2point71

an excellent review of the contemporary Middle East and the deep Roots of today's headlines.

Revisado: 03-13-25

This is a deeply researched and excellently structured book which lays bare the deep roots of the conflicts in today's Middle East. The author's sympathetic and knowledgeable synthesis of a myriad of facts in a satisfying, coherent, and understandable fashion is to be commended.

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very much worth a listen.

Revisado: 01-01-25

informative, well written, and packed with interesting detail, this is a book that should be read by anyone with an interest in modern European history.

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Fresh and riveting

Revisado: 08-14-23

I must say I feel a bit awkward writing an opinion on a book written by as distinguished a historian as Mr Clark. Having said that, this is a fantastic book. It is divided into three parts: (1) the backstory of the conflict between Austria Hungary and Serbia (2) the story of the 'Alliances', and finally (3) the story of the aftermath of Sarajevo itself, which we can follow much better with the valuable background material provided in the first two sections.

What we are left with is an event that was anything but inevitable - far from being a war automatically generated by the conflict of hostile Alliances forced into war on autopilot, we see how contingent the entire sequence of events truly was. Whether a general European war was in the long run truly avoidable (ie - if not after Sarajevo, perhaps another time, another incident later) is difficult to say. But Mr Clark makes clear that the Alliance system was very fluid - for example, the relations between Britain and Russia were always marred by considerable mutual suspicion and conflicts of interests (the Great Game and more) and were probably heading for a showdown in the near term - and that the European situation could have been very different if (say) peace had lasted for a few more years, whether Franz Ferdinand was alive or not. (Personally, I think not - France after 1870 viewed Germany as a mortal and eternal enemy, and the tension arising from that situation was bound to release explosively sooner or later, as it did in July 1914).

Overall, the book well justifies the title of Sleepwalkers, which Mr Clark uses to essentially damn the instigators of the conflict (and all sides have plenty of blame to share) as dreamers acting on illusions which plunged Europe and the world into very un-dream like and all too real horrors, not just in WWI but of course the interwar years, WWII, and beyond. There is so much of interest in this book, so many fresh perspectives, that you owe it to yourself to read/listen to this book if you have any interest in the history of the modern world. The reading by Derek Perkins is, as usual, crisp and satisfying, and kudos to the producers and Mr Perkins for taking care to pronounce names of people and places as accurately as possible (always a distraction when the narrator bungles names!)

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Interesting book, narration drives you crazy!

Revisado: 11-25-19

It's an interesting book, packed with facts, but the narration! I can't really blame the narrator, who speaks clearly and pleasantly, but for some reason (I guess the producer's idea?) he puts..... pauses.... between..... almost... . every .... sentence.... and .... even... parts.... of a... sentence....makes..... me.... want.... to ... throw.... my device.... out of... the ... window......!!!!

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Great story, amazing performance.

Revisado: 10-04-18

A rich and varied story with a cast of beautifully realized characters. The narration is superb and brings the characters to life.

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A near perfect overview of the Crusades

Revisado: 07-13-18

An excellent book,covering the full 200 years of the Crusades both in the large and small scale. The book is well paced and the material is handled with skill. The narration is excellent and unobtrusive. All in all, a superb work.

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A chronology, not an analysis

Revisado: 06-23-18

I purchased this book because I was intrigued by the subtitle 'The Maker of Modern France', having thought that if anyone deserves the title of 'maker of modern France' it's Richelieu or maybe Henri IV . However, there is nothing about this in the book. The book itself is a reasonably good description of Francis' rather pointless wars and feuds, particularly with Emperor Charles V and Henry VIII, as well as some interesting descriptions of life at his court. But that is it. Nothing about the growth of French Protestantism, nothing more than a passing mention of the growing power of the Guise, to name just two obvious omissions. I was hoping there would be _some_ sort of summing up in the penultimate chapter - nope, just a long description of Francis' funeral. So overall, this book was disappointing, it's more like a well written and very long Wikipedia article, and in no way lives up to its billing. Just go to Wikipedia, you'll probably learn about more and in a lot less time.

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esto le resultó útil a 8 personas