilisation Is Another Man's Third Reich.......2007-08-16

Professor Ward-Perkins has done an interesting, if short, book on a majestic theme - the fall of one of history's greatest empires, and its aftermath.

His main concern is to debunk a notion, apparently fashionable among historians, which I'm not sure many other people ever shared - the idea that the Fall of Rome wasn't such a big deal. Apparently, there is an historical school which regards the whole business as a mostly peaceful transition from the tail end of the Ancient World into the beginning of Medieval Europe. He collects an impressive pile of evidence that it was far from peaceful, and was indeed pretty catastrophic for many of those who had to live through it. Roman civilisation did not die of natural causes. It was killed, and mainly by the military force of the Barbarians.

Well, so far, so good. I doubt if the inhabitants of Italy, Gaul and Spain, who spent most of the years from 405 to 420 having one set of barbarians after another marching and counter-marching all over their homelands, would have any trouble agreeing with Ward-Perkins. Over the next couple of centuries many others would have cause to feel the same way. Nor was this temporary. For several centuries more, comforts that the Romans took for granted would become available only to a tiny few, and sometimes not at all. Pottery making virtually died out in Britain until about 700, tiled roofs, previously common, were little-known in the Middle Ages, and even coinage gave way to barter over wide areas. In short, standards of living, as usually measured, took a prolonged nosedive.

And yet - -. This is all very well, but if the Empire's fall was such a terrible loss to those who lived in it, how come it was never restored? The Chinese Empire "fell" lots of times, but was always rebuilt. When Rome fell, it stayed fallen, and its people seem to have soon become reconciled to doing without it.

Nor can the Barbarians be held solely responsible for what happened. In Asia Minor, which was virtually untouched by barbarian invasion, Colin McEvedy's "New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History" shows four cities - Ephesus, Miletus, Sardis, Smyrna - of between 15,000 and 50,000 people in AD 528. On the map for AD737, not one of them remains. Here at least, the Barbarians were not to blame for the decline, and other factors need to be considered.

At times, Ward-Perkins himself gives significant hints at this. He quotes ancient sources to the effect that, during Alaric's siege of Rome in 408/9, "almost all the slaves that were in Rome poured out of the city to join the Barbarians". And nine years earlier, when the rebel general Tribigild marched across Asia Minor, then a peaceful and prosperous region, his force was soon swelled by "such a mass of slaves and outcasts that the whole of Asia was in great danger, while Lydia was in utter confusion, with almost everyone fleeing to the coast and sailing across to the islands or elsewhere with their whole families". Clearly not all the Empire's subjects loved it.

But perhaps the most revealing incident is from 393, when "the Roman aristocrat Symmachus brought a group of Saxon prisoners to Rome, intending them to slaughter each other in gladiatorial games in honour of his son. However, before they were publicly exhibited twenty-nine of them committed suicide by the only means available to them - by strangling each other with their bare hands! For us, their terrible death represents a courageous act of defiance, but Symmachus viewed their suicide as the action of "a group of men viler than Spartacus", which had been sent to test him. With the self-satisfaction of which only Roman aristocrats were capable, he compared his own philosophical response to the event to the calm of Socrates when faced with adversity."

If Symmachus was at all representative of its ruling class, one can easily get an inkling of why the Empire failed, and see why not only the Barbarians, but many of its own less privileged subjects, might not have been sorry to see it go. One man's civilisation can all too easily be another man's "Third Reich", and one may suspect that many were ready enough to try and get along without the Roman State, even if it did mean having to make their own pottery.

Probably not the Best Book on This Topic to Start With.......2007-07-15

First let me disclose that I know very little about this topic; that's why I picked up the book. If, like me, you are looking for a good introduction to the topic, this is not the best book to start with. The author is writing for an informed audience.

That said, I did learn a lot by reading it. I was amazed to learn how much archeologist can determine with little more than old pottery, coins and graffitti. I was surprised to learn that the empire was far more complex and fragmented than I had previously believed. I also got a good picture of how little we know about the Roman Empire, how many questions there still are, and how much debate continues. It seems the question, "Did Rome FALL?" is still unanswered.

Ultimately, I learned that "The Fall of the Roman Empire" has become one of the great myths of the modern era. We interpret and teach it in the way that best reinforces our own values.

The Roman empire wasn't "transformed"; it fell, hard.......2007-07-04

I was surprised to read in the introduction to this book that it is currently somewhat fashionable to believe that the end of the western Roman empire was a gentle transition to a new form of government, without too much disruption. The main point of this book is that this is utter B.S. (and also that the proponents of this view have ulterior political motives). The author's arguments are convincing and are based on extensive archaeological evidence. Apparently when the Roman empire fell, the economy collapsed to levels not seen since long before the Roman empire, and took many centuries to recover. Items such as coins, roof tiles, and good quality pottery virtually disappear from the archaeological record. Entire industries were forgotten in some places, and literacy plunged to the point where most people of status could not even sign their own name. It is also likely that there was a massive depopulation, although this is harder to prove conclusively.

For someone who is concerned for the future of our present civilization, this book gives a vivid account of some of what can go wrong, and especially the vulnerabilities resulting from economic specialization. It is an unusually quick read for a history book, although I might have liked a more detailed analysis of how things fell apart and how they later recovered (to the extent that this is possible given the limited evidence). The book assumes some knowledge of the history of this period; if you don't know say the difference between a Visigoth and an Ostrogoth, you might not understand some parts (although these are not the most important parts). The chronology at the end gives a super-crash course. If you want more background, I recommend the book by Peter Heather.

clear explanation of why western roman empire went down!.......2007-05-13

there are many theories why that mighty Roman empire went down.
but after i read this book,now i have clear idea.the author explains what happened during fall of empire by both archaelogical and historical documents.also this book said when middle ages begins, everything about
what civilisation offer to people was virtually gone! after i read this book,i have fear in my mind what if this modern civilisation collapse,like the Roman empire 1600years ago...

Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire

Average customer rating:

Well worth a read
Quite Possibly Among The Most Important Books of This Decade
Challenging arguments and logical lapses from a leading Conservative intellectual
There's no jury when you are a Conservative
A Colossus with feet of Clay?

Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire
Niall Ferguson
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0143034790

Book Description

Acclaimed historian Niall Ferguson ranges across the entire history of America's foreign entanglements and delves into all the dimensions of American power—military, economic, cultural, and political. The result is a book whose conclusions are as convincing, and troubling, as they are original. Ferguson demonstrates that America has always been an empire in denial and shows the fateful consequences of its special brand of imperialism. He examines the challenges to the United States from its principal rivals, the European Union and China, and offers a compelling analysis of the connection between the country's domestic economic health and its foreign affairs—the bottom line of imperialism, American style. Colossus is a peerless reckoning with American power that should be read by any thinking citizen of this unspoken empire.

Customer Reviews:

Well worth a read.......2007-06-07

I learned more about my own country (USA) in this book than I did at University. Dr. Ferguson is a great writer. The book is well-researched, with lots of new facts that I'd never known.

Quite Possibly Among The Most Important Books of This Decade.......2007-03-02

Originally published in Great Britain as "Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire", Niall Ferguson's book was published in 2004 in an American hardcover edition as "Colossus: The Price of America's Empire". A year later, the American paperback edition resurrected its original British title. And yet, regardless of its title, this spellbinding, provocative work of economic and political history may be as influential a book to Ameircan political elites as Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History" was a decade earlier. I am impressed by the significance of Ferguson's message, and the ample facts he has used to make that message persuasive; namely that the United States of America is indeed an empire. But he uses the term in a positive sense, drawing parallels between the United States and the British Empire as leading examples of liberal empires. In Great Britain's case, he argues here - and I believe, elsewhere, in his earlier book, "Empire" - that the British Empire was the major power responsible for ensuring justice and economic - if not political - freedom across the globe for much of the 19th and early 20th Centuries by virtue of its willingness to use both its economic and military power to accomplish these ends. In stark contrast, Ferguson portrays America's imperial history as that of a reluctant imperial power, whose only successful exercise in imperialism came immediately after World War II, when it rebuilt successfully both West Germany and Japan as vibrant economic and political democracies (He traces the origins of America's rise as an imperial power back to the American Revolution.). He wonders whether we have the determination to see to the end of a successful occupation of Iraq, noting that with respect to both Japan and West Germany, the United States came close to failure. Without question, this is among the most important books published in this decade, and one deserving of a wide audience.

Challenging arguments and logical lapses from a leading Conservative intellectual.......2007-01-16

One of my teachers at Oxford has called Niall Ferguson a "challenging historian," because he makes compelling arguments based on well-researched facts that go against the grain of conventional thinking. He is "conservative" by most standards, but not in the true sense. The idea that I think it is important to point out is that Ferguson has the same "goals" for the future of the world as the majority of mainstream intellectuals; that is, democracy, peace, human rights, prosperity, etc. Where he differs, and where he suddenly seems to be far less conservative, is in his calls for America, the veritable sleeping giant, to take up her role as global hegemony by acting as a "good empire" in the way the British supposedly did in yesteryear. America's substantial wealth and military power would fill the power vacuums with a benign influence, spread democracy, promote economic growth, and prevent warfare by the very nature of its all-encompassing power. The problem, of course, is that American public opinion would never allow this, no more than British public opinion actually supported the "official" British Empire. America is an empire, no doubt, but like Britain it is a subtle kind of empire, one in which the people do not actually consider themselves parts of, or agents of, an empire (read Bernard Porter's "The Absent-minded Imperialists" for the British case). Moreover it would be a dramatic change in policy - to say the least - for America to actually assume the burden he has called for her to assume. Not only would this stretch the already over-stretched Budget, it would require commitments overseas that few Americans consider vital to national security.

Ferguson's ideas also encounter some empirical difficulties. His idea about the benefit of "good" imperialism is based on the observation that the former colonies of the British Empire make up the wealthiest and most developed nations in the world. It is therefore easy to connect this prosperity with British rule, but the case is not so simple. The main problem with this is that the wealthy nations he speaks of are the settler colonies, which had the privilege of British investment and the same preferential economic treatment as the British Isles themselves. India, for example, as well as others, had to deal with economic institutions and policies that favoured the British yet discriminated against Indians. What we actually see in India in many ways is the process of "un-development" under British rule. Certainly the technology and growth of trade was beneficial, but as other examples show, notably Japan, it was not necessary for any imperial overbears to rule in order for these technologies, and these processes of improvement to occur.\

Ferguson is also guilty of somewhat of an anachronism when he suggests that Anglo-American imperialism will take democracy to the world. Ferguson is a clever man, and an excellent economic historian, but somehow he glosses over the fact that the British never intended to take democracy to their colonies; that would simply be disastrous for British rule. In India, especially, the British ruled an empire of "unintended consequences." He also glosses over the fact that both Britain and America have built their power systems on "friendly" dictators around the world since the Cold War, and that more brutal dictatorships, especially in Africa, came forth from British rule than democracies. This brings me to the idea of "imposing" democracy from above on other nations. It could be argued that this has worked in Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, and a number of other nations, but insofar as India is concerned, the roots went deep as a result of widespread disaffection with British rule. Ferguson's view of the west's ability to impose democracy is quite idealistic. And finally, it must be asked, "at what cost would a world such as this be built?"

There's no jury when you are a Conservative.......2006-10-30

Ferguson is an "intellectual" darling of the New Right, but his powers of foresight are shaped by old prejudices. When will the Cons learn that the world does not simply repeat itself? A Gibbon he ain't, but then again neither is the trans-atlantic Republic a modern-day caricature of the Roman Empire...

C.G. Panagidis
Athensm Greece

A Colossus with feet of Clay? .......2006-08-24

Niall Ferguson is one of the most exciting and interesting 'thinkers' in the world today. He is a historian with great knowledge but the most interesting part of his work is a whole set of ideas which challenge the conventional historical wisdom of our day.
One of Ferguson's innovations is to bring back and make centrally important to the reading of history, the concept of Empire. As he sees it this category has been central to Mankind far longer than that of 'nation- state'
In a previous work he looked at the British Empire and again surprised most in our politically correct world by seeing the positive functions the British Empire played. The rule of law, bureaucratic reliability, the flow of capitol for investment and development were part, as he saw it, of the British gift to its colonies.
In this present work he looks at the great power of the world today, the Colossus which is the United States. In military terms it overshadows all other great powers taken together. Economically it is still the great engine of the world though it is to a degree being challenged by the rise of Europe and China. Culturally too, thanks to the hegemony of English it is the prevailing world - power.
Ferguson finds fault with the United States in a way most unusual. He does not curse it as an 'imperial exploiter' but rather sees it as a reluctant giant not willing to fulfill its true global responsibilities. He faults the U.S. for having too few people willing to serve abroad, and help the world. He faults the U.S. for the weakness it shows through having too much debt. He faults the U.S. for not knowing its own imperial role properly and not transforming the world for the good to the fullest degree possible.
All of this is tremendously interesting, but sounds a bit odd given the current U.S. involvements in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the defiance it is facing from a would- be- nuclear Iran. It is possible to argue that America's feet of clay are more and more apparent, even in the military realm where it is most supreme. The whole non- proliferation issue may be broken open by North Korea and Iran, leading to a world with tens of nuclear states.
Ferguson wants the American citizenry to be more informed about the world, more involved in it, more responsible for it.
It seems to me that he is not wrong in his demands, but perhaps a bit unrealistic in expecting them to be realized.
But what Ferguson does is he provides the reader a way of truly thinking anew about the world- and of deeply considering new perspectives.

Doctor Dealer: The Rise and Fall of an All-American Boy and His Multimillion-Dollar Cocaine Empire

Average customer rating:

a pretty goos read, VERY deep background, great Bowden
couldn't put it down
Good read
EXCELLENT
very good read

Doctor Dealer: The Rise and Fall of an All-American Boy and His Multimillion-Dollar Cocaine Empire
Mark Bowden
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade
Drug Smuggling: The Forbidden Book

ASIN: 0802137571

Book Description

Doctor Dealer is the story of Larry Lavin, a bright, charismatic young man who rose from his working-class upbringing to win a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, earn Ivy League college and dental degrees, and buy his family a house in one of Philadelphia's most exclusive suburbs. But behind the facade of his success was a dark secret -- at every step of the way he was building the foundation for a cocaine empire that would grow to generate over $60 million in annual sales. Award-winning journalist Mark Bowden tells the saga of Lavin's rise and fall with the gripping, novelistic narrative style that won him international acclaim as the author of the New York Times best-seller Black Hawk Down. "Immensely readable . . . eye-popping . . . a smoothly crafted, exciting, can't-put-it-down book." -- Louisville New Voice

Customer Reviews:

a pretty goos read, VERY deep background, great Bowden.......2007-03-10

a good book to read, could have used that 30 page block of pictures you would find in most of these books, Bowdens writing is very visual, talking alot about people's looks, and mannerisms, so some pictures would have really tied it together I though... he did it in killing pablo, and it really sank home some of his points.

couldn't put it down.......2007-02-13

I think this book was better than Killing Pablo!! It is a great read. Don't miss it.

Good read.......2007-01-30

Not Bowden's best (I give that honor to Killing Pablo), but still a page-turner. I wanted to meet Larry Lavin after reading this. Has a bad guy ever been portrayed so well? He had charisma, intelligence, charm, and even worked in a job where he helped people. It doesn't even seem like Lavin was the type to intentionally hurt people through his "other" business. Bowden almost has you cheering on Larry as you progress through the pages. Perhaps it has something to do with how complex Larry is, and Bowden captures it magnificently.

They say "truth is stranger than fiction" and this book proves it. I can't believe they haven't made this into a movie yet.

If you're a fan of Bowden, this is a must-read.

EXCELLENT.......2007-01-03

FROM START TO FINISH YOU KNEW PRETTY MUCH WHAT THE OUTCOME WOULD BE BUT THIS DID NOT STOP ME FROM PUTTING THE BOOK DOWN. WAS AMAZED WITH ALL THE ACTUAL ACCOUNTS DETAILED WITHIN THE BOOK AND THE WORK THAT WENT INTO GATHERING ALL THE REQUIRED INFORMATION TO MAKE THIS BOOK A TRUELY GREAT READ..

very good read.......2006-11-07

an interesting look at the life of a drug dealer who really seems to have thought he did nthing wrong. the "everyone does it" mentality seems to have kept him going all the way to jail. good supporting cast of characters keep it interesting.

Average customer rating:

Solid history with storytelling flair
Amazing for any history buff and more
A sublime account of the demise of the "Greek emperor" and the fall of his city
strongly recommended
Probably very good

The Fall of Constantinople 1453 (Canto)
Steven Runciman
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Turkey | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Byzantine | World | History | Subjects | Books
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The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century (Canto)
Byzantium: The Early Centuries
Byzantium: The Decline and Fall
Byzantium (II): The Apogee (Byzantium)
A Short History of Byzantium

ASIN: 0521398320

Book Description

This classic account shows how the fall of Constantinople in May 1453, after a siege of several weeks, came as a bitter shock to Western Christendom. The city’s plight had been neglected, and negligible help was sent in this crisis. To the Turks, victory not only brought a new imperial capital, but guaranteed that their empire would last. To the Greeks, the conquest meant the end of the civilisation of Byzantium, and led to the exodus of scholars stimulating the tremendous expansion of Greek studies in the European Renaissance.

Customer Reviews:

Solid history with storytelling flair.......2007-07-24

Sir Steven Runciman had an unique talent for conveying historical information with a flair. He did not convey history as a collection of unrelated facts to dates but instead provided all the color and nuances behind those facts and dates which gave them life. Only a few historians write in a way that transports the reader to the subject time, place, and people the way Sir Runciman has in this little volume.

The book is organized by describing the background and focusing on the last Emperor and Sultan Mehmet II as the key individuals in that background. It continues with a description of the weaknesses that prevented the west from providing efficacious help to Constantinople. Attention then turns to the siege and fall followed by an overview of the exodus of learned Byzantines to the west which helped to spark the renaissance.

A map of Constantinople and a pictorial depiction of the disposition of troops during the siege provides some detail for context. I would have liked more maps of the other geographical areas mentioned to provide the greater world context and that is my single critical point on this volume.

That so much information could be conveyed in so few pages with such brilliant flair is testament to his reputation. This is still the definitive work on the last years of Constantinople and the final fall of the Byzantine empire. It is a must have for ancient history libraries and a must read for historians wishing to communicate historical lessons in writing.

Amazing for any history buff and more.......2007-05-08

Runciman is academic yet lively, a rare combination that makes for a serious historical book that reads like a page-turning thriller/drama. Of course he is helped by the facts themselves. The story of the fall of Constantinople is one of those events in history that sounds like it was made up, because it is so picturesque. There are brooding Sultans, brothers strangling each other in competing for the throne, siege warfare, religious upheaval, dramatic sea battles, betrayal, the almost improbably anachronistic use of cannons and more.

The only fault I could find in the book is that sometimes he repeats himself in mentioning the same event in 2 chapters, each time in relation to a slightly different aspect of the story. But this he only does 5-6 times, everything else is great. He successfully builds up tension and is great at communicating the pathos of the events. The fall was seen as the end of a great civilisation stretching back thousands of years to ancient Rome. Reading the book you really feel the momentous nature of the events.

Runciman doesn't seem to like Mehmet II (the conquerer). I don't know enough of the history to tell if it's bias or whether he really was unusually cruel and despotic. I'm inclined toward the latter, for the facts speak for themselves. If other rulers of his day were similar (which they were!) this doesn't make him any more sympathetic.

This is a true classic of history. It's a real shame how unaware modern people are of Byzantium because our society is much more indebted to that civilisation than we think. This book is a sorely needed patch in this gap of knowledge.

A sublime account of the demise of the "Greek emperor" and the fall of his city.......2006-08-02

Exceedingly well written and utterly fascinating, Sir James Stevenson Runciman's classic account of the siege and fall of Constantinople manages to be thoroughly academically sound and highly entertaining at the same time. Steven Runciman doesn't just deliver the dry facts, which would be alright, no, he tells the story, which is much better. And he does it without forefeiting historical accuracy, and, blessedly, without drawing any politically motivated parallels to "modern" conflicts, be they religious, or political, or both.
This is one of the finest historical accounts I have ever read, and I recommend it 100%. It may be over 40 years old, but it is still unrivalled, the single greatest work on the subject in the English language.

strongly recommended.......2006-02-20

I strongly suggest to buy and read this book to all people interested in history in general.

I am a fan of history books, and I provilege high readable, well documented and general-picture-introducing books. This book satisfies all these criteria: it gives a full explanation of the context before and after the Empire's collapse, it is enjoyable to read, and it is well-grounded on the reports by witnesses from both parties (turks and christians).

This is my first book by Runciman, and I bet will not be the last.

Probably very good.......2006-02-02

I have not yet received this book from Amazon, so it is a little difficult to say what it is like. But I am sure it will be at least very good. Runciman is an excellent author.

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