Books read December 1062 through December 1962
| Author | Wren, Percival Christopher (P.C.) |
|---|---|
| Publication | Stokes Publishing |
| Copyright Date | 1926 |
| Number of Pages | 371 |
| Genres | Fiction |
| Keywords | French Foreign Legion |
| When Read | January 1962 |
A follow-on story to Beau Geste, this one concerned with the "handsome swordsman" (Major Henri de Beaujolais).
I remember some of the Beau Geste story but don't recall this one. Obviously, my love of the previous novel led me immediately to this one which, in 1962 or thereabouts was still available in the public libraries.
| Author | Roberts, Kenneth |
|---|---|
| Publication | New York: Doubleday, Doran and Co. |
| Copyright Date | 1937 |
| Number of Pages | 734 |
| Genres | Fiction; Historical fiction |
| Keywords | French and Indian War |
| When Read | January 1962 |
There are two parts to the story. The first is an intense adventure story concerning a raid during the French and Indian War on an Indian town in 1759 by a battalion of American colonists led by Robert Rogers and known as "Rogers' Rangers". The men rowed up the rivers and trekked through the forest, sneaking into positions around the town, then attacking and massacring many of the Indians. This was in retaliation for an Indian raid on a colonial settlement. After the massacre they take a long way home in hopes of concealing their trail and escaping the revenge of the French and Indians. The second part of the story follows the subsequent history of Rogers and of the young hero of the novel.
The book was a best seller and became a blockbuster movie starring Spencer Tracy as Rogers and Robert Young as the young man. I don't know if I saw the movie before or after reading the book but I know I saw it on TV, probably more than once, and have vivid memories of the two leading actors. I, and millions of other young people and adults too, loved the story.
If I remember this book correctly, the presentation of American Indians in the novel didn't include any of the sensitivities to Indian lives or points of view that emerged in the Civil Rights era. The colonists surrounded the town, opened fire from one side and then, when the Indians ran the other way they went straight into an ambush and were mowed down. I don't recall any offers to accept surrender. It was another example of E.H. Carr's principles of the need to place characters and events, and writers and readers of history too, in historical context. Roberts would surely have written the story differently if he wrote it 30 years later than he did, and I would have read it differently too.
| Author | Mattingly, Garrett |
|---|---|
| Publication | Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959 |
| Copyright Date | 1959 |
| Number of Pages | xvi + 443 |
| Extras | plates, maps |
| Genres | Fiction; Historical fiction |
| Keywords | Spanish Armada; England; Spain; Naval |
| When Read | January 1962 |
This is the story of the Spanish Armada that sailed from Spain in 1588 with the intent of landing in Flanders, boarding a Spanish army there, and carrying them to invade England. Queen Elizabeth I ordered Lord Charles Howard with Sir Francis Drake (a childhood favorite of mine) and Sir John Hawkins as important sub-commanders. The Spanish failed to defeat the English navy and failed to land troops in England. Blown through the English Channel and unable to get back against the prevailing westerly winds, they were force to sail all around England, Scotland and Ireland to return to Spain, losing many ships in a big storm along the way.
At some point in my youth I joined the History Book Club. I received a catalog each month with the choice of the month that would be sent automatically if I did nothing, and many alternate selections. This was a common way of selling books in those days and there ware various clubs on various topics. I got some number of free books with my first order, and additional free books after ordering four books, and so on. I was very careful with my very limited amount of money in those days, as I am now, and I spent many hours poring over the catalogs to put together the most appealing titles for the lowest cost. In general, I only got books that were not available at the local libraries. However I also liked the idea of owning the books and I'm pretty sure that I have a number of them in my basement collection now, almost 60 years later. ... Just checking, I see that I do have a copy of this book in my basement though I suspect I found it later in a used book store because I saw an underlining while leafing through the pages. I never defaced my books with underlining.
At any rate, I remember the history quite well. The English avoided an all or nothing battle, choosing to harass the Spaniards instead and to attack them with fireships when they were at anchor.
I was interested in the military and naval aspects of the story in those days, as I still am, but I've learned much more about the role of Spain in Europe, the Protestant Reformation, the story of Catherine of Aragon and her replacement as Queen of England by Henry VIII, the long running fight for Dutch independence, and other elements of 16th century history.
| Author | Roberts, Kenneth |
|---|---|
| Publication | New York: Doubleday, Doran and Co. |
| Copyright Date | 1940 |
| Number of Pages | 836 |
| Extras | maps on end papers |
| Genres | Fiction; Historical fiction |
| Keywords | American Revolution |
| When Read | February 1962 |
This time Roberts tells his tale from the Loyalist, "Tory" point of view. Oliver Wiswell is ejected from his home by American revolutionaries and winds up, after the war, in Canada.
For a novel with more than 800 pages, published in 1940, this one is still attracting a fair number of readers. Many of the Amazon reviewers called it Roberts' best.
By the time I read this I was a firm supporter of the American Revolution, thinking of it as a struggle for democracy against a colonial power ruled by a king and an aristocracy. This book required me to think about that struggle in more complex ways and to see that it could look different to different people who faced different experiences of the revolution.
I probably saw the references to Booth Tarkington that Roberts put in his early books, of which this was the last, but didn't know who Tarkington was and hadn't read any of his books - which I have since done - see Alice Adams and The Magnificent Ambersons. Tarkington assisted Roberts, bringing his novelist's viewpoint and skills to Roberts' historian's viewpoint and skills. It was a great combination.
| Author | Anderson, Flavia |
|---|---|
| Publication | London: B. Gollancz |
| Copyright Date | 1958 |
| Number of Pages | 356 |
| Extras | illustrations |
| Genres | History |
| Keywords | China; Christianity |
| When Read | February 1962 |
From the cover of one edition of this book: 'The fabulous story of the Heavenly King who, in zeal for Christ, his "Elder Brother", dominated Central China for years until he was at last put down by the imperialist troops, with the aid of Charles George ("Chinese") Gordon.
This was a biography of Hong Xiuquan and a history of his movement, which became the Tai Ping rebellion against the imperial government in Beijing (or Peking as it was written in English at the time of this publication.)
This book made a strong impression on me. If I remember it correctly, Hong was exposed to Christianity and had a religious transformation which led to his stirring up a peasants' revolt against the Manchu Chinese emperor, which he led from about 1850 until his death in 1864. My recollection is that 20 million people died in the revolt, an astronomical number that is now estimated even higher in the Wikipedia article on the subject.
At the time I knew very little about the history of China, but I couldn't help being on the side of the Taipings, who were fighting not to replace the emperor while keeping the imperial system, but rather to overthrow that system in favor of a new religious, social, moral, and economic order. In spite of its admittedly tangential relationship to western Christianity, the Western powers detested the movement as a threat to established order and gave their support to the emperor. As I remember it, the introduction of guns and military leadership provided by Britain played a key role in the ultimate victory of the government. The fighting was very fierce with much use of massacres and scorched earth tactics to defeat the Taipings who, as was later seen in the Chinese communist revolt, fought with great determination.
When I read this book I had no special sympathy with Christianity (I was raised as a Jew), little political ideology beyond belief in American style democracy, no sympathy for communism, and no concept of historical materialism in general or Marxism in particular. However I had been reading Upton Sinclair and my social and political consciousness was developing. I recall being very moved by sympathy for these oppressed and starving peasants, but not knowing what to think about this religious nut (as I now imagine myself imagining at the time.) I'm sure that any ideas I had about what the peasants should have done were no more practical than those of Hong Xiuquan, and a whole lot less likely to stir up and organize their resistance.
My interest in history, already very strong, kept expanding - not only geographically and temporally, but also with respect to understanding the different kinds and histories of human societies.
| Author | Sinclair, Upton |
|---|---|
| Publication | New York: Viking Press |
| Copyright Date | 1944 |
| Number of Pages | 655 |
| Genres | Fiction; Historical fiction |
| Keywords | Lanny Budd |
| When Read | March 1962 |
See the book notes identified by 2017-05.01
Still moving ahead with the Lanny Budd books. By the time I read this book I had long been a strong supporter of Lanny, my namesake and hero.
| Author | Hemingway, Ernest |
|---|---|
| Publication | |
| Copyright Date | 1926 |
| Number of Pages | 247 |
| Genres | Fiction |
| When Read | March 1962 |
Hemingway's first novel.
I assume that I read this in early 1962 (my book notes from before library school only list authors and titles, no dates, bibliographic descriptions, or comments of any kinds - after all, why did I need them, I could remember everything then) I would have been 15 years old, going on 16. I had been introduced to more sophisticated and adult literature by other writers (Upton Sinclair, Leon Uris, and others) but Hemingway was new to me. I knew he was a famous modern writer who had just recently died but this was the first of his books that I read. He made a strong impression. I guess most of the books I read did that. I was becoming a more sophisticated reader and thinker, as many of us do at that age. Hopefully, I am still growing in that way.
Reading this at age 15 the novel seemed somehow more adult than other novels that I was reading. Some of the books I had read before this were unquestionably adult, e.g. Hans Helmut Kirst's Gunner Asch books, Upton Sinclair's Lanny Budd books, and Jules Romain's Verdun. But this book seemed more personal. In the fight between the Jewish American boxer and the Spanish bullfighter I seem to recall sympathizing, at least a bit, with the American, until the Spaniard refused to give up and got himself beaten badly. Then I felt bad for both men and no longer saw the fight in the way a teenager looks at adventure. I was also overpowered by the alcoholism of the narrator. That was something I had never thought about, at least not in a personal way from the point of view of the character whose first person viewpoint narrated the story. It was related as a kind of background of the story, something that appeared everywhere but was never commented on - at least not in any way that might tell the reader that alcoholism was recognized as an issue here. It was simply a part of the lives of these people. It was the way things are. It did not make me want to become an alcoholic, but it did make me see that some adults lived, and maybe chose to live, in a way that went against what I was taught was adult behavior. That some characters might be alcoholic was not an issue. That the author of the story did not even consider that that needed comment - that was new to me. The relations between men and women, more complicated than I had yet read about, were also new to me.
As with everyone else, my growing up occurred along a pathway filled with new personal experiences. Unlike some, my pathway included my reading experiences.
| Author | Churchill, Winston S. |
|---|---|
| Publication | New York: Dodd, Mead |
| Copyright Date | 1956 |
| Number of Pages | 521 |
| Genres | History |
| Keywords | Britain |
| When Read | April 1962 |
The first volume of Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples.
I had already read a popular biography of Churchill (see The Adventurous Life of Winston Churchill. This was the first book I read that was written by him. As I recall, this history, written after World War II, covered the Celts, Romans, and Anglo-Saxons. As of the beginning of 2019, I have not read any of the remaining three volumes, though I'm pretty sure that I intended to read them.
| Author | Steinbeck, John |
|---|---|
| Publication | New York: Viking Press |
| Copyright Date | 1952 |
| Number of Pages | 604 |
| Genres | Fiction |
| When Read | April 1962 |
Steinbeck's great novel of generations in California.
I continued reading serious novels. By now I was going through the fiction section at the local public libraries, on every visit, from A to Z, checking every book on the shelf.
I loved this book and remember snatches from it. It led me to other books by the same author. I also went on to watch James Dean in the Hollywood version of it.
| Author | Lewis, Sinclair |
|---|---|
| Publication | Harcourt Brace and Howe |
| Copyright Date | 1920 |
| Number of Pages | 448 |
| Genres | Fiction |
| When Read | May 1962 |
A young and intellectually lively young woman marries a doctor and goes to live in a stifling small midwestern town. She attempts to overcome the parochial atmosphere but can't do it.
Continuing my reading of classic 20th century American novels, I found this book stifling but revealing. I remember talking to a Professor of Aesthetics in the Philosophy Department at the University of Pittsburgh in my freshman year in 1964. I told him that I thought it was possible for a book to be boring but good. He was skeptical and asked for an example. I said Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. He thought for a bit and said, Yes, I can see that.
I went on to read Babbitt and Elmer Gantry and, just a couple of years ago, Arrowsmith. I thought at the time, and think now, that Lewis was an important writer who described a side of the United States Midwest that would not be clearly perceived by the intellectuals of the big cities if not for Lewis' books.
| Author | Henry, Will |
|---|---|
| Publication | Random House, 1960 |
| Copyright Date | 1960 |
| Number of Pages | 279 |
| Genres | Fiction; Historical fiction |
| Keywords | American Indians; American frontier |
| When Read | May 1962 |
This is the story of the Nez Perce Indian revolt in 1877 in the American West, concentrating on Chief Joseph and his followers. Indian lands and signed treaties were violated by the white men with no enforcement by the U.S. government of the treaty agreements. The Indians fought bravely but had no understanding or appreciation of the power of the U.S. Cavalry. They won the first engagement, after which the army took them more seriously and went after them with a vengeance. Some of the warriors escaped to Canada to join Sitting Bull of the Sioux (or Lakota), but Joseph and most of the people surrendered, at which point Joseph uttered the famous words that were taken as the title of this book.
I remember scenes that I think came from this book though it's possible I read them elsewhere, perhaps in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. In one scene early in the book, the Indians arrive at a place where the cavalry is lined up against them. The Indians are superb horsemen. They have four mounts for each warrior (was that from this book? - Yes I believe it was.) There is no plan, no coordination, no overall chief. Instead, various warriors of high repute announce their intentions - I will fight at the boulder over there, I will fight here in the valley, etc. Then the Indians each make their own choice of where and under whom they will fight. They open fire on the cavalry and swoop down on them, driving them off the field. From then on however they are hounded, fired on with repeating rifles and small field cannon. They come to understand what they are up against and that they cannot win. Flight or surrender are the only options and not everyone has the ability to flee to Canada.
Most of what I thought I knew about the Indians of the West came from Hollywood movies. The "cowboy and Indian" films of the 1930's and 40's were all pro-cowboy and anti-Indian. I seem to recall that it was only from the mid-fifties onward that American culture began to recognize the terrible injustices that were done to native Americans. This was one of the books that was important in my, and perhaps America's, awakening to the tragedies.
| Author | MacDonald, Betty |
|---|---|
| Publication | Lippincott |
| Copyright Date | 1945 |
| Number of Pages | 288 |
| Genres | Non-fiction; Autobiography |
| When Read | June 1962 |
At age 20 Betty MacDonald married a man and moved with him to a chicken farm where she became responsible for the chickens and eggs. It was not easy for her and she dealt with the difficulties with humor, which she later wrote into a book. The book was very popular and was also made into a movie with Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert.
I have the vaguest of recollections that this book was recommended to me and the rest of my school class by an English teacher. I'm thinking it was Mrs. Hassid, but the names, faces, and school years of my teachers are now all mixed up in my mind.
I seem to recall thinking that it was funny and not unlike Cheaper By the Dozen, another homemaker's domestic story.
| Author | Catton, Bruce |
|---|---|
| Publication | |
| Copyright Date | 1956 |
| Number of Pages | 450 |
| Extras | maps |
| Genres | Non-fiction; History |
| Keywords | American Civil War |
| When Read | June 1962 |
This was Catton's one volume history of the war.
Catton was, and is, my favorite historian of the Civil War, a subject that greatly interested me in my childhood and youth. I was introduced to stories about the war by my older brother Arvin, and by movies and TV. I read books about the war as military adventure books - something that young kids, and not a few older folks, do. Arvin told me that we should be rebels in both wars, meaning the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. I don't think he said that about the Civil War as a result of any understanding of the causes and consequences of the war, but simply as a fan of the Confederate heroes. People like Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, and Nathan Bedford Forrest seemed like brave, capable, dashing men who were larger than life. Gradually, I developed a more adult understanding of the war.
This was the first of Catton's books that I read. I have read many of the others since then.
| Author | Steinbeck, John |
|---|---|
| Publication | New York: Bantam Books, 1961 |
| Copyright Date | 1936 |
| Number of Pages | 274 |
| Genres | Fiction |
| Keywords | United States; Labor; Communism |
| When Read | July 1962 |
Refugees from the dustbowl and impossible conditions of the mid and south west find themselves working in the apple orchards of Northern California. They work in horrible conditions and with starvation wages. A Communist Party organizer and a young man he has recruited and trained work to foment and lead a strike, manipulating the workers as needed to achieve their ends.
I don't remember the details of this book at all. The abstract above was produced, as many of them are when written 57 years after reading, by researching on the Internet. However I do remember that the book made a powerful impression on me. It didn't turn me into a communist and I don't think Steinbeck would have wanted it to. But it was instrumental, I think, in developing my social consciousness and giving me a deeper and more complex view of the history and the then current state of the United States.
Just now, going down into my basement I found a 1961 paperback edition of the novel. The cover price was 60 cents - which is more money than I had easily available for books in 1962, when I think I read this book. I may have bought it used, or maybe it was a present, perhaps from my mother.
| Author | Dekel, Efraim |
|---|---|
| Publication | New York: Thomas Yoseloff |
| Copyright Date | 1959 |
| Number of Pages | 369 |
| Genres | Non-fiction; History |
| Keywords | Palestine; Israel |
| When Read | July 1962 |
This book, currently (2019) out of print, is apparently about the intelligence section of the Haganah, an illegal Jewish paramilitary organization that operated against anti-Jewish Arabs and, sometimes, against the British army in Palestine. Ephraim Dekel was apparently a man working in Prague to organize the evacuation of Jews to Palestine after the end of World War II, and also apparently worked as a member of the Haganah intelligence in Palestine, and its successor, the Mossad in Israel.
I seem to recall that neither the synagogue my parents (and therefore I) belonged to, nor my parents themselves, were strong Zionists in the early 1950's. The Jewish community of which we were a part was concerned to be seen as loyal and patriotic Americans. Over time, as a result of many factors, that changed and, while American patriotism persisted, support for Israel increased. I became very interested in, and supportive of, the state of Israel. I read books about it (e.g., Exodus and Mila 18 by Leon Uris) and paid attention to the news.
The neighborhood where we lived had a large Jewish community and the nearby public libraries tried to provide books to support these interests, as they still do for Jews in Jewish neighborhoods and for African-Americans in African-American neighborhoods. I presume that I found this book at the Pimlico branch of the Pratt Library, which was my main source of books.
| Author | Edmonds, Walter D. |
|---|---|
| Publication | Boston: Little Brown |
| Copyright Date | 1936 |
| Number of Pages | xiii + 592 |
| Genres | Fiction; Historical fiction |
| Keywords | American Revolution; American Indians |
| When Read | August 1962 |
The young couple Gil and Lana Martin build a homestead in the Mohawk River Valley on the frontier in upstate New York. They and their neighbors live peacefully in log cabins on the frontier until the start of the Revolutionary War. Then, for years, they suffer raids from British soldiers and Iroquois Indians who burn cabins and crops and kill people, who must make it into the wooden stockade that they built for community protection.
I loved the book, as did everyone else. It was a best seller for two years. A movie was made in 1939 with Henry Fonda as Gil and Claudette Colbert as Lana - also a favorite. Of course I remember the movie better than the book, especially the scene of Fonda running from the fort to get help, pursued by the four fastest Iroquois.
These were the kinds of books that I scoured the library for between the ages of about 10 and 15.
| Author | Descola, Jean |
|---|---|
| Original Language | French |
| Translators | Barnes, Malcolm |
| Publication | New York: Viking Press, 1957 |
| Copyright Date | 1954 |
| Number of Pages | 404 |
| Extras | illustrations |
| Genres | Non-fiction; History |
| Keywords | Latin America |
| When Read | August 1962 |
A history of the conquest of Central and South America from Columbus through Cortez, Pizarro, de Soto, Ponce de Leon, and others.
I was very interested in this time and place in history. Initially I saw it from the Spanish point of view but, before long, I became very much interested in it from the native points of view. I had a long running fantasy in my mind of being an Incan emperor who defeated Pizarro and introduced Western European sciences, ideas, and democracy to Peruvians, building a huge Republic that turned back the European conquest of the world and completely changed the course of history.
I ought to write about this in my diary.
| Author | Prescott, William H. |
|---|---|
| Publication | |
| Copyright Date | 1847 |
| Number of Pages | 560 |
| Extras | "notes and summary of Civil Wars by Victor W. von Hagen" |
| Genres | Non-fiction; History |
| Keywords | Peru |
| When Read | September 1962 |
Prescott was one of the leading American scholars of his day, specializing in works on Spain and the New World. This book was an in depth study of the Incan Empire as well as of its destruction by Francisco Pizarro and its subjugation to Spain.
Prescott was an important historian and intellectual, recognized as such in Europe as well as in the U.S. and the Americas. He was partially blind and used a writing frame - a wooden lattice that he could fit over a page and then write in straight lines without having to keep his eyes open. If I remember correctly, he hired readers to read to him in order to rest his eyes.
The "extras" element above is a quotation from my little pocket notebook list of books that I read in this period of my life. It was appended to the author and title listing for this work. I think it probably indicates that the edition of Prescott's book that I read had notes and other information written by Victor Wolfgang von Hagen, himself a prolific historian of Latin America and an expert on Peru.
I talked about my Peruvian fantasy in my notes on the book I read just previous to this one (The Conquistadors by Jean Descola), but it was this book that really got me thinking seriously about Peru and the Incan Empire.
| Author | Costain, Thomas B. |
|---|---|
| Publication | Garden City, NY: Doubleday |
| Copyright Date | 1959 |
| Number of Pages | 478 |
| Genres | Fiction; Historical fiction |
| Keywords | Roman Empire; Christianity |
| When Read | September 1962 |
This was a historical romance about a Christian girl and her white horse, and Attila the Hun.
I was obsessed with history as a child and adolescent and still am. I could think of some philosophical truths to explain and justify this obsession but I think my young self started out just entranced by the adventure of the past. I read histories and historical fiction, loving both. This was the first book I read by Costain. I must have liked it a lot because I went on to read others.
| Author | Duggan, Alfred |
|---|---|
| Publication | New York: Knopf |
| Copyright Date | 1955 |
| Number of Pages | 205 |
| Genres | Non-fiction; History; Biography |
| Keywords | Rome |
| When Read | October 1962 |
A biography of Julius Caesar
Rome was another of my historical interests, along with American history, Latin America, seafaring, and other topics.
I still read Roman history. It still seems to me to be a very important part of World history and the progress of Humanity.
| Author | Costain, Thomas B. |
|---|---|
| Publication | Garden City, NY: Doubleday |
| Copyright Date | 1949 |
| Number of Pages | viii + 403 |
| Extras | maps |
| Genres | Fiction; Historical fiction |
| Keywords | French America |
| When Read | October 1962 |
The story opens in 1697 in Montreal where the ten Le Moyne brothers live - actual and highly praised men who founded the French colony of New Orleans in Louisiana and did many other things, though hardly any specific information about them survives.
I remember nothing about this novel. I just downloaded it from the Internet Archive, read Costain's introduction, and a half dozen pages of the story. I estimate that I would have been about 16 when I read the book, old enough to appreciate the sophistication of the writing, young enough to enjoy the adventure story. Beyond that there's little I can say except that I was much interested at that time in colonial America, French and Spanish as well as English. The few existing Amazon reviews are mostly negative but I expect that I liked it.
| Author | Sinclair, Upton |
|---|---|
| Publication | New York: Viking Press |
| Copyright Date | 1945 |
| Number of Pages | viii + 703 |
| Genres | Fiction; Historical fiction |
| When Read | November 1962 |
See 2017-08.03.
I was still excited by the Lanny Budd series, as I was in the last few years when I read them all again. I don't remember if I got beyond this one back in 1962 but I'll find out.
| Author | Clifton, Mark |
|---|---|
| Publication | Garden City, NY: Doubleday |
| Copyright Date | 1962 |
| Number of Pages | 192 |
| Genres | Fiction; Science fiction; Comedy |
| When Read | November 1962 |
As per Amazon, this is a comedy about an apparent invasion of earth by bad aliens in black flying saucers followed by the driving off of the saucers by good human type aliens all dressed in white. A psychologist hired by the Space Navy is asked to give advice about all this. He has no idea what's going on but tries to figure it all out.
Do I remember any of this? I can't add anything to it, so I can't say that I remember it, and yet the description rings dim, dim bells in my head - perhaps just now placed there by wishful thinking.
This is the first book in my notes that I have designated as science fiction. I know for certain that this isn't the first sci fi that I read. Starting about age 11 I went through many of the books in the elementary, public, and then later junior high school libraries. It's hard for me to recall any of the titles. They were mainly juvenile stories.
I don't know whether I stopped reading them before these notes began in 1960, or whether I treated them as guilty pleasures, not to be admitted to in my notes. But I started again by around age 16.
| Author | Ruby, Lionel |
|---|---|
| Publication | Philadelphia: Lippincott |
| Copyright Date | 1954 |
| Number of Pages | x + 284 |
| Genres | Non-fiction; Philosophy |
| Keywords | Logic |
| When Read | December 1962 |
This book aimed at teaching logical thinking and communication to ordinary people, as opposed to students or professors of philosophy.
By this point, and before it I think, I had gone well beyond reading just for amusement. Did it make me a more logical thinker? I'd like to think that it did.
| Author | Bradford, Ernle |
|---|---|
| Publication | New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1962 |
| Copyright Date | 1961 |
| Number of Pages | 244 |
| Extras | illustrations |
| Genres | Non-fiction; History |
| Keywords | Malta |
| When Read | December 1062 |
In 1565 40,000 soldiers of the Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent invaded the island of Malta but, after almost four months of prolonged fighting, were unable to fully overcome the 9,000 men of the Order of the Knights of St. John.
Bradford first visited the island as a Royal Navy officer in 1942, during another great siege. He came back in 1951, learned more about the island's history, and later wrote this book.
In those days I would have had a relatively simpler view of history than today and would have seen the history as one of good guys (the Christians in this case) versus bad guys. I don't know now if I would have seen the bad guys as bad because they were Muslims, because they were invaders, or because they were soldiers of a autocratic regime. All of those may have played a role and, from this distance of time, I can't disentangle them.
I do remember reading this book and still have some images in my head, possibly derived from the illustrations or possibly from the text.