Captain Morgan

Great historical telling of the formation of the Fed

Revisado: 12-28-22

While, at times, one may be excused for struggling to follow all the machinations and endless names of players in the process, the arc of the story comes through and the importance of the final outcome, albeit flawed at times, has been validated by history.

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Excellent Course on the extended and chaotic period

Revisado: 04-16-22

Speaking of the French Revolution in the singular is to simplify the long journey the French took to become a republic. That journey was marked by many false starts and much back sliding over nearly a century to create the France we think of today. Professor Desan takes us through each of these periods, starting with the early days of the revolution of 1789, the power struggles and monumental challenges that followed, the void that allowed Napoleon to seize power and the ongoing search for a system of governance and values needed to create a modern civilization. Any comparison to the relatively swift and stable changes brought on by the American revolution are misplaced. The Americans may have lite the revolutionary fires but the journeys were long and hard fought for some many others.
An overarching lesson that is applicable in recent years is that the march to freedom, liberty, democracy and human rights is ongoing. We see many countries celebrate their post revolution freedoms only to back slid into despotism and authoritarianism.
Ben Franklin’s words ring true throughout the world today “what kind of government shall we have?” … “A republic, if you can keep it”

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Highly Recommended

Revisado: 11-20-21

Understanding this period is more relevant than understanding the American Revolution. Excellent course. G

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A beautiful immersive experience

Revisado: 01-06-18

Isaacson brings his extraordinary talent for capturing the complexity and depth of geniuses, through biographies, to bear on one of the giants. His admiration for Leonardo is evident throughout this deeply researched book. Perhaps a character who has had the benefit of time as well as a degree of mystery and the unknown and unknowable is easier to love than a more contemporary person like Jobs or even Einstein. Surely Da Vinci had his flaws but we are provided with a mosaic that leaves us in awe. There is romance in these pages to be sure but Isaacson’s attention to detail and obvious commitment to understanding and reflecting on each area of the life of the ultimate renaissance man makes this a work of art in itself. If you enjoy the journey into a mind and character that seemly has the capacity and curiosity of ten then you should savor this book.
A final note - having listened to more than 50 books, Alfred Molina’s performance is the best I have experienced. His narration is fully worthy of Isaacson’s biography and brings it to life beyond the words on the page.

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Harris cuts to the heart of the matter

Revisado: 04-01-15

Due to the brevity and clarity of purpose this little book is perhaps Sam Harris' most passionate argument for the danger caused by blind faith (is that redundant?) and belief. While it is targeted at Christians in America Harris is able to do what few others can - peel back the layers to illuminate how the issue is fundamental across all belief systems founded on an inflexible dogma claiming to have a monopoly on the truth. Exposing that all religions operate under a mindset which, despite claims to the contrary, are by definition mutually exclusive demonstrates how the most dangerous idea that man has conceived is that we can be certain that there is a utopia waiting for us after we live on this earth and that we know exactly what we need to do to get there. Once this belief is accepted a human can be manipulated by other humans to do things they would otherwise never do and far to often to the great detriment of mankind.

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Strong logical arguments

Revisado: 03-21-15

I found it interesting to realize that this book was one of the first popular books to thoroughly and unabashedly lay out the arguments against theism (specifically Christianity) when it came out in 2004. And as the author points out it was the best selling book on atheism on Amazon for several years until Dawkins's "The God Delusion" came out in 2006. What a short time ago and yet so much progress for atheism has taken place since then and Mills therefore deserves at least some credit for helping to raise the credibility and exposure of the arguments that are becoming part of the discourse. There is not much here that can't be found elsewhere (much produced since this book was published) but he presents the arguments in clear and understandable terms with examples, analogies and metaphors. Like many of the popular atheist authors he clearly uses the book as a platform to launch attacks on individuals who sit on the opposite side of the argument. I never find this constructive and he at times miss construes the points of fundamentalist opening himself up to criticism for use of strawmen. For example his assertion that their only concern for pornography is for youth (vs. also for married people). These quibbles aside, this is a great book for someone looking to get up to speed on a wide range of atheist views particularly if you are looking for very logically structured method (lots of numbered lists of points) versus the conversational style of others like Harris and Hitchens.

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A little book on a BIG subject

Revisado: 02-24-15

This was a enjoyable run through a few millennial of science. It took me a while to get used to the readers voice but once I did I actually started to like it. It definitely made some concepts for this nonscientific listener more understandable. I definitely recommend

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Truly Enjoyable

Revisado: 02-12-15

What a nicely written and read book. Given the scope of the subject and rather modest ambitions of the author there will inevitably be many topics missed or given limited depth. But a fine balance was struck. It is perhaps the only audio book for which I never had a desire to listen to at a faster rate, rather choosing to linger on the words and savior the narrative.

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Almost Great

Revisado: 02-14-14

Any additional comments?

This was a very enjoyable listen. It took a little while but once I settled into this book I really enjoyed John Lee's reading. I am not a student of this time period in history and this book gave me a great broad understanding of and exposure to many events I had heard of (and many I had't) but would have been hard pressed to explain or put in context. This sparked my interest in specific subjects that I can delve into deeper. I doubt a knowledgable history buff would learn much new or hear any critical insights.

In the end that is where the book fell a bit short for me. I suppose there was so much material to cover that there was little room for historical retrospective. I was also hoping for more background on the influence of ancient writers and thought and how it shaped events.It would have been more engaging if there was more focus on the development of thought and knowledge and the struggles it caused.

Ultimately the history of this time period (and alas much of human history) can be summed up thus .... dates, Kings, Popes, conquests, mass murders, ruthless power struggles and untimely deaths ... rinse and repeat. There were very few heros beyond the inventors, artists and thinkers.

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