5 comments about Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia.

1. I really enjoyed this book immensely. It was so sad and it hit home with my own feelings. I was impressed with his writing and the history was great and the best part was his love for his sisters. It was shared already with several people that have children affected by this disease by far the worst disease on earth. It robs young people of a life. I enjoyed the book and would highly recommend it.



2. I absolutely love this book! So interesting and well written! My husband is reading it now and is enjoying it just as much. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.



3. Well, this certainly explains my family, all my uncles, my father, the one aunt, my cousins, all coming from my father's side. Irish to the core. Protestant Irish, but I guess that doesn't matter. Actually, I feel pretty good knowing that there is a reason for this. And why the Irish are known for drinking. Keeping something away . . .I don't know what, though. Most of us are agoraphobic and about a third of us have hearing/deafness problems. I can't wait to buy this book and I'm actually feeling better and calmer about myself just by reading the reviews. So, I am crazy, but not crazy . . .so it's not me, there really is a reason. Still, even Protestants from the Ulster area believe, like me, in the "little people." Leprauchans? I wouldn't bet against them. Thank you for the book.



4. I have been searching for many years for a book that describes watching a sibling descend into this disease, as I had watched my brother and several cousins do. I finally heard my story loud and clear through Patrick Tracey's words. This book was like a warm blanket to my soul, from his experience of waving up to his grandmother while she looked out the window of the institution, to watching a brilliant sibling disappear, only to be replaced with a "changeling". This so exactly mirrors my childhood, of visiting my grandmother at the state mental institution, to watching my brilliant brother become suddenly ill. As a young child experiencing this, I had a hard time making sense of what had happened. This book helped me come to terms with it and let me know I am not alone. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a sibling with schizophrenia. This book helped me so much.



5. All I can say is if you are in any way intrigued by the title, read it!

2 comments about The Fabrication of Louis XIV.

1. The theory that ritual, pomp and circumstance can serve to enhance political power is not a new one. This book, however, makes the case that Louis XIV, in everything he did, worked to style himself as an absolute leader, a god-like ruler. From his artistic and architectural programs, to sumptuary laws, and official celebrations, Louis XIV's goal was always to assert and enhance his power. This is an enthralling book that gives insight to the era of Louis XIV as well as perspective on the use of symbol and ritual to create and maintain power.



2. I read this book in grad school, and it was one of the most enjoyable and accessible books I read. It is not a biography of Louis XIV but an extensive study on the image-making of the king. The use of the negative-sounding word "Fabrication" in the title makes the cover look very intriguing as it may imply to some that Burke has uncovered much deceit surrounding Louis' image. Actually, Burke uses this term to mean the process and constant renewal of the representation of Louis XIV (10-11). Burke includes chapters on the following subjects: the types of persuasion used (medals, festivals, allegories, etc.), a brief background on Louis' "sunrise", the organization of Louis' image-making system (academies, etc.), the royal image from the time of "personal rule," image-making through victories, reconstruction through peacetime, Louis' "sunset," differences between the ideal and the real, antagonistic images (loyal subjects making gentle fun or giving hopeful advise and actual enemies of the king), the ways in which Louis' image was perceived including the "targets" of Louis' image-makers, and a comparison with rulers before, during, and after his reign. Strangely enough, the Third Reich is not mentioned in the latter chapter which would be a glaring omission to me had it not left the door open for me to write a term paper making such a comparison.

   Burke presents a very thorough study examining such things as the changes in medal inscriptions through the years of Louis' rule to a look at what was meant by "public" during this time (pp. 131 and 152). The many photographs makes for a very interesting and enjoyable book. There is also appendixes on the numbers of medals and portraits created during the different decades of Louis' reign. It is a case study of image-making which, if taken as that, is an excellent, complete study. Do not expect a complicated thesis from this work. Burke, for example, does not pursue very strongly the idea of "charisma" (introduced on page 11)and how much "charisma" is tied to personality and "fabrication." One petty complaint is Burke's tendency to throw in French words and phrases. Most often it does not detract from an understanding of the study but, in certain cases, it can be very frustrating. Two of the worst examples are when Burke is describing how the king was surrounded by the gentlemen of his chamber "even when he was..." [the rest being in French] (91) and when Burke mentions a man who found himself in court for remarking "in brutal simplicity, that..." [the rest being in French] (167). But I won't knock off a star because I do not know Francaise.

5 comments about A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland, Second Edition.

1. This book doesn't give me all the answers I needed, but it has been a trememdous help in getting closer to finding my Irish Ancestors. Worth adding to my bookshelf.



2. This book is just what it is called: an atlas. It does not give advice or information about irish history, genealogy, or anything of the sort (which is what I had mistakenly hoped for). It is a very, very detailed atlas of the counties, parishes, and every other conceivable subdivision of the land of Ireland over the last 200 years. It could be a valuable resource for anyone who has their genealogical research within Ireland already. If you are like me, and have traced the family to the boat ride but no further, this will not help you quite yet.
   
   Thank you still to the author for the extensive research that must have gone into this!



3. This publication perfectly fills my need as a tool to visually orient myself with Ireland's complicated system of local area boundaries. Invaluable when sorting through parishes, townlands, poor law unions and baronies.



4. Very easy to read maps, great helper when your trying to figure out Baronies, Poor Unions and Parishes for anyone whether starting or revisiting their Irish genealogy projects.



5. This book contains nothing except outlines of maps, then inside maps are various sections with numbers on them. A list follows indexing the map number to a place. Not what I thought it would be ... but will most likely prove worth the heft price for a small paperback at some point.

5 comments about London: A Life in Maps.

1. Peter Whitfield's "London, A Life in Maps" is a must-read for anyone with an interest in, and/or love for, Britain's capital city. Having lived in London for three years in the 1970's, and returned many times since, I found the maps, drawings, photos, and text enthralling, shedding light on innumerable aspects of the city that previously were unknown to me. What an incredible amount of research Peter Whitfield has done, and how brilliantly he presents it. The book would make a superb gift for any Anglophile or student of English history.



2. The British Library published this beautiful book of maps of London. The reproductions of maps and plans are enhanced with engravings, paintings and photographs. Peter Whitfield's commentary for each map is informative and engaging. Each map stands alone, but taken as a whole the book presents a panorama of a great city.
   
   A few of my many favorites include:
   
   Caesar's Camp called "the Brill" located just outside St. Pancras on the River Fleet just outside London.
   
   Matthew Paris's 1250-54 diagram from London Bridge ('pons Lond.') and the Thames ('Tamise'), through Rochester and Canterbury to Dover, then crossing the sea ('La Mer') and reaching France.
   
   A 1593 guide for Cuntrey men In the famous Cittey of LONDON.
   
   Section and Plan of a Gateway to Westminster at Hyde Park Corner, 1778.
   
   Plan of a Proposed TURNPIKE ROAD From St. JOHN'S CHAPEL, ST. MARYLEBONE into the Great North Road Near the 8 Mile Stone at Finchley, 1824.
   
   A small sample of Whitfield's prose: "Between 1850 and 1945 London changed beyond recognition as a result of the interplay between population pressures, novel means of transport, a revolution in building techniques, and a new leisure ethos. By the early 20th century there were a variety of Londons. Buildings spread deep into the countryside until Green Belt legislation was passed to save what remained. Distinct types of suburb developed. Ramblers took advantage of the remaining commons, heaths and woods around London. And those two icons of modern London, the A-Z and the Underground map, were created."
   
   The book is a delight to hold and to study. Even better, the British Library has mounted an interactive exhibit of 40 the 100 maps in this book. And, many of the maps are available for sale in the Library's shop.
   
   Robert C. Ross 2008



3. Now and then, I come across a book which I quickly discover must be opened with care, and not when any other responsibilities are pressing, because it will prove almost impossible to put down. Whitfield's marvelous cartographic treatment of the history since the 16th century of one of the western world's premiere cities is just such a book. Along with chronology, maps are one of the key adjuncts in the study of history, visualizing and placing in context the relationships between events of the past. Whitfield is a well-known expert in the history of exploration and of maps, and he provides here a guided tour of London's development since the mid-16th century, when the first maps of the city began to appear. They were really "views," with elevations of buildings, and designed with a low point-of-view, not the schematic plan from directly overhead of the modern urban street map, but they get the point across: London, while already one of the largest cities in Europe, was tiny by today's standards. The Strand was almost a country lane connecting the City of the London with Westminster, upriver. Spitalfield was still the open land before St. Mary's Hospital, just outside Bishopsgate -- which was still a gate in the city walls. And because of the Great Fire and the complete loss of the old wooden city, these early maps are our best source for what medieval London really looked like. In fact, the Fire itself gave impetus to the development of urban cartography, as an aid in rebuilding the city. In addition to early plans of the major thoroughfares, certain important buildings and districts also drew attention, including Henry VIII's Whitehall Palace -- now completely replaced, except for the Banqueting Hall, by the machinery of modern government -- and the new developments at Covent Garden, Grosvenor Square, and the other elite foci of the West End which the nobility built from their estates (and from which most of them amassed enormous fortunes). The building of sprawling docks downriver to accommodate London's vast international trade were of cartographic interest as early as 1700. The volume continues through the Hanoverian dynasty and the Victorian era, following the City's ever-outward expansion, the incorporation of older villages, the establishment of entirely new suburbs, the desertion by the gentry of much of the inner city, the covering over of London's numerous small rivers, and the building of thoroughfares like Marylebone Road to accommodate the boom in commercial traffic. Many of these projects, moreover, were private initiatives, proposed with profit in mind; taxpayer-funded public works didn't become important until much later in the 19th century. Railways, factories, commercial cemeteries, green spaces, tenements, the Great Exhibition -- Whitfield covers them all. And he ends with the establishment of the London County Council, the transport revolution, and the great commercial boom that followed World War II, threatening to destroy and replace what little of the pre-modern city remained. This book, a perfect combination of absorbing information and visual delight, is almost a mandatory acquisition for anyone who studies modern British history, or who simply loves London. The city's biography resides in its maps.



4. Two things I love: historical maps and London - in one book.
   It's a good mix of maps/graphics and supporting historical text - easy to read, not dry and organised by themes.
   If you love maps and have an interest in the history and development of London, you really should buy this.
   
   I was surprised by the good (physical) quality of the book too, as it seemed relatively inexpensive compared to similar books.



5. this is a handsome, entertaining and informative overview of the history of london from the late renaissance through modern times, animated by documentary representations of the city. the title is misleading, in that maps form only part of the visual narrative: we're also shown architectural engravings, landscape panoramas, historical paintings, literary illustrations, aerial photographs and other "views" of london. the text is usually arranged as one or two columns beside or facing the visual evidence, and is generally well written and anecdotal. this is an ideal book for young and old interested in english history, cartography, or urban development, and for anyone visiting london with enough time to really explore the city's museums and monuments. (my traveler tip: i encountered this book in the victoria & albert museum bookstore, and reserved it on amazon for delivery back home.)
   
   i have several minor reservations about this edition. the quality of the reproductions and illustrations varies widely; the contrast or resolution of some maps or images is so low that they are effectively illegible (doré engravings, p.156; spurrier & phipps plan, p. 121; london railway, p.132; paddington parish, p.134; etc.), and some are jpeg files with compression artifacts (charing cross, p.136) or badly rescreened halftone images that produce moire patterns (wren's plan, p.118). (yes, the editorial difficulties in compiling images from so many sources were considerable ... but all the same.) the sewn binding is, for a trade paperback, superbly robust, but this makes it very difficult to open the book flat to examine the (many) maps printed across facing pages. i also regretted the lack of an archaeological or reconstruction map of roman and medieval london (the narrative starts in 1550), a synoptic map showing the gradually expanding urban limits, and a double page map of existing buildings, keyed by color to the period in which they were built.

3 comments about A Brief History of Vatican II.

1. Having just finished a course on Vatican II, I found this short history of Vatican II to be very helpful in detailing some of the mystery and intrigue that went on behind the scenes. A must read for anyone who wants to know the "whole story".



2. Giuseppe Alberigo is probably the greatest living expert on Vatican II, having worked in its preparation and been closely involved, as a layman, with many of the clerical leaders of the Council. These days there are all kinds of ideologically-motivated efforts afoot to downplay the significance of the Council and to criticize "liberals" for distorting its message. Alberigo shows clearly the drama of the struggle on the part of the bishops, liberal and conservative alike, for freedom from the stifling hand of the Roman Curia (the church's central bureaucracy), and tells a truly exciting story about the successes and even the failures of the Council fathers. Incidentally, anyone who reads this can only look at many of the struggles in today's church and see them as but the latest chapter in an ongoing struggle between a controlling central bureaucracy and a world-wide church concerned above all with pastoral care of the church.



3. Guiseppe Alberigo was a young professional when the council began. He was involved with Cardinal Lercaro's group from Bologna. His doctoral dissertation had been on the Council of Trent written under Hubert Jedin, the best in the field. Alberigo was with Cardinal Lercaro's group at the four sessions of the Council. Afterwards he edited the multivolume history of the Second Vatican Council, presented in English by Dr. Joseph Komonchak of the Catholic University of America.
   
   This is worth reading, even if the style is not the most limpid. You will meet someone who was part of the Council. Cardinals Ruini and Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) prefer to see the Council more as a continuity than does Alberigo and the Bologna school. He sees the council as an overcoming of the Constantinian and Post-Tridentine traditions.
   
   Stephen Palmer

5 comments about Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (updated).

1. i bought this book to use for research. i love genealogy and this book on british royalty was perfect.



2. I bought this to look up ancestors. I found them after digging into the book. Even now, I've the nagging feeling that I'm related in a different way. The layout confused me abit but I don't have the time to read the entire book in detail.



3. I am an avid reader of historical fiction in British history. I enjoy Alison Weir's works with her thorough research and readable style. I bought this book as a reference book to keep track of all those kings and queens..and the pretenders.



4. Excellent historical information but hard to keep up on who is who and who's kids are whos's. Take some time with it and yuou will enjoy it for it's informative history.



5. Alison Weir is renowned for her historical fiction and her historical works. One of the problems I have when perusing her works is keeping the players straight. Who was related to whom? Who were the children (legitimate and illegitimate) of kings and lords? In this work, Weir provides us with a resource that can be consulted while reading works on Britain's rulers over time--and keeps the players a little straighter!
   
   Weir notes at the outset (Page 3): "This handbook is about the monarchy, and it begins with the first ruler who properly may be accorded the title of monarch, Egbert of Wessex." For each ruler, one to three or so pages suffices. We learn details of the family (mother and father), siblings, wife/husband/lover, children (legitimate and not so), and death details. The work begins, unsurprisingly, with Egbert. Other early rulers--Alfred (born in 846-849), Canute (born 995), Harold II (overthrown by the Normans, ending the Saxon reign), William the Conqueror (born in 1008 and beginning the Norman Dynasty). The Norman dynasty included Henry I.
   
   Then he Plantagenet line, beginning with Henry II in 1154. The line ended with Richard III, in the battle at Bosworth in 1485. Among the monarchs in this line--Richard I (the Lion heart), Edward I (Longshanks), Edward III (and note John of Gaunt, one of his sons, and his role in the line of monarchs), Richard II, Edward IV. Then, after this lineage came the Tudors, beginning with Henry VII and ending with Elizabeth I. After that? The book runs through the different families--Stuarts, House of Hanover, House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha morphed into Windsor, with Elizabeth II being the latest monarch.
   
   All in all, a useful resource, helping to keep the players straight in English/British history.

5 comments about The House of Rothschild: Volume 2: The World's Banker: 1849-1999.

1. the book had some good pictures, however prof Ferguson not once, but on numerous occasions, claims to refute the story of how Nathan brilliantly deceived the London Stock Exchange players after the battle of Waterloo, earning $40 billion (2007 prices) in one day. A bit jealous I suppose.
   
   Verdict: Ignore the anti-semitic propaganda and the book is worth a look.



2. I bought those books (1st & 2nd volumes)'cause the writer says he did the research with the Rothschild family consent and with the family's data.
   Then some "mitology" (how they knew before all the Napoleon defead is one of them)is clarified. But he didn't see what is behind some facts that may be the family data doesn't reveal 'cause nobody reveals all the secrets .How the House of Morgan and the House of Rockfeller has long ago tied themselves with the Rothschild's House.And 'cause this the Author says the Rothschild failed to come to United States... and has a lot of writes(Eustace Mullins,Edward Griffim ,etc)that say ,when and how ,the links, between those Houses ,is working since they began a long time ago untill now and how the Rothschild's House control the Global Economy.This was a great deception...I was with the Author in B&N to ask for his signature and I told about this failure to him .



3. This book is not for the casual reader. I might have enjoyed this book more if I were a historian or an economist and had a vast knowledge and interest in both of these subjects. That being said, I found the book not interesting enough to finish reading. Instead of being given a summary of the overall strategies and business relationships developed by this famous family, I seemingly had to read every detail about every individual loan the family ever made. If you like reading accounting books, maybe this is your cup of tea.
   
   To me this book is analogous to a three hour movie that should have been a properly edited two hour movie. I prefer the writing style of economist/historian William Engdahl, Pat Buchanan or Gore Vidal. They have a talent for telling history in a concise and informative way that the average reader can enjoy.



4. What has Ferguson NOT told us about the Rothschilds in his seemingly exhaustive two volume set?
   
   He all too facilely dismisses Victor Rothschild's being the fifth man in the World War II Soviet spy ring of Blunt, Burgess, et. al. Some evidence shows otherwise.
   
   He does not note the 1776 Masonic Illuminati order of Adam Weishaupt with alleged connections to Mayer Amschel. And he doesn't discuss the Rothschilds' continued connection with Freemasonry at the highest level, and their gift to Israel of the Supreme Court building, a New World Order artifact, heavily laden architecturally with Freemasonry symbolism. (NWO as mentioned by President Bush Sr. in 1989.)
   
   Likewise, glaringly absent from note are 19th, 20th, and 21st century Illuminati activities, which the family has been widely thought to be involved with. History Professor Ferguson could fill in his blanks on some vital but shady Rothschild history from Henry Makow, a researcher and writer--and a Jew.
   
   According to an article on Ferguson in Harvard Magazine (May/June '07), he is taking on biographical writing of Henry Kissinger, at Kissinger's request. This should generate caution. Could Kissinger's "papers" be entirely relied on? Kissinger probably saw what sheen Ferguson could put on the raw material of Rothschild's archives, ignoring or minimizing important but dark concerns, and wanted some of that Ferguson gloss for himself.
   
   Same question on the Warburg's family papers that he is availing himself of. What will Ferguson tell us about Paul Warburg's role in establishing the egregious Federal Reserve, and Max Warburg financing the Bolshevik revolution?
   
   Let's hope that Ferguson can either put these and other allegations to rest once and for all or illuminate them if true--but now that he's shown his colors with the Rothschilds, I doubt that he will do so, either way.
   
   It seems that sympathetic academic interest in these elitist families and individuals is inevitable in part because that is where the big bucks for research and publishing would be, especially for a scholar who professes to have, as he says in the Harvard Magazine article, "become a thorough philo-Semite".
   
   Is there more than a whiff of opportunism here at the expense of objectivity and honest scollarship?



5. When people go on about a World power this is the family to be in. From along time back the great minds have tried to understand and emulate the unique workings of the Rothschild Dynasty, this will give the reader an inside into how the Rothschild family built wealth, power and influence within and over every major government around the World.
   It takes a very special kind of mind to put together the structures needed and an equally special person to build everything around that structure.
   Don't be fooled, Rothschild may not be known to everyone but in some way they have an effect on everyone.

5 comments about The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall.

1. The many very good reviews on "The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall" compelled me to read it. It was a pretty good read indeed. The author covers the entire Medici history in great detail and the book reads quite well. There are also some nice illustrations. However, what was extremely disappointing was the lack of important supporting information, which is essential to history books. There were only two relatively poor maps (with very small font) and no map of Florence. Therefore, the location of the Medici villas, important battles and events are not shown. What is even worse: there is NO genealogy chart! I had to go back and forth and even tried the much inadequate Index to figure out who was the sister or brother or cousin of whom. I don't comprehend how this was not caught by any of the acknowledged proof readers or the Editor. Nevertheless, if you can get your hands on some good maps and the genealogy (e.g. Encyclopedia Britannica) the book is worth reading.



2. This book is a terrific narrative on the Medici's of Renaissance Florence. Hibbert captures the various Medici family members which included Cosimo and his banking empire which funded the dynasty. His grandson Lorenzo who was the greatest of all the patrons of Rennaisance artists such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Galileo. We meet Medici's who become Pope even though their only qualifications seem to be that they were Medici's. Hibbert also introduces us to their lethal competitors, the Pazzi family. The book includes murder, betrayal, ambition, sexual dalliances, great artists, and the fabulous setting of Florence. What more do you need for a great read.



3. This book provides a good overview of the Medici dynasty and the source of its power in Florence.



4. This is not an in-depth read into the history of the Medici family; this account is an simple overview of the Medici reign. If you are looking for a detailed historical study, then you will be disappointed in this work.
   
   I found this account useful in that it provided a sense of life during the Medici's reign. Although the Renaissance is characterized by great art and scientific discovery, it was also rife with plague, invading armies, and a despotic rule from the Medici family and the church. Overall, the rule of the Medici and its ultimate decline was based on a philosophy of "better with the devil that you know than the devil you don't know". The family's reign was based on power alignments through the church in Rome and through marriage. In the height of its power, the Medici family in Florence could call upon the support of France or Spain to offset the influence of Rome. Their rule was based on checks and balances. A failure to maintain a system of balance finally signaled the decline of their empire.
   
   This book was not a riveting read; sometimes the author's description of the Medici as indulgent and ugly was amusing, and the account of the time period was interesting. A more in-depth analysis of the artists that the family aligned themselves with would have proved more interesting and useful for further insight into the Medici's way of thinking. Although the Medici were patrons for much of the great architectural innovations of the time, these are given no more than a mere mention.
   
   Overall, this is a simple and interesting account that will definitely enhance the reader's visit to Florence, and give a succinct introduction to the origins of the buildings and art of the period.



5. This is the most uninteresting book I have encountered. I gave up after the first 125 pages.

5 comments about A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age.

1. William Manchester is Professor of History Emeritus at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Over the years he has written many popular works on history; this is his contribution to the medieval period.
   
   Manchester's particular interest and area of expertise is the life and accomplishments of Ferdinand Magellan. This book sets up the picture of Magellan's world, beginning with the Dark Ages and moving to the beginning of the sixteenth century. He sees in Magellan a symbolic figure--the personification of the end of the medieval mind and the beginning of the modern age. The last major section of the book is about Magellan himself.
   
   After discussing the medieval mind in general, Manchester proceeds to show how their world progressed and then came to an end. He traces the major events in Europe over a five hundred-year period. He conceives of the medieval mind as being superstitious, subject to the authority of the church, and full of erroneous ideas. One notes throughout the book a pronounced dislike of religion, especially of Christianity and the institutional church. His sharpest barbs are reserved for popes and Protestant reformers. With the coming of the scientific age, he sees the intellectual demise of religion in general and Christianity in particular. Religion is relegated to ethical values and encouraging legends. It is disappointing to see how he ignores the fact that Christianity, and Protestant Christianity in particular, spurred the modern scientific method.
   
   Manchester admits that he depends almost exclusively on secondary sources. This is a major weakness of the book. While writing in my own field (Reformed theology) Manchester betrays an abysmal ignorance of Calvin's ideas and positions and history, accepting the most common stereotypes. He gives a very unbalanced picture of Calvin, and I think of Luther as well.
   
   I would rate this book as two stars, except that his excellent discussion of Magellan's life, adventures, and significance raises it up in my opinion to three stars.
   
   This book is written for a popular audience, and one can see while reading it that he is used to college students. He writes in a quick, racy style that is easy to read and often entertaining. He often writes about sexual topics, more often it seems than called for and giving more detailed information than necessary; but then maybe this was necessary in his lectures to keep his college students listening.



2. The only really good thing about this book is the great title. I'm sure that's the only reason it's been around so long.
   
   The medieval mind is only a little bit of the book, and is hopelessly generalized, exaggerated, without any attempt to analyze in depth of how it was; it gives neither accurate information nor much of a feel for the era. He repeats some information that is known to be false (possibly due to research done since he wrote the book). Then the bulk of the book is about the Renaissance and Reformation, which was readable enough (keeping the details of Martin Luther readable is not an easy task), although again hopeless generalizations, inconsistencies, and some real whoppers. Finally, there's a smallish section on Magellan that's as unbalanced in admiration for him as the rest of the book is unbalanced in condemnation of the middle ages, catholic church, popes, kings, protestants, etc., within a highly detailed account of his famous trip; not interesting, and I didn't bother to finish the book.



3. A real scholar of the Medieval epoch, Norman F. Cantor, demolished this terrible, slapdash book in the BOOK WORLD section of The Washington Post, published May 3, 1992.
   
   Furthermore, pretty much everything ever published by Manchester is merely the pseudo-scholarly rambling opinions of a man favored by the chatterboxes of the once-mighty electronic mass media.
   
   The only good thing to be said about Manchester is that at least there is no evidence that he was a plagiarist as were similar authors Doris Kearns Goodwyn or Stephen Ambrose.
   
   Reading the dreck of Manchester is useful exercise for learning the style of ignoramuses who insinuate and tread water without explaining or proving anything.



4. Unfortunately I had to return this item, but the seller made it fast and easy.



5. This book is awesome. It is well written. Extremely informative and forces you to think. This is definitely not a novel. The scary part of reading this book is the parallels we can draw with our current era. The dark ages were a time dreadful ignorance, censorship, and oppression by the Christian Church in Rome. It took centuries for the reformation to take place. Are we headed into another dark age spurred by the Christian right?

1 comments about Inheritance: The Story of Knole and the Sackvilles.

1. [Review refers to U.K. edition]
   It is very old. The total number of rooms is somewhere very close to 365 (depends on your definition of room). There are 52 staircases (one for each week of the year) and within its grey ragstone walls, are the seven famed courtyards (one for each day of the week). As you might surmise, it's known as the "Calendar House." Completed in 1486, Knole in Kent in the United Kingdom epitomizes a British Stately Mansion.
   
   "Inheritance: The Story of Knole and the Sackvilles," by Robert Sackville-West is the storied history of the home, one of England's largest, and the 13 generations of Sackvilles who have inhabited the grand 15th-century building for more than four centuries.
   
   Vita Sackville-West, part of the Bloomsbury crowd and Virginia Woolf's great friend and lover, famously described her Sackville ancestors as "a race too prodigal, too amorous, too weak, too indolent and too melancholy; a rotten lot, and nearly all stark staring mad."
   
   Of Knole, she wrote "It has the deep inward gaiety of some very old woman who has always been beautiful, who has had many lovers and seen many generations come and go, smiled wisely over their sorrows and their joys, and leant an imperishable secret of tolerance and humour."
   
   Vita loved her childhood home but her gender prevented her from inheriting Knole when her father died. Instead, her uncle took over title and estate. Knole is now under the care and partial ownership of England's National Trust. The Sackvilles still call Knole home and have ownership of a sizable portion of the house and gardens.
   
   Charles Sackville, the 6th Earl of Dorset who occupied Knole in the late 1600s was certainly in the running for the most rowdy (randy, too) of Vita's rotten lot. Described as having twinkling eyes and a "podgy face," the Earl and a group of his drinking friends met for dinner on June 16, 1663 at the Cock Tavern in London's Covent Garden. Soon they were being served by "six naked women." Soon after that the women and Sackville along with two of his co-revelers proceeded to a balcony overlooking the street. All three of the men stripped naked and according to Samuel Pepys in his famous diary acted in "all the postures of lust and buggery that could be imagined."
   
   The lewd antics attracted a crowd and resulted in mayhem and broken shop windows. Charges of abuse of the "King's Peace" resulted in at least one fine of 2,000 marks, a substantial sum. By coincidence on the same day as the romp, lightning struck and heavily damaged the Sackville family mausoleum.
   
   The 6th Earl of Dorset is just one of the many Sackville portraits presented in the 440-year family history. Among those is lonely Lady Anne Clifford in the early 1600s, whose rake of a husband Richard Sackville, the 3rd Earl of Dorset, threatened to desert her and take custody of their daughter unless she signed over to him her family wealth. She didn't.
   
   The 3rd Duke of Dorset, John Frederick Sackville, is mentioned as a possible model for the Scarlett Pimpernel. There's the bachelor Lionel who in the 1860s fathered five children with his mistress, a Spanish dancer called Pepita. It was one of Lionel's illegitimate daughters, Victoria, who kept Knole in the family when she married her first cousin, another Sackville named Lionel. Victoria not only preserved the Sackville legacy, in 1902 she installed electric lighting.
   
   Today, upward of 80,000 visitors tred the halls in the public areas. Fifteen or so of the 365 rooms are currently open to visitors. The National Trust has plans to make many more of the rooms accessible to visitors. The author, who by right of male succession, holds title to the private areas lives with his wife and children in a suite of refurbished rooms along the building's south front. They have private access to one of the seven inner courtyards, the Pheasant Court. The Sackville family holds the lease on Knole for another 140 years.
   
   The book is titled "Inheritance" because it records a remarkable ancestry that has kept the home in the same family for more than four centuries. It's a thoroughly researched story with enough intrigue, heartbreak and goings-on for a lively full season of Masterpiece Theater. Knole is a grand building. Its walls enclose an incomparable history that in the telling becomes an extraordinary story. On a simpler plane it's a romp of a read.