Saturnalia is not as strong as the earlier SPQR books, but the theatrics are quite dramatic (the predictions about Decius, the fight at the end) and the humor is wry and cynical. Saylor's Gordianus provides such an excellent "you are there" presence that I overlooked Decius for a while. But then his attitude began to grow on me. He doesn't apologize for virtue; he doesn't worship power; he doesn't fawn over the great men of the day (I enjoy his fine contempt for most of them). The mystery itself is only mildly challenging (in that respect, Roberts does better in his short stories about Decius). But there are some interesting insights into upper-class Roman habits and attitudes, and alternate views of people from Caesar to Pompey to Clodia. For fun, compare the Milo and Clodius of Roberts to the same characters in Saylor. I don't know who's more accurate, but the differences are fascinating. The trick of the narrative being told by an elderly survivor of the period (Decius in his old age) works quite well. SPQR is a bit like eating pound cake; the flavor increases as the series continues. There are more? How nice!

... I had just read the Steven Saylor "Roma Sub Rosa" series, featuring the lovably human Gordianus the Finder, so I felt a bit disloyal even picking up a Maddox Roberts book, but, WOW! am I glad I did. Roberts writes with effortless skill, a keen understanding of complex Roman politics and social hierarchies, and, best of all, a delicious sense of mystery. SATURNALIA, is a wicked tale of murder and adultery, set against the twilight of Rome's Republic. The scandalous Clodia is accused of poisoning her husband (all of this is based on historical events), and Maddox Roberts takes the opportunity to explore some of Rome's darker sides in the process. Roberts' hero - a Junior Senator with the unwieldy name of Decius Caecilius Metellus - is a wonder: patrician by birth, he is able to walk with equal confidence in marble halls, and the stinkiest streets of the Subura. I highly recommend not only SATURNALIA, but all the other novels in the SPQR series. You'll fall in love with Decius, and discover sides to ancient Rome you never knew existed.

The fifth nover of the SPQR series is as good as all the others. Roberts using the same technique and the same elements that made all the other books of the series so popular. And guess what Decius is back to Rome.

More historical facts and less bias would have made this a better book!

Anything to do with Poland and the Balkans is a story of hate going back so far that all truth is buried in myth. Perhaps the only way to find a reasonable view is to read several books from different sides and then (perhaps best from your own notes) try to sift through for some reality. However, the past and 20th century anti-Semitism of Poland (and Russia--and Germany and France and the U.S.A, etc.) is clear from the personal memories of many of us who saw F.D.R. force a boat loaded with Jews back to Germany to perish to appease the massive hatred of his supporters for Jews.
Then look at the lies Ambrose told to keep the money line open to the Eisenhower family. "Ike" had seen ample evidence of the camps, but refused to bomb the railroad bridges, and became a willing hand in the murder of thousands (with F.D.R's support). Then look at the books showing his "rage" when he came to a camp with Patton, acting as though he hadn't seen untold pictures of what was happening

This book has everything! If you think, for instance, that Poles refuse to ever admit any wrongdoing, you will be disappointed, as Piotrowski has an entire chapter on Polish collaborators (along with corresponding chapters on the collaborators of other nationalities). He also discusses the genocidal murder of some 100,000 innocent Polish civilians by the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) during World War 2. To say that this was a "war of liberation" of "Ukrainian lands" from "Polish colonialism" is a falsification of history. Fact is, these lands have had a mixed Polish-Ukrainian population for centuries, if not from antiquity. And to say that this was retaliation for the treatment of Ukrainians in interwar Poland is ludicrous in the extreme. In fact, the grand total of Ukrainian nationalists put to death during Polish rule (for acts of murder) comes out to a grand total of 29. And acts of Polish discrimination against individual Ukrainians have no moral or tactical parallel whatsoever with the systematic murder of 100,000 Polish civilians by Ukrainian fascists.

I had high hopes in starting out in reading this work. Interested in all-things-Slovak and how Czechoslovakia functioned under communism, I expected this book to be a credible account of Ludmila Javorova's priestly ordination. Instead, I am sad to admit, I've come away thinking that Javorova was the unfortunate victim of a spurned megalomaniac. I hesitate to use such strong and disrespectful language, but after reading Javorova's story (which could be titled "The misadventures of "Bishop" Felix Davidek"), I, too, wonder about the validity of her priestly 'ordination.' Not that Javorova wasn't sincere in her faith: she desired to begin her religious vocation at age 15 but in 1947, Czechoslovakia was poised to become "liberated" by the Soviet armed forces. Father Felix Davidek, 11 years her senior, was arrested by Soviet authorities for continuing with clandestine religious activities. After his release from prison in 1964, he looked up Javorova, a neighbor and family friend from their native Brno and enlisted her help in ensuring the survival of the underground church in Czechoslovakia. Together, they established and ran Koinotes, a Catholic fellowship group out of which Davidek secretly recruited and educated men for priesthood in the Catholic Church. Once Davidek pushed his agenda for the ordination of women, though, Koinotes splintered and he lost much of his power and influence in the underground church. It is after this that Davidek's behavior began to border on the bizarre and his ever-increasing demands on Ludmila just more evidence of his deteriorating mental health. By 1970, when he insisted on ordaining her into the priesthood, Javorova felt that they were 'rushing' things. His controlling demands on her time eventually took their toll and she suffered from exhaustion and fell seriously ill. This did not diminish Davidek's demands on her and both of their reputations suffered irrevocably. In 1976, the Vatican officially ordered Davidek to stop his "work" as a Bishop in the Church and declared his ordinations and consecrations invalid. He refused to cease functioning as a bishop and a few years later, Ludmila finally succeeds in making a clean break with Davidek. Sour grapes again, Davidek engaged in some very un-Christian meanspirited actions against her. When he falls ill a few years later, Ludmila extends forgiveness toward him and nurses him until his death in 1988. Out of the depths is written well enough and proceeds in a chronological order. If the reader is not familiar with the hierarchy and politics of the Roman Catholic Church, he may find himself baffled at its political machinery. Therese Winter, the author of the book, never questions the validity of Ludmila's ordination and the reader must read carefully between the lines to pick up on Javorova's frustations at times in dealing with Davidek.

"Out of the Depths" by Mariam Winter is the story of Ludmila Javarova, a Czechoslovakian woman, ordained a Catholic Priest 30 years ago. She was ordained in secret by Bishop Felix Davidek, a man of intense devotion and spurred with new ideas to fire the Church with God's Holy Spirit. Ludmila lived most of her ministry in secret, out of personal devotion to God. In 1996, a news headline riled the pope who revoked her priesthood. As Ludmila said, "I'm a priest forever," even though she couldn't carry out any priestly duties. Although Protestant, I found this a very moving testimony of the Power of God in a woman's life, as well as enlightening of the effort of certain Catholics who kept their faith strong through the underground church during the reign of Communism just a few years ago. After Miriam Therese Winter listened to Javarova, visited her home in the in what was Czechoslovakia, and found a soulmate in Ludmila, she wrote the story so personally that the book feels like an autobiography. Ludmila Javarova is still coming alive out of her own depth of spirit, making a contribution to the changing face of Catholicism as women rise up.

This is a beautiful book! Ludmila Javorova was ordained in the underground Christian church in Czechoslovakia. A lot of people will buy the book because it discusses a bishop's ordination of a woman to the Roman Catholic priesthood. But it's not only about women's ordination. It's about one person's struggle to discern God's will for her life as she tries to minister to those around her -- those who are struggling in relationships, struggling with faith, struggling under political oppression. The book is really a meditation on what it means to have a vocation in difficult circumstances. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's a treasure.

For those of you whose idea of American history only stretches back to 1776, you might want to fill in the gaps with this book. Morgan not only takes the reader through the war that made our country independent, the Revolutionary War, but also how "the challenge of British taxation started the Americans on a search for constitutional principles to protect their freedom." He takes you into the hearts of the colonists and the minds of the diplomats. At the end of the book, Morgan masterfully places copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the United States Constitution so you, the reader, can see the effects of the events and outcomes that you just read about. Great book to enhance your knowledge of history, I give The Birth of the Republic 4 out of 5 stars making it "almost perfect."

Originally published in 1956 and revised in 1977, this book is probably familiar to a couple of generations of college students. This may well be the most accessible overview of the formative history of America. As an overview, of course, it does not go into great detail about the myriad of topics debated by historians still today, but it does hit most of the predominant features of the Revolutionary story. Morgan builds his work around the premise that the Founding Fathers did indeed operate on principle in building a new nation and that the struggle eventually framed itself as a pursuit of equality among all men. He admits that many of the decisions made by the leaders of the Revolution did equate to economic or property gains for themselves, but he argues that this is not contradictory at all with a commitment to liberty because liberty in the 18th century essentially hinged on land ownership. He also rationalizes the contradiction of slavery's continued existence being incorporated into the Constitution by arguing that the convention delegates acted out of urgent concern for the future of a government in its death throes at the hands of a powerless Congress as set up by the Articles of Confederation--without such compromise, the important new Constitution could not have been ratified by a sufficient number of states before the young nation collapsed at the feet of the British and Spanish.

Morgan first examines the increasingly rocky relationship between the English Parliament and the colonies--specifically, the debate over taxation and infringement of liberties that led up to the declaration of independence. He devotes a few pages to the war but does not delve very deeply into military matters. Morgan does an excellent job explaining why the Articles of Confederation failed and how the problems of that system were widely recognized, frankly debated, and resolved in the creation of a new national government established upon the bedrock of a new federal Constitution.

Aside from Morgan's excellent treatment of the birth of the American republic, this book also features the texts of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and federal Constitution; a timeline of important events; and a pretty expansive discussion of source materials published before 1977. In sum, this book is ideal for anyone just wanting to learn or review the pivotal events surrounding the creation of the United States without having to sift through scholarly criticisms and debates of important yet secondary aspects of the story.

This book is a great over view of the time before, during, and after the revolution. I must confess that I read this as a required text book for my American history class. It is the first and possibly only text book that I can say I liked well enough to read all the way through and like it. This book goes very breifly over the events in a very readable fashion. Those studying history (such as myself) can always read a companion to the revolution along with it to go more in depth into the revolution. For those who only want a brief history this book is perfect.

Colin Turnbull romanticizing of the Mbuti pygmies in "The Forest People" is allowable given the period in which it was written. In some ways, the book really tells us more about the ethnographer than the people he studied. Turnbull found the Mbuti way of life to have a simple, spiritual quality that he admired greatly.... part of this admiration stemmed from his own background in an elitist British social and academic system. Turnbull was simply "in love" with the Mbuti.

Anthropology has (hopefully) advanced to the point where its practitioners allow themselves a greater recognition of their possible biases. Even so, who is to say that an understanding of the ethnographer is not more important than the study group.
The book reads pleasantly, if not scientifically.

This book is like making a real trip into the Ituri rainforest- or more exactly into the lives of some of the most remarkable people you will ever meet. The Bambuti become so real for us in part because of Turnbull's narative skill, but more, I think, because they themselves are so real, such wonderful humans. This, we want to believe, is what our species is really like, the way we were meant to be.
Like all gathering- hunting people, the Bambuti are on intimate terms with mother nature. For them this means their beloved forest, which is a benign, nurturing, and protective mother. People who live outside the forest are scared to go near it. But the the Bambuti who are its children are completely happy there.

What makes this book such a joy to read is that besides being so lovable, the Bambuti are very funny. Their humor is infectious and irresistable.
Forever after reading The Forest People, everytime you think about the people you met there, and you will think about them, you can't help smiling.

What could be better, especially the way the world is now, than to find a book that makes you really feel good about being a human, proud and happy to be living on the same planet as these wonderful people.

I enjoyed reading this book from beginning to end. I really didn't want to put the book down. Before I read this book, I never heard of the Bambuti people or of the Ituri forest. I really felt as if I was living with them while reading the book. It was surely an eye opener for me. I wonder what has happened to Kenge, Manyalibo, Ausu, etc. It's really amazing how the Bambuti love their forest so much and that's all they need to get by. This book showed a lot of hardships and tragedies but yet the Bambuti people stressed how important their life is, with happiness and joy.

Does this book say that Karabagh is an essential part of Azerbaijan and its occupied by Armenian armed forces?

This is a delightful little book. I just couldn't put it down when I first got it! My husband and I had been quite anxious about making our first trip to Armenia and Karabagh this year, and the advice in the book really eased our minds by letting us know what to expect when we got there. Just KNOWING what to expect was such a help especially for someplace so far-off like Armenia. The advice about getting around and just getting by on a daily basis was very practical. And it's an easy read. As pertains history and facts about ancient churches and so-forth, it only skimmed the surface but we didn't really expect a scholarly treatise about religious history and architecture, so we weren't disappointed. Still, a bit more "trivia" would have been welcome. We were thrilled to see so such thorough coverage of Karabagh, but would have liked to have seen more information about Echmiadzin (the "Vatican of Armenia"!) and Gyumri. I suggest reading parts of the history book "Looking Toward Ararat," (by Suny) and another one called "Rediscovering Armenia" (authored by Kiesling), which was sort of an encyclopedia of historical monuments and quite detailed (although a bit of a mish-mash and difficult to read). We also had the Lonely Planet book which we thought was just dreadful.

I used this book when I went to Armenia in August. It's a very good book to read before you go because there is a lot of background information in addition to all the usual hotel and restaurant listings and etc. The pictures were really good so I saved the book after my trip. I would say the best part was on Karabagh. This is the only book I have ever found that has any good travel information on Karabagh. I carried it around everywhere and I would definitely recommend it to buy.

This was, in many ways, a painful book to read. I was in elementary school at a school for missionary children in northern Japan when I read in my Weekly Reader that Nguyen Cao Ky had become the new prime minister of South Vietnam. I remember the news gave me a sense of hopefulness about the war, which we were kept informed of by the Far East Network (armed forces radio) and the Voice of America. I can also remember my feeling of confusion when I read that Theiu had replaced Ky as Vietnam's leader.

Without belaboring the point, I have long been frustrated by the American handling of the war, which, I believe developed out of our abdication in Korea. I don't want to spend time talking about that, because it is a tired and painful subject. Suffice it to say that this book confirmed my feelings, but added some new insight.

For example, this book adds some insight into the resentment that many Vietnamese nationals felt toward the French, whose colonialism was largely exploitive, and financed by the Americans in amounts that Everett Dirksen would call "Real Money." In addition to that, I did not know, until I read this book, that Westmoreland was fully informed of the North Vietnamese intention to stage a major invasion during Tet, but decided to keep this from the South Vietnamese army! This appalling mismanagement of the crisis produced a disastrous and completely unnecessary problem for the Cao Ky, but it was a challenge that the South Vietnamese met and overcame. While Tet had a demoralizing effect on the American public, it was actually a victory for South Vietnam, and a major defeat for the North Vietnamese.

The book also addresses some more familiar themes, such as the legendary ineptitude of McNamara, but the most poignant event in this book is Nguyen Cao Ky's impulsive decision to abdicate leadership in favor of Thieu. Nobody (including Nguyen Cao Ky himself) knows why he did this. Perhaps it really was a selfless act of a patriot who had no interest in promoting himself, and was just trying to do what was best for his country. Or, perhaps, he had become bored with the monotony of leadership, and decided to abandon his responsibility, just as he discarded his wives, one after another, when he got tired of them.

To his credit, Nguyen Cao Ky takes full responsibility for his fateful decision. And it would not be fair to say that he abandoned his country completely, because he was always ready to serve, and to lead when the chips were down. In that sense, we must give credit where credit is due, and call him a patriot. But this is small comfort for the painful realization that the war effort was doomed by his decision, although I am still not sure if I believe that it was more significant than the moral exhaustion of the American culture, which rendered the Americans all but impotent to save Vietnam.

Read this book. Nguyen Cao Ky is a very good storyteller, and a man of adventure who liked to live on the edge. You will almost certainly come away better informed about the first war the Americans lost. It is a sad story, but one which can have a certain measure of redeeming value if we are able to learn from our mistakes, and adapt to the very different place that east Asia has become.

This is a must-read book for those who want to understand that period of history when the United States
became mired in the Vietnamese quagmire. It is an easy read, despite some obvious spelling and grammatical errors,
and it is a unique look into the life of one of the most colorful players in the Byzantine game of Vietnamese politics
of that era.

Westerners, usually from the media but also others as well, often describe Nguyen Cao Ky as flamboyant,
when they are not using other words such as "swell-headed" or "shallow". He lives up to his reputation
in this book, and some of the stories that he tells, from his courtship of a young woman in the seaside town of Nha Trang
to his dealings with American generals and politicians, are indeed fascinating, even if some anecdotes are not
sufficiently detailed. The book is rather thin for this genre, but there is no presumption that it is scholarly,
or that it should be pored over by academicians in search of another explanation as to why the most powerful country in the world
could not overcome the Communist violent takeover of South Vietnam. Rather, it presents the point of view of a man
who at a young age came to lead his young nation in its darkest moments.

History is not kind to losers, and we in America have a tendency to think that the good guys usually win. But once
in a while, those who were defeated have a decent story to tell, and Ky is trying to do that with his book. He explains
the dilemma of Vietnamese patriots who wanted to fight against the French but could not swallow Communist
ideology, even at the cost of a twenty-year civil war. He is most clear-sighted when he points out that a good majority
of the South Vietnamese leadership consisted of French-trained men who took greed, religious, and regional rivalries to
extremes, even at the detriment of their struggling nation. He also asks some interesting questions that beg for answers from
those who had a hand in conducting the war in this country: at the start of the 1968 Tet offensive, why did US forces
not come to the help of their South Vietnamese allies until the morning after? Why did the US wait until 1968 to begin
giving more modern weapons to the same allies, while the Communist soldiers from the North had the best from Soviet and Chinese arsenals?

At the end of the book, Ky pleads for the Vietnamese diaspora, which numbers some 3 million people living outside of their
native country, to forgive and forget because the old Communist hard-liners in Hanoi are disappearing through natural attrition.
He wants the younger generations to go to Vietnam to help their counterparts inside the country rebuild it. But as a man who has
traveled widely throughout the world since the fall of Saigon, it is telling that Ky himself has not found the time to go back to the country of his birth.

How could it be anything else being written by one of the players. I think Cao Ky Nguyen confirmed many truths and it was important for that to come from a South Vietnamese leader. All that you need to do is keep in mind that he is trying to portray himself in a more favorable light than he deserves as he was just as politically immature as the rest of the inept leaders he comments on.

The American lessons from Vietnam in essence are the old sayings that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink, and that if you want something done right do it yourself. When you put Nguyen's rationalizations in a more accurate perspective, he makes this clear.

As of the writing of this book, the Chechnyans had successfully repelled the Russian army and achieved a de facto independence that was not recognized by the rest of the world. Subsequent events have shown that Russia was not through with Chechnya by a long shot. This is a fascinating and grusome account of how Russia first attempted to pacify its rebellious province and how the Chechnyan hatred of the Russians goes back well over a hundred years. Stalin deported the entire population of the area to Central Asia during World War Two, cementing the Checnyans hatred of Moscow. That the West has allowed the slaughter in Chechnya to continue without more than a peep of a protest is shameful. This is a compelling book that deserves a wider audience, as well as a sequel.

this book doesn't fail to tell the truth. This book tells the truth, the side not being told by the russians, or by the media. We all hear on the news about apartment bombings in russia, but we aren't told about the mass graves, about the genocide or the history of the chechen-russian conflict. Recent war crimes such as kidnapping and rape of underage chechen girls by russian generals don't make the news. the book provides an important historical context to the selected information we are given every day. This book may not be up to date, but history is very important to understanding the now. Things happen every day in chechnya.

The book doesn't fail to touch on the black market of chechnya, and how thugs took control in the aftermath of the devestation put upon them by the russians. You don't have to be a mujaheddin to read this book, or to like it. it is a comprehensive history of chechnya and the history of the conflict with voice given to those who are often not allowed the chance to speak in the international realm. I also highly recommend "chienne de guerre" for those who are interested in chechnya but aren't ready to swallow a history book full of dates and names.
Marsho!

I found this book an excellent survey of the causes, conduct, and results of the Chechen conflict. The only distracting item is that the authors switch from the third person to the first person,without any transition, when recalling interviews or situations while they were in Chechnya. This book is a must for students of contemporary history of Chechnya, Russia, and the Russian military's ineffectiveness in this conflict. This story is far from over and this book helps one understand how the Russians and the Chechens got to where they are today.

It is unfortunate that, despite the fact that some of Polybius's Histories have been lost over time, Penguin made the decision to cut out even more from the text that has luckily survived down to us through the ages. To make matters worse, the introduction doesn't really state clearly what exactly has been cut.

Next time I want to read one of the classics, I'll go immediately to Loeb. It's worth the extra cash. Anyone want my Penguin copy?

Polybius, a Greek hostage held in Rome from 168 BC to 150 BC, set himself the task of explaining the rise of the Roman Empire. Deliberately written for Roman audiences, Polybius intends to describe the 53 year rise to hegemony from 220-167 BC. However Polybius includes considerable background material on the First Punic War and he later decided to extend his history to include the Third Punic War. Unfortunately, much of the original work is missing and Penguin has decided to edit out even more, which leaves a hollow remnant.

The real value of this book lies in Polybius' description of the Second Punic War with Hannibal. There are excellent battle descriptions of the Trebbia, Lake Trasimene, Cannae, the Metaurus and Zama. Remember, Polybius was writing only 60-70 years after these events and had access to many documents that are now lost. Polybius was also able to visit some of the battlefields when they had not changed significantly since Hannibal's time. There is also a good section on Roman military methods, which was enlightening.

However this book is disappointing in a number of areas. In terms of the original work, Polybius tends to digress on topics of interest to himself (but not to modern readers), such as criticizing other contemporary historians. He also has a strong pedantic streak and strives more to impart "lessons" than facts. He continually hammers home his theory that one cannot be a good historian unless one has walked the ground and gained personal military and political experiences. This certainly helps, but there are plenty of generals and politicians that make poor authors. Yet the greatest disappointment lies in the lack of any detail on the Third Punic War and the dramatic defeat of the Greek phalanx by Roman legions at Cynocephalae. Since Polybius was a witness at the destruction of Carthage, I eagerly anticipated this chapter only to find it instead to be a very short three page section with only general comments.

Amazingly, the period with the greatest detail is the Second Punic War, when Polybius was not alive. The Third Punic War and the Siege of Numantia in Spain, both of which Polybius observed directly, are excluded. This reduced the value of this volume tremendously.

Polybius treatment of the encounter between the Roman Commander Regulus and the Spartan General Xanthippus (leading the Carthaginians), and the "lessons learned" from their encounter justifies buying this book. The rest is gravy.

Keppie's work regarding the development of the Roman Army from the republic to the early principate does a good job of describing some of the aspects of the Roman Army: marching camp, weapons and organisation. Lacking any meaningful battle descriptions, and with somewhat long appendix section on mostly irrelevent material, nevertheless is a good introductory book for the beginner.

This is a good guide for anyone who is interested in how the Roman army functioned and how it changed over time. For specialists, this book will seem simple but for advanced undergraduates or disinterested graduate students the book is wonderful and I highly recommend it for them. Non-students should find it readable but may wish to consult other sources as well. Advanced graduate students who are more interested in military history will find it a bit boring. Overall well done and well written for the appropriate audience.

I think this book is very interesting because it tells everything about the Roman Army and information you never knew. It includes the great information about people like generals and great emperors like Julius Caesar and his conquest of Gaul.Also tells from what kind of armour they wear to what they used as a weapon.It also explains there stradegies in battle such as when they put there sheilds together and keeping out any flying objects.This book will teach you any type of questions you have about the Roman Army.If you are doing a big report on the Roman Army and you need info this is the book to get and read.It has the table of contents if you need something specific its very helpful in a report or speach of some sort as I said.You will learn the great generals of Rome and How they soon took over all of Europe. ... So read the book and see for yourself.