A journal by Peter Hargreaves
Review by Ruth Urben Score: As a book 8/10 Reader satisfaction 9/10 Disclaimer. What follows is an incomplete and rapid summary of my initial understanding of the book after a single and too hasty read. The review, more of a synopsis, was written for an informal book group whose other members had not … Continue reading Who We are and How We Got Here by David Reich (2018)
Caliban & the Witch, the Body & Primitive Accumulation by Silvia Frederici Assessment 3 out of 10 Leonard & I take it in turn to buy the books selected for review. It was his turn to buy Caliban & the Witch ( the title comes from Shakespear’s Tempest) & before reading it, dropped it in … Continue reading
This is a difficult book to score. Let’s start with the weaknesses before focusing on its strengths. Translated from the French, it is not the easiest read. By the sections and chapters covering social, political, cultural & economic topics in turn there is inevitable repetition. It could be rewritten to be half as long. There … Continue reading Review of French Emigration to Jersey 1850-1950 by Michel Monteil (Société Jersiaise 2015 French original 2005) Assessment 6 out of 10
Assessment 8 out of 10 The book really did view history from another perspective. Travelling in northern Scandinavia you still see cod drying on racks. Kurlansky thinks the Vikings crossed to Greenland & on to Vinland dependent on dried cod. The Basques, unlike the Vikings. had salt. Cod has very little fat and therefore … Continue reading Cod; A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky
Why I chose it: The two top topic suggestions for the book club to read around were Scottish history followed by witchcraft. Review I have given the book a high score as it is both illuminating and very readable. This book is a collection of academic essays on the Scottish witch-hunts covering the period from … Continue reading The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context Editor Julian Goodare (2002) Assessment 9 out of 10 Review by Wendy Kinnard
I liked the title, “Scoff” meaning both “referring to someone in a way that shows you have a low assessment of what they think or have to say” and “eating food quickly and with enthusiasm, gulping it down”. The author’s name, Pen Vogle, also seemed singularly appropriate for a writer. However, I found the book … Continue reading “Scoff; a History of Food and Class in Britain” by Pen Vogel (2021) Assessment 5 out of 10
This is a detailed book running to 644 closely printed pages, before the glossary, bibliography, and index, to be read if it is a subject you are interested in, a complex story reflecting the complexity of the sources and for many of us unfamiliarity with the subject. In 1500 the Imperial Estates consisted of 7 … Continue reading Germany and the Holy Roman Empire Volume I 1493-1648 by Joachim Whaley (2012) Assessment 8 out of 10
AJ Liebling (1904-1963) was a journalist. This homage to France and French cooking is both an autobiography and a history of his times. It was published posthumously in 1959 by his Estate based on his articles for the New Yorker, which recalled his life in Paris in the 1920s. He was married three times, the first two … Continue reading Between Meals; an Appetite for Paris (1959) by AJ Liebling Assessment 9 out of 10
This is a wide-ranging book covering in 275 pages (before notes, index etc) a long view and where we may go from here. Runciman raises a number of questions, each of which justify further investigation. Those include: What do States, Corporations and AIs have in common? They are artificial, non-natural automatons created by humans, but … Continue reading The Handover; How We Gave Control of Our Lives to States, Corporations and AIs by David Runciman (2023) Assessment 8 out of 10
Aly’s thesis is persuasive. It confirms that wars are as much about propaganda, what people think and how wars are financed as they are about fighting. The book was repetitive with conclusions at different points in the text. However, that they were so important, they bore repetition. Maybe the faults were those of translation. However, … Continue reading Review of Hitler’s Beneficiaries;Plunder, Racial War and the Nazi Welfare State by Gotz Aly (2016) Assessment 7 out of 10
