"Comfort Reading" Topic
10 Posts
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Ottoathome | 13 Jan 2016 8:18 p.m. PST |
Dear List I wasn't feeling well today and took the opportunity after a few errands to have a good long lay down. I curled up with one of my favorite books and I set aside my more programmed reading to indulge in a genre that for me is particularly comforting. There is a group of historians I am especially fond of. These are Emil Ludwig, Ernle Bradford, Howard Lamb, Otto Friedrich and especially Hendrik Van Loon. None of these are detail nuts and bolts guys and all of them are big-picture generalists who make the big leaps and ask the big questions. All of them are experts in telling a story and weaving the soaring drama, tragedy, triumph and comedy of History. One newcomer in this group is Eleanor Herman who I have mentioned often, and she is still alive, the others longs since passed on. Hendrik Van Loon remains my favorite, the author of dozens of books including the masterful "Story of Mankind" and his "omage" to Plutarch in Van Loons lives. He also wrote a book on geography the history of science and technology, The discovery of America, the Arts, toleration, and many other subjects. All of the wonderful easy reads which peg out the highlights and the big picture. His style is a bit idiosyncratic and his sometimes very long sentences are a bit comical but always enlightening and he gets his point across. All of them leave you under no doubt of the importance of history and that there is always cause for hope and optimism. They are writers who provide stories that argue solidly AGAINST the view that life is nothing more than a puff of warm air above a vast, cold, dark, unfriendly, lifeless sea. And that is the merit of it. In spite of the dreadful role of the historian, which is often to be the coroner of the crimes of humanity, from out of these pages comes an optimism and hopefulness, that life, even in the harshest and most dreadful of times, is still worth living, and that the good that even a few men do more than counteracts the evil that many do, Otto
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Ryan T | 13 Jan 2016 9:39 p.m. PST |
I've always been curious about Van Loon's work after coming across a great quotation attributed to him: "But when the Tsar of all the Russias, the commander-in-chief of three million horse-guards, foot-guards, life-guards, and Cossacks, begins to talk sweetly of brotherly love, it is time for decent people to look to their guns." |
Goonfighter | 14 Jan 2016 5:49 a.m. PST |
Can't fault a revisit of "Flashman" or "Royal Flash" |
Ottoathome | 14 Jan 2016 6:33 a.m. PST |
Dear Ryan T Van Loon was a journalist and popular writer and did not come out of academia, but then, so many of his generation and the ones I named did. Back in his day he was something of what they then called a "liberal" politically but today would be a right center republican. He was a passionate enemy of Hitler long before it was fashionable to be so, and he was once investigated by the House Un-American Activities committee because 30 years before he had signed up for a course in Russian. There are many such quotes like that in Van Loon, and today he would be considered especially hopeless to the PC crowd for things like "The Poles are a valiant and brave people, ever willing to fight and die for their country but seldom willing to live and work for it." from his book "Geography." In many ways Van look wrote for a younger audience, but that just makes his books even neater. Unfortunately almost all are out of print though his "Story of Mankind" perhaps the best, has been republished. If you prowl around second hand and used book srores and library sales you can still find many of his books. One author I highly recommend is Eleanor Herman. She has to excellent books to her credit, "Sex with Kings" and "Sex with the Queen" which is a history of the effect and influence of Royal Mistresses and the Queens lovers on history. It is still in print and it is a great read. She gets down into the details, but at the same time makes you realize that sex in the age of absolutism is far more causal than the Marxist and deconstructionist claptrap we were fed for decades. Sex with Kings ISBN 978-0-06-058544-0 Sex with the Queen ISBN 978-0-06-084674-9 By the way the ISBN for Van Loon's Story of Mankind is ISBN-978-0-87140-175-5 One note. Van Loon himself only carried the Story of Mankind up to the early 30's when it was published. The modern edition above was "updated" by John Merriman. The update is OK but Merriman was not able to infuse it with the sparkling wit and the intimate conversational style that Van Loon did, a style almost as if he was talking to you over your kitchen table with a cup of coffee. But it's still good. Of the rest, Friedrich is more modern and a bit grimmer than the others. His books are about the 20th century. amd I recommend "Before the Deluge" About Germany and Berlin before the Nazi Rise to power and "The End of the World" about the great apocalyptic disasters that have afflicted the human race. Bradford, Lamb, and Ludwig are all classic historians who saw nothing wrong with the romantic sweep of history. |
Hafen von Schlockenberg | 14 Jan 2016 9:36 a.m. PST |
Comfort reading? P.G.Wodehouse. |
Hafen von Schlockenberg | 14 Jan 2016 9:57 a.m. PST |
Now this is weird: the cross post to Wargaming in General shows one post(the original), and lists "0" posts. What's going on? |
Ottoathome | 14 Jan 2016 10:54 p.m. PST |
Dear hafen That's a duplicate not a crosspost. I tried crossposting it and it got a lock and timeout error message. |
Hafen von Schlockenberg | 15 Jan 2016 9:12 a.m. PST |
Yep,suffered 3 or 4 in my short TMP life. |
Ryan T | 15 Jan 2016 8:31 p.m. PST |
Hello Ottoathome, Thank you for the recommendations.They sound like they are an excellent way to spend a cold winter evening along with a good scotch. This also gives me yet another excuse to poke around in used book stores, as if I need anther reason for that. |
Ottoathome | 15 Jan 2016 9:59 p.m. PST |
Dear RyanT Do not forget flea market and garage sales. eternal vigilance brings great rewards. I am always astounded at what I find on the dusty shelves of book stores. |
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