Grand unified books thread

[The Brain]

Is Ramses from the same word/phrase as Ozymandias?

[Malthus]

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

While there's a couple transliterations of "Ramses" today, it's surprising that it was ever transliterated as "Ozymandias".  The poem is about Ramses II; who was indeed one of the most prolific builders of ancient Egypt.  A number of the monuments he built to himself are still extant; at the time the poem was written the temple complex at Abu Simbel was just being rediscovered.

I learned that Shelley wrote this as a competition with Horace Smith.  Smith's poem lacks the genius of Shelley's and hammers the point home; but is still interesting.

Ramses II's granddad hung in a Niagra Falls fun fair, scaring kiddies for a century, until he was "discovered" as a royal mummy & exported back to Egypt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_I#Rediscovery_and_repatriation

Look on my works ye mighty and dispair, indeed! 

[Savonarola]

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

While there's a couple transliterations of "Ramses" today, it's surprising that it was ever transliterated as "Ozymandias".  The poem is about Ramses II; who was indeed one of the most prolific builders of ancient Egypt.  A number of the monuments he built to himself are still extant; at the time the poem was written the temple complex at Abu Simbel was just being rediscovered.

I learned that Shelley wrote this as a competition with Horace Smith.  Smith's poem lacks the genius of Shelley's and hammers the point home; but is still interesting.

Ramses II's granddad hung in a Niagra Falls fun fair, scaring kiddies for a century, until he was "discovered" as a royal mummy & exported back to Egypt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_I#Rediscovery_and_repatriation

Look on my works ye mighty and dispair, indeed! 

I had been to the Niagra Falls Museum when I was a child and then many years later to the Luxor Museum.  I must have seen him at the both places, but I don't remember anything about the Niagra Falls Museum except that it was incredibly kitschy.

[Razgovory]

I don't think there much support for the proposition that Germany's hyper inflation played no role in the political chaos which followed.

Said that way - no role - hard to contest.  But it was definitely secondary to the unemployment crisis a decade later.  German historical memory is selective in that regard - you would think that Germans would be sensitive to the dangers of extreme austerity in the presence of active right and left wing populist movements.

Sure.  But isn't there a connection between the hyperinflation and the later unemployment which then provided the necessary economic condition for extremist parties to have some measure of success at the ballot box.

I dunno, the Great depression hit everyone pretty hard.  Germany had gotten it economic house in order by the late 1920's and nobody wanted to hear from the Nazis anymore.  They were doing fairly well, in no small part do to debt restructuring and American loans.  Funny how things work like that.

[Habbaku]

Anyone have any recommendations for a history (any aspect) of the Wars of the Roses?

[The Brain]

Anyone have any recommendations for a history (any aspect) of the Wars of the Roses?

I bought and read a ton of books on WotR a couple of years back, but no book really stands out in my memory. Probably because they all are based on the same fairly limited sources. As a general history I think you can do a lot worse than the Alison Weir book, even if it kind of ends a bit early with the death of Henry VI. IIRC it was a decent read.

[Ed Anger]

Anyone have any recommendations for a history (any aspect) of the Wars of the Roses?

The Wars of the Roses, Alison Weir.

[Valmy]

I dunno, the Great depression hit everyone pretty hard.  Germany had gotten it economic house in order by the late 1920's and nobody wanted to hear from the Nazis anymore.  They were doing fairly well, in no small part do to debt restructuring and American loans.  Funny how things work like that.

True and they and France got together and swore they would never fight a war again. France tried to keep up its bargain. Boche backstabbers.

Which is one of the reasons I get cranky at people who insist the Treaty of Versailles made a second war inevitable.

[Gups]

Alison Weir's book is fine, but the War of the Roses is too big a subject for a single volume history to get to grips with.

Enjoying a book on a different civil war at the moment, the first volume of Foote.

[Valmy]

Shelby Foote was a great and gifted story teller.

'If America was really as great as it claims to be this war would never have taken place. But since it did we have to pretend our generals were the greatest and our soldiers were the bravest.' Something to that effect 

[Malthus]

Currently reading Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder. Very good, very grim. Points out that the horrors of the time were caused by the cumulative effect of being ground between the two dictators. Also, makes the important point that both dictators tried their hardest to implicate as many people as possible in their crimes - that collaboration was common and that the collaborators were often simply included in the next round of victims: people destroyed morally and then physically.   

[Valmy]

You could see that effect starting in the French Revolution. The terror ended before really crazy numbers of people were killed (officially anyway...looking at you infernal columns) but everybody who supported the republic no matter how moderate was completely shattered morally. Afterwards they tried their damnedest to restore the spirit of 1789 but everybody left was too cynical and paranoid to pull it off. Terror has that effect which is ironic considering how it usually gets used to purify society. The Russian Revolution just decided the French didn't go far enough.

It was rather fascinating when I studied the formation of the Soviet Satellite governments just how cynically designed it was to bribe people into collaboration. The whole plan was we will make you a corrupt and cynical person and put you in charge. And then purge you later if necessary.

[Habbaku]

Alison Weir's book is fine, but the War of the Roses is too big a subject for a single volume history to get to grips with.

What should I read after Weir's, then?

[The Brain]

Is there any particular aspect of the WotR that you find extra interesting?

[Habbaku]

I'll have an answer to that after I finish Weir's book.