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   Book Reviews

Feeling just a bit ahistorical?  These books will enlighten you,  fill you in, and give you a basis for comparison with present-day events...   

Think the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are bloody and brutal?  Think again.  From the Dark Ages through the nineteenth century, battles of European peoples among themselves, against the Muslims, Turks, Egyptians and others were more sanguinary than anything happening now.  The Crusades claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people at the hands of both Christian and Muslim warriors. Author John Julius Norwich writes in a compelling and lively way for a most enjoyable, if hefty volume.

Most current interpretations of recent history have been tendentious, to say the least.  That is, biased toward the Left. Andrew Roberts gives us a more realistic account of events since 1900, moving among Britain, Canada,  Australia, New Zealand and the United  States, telling us decade by decade the history of each of the parts of the Anglosphere and their attitudes toward each other.  This is a great read for those of us whose history education ended with the 19th century and who would prefer a balanced account of recent events.

The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

                                                     A British  Artillery Battery, c 1914
(for more original WW1 photos, go to www.firstworldwar.com)
The Guns of August was first published many years ago, but I advise anyone who has never read it to do so in the near future.  It covers the activities of the French, German, Belgian and British High Commands during the month of August, 1914, and explains in vivid and often painful detail how what might have been a relatively brief conflict turned into a hideous four-year ordeal which decimated the male population of all four nations.  The French had never forgotten the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, when the Germans laid siege to and finally occupied Paris.  During that war, German troops entered France from the east, through Alsace and Lorraine (which provinces they kept in the treaty that ended the war).  When the Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, and Austria declared war against Serbia, Germany made ready to use this as an excuse to aid its ally and, at the same time, obtain lebensraum and glory for itself at the expense of France and Belgium.  It declared war on Russia, an ally of France and Great Britain, who had also, by treaty, promised to protect the neutrality of Belgium.               

     Kaiser Wilhelm, naively arrogant, assumed the Belgians would not fight, but would allow the German army to pass through Belgium to encircle the French from the northwest.  The French, clinging to their red pantalons and coats from 1870, planned to counter a German attack from the east with an offense embodying élan and cran, that is, dash and guts, along with sabres and cavalry charges.  Joffre, commander of the French army, created "Plan 17", detailing this offensive, and held to it, at least through August, 1914, refusing to consider a defensive plan of action.  Owing to this stubbornness, miscommunication, and underestimation of the enemy, the latter broke through in the east, revenged themselves on towns which had cooperated with the French, and retook control of the mineral resources of Alsace-Lorraine.

     "We must fight to obtain that which is ours by right, and which others refuse to give us."  That statement exemplifies the self-centered, self-aggrandizing attitude of Germany, which managed to conceive of itself as a victim entitled to dominate Europe because of natural superiority.  It never ceases to amaze that, having lost WW I, it nevertheless retained these convictions and tried it all again twenty years later.  It would have eventually won WW I if not for the intervention of the USA with its manpower and resources.  France, as I said, clung to cherished but outmoded beliefs, the Belgians fought courageously when the Germans invaded and committed vengeful atrocities against citizens who resisted, but they were too small and ill-armed to overcome massive enemy armies and modern weapons.  King Albert, however, correctly perceived German troop strength and tried to enlighten the French, who grossly underestimated it in yet another display of wishful thinking..

     As for the British, fortunately Winston Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty during this time, and determined to use the British Navy, the best of its fighting forces, in whatever way necessary to protect not only the British Isles but the European coast against German warships.  The War Cabinet, despite the august presence of Lord Kitchener, who correctly estimated the strength of the German forces and correctly predicted a long war, held back on sending troops to the continent until the Germans actually violated the neutrality of Belgium, a mistake that the French also made, and which cost Belgium dearly.  Both countries waited until the last minute to declare war.  Even then the British sent only two divisions.  These did not begin to move north from Amiens until the Germans were well on their way south toward France.  And thus began the desperate trench-and-barbed-wire struggle that cost so many lives and resolved nothing much.  We should be grateful for the establishment of the European Union after WW II, which we shall hope marks an end to European wars.              

Ancient Rome on Five Denarii  a Day, by Philip Matyszak, will be of most interest to those who have visited Rome a time or two. Some receipes and descriptions of food, however, may be repugnant to modern, Western readers. Unless, of course, one relishes lamprey eels or serves cow udder stuffed with giant African snails to guests.  Mr Mat-yszak meticulously gives tourists directions to sites of interest as they existed in 200 AD, warns against high-crime areas, tells the best places to stay while in Rome, and explains how to wrangle invitations to dine in houses of the wealthy.  He reminds the reader to always be nice to travelling Romans--invite them to dinner, offer them a room for a night or two--so that you may contact them upon arriving in their city and confidently expect reciprocity. He discusses Roman religion--Vestal Virgins, sacrifices, festivals and burial customs, and explains the relationships between types of coinage, of which the smallest is the as (pl. asses).  Others are seseterces, dupondii and denarii. The book is ornamented with quotes from authors of the period, and with Res Romae, small comments and notations such as, "All civil cases must be completed in one day", and foodstuffs you won't find in Rome: Tomatoes, potatoes, peanuts, rice, cane sugar, chocolate, distilled liquor and pasta!  Ave atque vale!  S.P.Q.R!