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.

Average customer rating:

Readable, but not very ...
Title "Ceasar's Women" extremely misleading!
Probably the weakest of the series
".....I. Not Caesar. I"
One name: Marcus Porcius Cato

Caesar's Women (Masters of Rome Series)
Colleen Mccullough
Manufacturer: Avon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0380710846

Book Description

His victories were legend -- in battle and bedchamber alike. Love was a political weapon he wielded cunningly and ruthlessly in his private war against enemies in the forum. Genius, general, patrician, Gaius Julius Caesar was history. His wives bought him influence. He sacrificed his beloved daughter on the alter of ambition. He burned for the cold-hearted mistress he could never dare trust. Caesar's women all knew -- and feared -- his power. He adored them, used them, destroyed them on his irresistible rise to prominence. And one of them would seal his fate.

Customer Reviews:

Readable, but not very ... .......2007-05-13

I have read the entire "Masters of Rome" series, and this one is plainly the weakest of the lot. The storyline is contorted, and there is the constant irritant caused by author McCullough's adoration of Julius Caesar. Caesar is, throughout the book, portrayed (as in all of McCullough's novels in which Caesar appears) as virtually a superman. McCullough's uncritical evaluation of Caesar is an embarrassment to what is, in many ways, a considerable achievement because McCullough's apparent understanding of the society of the late Roman Republic is impressive.

Another flaw of this novel is the fact that it is simply too long. It meanders all over the place, and it handles poorly some of the truly interesting historical events that it does cover, such as the Catiline conspiracy. Although the novel discusses this event, the reader never really derives an understanding of it here. And as she does in earlier novels of the series, McCullough never hides which historical figures she admires (Caesar) and which ones she has contempt for (Cicero, Bibulus, and many others). In this novel McCullough paints Cicero as a childlike buffoon. Well, maybe he was.

This one is worth reading if you are really into the Masters of Rome series, but many readers will find it to be tedious and difficult to finish.

Title "Ceasar's Women" extremely misleading!.......2007-02-13

If you want to read a compelling story of Ceasar's personal relationships, that really brings the characters to life, look elsewhere - this is soooooooo not it! Having not read any of the previous books in this series, I did not know what to expect when I got this book, but had I known, I would not have bothered to buy it. Why in the world it is titled "Ceasar's Women" I cannot fathom, as there is precious little content relating to the women in his life - I'd say less than 5%. It's quite obvious McCullogh has researched the history and culture of Rome extensively, but I was looking for a story more about people than about the floor plans of Rome's government buildings and the minute details of the political structure of the time [which is enough to give you a migraine]. Frankly, most of it is so hard to follow - characters address each other with different names than those the author uses for them, for example - that there is no joy in reading it at all. After struggling through the first 75 pages or so, I discovered an index in the back of the book that has explanations of the political titles & many other things, which was a little helpful, but it is all just so tangled and confusing, that it takes all the fun out of reading the book. I think McCullogh had the perfect blend of history, cultural info, and characters in The Thorn Birds, but Ceasar's Women would be better used as assigned reading in a college course on Roman politics than for entertainment as a historical novel. What a disappointment!

Probably the weakest of the series.......2007-01-31

I have read all in the Masters of Rome series but the October Horse, and I have to say this one is by far the least entertaining. That being said, I still enjoyed it and found parts that made it impossible to put down. Most of this book deals with the political wheeling and dealing of late Republican Rome. While it'd be unfair to say this is dull, it just doesn't read the same as McCullough's splendid battlefield diagrams, descriptions and scenes found throughout Caesar, or any of the earlier books. There are only so many times I am going to be intrigued by another drafted law or another flamboyant speech or even an election. Really, blame the characters, though some of it does lie with the non-existent covering of Caesar's year of governing before standing for consul.

Also, in this book, McCullough loses a bit of her subtlety. In the others we see Sulla go from a poor, ambitious nobody into a functioning, efficient leader and eventually into the very embodiment of Roman power. She also slowly aged Gaius Marius from the daydreaming general to the master of Rome to the vicious monster. And later she deals equally well with Caesar and Pompey's relationship. But in Caesar's Women there doesn't feel to be a change in any of the characters throughout the pages. To make up for this, she provides abrupt changes, so that by the end we have a couple dozen pages crammed with people doing/saying things that seem completely out of character. One example is that McCullough constantly has Caesar lamenting on his gradual loss of control over his temper and even his mother makes a comment, but we never see Caesar gradually lose control. Instead we see Caesar completely in control through 90% of the book, and then completely lose it at the end. These bits make the book go in spurts.

Regardless, this book was still entertaining and a good source of distraction, just not up to par with the rest. It is definitely necessary to bridge into Caesar.

".....I. Not Caesar. I".......2006-07-11

In her latest installment of the Masters of Rome series, Colleen McCollough endeavors to introduce the feminine forces that acted upon Caesar and shaped him irrevocably. Servilia Caepionis (mother of Brutus of "Et, tu Brute" fame)is delightfully nasty, a classical Madame Bovary. Aurelia is as withdrawn as ever, and Caesar's beloved daughter Julia is used to remind us that no matter how much a father loved his daughter, she was simply a pawn furthering his political future (although her fate was better than the average pawn's).
Although McCollough tries to give the women of Rome an important role in this novel, I believe that the laurels go to the men. By trying to paint the women as having interesting, thought-provoking personalities, the reader is by the end wishing that we could go back to the Forum or resurrect Sulla and Marius. Anything to stop the shallowness!
I agree with one previous reviewer that the author has many catch-phrases that often grate on the reader's nerves. For example, the phrase "A pearl beyond price" is first used to describe Caesar's aunt Julia, wife of Marius, and the title is inherited by his daughter Julia. (However, I thought it was absolutely "priceless" when Caesar gave Servilia that peerless pearl...it seems she has a price after all!)
However, I disagree when the author is written off as dull and formulaic. Of course dear Colleen will never equal Suetonius or Cicero, but you must understand that they both work in different media. The former saints worked in non-fiction, whereas Ms. McCollough is attempting admirably to revive a long-dead Republic so that even the layman can explore the fall of Rome and the rise of the Empire through the eyes of the remarkable people who rose from obscurity to bend the knee of the entire world. In short, she makes history interesting, and I will never be able to give her sufficient thanks for opening up this rich new world for me. I believe that is her saving grace, and she will hear no more from me on her style or presentation.
That being said, I do have one tiny twinge of unease, and that is Caesar's characterization...or lack thereof. The author has the enormous task of resurrecting the dead and making them grab our attention. She succeeds with most of them, including Publius Clodius Pulcher, Fulvia, Sergius Catilina, Antony, Curio, Cato the Younger, Servilia, etc... The aforementioned people are interesting and vibrant and we love them or love to hate them (I truly cried when Publius Clodius was assassinated in Caesar...he was so real and vivid to me that I forgot I could look that fact up in any textbook!)...all except the man who matters most, and that is Gaius Julius Caesar Imperator.
There have been many a night when I wonder what to make of him. At times he is extremely selfish, vain, and perverse. At other times, he is portrayed as an all-encompassing genius, and at others a man struggling to keep his emotions in check and trying to maintain that cold persona and charm that are so inherent to his nature. But, potential readers, there is no consistency about the character, and we feel no emotional connection to him. I cried for Publius Clodius, but Colleen McCollough will have to summon Jupiter Optimus Maximus for me to shed a tear over Caesar's death.
Though she claims that she has been impartial in characterizing Caesar, I do believe that she has succumbed to the temptations of a lady novelist and cast him as Perfection personified with only superficial flaws...like the diamond with a few scratches on the surface that are best forgotten. But in every brilliant diamond, especially a human one, there is one large crack that, unseen, brings about its destruction. Caesar shone longer than most, but he too proved that Fortuna deserts even her Favorites in the end (like Sulla, only in a harsher manner).
However, in the October Horse, Caesar's persona is viewable for a few precious moments. After his fit of epilepsy, Caesar's mind is all disordered and he starts remembering the demons of his past and the immolation of his beloved Cinnilla and son Gaius. But even in his private thoughts, Caesar struggles to separate the man from the myth that he personifies...Caesar is not his name anymore...it is his title. So he says, "We burned Cinnilla and baby Gaius together, Mater and I. Not Caesar. I". For the first time in this lengthy epic, I saw Gaius, not Caesar. I do believe that I will weep for him after all.

One name: Marcus Porcius Cato.......2006-06-21

I loved "The First Man in Rome" and for the most part "The Grass Crown." Even in "Fortune's Favorites" I slowly began to like Caesar. In this fourth installment it is safe to say that I hate Caesar, his daughter, his allies, and most of all that wretched Servilia. I am one of those people who can be turned off by triumphing characters that only succeed at the expense of everyone else. I wasn't a huge fan of Sulla but I did have a certain love for Marius. In this book, it seems like the bad guys always win. In fact I am a little confused as to just who is a bad guy. Servilia gets everything she wants through murder and hatred while my favorite character--Marcus Porcius Cato--gets eternal enmity for actually kind of doing the right thing. By being upright and moral everyone hates him. I loved him!! His battles were epic, his character solemn and funny. I just thought Caesar was a little bit of a man whore. For the first time ever, I actually had to put this book down for awhile before I could finish reading it. It is well-written, but I for one am tired of hearing about Caesar. I think he's annoying. I'm not entirely sure I want to read the final two books even though I already own them just because it seems like everyone who was decent has been murdered or died of old age. No wonder the Roman empire eventually fell, the Republic was corrupt, but they had some moments of light. Again I can't criticize McCullough's writing style so therefore the book gets four stars. I even admire her tactic of not making Caesar out as the darling poster child, I probably won't care when he gets assasinated. All I can say though is that Cato is the only reason I finished reading this book. All the other people were just too shallow, hateful, and whiny. Now Cato had some backbone. It also doesn't hurt that from this family my name Portia was derived.

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)

Average customer rating:

Check and see
Suprise! Suprise!
Prescient St Augustine?
Something of a disappointment
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621066

Product Description

`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.

Customer Reviews:

Check and see.......2007-06-21

I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.

Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22

Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.

Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05

We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:

a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;

b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;

c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.

Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:

It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.

- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.

- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.

Fomenko goes by the following axioms:

- Chronology is the basis of history;

- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;

- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;

- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;

- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;

- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.

Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?

The Russians:

Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.

The Westerners:

Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Chinese:

Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.

The Arabs:

Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.

The Divinity:

Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.

According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.

St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09

After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.

However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:

- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.

I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.

The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.

It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?

Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.

Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).

Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30

If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?

Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.

Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..

Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.

Storming Caesar's Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty

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Definitely worth a read
Fabulous History
Succeeds at Every Level

Storming Caesar's Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty
Annelise Orleck
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807050318

Book Description

It was a spring day on the Las Vegas strip in 1971 when Ruby Duncan, a former cotton picker turned hotel maid, the mother of seven, led a procession. Followed by an angry army of welfare mothers, they stormed the casino hotel Caesars Palace to protest Nevada's decision to terminate their benefits. The demonstrations went on for weeks, garnering the protesters and their cause national attention. Las Vegas felt the pinch; tourism was cut by half. Ultimately, a federal judge ruled to reinstate benefits. It was a victory for welfare rights advocates across the country. In Storming Caesars Palace, historian Annelise Orleck tells the compelling story of how a group of welfare mothers and their supporters built one of this country's most successful antipoverty programs. Declaring that "we can do it and do it better" these women proved that poor mothers are the real experts on poverty. In 1972 they founded Operation Life, which was responsible for all kinds of firsts for the poor in Las Vegas--the first library, medical center, daycare center, job training, and senior citizen housing. By the late 1970s, Operation Life was bringing millions of dollars into the community each year. And these women were influential in Washington, D.C.--respected and listened to by the likes of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ted Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter. Ultimately, in the 1980s, Ruby Duncan and her band of reformers lost their funding with the country's move toward conservatism. But the story of their incredible struggles and triumphs still stands as an important lesson about what can be achieved when those on welfare chart their own course.

Customer Reviews:

Definitely worth a read.......2007-07-09

A very through, informative foray into the world of political activism from a single mother's point of view. The stories of courage in this book can often get poignant. Reading "Growing up in Mississippi" by Anne Moody alongside this most definitely contributed to it.

Fabulous History.......2007-01-16

Storming Caesar's Palace follows a group of mothers on welfare as they fought to create one of the most successful community organizations in the history of the War on Poverty, delivering everything from health care to hot lunches to library services to thousands of children and adults in Las Vegas. Orleck focuses on years of research and interviews to tell the story through the women's own words, from their childhoods in Louisiana, through the black migration West, into the War on Poverty, the 70s and the Carter administration, and then through the Reagan cutback years. This is a great book for anyone interested in African-American history, women's history, or history of politics, welfare and poverty in the last 40 years, and it's also inspiring and accessible to college and even high school readers. The only flaw is in the editing; several interviews appear more than once, a bit disconcerting in a story that's purportedly chronologically organized, and the same goes for turns of phrase and whole sentences. Small drawbacks in an otherwise impressive work.

Succeeds at Every Level.......2006-07-01

Ms. Orleck has written quite a book: it is important as history and social commentary, it is instructive for organizers and activists and it is a heart warming story of the beloved Ruby Duncan and her associates who faced adversity, poverty and discrimination with intelligence, resourcefulness and courage. They fought an uphill bsttle for human rights and economic justice in Las Vegas, and they had some very significant victories. Lastly, it is inspiring, it spiritually recharges the reader to take on today's injustices. Though the author is a scholar of some distinction, the book is very readable and is told in the participants own words so it is very immediate and straightforward. It is wonderfully suitable for high school and college aged discussion groups in school or faith based organiztions. You'll never forget Ruby Duncan. Highly recommended for entertainment, instruction, inspiration or all three!

Great Women of Imperial Rome: Mothers and Wives of the Caesars

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A great book, with a sensitive and humanistic approach

Great Women of Imperial Rome: Mothers and Wives of the Caesars
Jasper Burns
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415408989

Book Description

"All women, because of their innate weakness, should be under the control of guardians" writes Cicero, curtly summarizing the status of women in Ancient Rome. Yet Roman women had more control than many believe. Stories of female artists, teachers, doctors, and even gladiators are scattered through the history of Imperial Rome; a Roman woman did not change her name when she married, her husband could not control her property or dowry, and she was free to divorce.
Royal women in particular - the wives, daughters, sisters and mothers of emperors - have made a profound impression on Roman history, long overlooked. This lively and attractive book vividly characterizes eleven such women, spanning the period from the death of Julius Caesar in 44BC to the third century AD and with an epilogue surveying empresses of later eras. The author's compelling biographies reveal their remarkable contributions towards the legacy of Imperial Rome, often tinged with tragedy, courage, and injustice.
· a pregnant Roman princess saves a Roman army through an act of personal heroism
· three 3rd century empresses rule the most powerful state on Earth, presiding over unprecedented social and political reform
· though revered by her husband, an empress is immortalized in history for infidelity and corruption by students of her greatest enemy.
Drawing from a broad range of documentation, Jasper Burns has painted portraits of these exceptional women that are colorful, sympathetic, and above all profoundly human. The women and their worlds are brought visually to life through photographs of over 300 ancient coins and through the author's own illustrations.
This book will be highly valuable to numismatists, students and scholars of Roman history or women's studies, and enjoyable to any reader.

Customer Reviews:

A great book, with a sensitive and humanistic approach.......2007-04-27

This is a great book! I'm amazed by the sensitive and humanistic approach taken by the author to describe the lives of these extraordinary women. He manages to make them even more fascinating to me than they were before I began to read his book. And I really like the "spiritual" twist he's put in the biographical elements of these imperial women. I find that very unique and extremely interesting. The book is also graced by the wonderful and lively drawings depicting the imperial women, made by the author himself!

This book displays a great deal of creativity and artistic appeal. I consider it like a real little gem!

Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida: The Saga of Cesar Rincon

Average customer rating:

Into the heart of the corrida
Bravo!
Viva Sacrifice & Ritual in the Corrida! Viva Allen Josephs!
Gets no better than this
Gets no better than this

Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida: The Saga of Cesar Rincon
Allen Josephs
Manufacturer: University Press of Florida
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0813024625

Customer Reviews:

Into the heart of the corrida.......2004-05-26

There are many ways to explore and come to begin to understand the fascination that many find in the corrida. It absorbs those that have come to know the bravery exhibited through ritual that lies at the heart of the corrida. The best way to reach some understanding is the way found by Alan Josephs. Josephs tightly focuses on the life of an individual, great torero. Josephs provides an intimate and satisfying examination of Rincón. Along the way, he brings all into the spirit and essence of the corrida.

Bravo!.......2003-08-31

I knew the subject matter of Ritual and Sacrifice would hold some general interest, but I had no idea that the book would be so lively, so entertaining, and so damned dramatic, from Rincon's opening of the Madrid gates to the story's heartbreaking "surprise" coda. Josephs makes what was obviously a Herculean literary undertaking seem easy and natural, and the writing's terrific--fluid, confident, passionate. Equally thrilling are the hundreds of superb photos, also by the author. Aside from Hemingway's masterpiece--an inevitable but impossible comparison--this is the best book on toreo I've ever read, as well as being a provocative and engrossing cultural study.

Viva Sacrifice & Ritual in the Corrida! Viva Allen Josephs!.......2003-06-21

Ritual & Sacrifice in the Corrida
For many Americans bull fighting is the one of the most misunderstood phenomena. The title of this fine book by Allen Josephs best explains bullfighting to the uninitiated Bull fighting, or toreo as Josephs correctly prefers to call it, is a ceremony of ritual and sacrifice.

The relation between man and the bull is lost deep in the fog of prehistory. Some say it was the bull not agriculture that domesticated man. The corrida is one aspect of that relationship, a sign of respect and honor to a noble enemy and friend.

The book is much more than a story of bullfighting. It is a classic saga of courage and perseverance as Cesar Rincon, a Colombian, against all odds succeeds in a foreign sometimes hostile land. From the plains of southern France, across the mountains of central Spain to the difficult rings of Andalusia, Allen takes us on a whirlwind adventure that criss-cross the breath and depth of Spain as he follows Rincon in his quest for the perfect corrida.

Josephs writes in a lyrical style more in the mode of Garcia Lorca than Hemingway.

Josephs, author of the White Wall of Spain, has an innate understanding of Spain and the Spanish which he imparts to the reader.

Read Hemingway, yes, but Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida is a must read for anyone even vaguely interested in that most Spanish of Spanish phenomena.

Gets no better than this.......2003-02-16

As made clear by the subtitle, this is the story of the César Rincón, arguably the best Colombian torero in history, one of the best ever to emerge from the Americas, one of the best -- without respect to origins -- performing anywhere in the second half of the twentieth century.

This is the story of César Rincón the torero (not a biography; we learn little here about César Rincón the man -- quite possibly the only aspect of the book that leaves the reader wishing for more, though we learn plenty about César's view of toreo, his personal take on its hows and whys, the nature and price of the vocation and its demands) who, in 1991, burst onto the taurine scene from nowhere (or, seemingly so -- he was so little known on the day of his first triumph in Madrid that the program listed him as Venezuelan), managing performances that saw him carried out through the Puerta Grande in Las Ventas on four consecutive appearances, a feat unequaled by anyone, before or since.

Just how good was César Rincón? The inescapable impression given by this book is that he was a taurine epiphany:

Josephs is without doubt a full-blooded Rincóncista, but Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida is no tendentiously edited hagiography. The judgments it contains are not just his -- they're from the pens of some of the most important taurine critics of Rincón's day (Andrés de Miguel, Vicente Zabala, Norberto Carrasco, Joaquín Vidal, Michael Wigram and José Carlos Arévalo), writing with Rincon's performances still vivid from the previous days' events. Josephs gives us his eye-witness accounts whenever possible, but generously supplements them with the opinions of other commentators.

This is a stunningly successful book, unlike any taurine work published in English in decades. Without question, Josephs has given us a work that will, for years, sit comfortably alongside the best of Hemingway, the best of Conrad, the best of Fulton and Tynan -- destined to be one of the more re-read works in any taurine bibliophile's library.

Rincón was essentially unknown to Josephs in 1991, and the germ of this book took root slowly as Rincón began to stun the Spanish afición (and Josephs) with his performances during that year's Iberian temporada. The idea for the book chrystalized in the spring of 1992, in Plaza Santa Ana -- a Madrid neighborhood dripping with taurine history and activity -- during a chat with Michael Wigram. Josephs set out to follow Rincón, documenting his career trajectory, from Spain back to the Americas, back to Spain, to the Americas, over and over until the end of the 1995 season when Rincón, suffering from a resurgence of hepatitis "C," announced his retirement, intending to swap the role of torero for that of ganadero.

Written with the aid of unusual access to a torero's inner circle, this is not simply an insider's view of the taurine circuit (as might be, for example, a detailed diary kept by a torero). Josephs didn't travel as part of Rincon's entourage. But it is likely as intimate a view as anyone will soon provide. Josephs shadowed Ricón, his manager and cuadrilla for four years -- benefitting greatly from their assistance, attending every corrida he could manage, describing in great detail what he saw (how the public reacted, and how the authority and critics judged). He had access that only a personal relationship with a torero can provide -- to hotel suites before and after successful and disastrous corridas, to sorteos, to the callejon, to tientas, to family gatherings on ganaderias and in Rincon's home, to hospital/infirmary rooms, to post-corrida de-briefings with critics and ganaderos, and more.

Faenas are described in near photographic detail, both the good, the bad, and the all-too-commonly mundane. Although the degree of taurine detail may prove more-than-a-little daunting for anyone outside or new to the mundo taurino, Josephs has seized on a clever way of avoiding bad translation of taurine terms while simultaneously keeping the narrative clear of repeated explanatory asides. All terms that would not be done justice by clumsy translation into English are left in their Spanish forms, accompanied by explanatory asides only the first time they appear in the text. Supsequent appearances remain in Spanish and an index of defined appearances is provided for readers who didn't absorb the meaning of a term the first time around.

Althouh this is Rincón's saga, Josephs' eyes aren't focused on Rincón alone. Had they been, no proper assessment of Rincón would have been possible. Though bullfighting isn't a contest between matador and bull, one can't really judge a matador's mettle without seeing him alongside his peers, each trying to tease the best out of the unpredictable complexity of the animals drawn each afternoon. Fortunately, Josephs doesn't slight Rincón's rivals (most noteworthy among them, Enrique Ponce and Joselito), giving everyone their due. We're provided a very balanced view of years of performances, the good and the bad, solidly retained in the natural context. To back every judgment we're given dates and locations (no need to take Josephs' word alone for the quality of performances observered; we're everywhere pointed to sources that can confirm the observations made) and detail that could only be noticed by one steeped -- as Josephs is -- in Spanish history and geography, taurine lore and fact.

All this is done without any of the dry, ponderous, academic heaviness that made Josephs' last major work (White Wall of Spain (c) 1983) so nearly impenetrable. Here the writing often seems to dance along with the improvisational pas de deux between Rincón and his partners of the afternoon.

I can't recommend this book too highly.

Gets no better than this.......2003-02-16

Just how good was César Rincón? The inescapable impression given by this book is that he was a taurine epiphany:

Book Description

This book shows a woman's walk of faith as she encountered trials that shook the foundations of her Christian beliefs. Experiencing The 25th Hour will afford you insight on how to transfer your pain into an awareness of your unfathomable strength, possibilities and opportunities. Beverly has learned the meaning of walking with God in public and private blessings as well as in deep trials. Vonette Z. Bright, Co-Founder, Campus Crusade For Christ, International

Experiencing The 25th Hour speaks into the lives of individuals as they make the hard choices that life presents. Dr. Bishop Ernestine C. Reems Center of Hope Community Church, Oakland, CA

An honest portrayal of a woman's struggle in holding on to God's promises while the life of her son hangs in the balance. Dr. Friedhelm K. Radandt, President Emeritus, The Kings College, NYC

Customer Reviews:

Empowering.......2005-09-20

After reading this book I was empowered to go forth and discover the purpose God has for my life. This book is wonderful and you cannot read it and remain the same. It is life changing.

Poignant.......2005-08-25

This book is a very poignant account of a personal life experience that affirms ones faith in God. It stimulated my faith and reminded me that God IS omnipotent and that the real life challenges he allows us to experience, although it sometimes causes our faith to waver, the demonstration of his miraculous power lets us declare a testimony of victory.

Encouraging!.......2005-08-18

This book will help you to be encouraged, especially when GOD makes a promise to you. HE does not forget! This book is an easy read and you feel as though you are with the author as she deals with the trials of the birth of her only son. Excellant!

encouraging.......2005-07-15

this book encouraged me when I was at a low point in my life. It gave me hope to know that I can make it inspite of my challenges. It helped me to believe!

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The Heart of a Mother (HeartWords)
Ron Dicianni , and Caesar Kalinowski
Manufacturer: Tyndale House Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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philosophy hope in a jar daily moisturizer

ASIN: 084233422X

Book Description

Beyond brown-bag lunches and red-eyed exhaustion is a living, loving thing called the heart of a mother. This gorgeous book, featuring the work of artist Ron DiCianni and quotes compiled by Caesar Kalinowski, celebrates motherhood as God intended it. A rich collection of Scripture, quotes, and original artwork. Deeply moving and highly motivating. Here's a fresh look at faith versus fear, God's protection, prayer, and other themes close to a mother's heart. A great gift for moms of all ages.

Crossing Borders: An American Woman in the Middle East (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East)

Average customer rating:

Crossing Two Borders
More than just another travel essay
Insightful, not the whole story
Misleading
Insightful, well written

Crossing Borders: An American Woman in the Middle East (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East)
Judith Caesar
Manufacturer: Syracuse University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0815628544

Amazon.com

During the 1980s, Judith Caesar taught literature in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Her aptly titled book offers one woman's view of several political powder kegs that didn't make front page news and of the clash between Western and Middle Eastern customs. An open-minded nature and curiosity about the place of women in cultures that seem wildly restrictive to many Westerners helps Caesar deconstruct stereotypes on both sides of the border. The American television show Dallas, she notes, now in perpetual rerun in many countries, has become a gold mine of misinformation on Western women. Likewise, our squeamishness about arranged marriage belies some of the inside story shared by her students. One plans to land "a good temper man" by asking a suitor's sister to reveal his true temperament. And if he doesn't have a sister? "Then don't marry him," comes the swift reply. "He has never learned about women."

Customer Reviews:

Crossing Two Borders.......2005-06-14

Throughout the twenty century, books about the Arab world have been widely written in the English academia, with a sense of respect and criticism. One must not forget that T.E. Lawrence introduced the Arab world to the West with his magnum opus The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1935). In 1980's, the works of Nawal El Saadawi was commonly known to the English audience with one of her famous titles, The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World (1980). Some of more serious authors have also brought their study about the Arab world into public consciousness: Maxime Rodinson with his work The Arabs (1980), Albert Hourani with his magnificent work History of the Arab Peoples (1992), Halim Barakat with his book The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State (1993) or Philip K. Hitti with his short introduction of Arab world entitled The Arabs: A Short History (1996).
After September 11, books about the Arab world have flourished with a strong tendency toward criticism of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is perhaps the only country which, after the United States and Israel-Palestine, has gained much critical attention both from Arab and Western authors.
What makes Judith Caesar astonishing compared to those authors is her ability to tackle the issue of criticisms of Arab people by using primary resources and her self-criticism of Western society toward the Arab world. Her book traces her journey to the othernized world. On this journey, she carried the prejudices that have been constructed in her own society, but she came to realized that her picture and view of the Arab peoples are not completely true. As a result, she is finally capable of transforming herself to accept the differences between Arab and Western society. One must also not forget that Caesar published her book in 1997, four years before her husband Mamoun Fandy published Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent (2001), a book about internal Saudi dissent. The period of 1980-1997 is the time when misunderstandings toward the Arab world were so wild. The work of Judith Caesar, although it is not the only book dealing with this issue, is significant in addressing the ignorance of American society toward the Arab world, and is obviously an important piece for those who will never visit the Arab countries.
Caesar began her book with her story of visiting the Arab world between 1980 and 1983. As a new visitor to Saudi Arabia, she came to the country with the common stereotypes produced in the West; that Arabs hated women; that they were narrow minded and irrationally violent. Before she came to Saudi, Caesar was told by several Americans who had been teaching in Saudi that Saudi women were not allowed to drive, and that a Saudi woman could be arrested for simply being in a car with a man not her husband. She was told that foreign women rumored to be having a love affair could be thrown out of the country by the morality police (muttawwa) with their passport stamped "prostitute." All this information made her fearful that she was about to begin a new life full of horror. For Caesar at this time, Saudi Arabia was the incarnation of everything horrible.
However, her stereotypes and prejudices did not block her from honest interactions with the people she met in Saudi. Caesar has a good personality and was willing to know others without erecting unnecessary boundaries. This is exactly the personal quality that made her closer to her new world.
I myself personally have my own prejudices toward both Arabs. I have bad images of Arab men, unless I know them personally, because the Arab men that I met were those who like to drink and go to a place where they could find a prostitute easily. They also took advantage of the language they speak and claimed that they were true Muslims. In the Muslim world, Saudi Arabia is the center in terms of Islamic faith, because Saudi Arabia is the country where the holiest places of Muslims are located. The pious Muslims, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, would work hard to gain money, so that they can go to Saudi Arabia, once time in their life, as Islam taught them. This religious fact, to an extent, has put the Arabs in country like Indonesia or Malaysia in an extraordinary class, as the `good' Muslims because they are Arabs and because the fact that the Prophet Muhammad and His early companions were Arabs. Unfortunately, some Arabs that I have met behave in contrast to what Islam taught us as Muslims. It is just natural, then, if I have such negative prejudice toward Arab men. I know that part of my ignorance is my conviction about the fact that all the Arab men I met were Muslims. Some Arabs, more or less, then, were responsible in building the negative images and my prejudices toward them.
This problem is far more complex, however, because the misunderstanding exists in every society. It seems that in every society there are institutions that reproduce hatred and prejudice towards others. Realizing this, Caesar discussed the role of political institutions in the Arab world. Although she seemed not really interested in political matters, she came up with some important information that has not been exposed by Western media. One of the unexposed peaces of information was the situation in Egypt after the assassination of Anwar Sadat in which thousands people ended up in jail.
Another topic that is very interesting in this book is the story of foreign workers in Saudi who came from Third World countries. According to Caesar, the Saudi government took advantage of these foreign workers because they can easily control the workers, and, at the same time they also can control their citizens. As we know, Arab Saudi, with the "blessed" oil, has become a rich country since the oil boom of 1970s. The foreign workers from the Third World came to Saudi to take the jobs that many Saudi people, even the lower class, would not be interested in. All job opportunities available in Saudi were good jobs for foreign workers who came from poor Third World countries. Saudi Arabia, besides its position as the center of religious sites for Muslim communities, was also the center of economics; millions of Third World people have built their lives from the salaries of their family or relatives who work in Saudi. However, the real situation of the foreign workers in Saudi was not as good as their family back home thought. The lack of laws to protect the rights of the workers made the violation of human rights become common in Saudi society. Caesar, as someone who used to live in a society where the issue of human rights considered a first degree of sensitive issue, was annoyed at this problem. Her sensibility became sharper whenever she encountered American expatriates who lived in Saudi and who treated their maid or servant as badly as the Saudi people did. The denial of days-off, refusal to pay a salary on time, and rejection of pay for additional work were some of the common violations of human rights that were unexposed by the media in Saudi.
The real condition of the foreign workers in Saudi haunted me because thousands of the workers were my country fellows, and most of them were women. Every time I heard that a maid was executed in Saudi, the only sense that came to my mind was the shared-feeling that the lady was the victim of the cruel system in Saudi. Perhaps the maid just needed to defend herself from someone who tried to assault her physically or sexually, or perhaps she just needed her basic right to take a rest and stop working for a day, or she needed her salary to be paid on time because her families back home were waiting. However, the worst thing in Saudi was very clear; foreign workers did not have right to defend their case once the judge decided the punishment.
In my view, this book is exciting because it contains two sides of the cultures of the Arabs, especially Saudi society. The first is the lives of the Arabs that is misunderstood by Western people: the wisdom of the people, the voice of the dissident within Saudi, and the positive values of some Saudi people. The second is about the unjust conditions in Saudi, the death of human rights for foreign workers, and the silence of Western governments, especially the U.S. government, to these facts in order to keep their oil contracts in Saudi. This last theme is a topic that is openly discussed, particularly after the September 11 tragedy, when many Americans became more aware to the fact that the U.S. government has a double standard; threaten and attack Iran and Iraq as the devils of democracy, but at the same time, hug Saudi Arabia and Israel and the best allies in the region, regardless of the fact that these countries treated people in their region unjustly.
Caesar clearly stands in two positions: between respecting the difference in values between Western and Arab society, and regretting the unjust conditions in Saudi Arabia. Caesar and her husband Mamoun Fandy have brought the alternative voice of Saudi society to the public: the issue that many journalists hesitate to deal with because of the risk of being put in jail, or betraying American foreign policy. It is no doubt that politics, once again, has become the barrier to bridging the two traditions, between the Arab world and the Western world.

More than just another travel essay.......2003-04-12

I just finished this book and I loved it. It was in with travel essay/travel narrative books, and as I liked to read about the Middle East I picked it up. I was pleasantly suprised that there was a bit more to it than just the usual I went here, did this, saw that, and aren't they odd. Caesar's book makes you think. There is an increased interest here in the US lately, (since 9/11.books are popping up all over) in how people in the Middle East live. Still despite this still most of the people I talk to unfortunately still have the sterotypical impressions from news media, of violent people with guns or of cowering oppressed women in black, etc, and everyone in the Middle East is the same. There is sooo much more too it than that and Caesar helps to show Saudis and Egyptians as real people, with real lives, personalities, intelligence, etc, caring about their families, their futures, the world around them and going about their daily lives. Its a great book. It also inspired me to read some of the books she mentions, such as Passage to India.

I do wish she had written a bit more about her Egyptian husband. She very much glosses over that part. They met, talked about books, and you next you know they are getting married. There is nothing about how it all worked out. Did his family have a problem with it? Did they live together somewhere, or did she live on the women's campus and him elswhere? It doesn't say. It kind of implies they were happy but thats about it.
I'd still give it 5 stars though.

Insightful, not the whole story.......2001-10-22

The author has wonderful insights not only into the lives of a handful of Mid-Easterners she got to know, but also into human nature and our problems in understading other cultures. She points out that the women behind those veils are not just submissive faceless people but just like us -- some highly educated and intelligent, some highly maternal, etc. I highly recommend the book. However, her insights into the Muslim world are based on getting to know a few people; it doesn't truly contain a deep grasp of the political and social issues, and I don't think she makes any claims that it does. This is just one book out of many that can help us understand Middle Eastern cultures.

I did find it disappointing that she shared so little into her relationship with the Middle Eastern man she married; if she wanted to help others understand crossing over cultural borders, that facet of her life, alone, may have been more invaluable than talking about the other people that she got to know on a much more superficial level.

Misleading.......2001-09-22

Dr. Caesar, an English major and American literature professor, purports to share her personal experiences in the Middle East. The problem is that throughout the book she continually makes sweeping statements with no factual back up. For example, she sticks in the statement "I wonder if there was something of this in America's antagonism toward the Middle East" in the middle of a story about touring Dendara. Apparently the author wants to be a political scientist without taking the time to do the research or study necessary for the conclusions she reaches. At the same time though she does share some personal experiences we virtually do not share at all in her courting and marriage to an Egyptian man. A very disappointing book that I would not bother reading.

Insightful, well written.......2001-07-14

Fascinating account of a woman's teaching stint in the Middle East - combining a travel memoir with some fascinating insights into American literary works. This is an outgrowth of her Middle Eastern students' provocative and fresh reactions to the literature that she was teaching them. Judith Caesar's deep empathy for the Middle East and its people (she is happily married to an Egyptian professor), as well as candid observations about her own cross-cultural forays, make this an outstanding and unusual book.

Average customer rating:

Women of the Caesars
Guglielmo Ferrero
Manufacturer: Barnes Noble Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 1566191394

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