Grand unified books thread

[CountDeMoney]

I had no idea E.L. Doctorow wrote a novel about Sherman's campaign.

But it just moved to the top of the To Read stack.

[Razgovory]

Gilgamesh was a Babylonian favorite as well, but they seem to have accepted that not even their empire was permanent and that too would be destroyed.

There were multiple Babylonian dynasties, power often shifted from city to city, and there were long interregnums of foreign rule, so Babylonians would have been very conscious of the impermanence of political rule.  The Babylonians were also very historically conscious - they preserved Sumerian as a literary prestige language for centuries (even though it is from an alien language family) and used ancient Akkadian for their own literary tradition into the Hellenistic period.  Nabonidus - the last of the neo-Babylonian rulers - was a dedicated antiquarian who restored temple complexes that dated back to the Old Babylonian era (more than 1000 years earlier).

They were sort of a mopey people.  Lot of a lamentations and the like.  You do see where the Israelites get their outlook on life from though.

[The Minsky Moment]

To keep on topic Gwendolyn Lieck's Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City is an interesting read on all (urban) things Sumerian and Babylonian.

[garbon]

I just finished The War That Ended Peace: The Road To 1914 by Margert MacMillan. While certainly an enjoyable/in-depth read, if one had to just get one book on the lead-up to WW1, I'd recommend The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went To War in 1914 by Christopher Clark instead.

Mainly for two "defects" with MacMillan book. Firstly, I couldn't shake feeling that it had been written as a set of individual essays that had then been re-worked and put in one book. Structure of chapters seemed odd (neither really thematic nor chronologic) and so many things were repeated over and over. And they weren't really mentioned as callbacks to what you had already read but almost if it was posted as a novel note for the first time in the book. One example is the passage "As so often in international relations, though, what is defensive from one perspective may appear a threat form another". That passage or some variation was repeated at least 5 times across the work.

Secondly, she kept drawing parallels to the modern era but there didn't seem much of a purpose for the comparisons. She never really unpacked any of them nor did they really help to better explain the WW1 events she was describing. They kind of just sat there as random bits of the author adding in her judgments on current events - which just sort of kicked me out of the narrative.  Some examples:

• "By 1914 Germany's leaders felt that they had little choice but to support their ally even as it pursued dangerous policies, much as the United States continues to support Israel or Pakistan today"
• "Like the younger George Bush nearly a century later, who blamed his father for not finishing off Saddam Hussein while he had the chance, Wilhelm had always wanted to distinguish himself from a father he held to be weak and indecisive"
• "Our world is facing similar challenges, some revolutionary and ideological such as the rise of militant religions or social protest movements, others coming from the stress between rising and declining nations such as China and the United States."

That said, I think her book was a little less dry that Sleepwalkers, and for what it is worth I am considering getting her book on the Treaty of Versailles.

[Sheilbh]

I enjoyed her book on Versailles a lot, but I did find it a little disjointed.

Currently reading A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters. I like it a lot.

Also Shadow of the Great Game. A revisionist history of partition by Mountbatten's old ADC. I believe lots of his points were dismissed when the book first came out. Having read a couple of books which touch on MI5 policy in India leading up to and after independence (largely based on files declassified after this book came out), I suspect he's a little more right than was initially suspected.

[Savonarola]

The Shijing (Classics of Poetry)

This is a collection of odes and hymns from the various states of China from between the 11th and 7th century BC.  The poems cover many different forms but, to me, it was surprising how many tied into the political situation of the time; either criticism or praise of the ruler or commentary on the prosperity or the chaos of the age.

The Western Zhou dynasty collapsed after King You replaced his queen with a concubine named Baosi.  The queen's father rebelled and the nobles whom King You had mistreated rebelled.  Naturally the people blamed Baosi for this; and a number of poems reflect this and give a very frank assessment of her character.  Some are so blatantly misogynistic that I thought Languish would appreciate them.  My favorite:

Clever men build up a city,

Clever women cause its fall.
Clever women may have charms, yet

Owls and vampires are they all

[Malthus]

I enjoyed her book on Versailles a lot, but I did find it a little disjointed.

Currently reading A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters. I like it a lot.

Also Shadow of the Great Game. A revisionist history of partition by Mountbatten's old ADC. I believe lots of his points were dismissed when the book first came out. Having read a couple of books which touch on MI5 policy in India leading up to and after independence (largely based on files declassified after this book came out), I suspect he's a little more right than was initially suspected.

What were his controversial positions?

[Sheilbh]

What were his controversial positions?

Basically that the British were pushing partition for a long time to preserve a military base for the UK (and later the US/West/SEATO) to protect their interests in the Middle East. It was initially just an idea but it grew rather urgent as the Cold War started.

[Malthus]

The Shijing (Classics of Poetry)

This is a collection of odes and hymns from the various states of China from between the 11th and 7th century BC.  The poems cover many different forms but, to me, it was surprising how many tied into the political situation of the time; either criticism or praise of the ruler or commentary on the prosperity or the chaos of the age.

The Western Zhou dynasty collapsed after King You replaced his queen with a concubine named Baosi.  The queen's father rebelled and the nobles whom King You had mistreated rebelled.  Naturally the people blamed Baosi for this; and a number of poems reflect this and give a very frank assessment of her character.  Some are so blatantly misogynistic that I thought Languish would appreciate them.  My favorite:

Clever men build up a city,

Clever women cause its fall.
Clever women may have charms, yet

Owls and vampires are they all

It is a major and recurring theme in Chinese history.

[Savonarola]

The Shijing (Classics of Poetry)

This is a collection of odes and hymns from the various states of China from between the 11th and 7th century BC.  The poems cover many different forms but, to me, it was surprising how many tied into the political situation of the time; either criticism or praise of the ruler or commentary on the prosperity or the chaos of the age.

The Western Zhou dynasty collapsed after King You replaced his queen with a concubine named Baosi.  The queen's father rebelled and the nobles whom King You had mistreated rebelled.  Naturally the people blamed Baosi for this; and a number of poems reflect this and give a very frank assessment of her character.  Some are so blatantly misogynistic that I thought Languish would appreciate them.  My favorite:

Clever men build up a city,

Clever women cause its fall.
Clever women may have charms, yet

Owls and vampires are they all

It is a major and recurring theme in Chinese history.

Yellow Fever:  Not Just for Caucasians. 

[Malthus]

The Shijing (Classics of Poetry)

This is a collection of odes and hymns from the various states of China from between the 11th and 7th century BC.  The poems cover many different forms but, to me, it was surprising how many tied into the political situation of the time; either criticism or praise of the ruler or commentary on the prosperity or the chaos of the age.

The Western Zhou dynasty collapsed after King You replaced his queen with a concubine named Baosi.  The queen's father rebelled and the nobles whom King You had mistreated rebelled.  Naturally the people blamed Baosi for this; and a number of poems reflect this and give a very frank assessment of her character.  Some are so blatantly misogynistic that I thought Languish would appreciate them.  My favorite:

Clever men build up a city,

Clever women cause its fall.
Clever women may have charms, yet

Owls and vampires are they all

It is a major and recurring theme in Chinese history.

Yellow Fever:  Not Just for Caucasians.

Man-destroying Dragon Ladies: not just for CdM. 

[Valmy]

I enjoyed her book on Versailles a lot, but I did find it a little disjointed.

It has been awhile but it had spectacular sections but never really seemed coherent.

[Savonarola]

Man-destroying Dragon Ladies: not just for CdM. 

King You only lost his life, his dynasty and his kingdom.  He got off easy as compared to CdM.   

[CountDeMoney]

  and how

[Savonarola]

The Torah :

On this reading it's easy to see parallels between the Torah and other Ancient Near Eastern texts; especially between the Law and the various codes of laws or wisdom literature. (Also the antediluvian Kings lived incredibly long lives; even longer than the antediluvian Biblical patriarchs.)  A couple things which makes the Law unusual is it's presented as a covenant, rather than the dictate of a king or good advice; and it's concern for social justice.  (What remains of the law code of Ur-Nammu seems to indicate that was a concern for him; but, to my limited knowledge, other law codes are not concerned with that at all.)

Some of the King James Version translations are amusingly awkward.  I liked how Moses called the Israelites "A peculiar people unto the Lord."