Review: A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle

A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle by Julian T. Jackson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A complicated man who was the right person at the right time for France. If not for him, there would have been no government in exile during the war, and therefore no continuity, which probably would have meant no permanent seat for France at the UN.

His prescience for certain matters was astounding, as were his misses in certain other ones.

All in all an extremely fascinating read about an extremely fascinating man.


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Review: The Basque History of the World

The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This needs an update at this point, since it is over 20 years old. However, it is a great rundown of a fascinating people and history. And I use rundown because I felt like it could have gone in much more detail. However, if you are curious and want to start learning about Basque history, people and their land, this is a good place to do so.


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Review: The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution

The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution by Timothy Tackett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A very interesting approach to a very interesting time in history. This is one of those periods in history that we all learn about, but seems a bit of a mystery due to the seeming mass hysteria of wanton killing and prosecution.

Unfortunately, and I know I'm probably projecting, but now I feel like this is the direction the US is heading in. It's not nearly as bad (yet), but we'll see.


Anyway, extremely interesting and highly recommended.





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Review: The Dark Vineyard

The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fun book, taking place is the French countryside. 3.5 stars.

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Review: Napoleon: The Man behind the Myth

Napoleon: The Man behind the Myth by Adam Zamoyski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was written the way I believe a biography should be written. The initial focus is on Napoleon's childhood and formative years, rather than later battles per se (although there is plenty of those as well). I like this because it give much more insight into why and how Napoleon became the man he was. I wish more biographies followed this pattern. 

Some of my notes:

Apparently after the reign of terror in Paris they had parties and balls where you could only attend if a relative of course had died at the guillotine, and they would wear red ribbons around their necks. Talk about gallows humor...

Amusing to think Napoleon was really bad at Chess, considering he was so good at real life strategic warfare. 

Napoleon's favorite author was Ossian, and he considered Homer's poems much weaker in comparison. 

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Review: Voyage pittoresque en Suisse Romande en Savoie et sur les Alpes

Voyage pittoresque en Suisse Romande en Savoie et sur les Alpes by Emile Béguin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having grown up in Ticino, I learned about the local history, as well as Swiss-german history here and there, but this book taught me more about Swiss-French history than I ever learned in school (Calvin notwithstanding).

There were some odd typos in this book, starting with the author's name (Bégin, although even in the preface it calls him Béguin). Also, "Chateau des Vidames" instead of "Chateau des Vidomnes" in Sierre.

Also, many, if not most, of the places mentioned in the book are long-gone by now (I hadn't realized this book was written in 1852). For example, he recommended meandering around the Parc du Bois-de-la-Batie, where you can stumble upon medieval ruins. Unfortunately now it is an animal park with goats and geese. And for some reason I couldn't find any mont Alire, Oculus Helvetiae, or Paqui (all p.188). Also no chateau de Saint-Jean. (p. 276)

Some interesting tidbits:
In 1479 a swarm of 'beetles' (probably actually cicadas or locusts) plagued Lausanne and its surroundings, destroying much of the vegetation. So they were tried in court and excommunicated. Apparently this didn't do much to drive them away.

Avenche has quite a history, including having been the capital of the Helvetii(??)

A bridge to connect the two sides of Fribourg was only built in 1834 (construction started in 1832)
Apparently the Swiss used to kneel and pray on the battlefield before battle, and at least once this confused the Burgundians (Battle of Grandson), who thought they were surrendering. Burgundy lost that battle.

Linguistic tidbits:
In the patois of Charmney they apparently call a lover 'merchant', which seems to come from the word "merch" which means woman in Celtic.
Why does he refer to Neuchatel as Neufchatel throughout the book?
This is supposedly in Fribourg dialect: "Quan l'è-s-aoutrou mezéron, no voiterin
Quan l'è-s-aoutrou riretron, no plioterin" (p. 200)

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Review: The Lives of Talleyrand

The Lives of Talleyrand by Crane Brinton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up at a used bookstore in Georgia. It's a unique book, not least because it was written in 1936, and it's interesting to see how the style of biographies seems to have changed since then. All in all much of this book sounds, to me, very subjective, opinionated (he even writes, at one point "no one wants to read objective biographies") and meandering (it goes on many tangents). Some of this (especially when the author tries to show how people throughout the years have been misinterpreting Talleyrand, as well as the final two chapters) gets sort of tedious.

I also noticed a lack of footnotes or sources, which we seem to care about more these days I guess. To be fair, there is a bibliography, but it would be close to impossible to match the sources to the passages in the book itself.

The bulk of the book itself, however, is quite informative. Talleyrand is a very interesting man and the author did an excellent job of portraying him. You could probably skip the first and last two chapters though.

Interesting point: The author kept equating France's defeat in 1814 to Germany's in 1918, wondering why the terms were so lenient for the former, while so harsh for the latter, including suggesting that it was due to democracy (the leaders at Versailles had to answer to parliamentary and congressional pressure). I found that an interesting take.

Interesting quote: "One-way principles may lead to Heaven or to the scaffold - perhaps to Heaven by means of the scaffold - but not to diplomatic victories" (p.216)


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Review: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



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