Livy is too patriotic to be completely trusted as a historian, but even he cannot help but convey a grudging admiration for the towering figure of Hannibal. He has nothing good to say about Carthage in general, and he works in some malicious gossip about Hannibal that is probably nothing more than just that, but …
Category: Al
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/27/the-war-with-hannibal-by-livy/
Sep 26 2014
The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France by R.J. Knecht
This book was BORING. But it was not entirely without merit. It educated me considerably on the degree to which religious strife has played a role in the history of France. One tends to think of France as a thoroughly Catholic country, but there was once a flourishing Protestant movement. It is tantalizing to speculate …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/26/the-rise-and-fall-of-renaissance-france-by-r-j-knecht/
Sep 20 2014
A World at Arms by Gerhard Weinberg
The author’s name suggests that he is of German descent, but he is one of the most anti-German WWII historians I have ever read. He does not accept that the Versailles treaty was an injustice to Germany, nor does he buy into the claim that Hitler admired the British and would have rather allied with …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/20/a-world-at-arms-by-gerhard-weinberg/
Sep 17 2014
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson
No one can say that Ben Carson grew up in privileged circumstances, but from a young age he seems to have had an uncanny knack for making the right choices. I’m not sure the Ben Carson story can be a model for all young people, but it does reinforce my belief that parents rather than …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/17/gifted-hands-the-ben-carson-story-by-ben-carson/
Sep 17 2014
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carre
This was a fascinating story of a cat and mouse game in which it is never quite clear who is the cat and who is the mouse. It blows to bits the James Bond mythology of what spying is about: it is a dirty, dirty business, and the people who engage in it are hardly …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/17/the-spy-who-came-in-from-the-cold-by-john-le-carre/
Sep 11 2014
Rome and Italy by Livy
Mostly this is a record of Rome’s interminable wars with the Samnites. War is hardly a trivial event, but Rome fought so many wars during this period that reading about one battle after another becomes wearying. The most interesting and unusual thing that happened during this period was that a Vestal Virgin violated her vow …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/11/rome-and-italy-by-livy/
Sep 02 2014
The Spanish Civil War by Stanley Payne
All civil wars and revolutions are confused in their narrative accounts, but the Spanish Civil War is even more confusing than the French Revolution. Who, exactly, was rebelling against whom? The Leftists were supposedly the “revolutionaries,” but they actually supported the Republic. Franco’s Nationalists were the “counterrevolutionaries,” but they were dedicated to overthrowing the Republic. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/02/the-spanish-civil-war-by-stanley-payne/
Sep 02 2014
The Mission Song by John Le Carre
In this book Le Carre succeeds in doing what he failed to do in Tinker Tailor: creating characters that the reader actually cares about, as a well as a plot involving a covert operation whose outcome is not merely a an academic move in a geopolitical chess game. I identify in some ways with the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/02/the-mission-song-by-john-le-carre/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/08/19/the-fall-of-the-roman-empire-by-peter-heather/
Jul 19 2014
Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson
Fascinating, insightful book. Ferguson argues that not only is Western Civilization the greatest civilization in the history of the world, but that it has no need to apologize for itself, a view that may seem obvious to some but that has come under attack in recent years. He argues that the West developed five “killer …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/07/19/civilization-the-west-and-the-rest-by-niall-ferguson/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire