Good reads

[rowan]

'Ive still got the 'Alexandria Quartet' collecting dust on my shelves

100 pages in and it's mostly pretentious waffle so far, though some of the description is superbly evocative and just enough to keep me going - for a while anyway...

[SerjeantWildgoose]

Michael Burleigh's Small Wars, Far Away Places: The Genesis of the Modern World (1945-65). I like the way Burleigh approaches the writing of history. Unlike some of the more popular writers, he does not tend to get down into the tactical weeds, but his focus on the strategic -level decision makers does not mean that his history is dry or inaccessible; quite the opposite. He must have taken pause to strap on a pair of sturdy boots as he set out to write Small Wars, Faraway Places as there are few of the major political and military personalities who escape a good literary hoofing. Burleigh's hefty but eminently readable history reaches across all continents, setting off from the foundation of Japan's imperial ambitions in south east Asia and finishing there with America's. Along the way it takes in South America and the Caribbean, the Near, Middle and Far easts, all corners of Africa and her disastrous middle - and a bit of Europe, too.

Can't recommend it highly enough.

[Stones of granite]

Michael Burleigh's Small Wars, Far Away Places: The Genesis of the Modern World (1945-65). I like the way Burleigh approaches the writing of history. Unlike some of the more popular writers, he does not tend to get down into the tactical weeds, but his focus on the strategic -level decision makers does not mean that his history is dry or inaccessible; quite the opposite. He must have taken pause to strap on a pair of sturdy boots as he set out to write Small Wars, Faraway Places as there are few of the major political and military personalities who escape a good literary hoofing. Burleigh's hefty but eminently readable history reaches across all continents, setting off from the foundation of Japan's imperial ambitions in south east Asia and finishing there with America's. Along the way it takes in South America and the Caribbean, the Near, Middle and Far easts, all corners of Africa and her disastrous middle - and a bit of Europe, too.

Can't recommend it highly enough.

Sounds good. Will seek out a copy for my next long haul.

ETA: Kindle version purchased. Will fill in the long, lonely nights in France next week.

[rowan]

RIP John Freely. I read a number of his books & was good friends with his grandson (who has since left Turkey). I would certainly recommend 'Strolling Through Istanbul,' if you want to know everything there is to know about this spectacular city:

John Freely, the well-known author of many history and travel books on Istanbul, Turkey and Greece, passed away on April 20 at age of 90.

Freely wrote more than 40 books over the course of his long life, including his masterpiece “Strolling Through Istanbul: A Guide to the City,” which is seen as the perhaps the best guide to Istanbul ever written.

Along with many travel books focusing on Turkey and its region, Freely also wrote on history, including “Storm on Horseback: The Seljuk Warriors of Turkey” and “The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II: Conqueror of Constantinople and Master of an Empire.”

Dubbed “the memory of Istanbul” for his various books on the city’s history, Freely lived and taught for many years at the prestigious Boğaziçi University, having started when it was still known as Robert College.

He received his PhD in physics at New York University and later pursued his postdoctoral studies at Oxford University under Alistair Cameron Crombie, the pioneering researcher in the history of Medieval European science. The principal idea he inherited from Crombie was “the continuity of western European science from the Dark Ages through Copernicus, Galileo and Newton.”

Following his postdoctoral work, he taught courses in history and astronomy at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey, including the course, “The Emergence of Modern Science, East and West.”

After 1960 Freely taught physics and the history of science at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, with periods in New York City, Boston, London, Athens, Oxford, and Venice. He returned to Boğaziçi University in 1993.

Besides Istanbul, he also wrote books on other landmark southern European cities like Venice and Athens. He was the father of writer and literary translator Maureen Freely.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/john-f ... sCatID=386

[SerjeantWildgoose]

Enjoyed a couple of short novellas this weekend.

Ian McEwan's Nutshell was pretty gripping, telling the story of a murder from the perspective of a child in the womb. Actually the child is pretty well engaged in the birth canal, which makes for some pretty stomach-churning sex scenes.

William Maxwell's They Came Like Swallows tells the story of an Illinois family at the end of the Great War and its struggle against the Spanish Influenza epidemic. Maxwell was a superb writer, but I always measure his work against So Long, See You Tomorrow; They Came Like Swallows isn't quite as good, but its still pretty wonderful.

[rowan]

On my list. Pappe's brilliant - and courageous:

The historian Ilan Pappe’s latest work, Ten Myths About Israel, is a useful primer for people just becoming familiar with the Palestinian liberation struggle – but it is far more than that. It is also a valuable tool for veteran organizers seeking to explain cogently and simply how Israel’s foundational myths and ongoing propaganda perpetuate the oppression of the Palestinian people.

While concise at 192 pages, Ten Myths About Israel points readers to many of the seminal works in Palestinian and Israeli historiography. Those who wish to explore more deeply can thereby obtain other, more in-depth guides.

What are the 10 myths? Pappe divides the book into three sections: “Fallacies of the Past,” “Fallacies of the Present” and “Looking Ahead.” The six myths of the past include the well-known saying, “a land without a people for a people without a land,” the conflation of Zionism and Judaism, Zionism as a national liberation movement and the alleged voluntary flight of Palestinians during the 1948 war.

The three myths of the present era are the claim that Israel is a democracy, that the Oslo accords represented a genuine peace process rather than a “ploy to deepen the occupation” and that Israel’s multiple attacks on Gaza were simply acts of self-defense.

The final myth looking ahead is that creating two, separate states for Israelis and Palestinians is the only way to achieve a just peace.

Continues here: https://electronicintifada.net/content/ ... rael/20026

[OptimisticJock]

Enjoyed a couple of short novellas this weekend.

Ian McEwan's Nutshell was pretty gripping, telling the story of a murder from the perspective of a child in the womb. Actually the child is pretty well engaged in the birth canal, which makes for some pretty stomach-churning sex scenes.

That sounds.... Erm.... different.

[SerjeantWildgoose]

McEwan was born in Aldershot, which I suppose explains a lot.

[francoisfou]

McEwan was born in Aldershot, which I suppose explains a lot.

Could've been worse and been born in Bury (the town of the 6 fingered BBDs!!)

[SerjeantWildgoose]

Martha Gellhorn's The Face of War: Writings from the Frontline 1937-85. Martha Gellhorn would not be an immediate choice of guest for one of those 'who would you invite' lunch parties; her willingness to allow the horrors of Dachau to stand as a perpetual excuse for Israel is just one facet of her refusal to resort to - in her own words - all that objectivity shit!

Having said that, she had an unerring eye for the tragic and horrifying human consequences of war and this collection of some of her finest writing is impressive.

[SerjeantWildgoose]

Bill Clegg's Did You Ever Have A Family. Contrived bollocks of a novel and entirely unsure why I bothered to finish it. Probably because it was better than writing a 3000-word paper on the management strategies of a handful of tedious World Heritage Sites - but only just.

[Vengeful Glutton]

Bullion

Andrew Hogg, Jim McDougall and Robin Morgan's account of Brinks Mat and its aftermath. Unputdownable.

Cadillac Desert

Marc Reisner's study of the creation of the American West in the context of dams, river diversions, irrigation, the US army corp of Engineers, and declining water supplies. Written in 1986, it's chillingly prescient.

Thinking About Creation

Theoretical Physicist Andrew Goldfinger reconciles Torah with modern Cosmogony theories. Engrossing.

[SerjeantWildgoose]

Svetlana Alexievich's Boys in Zinc. The Penguin Modern Classics edition is a book in two parts, the second part dealing with the defamation court case brought against Nobel laureat Alexievich by two of her interviewees. While the Belorussian court upheld 1 complaint, dismissing the other, the presentations both for and against Alexievich add a degree of perspective to her harrowing and highly acclaimed documentary of the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.

Despite the arguments for and against documentary literature and the extent to which an author should be allowed to manipulate the statements of those interviewed, the first part of Alexievich's book stands as an abysmal indictment of the ruthless ambitions of authoritarian states. I wept reading some of the passages in this book, which despite the efforts of the Soviet-rump to suggest otherwise, provides a bitter but sympathetic insight into the horrors faced by the ordinary soldiers and civilians caught up in this most unforgiving conflict.

Best non-fiction book I've read for a good while.

[rowan]

Thanks again, Sarge. I read all your reviews with interest. You should do this professionally I'm due a trip to the book store and will be hoping to find at least one or two of the books you've recommended on this thread. But I've been disappointed in almost everything I've read over the past few years. fiction-wise, and have been giving thought to going back to either ordering off Amazon - which I haven't done for years - or getting a Kindle. Which do you think's the best bet...?

[SerjeantWildgoose]

I regard both Amazon and their Kindle as viral threats to the future availability of books. The tax-avoiding feckers Amazon for undercutting independent book sellers and forcing so many of them out of business, and the Kindle for generating such a furious surge in electronic book sales that it very nearly did for the publishing industry altogether. I don't go near either.

It is interesting that my Masters is entirely online, with an online reference library. Perhaps it is because access is not always easy, but I suspect that it is more to do with reading preference, but I have gone to some considerable expense to buy hard copies of many of the key texts. I prefer to read this way, rather than electronically.

I know that you are somewhat isolated, but if there is an address to which Amazon can send books then use the Advanced Book Exchange instead (https://www.abebooks.co.uk) and keep the business where it belongs - with the independent book sellers.

[rowan]

Cheers again for the tip. That book exchange certainly looks interesting. I'll have to check it out. My main problem is I've never actually had a credit card during my 12 years in Turkey and have long since bled my NZ and Spanish ones dry Also, we have lots of English book stores and exchanges and so on (my American friend actually ran one of the latter for years, before moving to India to see out her retirement in some kind of hippy commune ). But they only get the mainstream, former best-sellers and classics, and it's almost impossible to find anything a little more obscure. I majored in Literature at university in America, but only studied for two years and didn't finish my degree. I did win the short story writing prize in my second and final year, however But by then I'd realised 90% of what I was doing at uni was just reading and writing, and I could do that on my own. The exception was the ancient literature course, where we were highly fortunate to have a brilliant and highly witty mentor to guide us through the likes of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Boewulf, Chaucer, Dante and all. Pretty sure I'd never have managed that on my own. Probably the writers we paid the most attention to were Faulkner (being the US) and Dostoevsky, and I've gone on to read most of their work since. But these days what I'd really like to get my hands on are more novels from other parts of the world, such as many of those you have described.

[OptimisticJock]

It is interesting that my Masters is entirely online, with an online reference library. Perhaps it is because access is not always easy, but I suspect that it is more to do with reading preference, but I have gone to some considerable expense to buy hard copies of many of the key texts. I prefer to read this way, rather than electronically.

Online learning is the way forward. A lot of my current learning/research is online and all of my further quals (if I bother) will be mostly online.

I don't mind the online books/texts and probably even prefer them for ease of C&P but I've got a few that I'll refer back to over and again in hard copy though too.

[SerjeantWildgoose]

John le Carré's The Looking Glass War. This is one of le Carré's earliest novels, published in 1965 and the next novel on from The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. It is even more critical of the amorality of the clandestine services than the earlier book and loses little in the reading of it 50 years down line.

I rattled through it in a few days, so an undoubted page-turner.

[Vengeful Glutton]

I regard both Amazon and their Kindle as viral threats to the future availability of books. The tax-avoiding feckers Amazon for undercutting independent book sellers and forcing so many of them out of business, and the Kindle for generating such a furious surge in electronic book sales that it very nearly did for the publishing industry altogether. I don't go near either.

It is interesting that my Masters is entirely online, with an online reference library. Perhaps it is because access is not always easy, but I suspect that it is more to do with reading preference, but I have gone to some considerable expense to buy hard copies of many of the key texts. I prefer to read this way, rather than electronically.

I know that you are somewhat isolated, but if there is an address to which Amazon can send books then use the Advanced Book Exchange instead (https://www.abebooks.co.uk) and keep the business where it belongs - with the independent book sellers.

I'll never purchase directly from Amazon again. I've received several shoddily bound new books from Amazon - too many for it to be bad luck. Amazon print new books on demand (POD), and if you're a voracious book reader, you'll invariably receive a few books that have been "lashed out" from some low grade printing press.

One particularly egregious example was an expensive Springer Verlag text book (hardcover), which required a stillson wrench to keep turned pages in place, assuming they didn't come away from the spine! I took the book to a local binder to get an expert opinion, and he pointed out that the glue hadn't been allowed set properly; this manifests as bead like holes between pages (running vertically along the spine). I had hoped that he could rebind it for me, but it's impossible to do, since the gap between text and the edge of the page is too small to take a new bind.

I wrote to Amazon and Springer and attached a few pictures of the poor quality binding. Amazon pointed out that the return period had expired, so I couldn't be refunded. Springer replied, and told me to take it up with Amazon!

I'll never buy anything new from them again. They couldn't bind a wound.

[rowan]

I seem to recall having a pretty good run with Amazon but had to give it up when my Spanish credit card ran out - which was almost a decade ago (my NZ one ran out several years before that).

Anyway, this is an interesting read from the Guardian about how real books are out-selling Ebooks - and why: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/ ... SApp_Other

[SerjeantWildgoose]

Christopher Hitchens' Mortality. Read this on the flight home from London last night. There are hints of Hitch at his polemic best, but I found that this didn't quite reach the heights of polemic greatness that he managed with such seeming effortlessness when he took his pops at the likes of Kissinger, Clinton, or god.

[rowan]

Looks interesting:

“The Ottoman Scramble for Africa is the first book to tell the story of the Ottoman Empire’s expansionist efforts during the age of high imperialism. Following key representatives of the sultan on their travels across Europe, Africa, and Arabia at the close of the nineteenth century, it takes the reader from Istanbul to Berlin, from Benghazi to Lake Chad Basin to the Hijaz, and then back to Istanbul. It turns the spotlight on the Ottoman Empire’s expansionist strategies in Africa and its increasingly vulnerable African and Arabian frontiers.

https://silphiumgatherer.com/2017/05/09 ... .publishes

[rowan]

Another to watch out for:


‘Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East’ edited by Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel (Hurst, 384 pages, £20)


In his last State of the Union speech in 2016, Barack Obama invoked history to explain the current meltdown in the Middle East. The region “is going through a transformation that will play out for a generation, rooted in conflicts that date back millennia,” Obama said. This idea of “ancient sectarian animosity” certainly has a tenacious hold on the public. Sunnis and Shiites, it is said, have been locked in a hate-filled conflict since the Battle of Karbala in the 7th century.

Sensible commentators have long pushed back against this simplistic thesis. “Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East” is a new collection of articles penned by top-drawer scholars, showing that the rise of sectarianism is a modern phenomenon with fiendishly complex roots. The book takes in a diverse range of countries – from Bahrain to Pakistan - and is largely intended for academics and professionals working in politics and development. But it is a broadly accessible and stimulating volume. Like much of the pushback, its effect on popular conversation is likely to be limited; that does not mean its core idea is wrong.

Of course, the Islamic world has not always been a wasteland torn apart by violence committed in the name of sectarian identity. Sunni-Shia relations were not always conflict-ridden, nor was sectarianism a strong political force in modern Muslim politics until recently. Syrians and Iraqis with different sectarian identities coexisted for centuries without mass bloodshed. So why has vicious, deadly sectarianism emerged now? The answer resists all sweeping theories. Behind the current turmoil lies a toxic brew of authoritarianism, kleptocracy, developmental stagnation, state repression, geopolitical rivalry and class dynamics. This cocktail has created conditions in which sectarianism can thrive.

Many of the contributors make the key point that lethal sectarianism and politicized identities are often manipulated by authoritarian regimes in pursuit of political gain: The manipulation of passions and the “cultivation of hatred” in the phrase of the late historian Peter Gay. Autocrats use sectarianism to divide the opposition and deflect attention toward foreign enemies who are themselves allegedly “stoking sectarian conflict.” As editors Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel write in the introduction: “There is a symbiotic relationship between social pressure from below – demands for greater inclusion, rights, recognition, and representation – and the refusal by the state from above to share or relinquish power. This produces a crisis of legitimacy that ruling elites must carefully manage to retain power. The result of this political dynamic is sectarianization.”

Related to this political struggle is the way sectarianism has been fueled by the geopolitical rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran since the 1970s. To adapt Clausewitz’s aphorism of war as a “continuation of politics by other means,” sectarian conflict in the Middle East today is the perpetuation of political rule via deadly identity mobilization. Sectarianism has become a useful instrument of Realpolitik. Both Tehran and Riyadh lay claim to leadership of the “Islamic world,” and since 1979 they have battled for hearts and minds.

The consequences are grimly evident in today’s Syria, described by George Washington University professor Marc Lynch as “the greatest incubator of sectarianism in the region.” The overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003 also boosted sectarianism. In an insightful piece, Bassel F. Salloukh describes how Saddam’s removal fueled sectarian authoritarianism, as sabotaging post-Saddam Iraq became an objective of Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah, as well as their rivals Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The country’s neighbors “feared that a stable and democratic Iraq would allow Washington to pursue its post-9/11 ‘Freedom Agenda’ aggressively. Consequently, they resisted U.S. attempts to stabilize and democratize Iraq, opening their borders to Salafi-jihadi fighters en route to Iraq,” writes Salloukh. The geopolitical battle over Iraq, coupled with the post-2006 sectarianization of Iraqi politics, had a ripple effect across the entire region.

The point about state manipulation is certainly important. But parts of “Sectarianization” sometimes appear to suggest that rising sectarianism is purely a result of state strategy. This deemphasizes local agency too much. While authoritarians have certainly manipulated religious feeling to delegitimize grassroots challenges to their rule, it should be noted that those feelings were already latent and open for manipulation in the right circumstances. Similarly, it is also important not to overlook the fact that some uprisings themselves included overdeveloped sectarian sentiments fairly quickly.

Still, there is plenty to learn from each of the book’s chapters. Over 384 pages some of the points become repetitive, but “Sectarianization” is largely free of obfuscating academic lingo. All contributors eschew simplistic conclusions and none of them proffer comforting illusions about the future. “Putting the sectarian genie back in the bottle is unlikely to be easy,” write Hashemi and Postel. They also recognize that unmasking the artificiality of the “ancient hatreds” thesis will do little to counter it.


http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/sectar ... sCatID=474

[SerjeantWildgoose]

Both look to be very interesting works, the Ottoman Scramble for Africa perhaps more so than yet another collection of pointless essays that will do little to clarify misunderstanding or resolve the scourge of religious fundamentalism.

I always enjoy an author's efforts to try to find something new in a seemingly exhausted area of research and the prospect of being able to make a case for the Ottomans trying to get in on the imperial punch-up in Africa should offer some cracking laughs. This was an empire about as capable of mounting a late 19th Century charge for imperial possession as the Romans. The Ottoman empire was in terminal decline and I think that the closest it came to imperial expansion during the 'age of high imperialism' was to provide the rail bed for part of Germany's Berlin to Baghdad railway - but I'm always open to another view.

[rowan]

Both look to be very interesting works, the Ottoman Scramble for Africa perhaps more so than yet another collection of pointless essays that will do little to clarify misunderstanding or resolve the scourge of religious fundamentalism.

I always enjoy an author's efforts to try to find something new in a seemingly exhausted area of research and the prospect of being able to make a case for the Ottomans trying to get in on the imperial punch-up in Africa should offer some cracking laughs. This was an empire about as capable of mounting a late 19th Century charge for imperial possession as the Romans. The Ottoman empire was in terminal decline and I think that the closest it came to imperial expansion during the 'age of high imperialism' was to provide the rail bed for part of Germany's Berlin to Baghdad railway - but I'm always open to another view.

The Ottomans' decline began with Selim the Sot and defeat at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, and was in full swing by the time Mustafa III lost the Crimea and various other territories to the Russians two centuries later.