This book is a must for the Scottish visitor. I bought 5 books including Frommers driving tours (never touched it) and eyewitness guide (nice pictures, but we never used it). It was the only book we used. The book is outlined in several ways, either you can pick by the area you are, or certain interests. Either way, this is a book written by a Scot, and he knows the area very well. He covers everything from best waterfalls and scenery to best pubs, and the things you shouldn't miss. We felt like we had a guide with us the whole time telling us where to go for the best Scotland has to offer, and everything he said was right on! We found so many places off the beaten path, that as a tourist we never would have found on our own. This book is also very amusing and unbiased, as the author has a keen sense of humor and I found myself laughing several times at his honest approach. I believe this makes all of the difference when you want to have a good traveling experience. I would recommend this book to anyone who is going to Scotland, and also the Michelin map was extremely helpful. It got us everywhere without a problem!

AS a well-prepared traveller, I spend WAY too much money on books and then have to cart them around the whole time. This time, I bought five books on Scotland and Edinburgh. As we travelled for five days, I noticed the book I continuously had out was Scotland the Best! At one stop at one of the "bloody good pubs" by Glencoe, we sat at a table next to Morag and Ian, both Scottish, married 35 years. They saw our book, grinned, and pulled out their own. They said they used it every weekend and kept it in the glovebox. How much more of a recommendation do you need? Buy this book and all the updates!

Once you have a solid book on Scotland, (Fodors, Eyewitness, etc), then this book will bring more life and excitment to your base of knowledge. The authors pick what/where they like best in certain categories, and you will find places not listed in the main tourist books but worth going for if your travels take you near the vicinity. The "best of" topics are such things as graveyards; churches; castles; historical places; waterfalls; coastal villages; shops; beaches; golf courses; glens; and so forth, along with more information in detial on Glasgow and Edinburgh. Told with honesty and a sense of humour, is good for tourists and natives as well. 300 pages of great information, well worth it.

Rubenstein seeks out the Scottish course that he enjoyed 25 years past, and discovers much more than he bargained for.

This eminent, wordcrafter contributes a delightful tale of golf, not "cart-ball" as the game as become on the NA contienent. Here, it's not booming drives and high stick shots, but more the relaxation and wide open spaces with the tranquility and sereneness the game has had in these Highlands.

One gets somewhat the feel that golfers rave about in Scotland, and this fine book helps those of us who have never been closer than say London in my case to get a taste of what it's like to be near the sea in sand formed links.

Golfers will reverberate to his find wordsmithing such as: "Golf, not marriage, is the triumph of hope over experience. I don't konow why I shuld feel hopeful after playing dreadfully for thirteen holes and now facing the most comfounding hole on the course. That's golf. That's a golfer."

Such charming writing about what every golfer that I know has ever played speaks of Dornoch, it is the essence of Donald Ross and links golf and everything the game is about.

What the season life at Dornoch gives Rubenstein he also passes on, the Clearances and the plight of this people of pipes and drams and links and books. Sounds like the perfect village life many of us dream of living in.

I bought this book for my husband. We loved Scotland and he loves golf so I thought this was the perfect book. It took us back to our time in Scotland and Denny's first view of St. Andrews. I recomment this book for any avid golfer. It was a hit at my house.

Lorne Rubenstein has scored a literary "Hole in One" with this book. How so? - He has successfully tackled that most difficult of subjects - a community and its local characters, as seen by an outsider (or "incomer" as known locally in the Highlands) who is living slap bang in the middle of town. Not only this, but the landscape and its people are seen in an historical context that is dominated by land ownership and the forced clearances of tenants.
Pretty heavy stuff, you might protest, but no - a charming, light hearted insight into Dornoch life that really tells you something about the Highlands of Scotland, its history, its romance, its golf.....and Madonna! Lorne does this by getting seriously involved in the heart of things - he doesn't sit around on the sidelines and ponder - He gets his boots muddy by psyching himself up & competing in the Carnegie Shield golf championships at Dornoch; sharing the excitement of playing the ancient, traditional links of nearby Brora & Golspie; tramping & cycling around the countryside and most of all by meeting as many local folk as possible, downing a dram and recording their philosophy of life, love & the golfing universe.
We also learn something about Lorne & his wife Nell, a partnership which has true romance peeking out between the pages.
If you have ever dreamed of spending a summer in the Highlands of Scotland, read this book - Rubenstein has got it spot on .. an Ace in all respects.

The other guy said it better than me, but Bookchin's book is one of the few that really get's down deep into the process by which anti-authoritarian ideas and movements get generated and how they achieve, or can achieve, social change. Wonderful both for theory and history.

From the few dozen workers who first listened to Giuseppi Fanelli as he presented "The Idea" in 1868, a nucleus of Anarchists slowly grew in Spain. "Anarchistic ideals are difficult to fix into a hard and fast credo. Anarchism is a great libidinal movement of humanity to shake off the repressive apparatus created by hierarchical society. It originates in the age-old drive of the oppressed to assert the spirit of freedom, equality, and spontaneity over values and institutions based on authority." (p. 16) Nineteenth Century Spain was rife with oppressive and authoritarian institutions-a culture medium, as it were, for Anarchism.

Bookchin traces the growth of the movement, explaining the various forms through which the anarchistic "Idea" developed. He briefly explores the influences of Proudhon, Kropotkin, and Bakunin, and contrasts them with the bleak realities of the Spanish political situation. The Spanish anarchists were not an unruly mob of bomb hurling terrorists, they were "freedom fighters" in the best sense of the term. Many exemplified self-discipline:

"The more dedicated men, once having decided to embrace the "Idea," abjured smoking and drinking, avoided brothels, and purged their talk of "foul" language. They believed these traits to be "vices"--demeaning to free people and fostered deliberately by ruling classes to corrupt and enslave the workers spiritually." (p. 48)

"Anarchist-influenced unions gave higher priority to leisure and free time for self-development than to high wages and economic gains." (p. 50)

"A very compelling case, in fact, can be made for the argument that Spanish Anarchism refracted the spirit of Enlightenment Europe through an Iberian prism, breaking up its components and then reorganizing them to suit Spain's distinctive needs." (p. 51)

Bookchin threads his way through the maze of Spanish politics, explaining the labyrinthine changes of government and policy. At each step, whether liberal or more totalitarian, the poor kept on getting poorer and the rich kept on getting richer. At one point, a system known as Turnismo existed. "Liberal"and repressive regimes would regularly share the power back and forth. When capitalists and land-owners needed to reduce the power of unions, a "liberal" regime took power, and while promising land reform and better working conditions, repressed the unions. At other times the more totalitarian regimes ran things, at times easing a few restrictions to keep the populace content. (One can perhaps imagine a bit of "turnismo" in the Bush/Clinton/Bush administrations!)

Anarchism flourished in both the countryside and in the cities. Many pueblos had traditionally run themselves by ideals approaching anarchism. These folks accepted the "Idea" readily. syndicalist unions also found themselves attracted to anarchism.

Anarchists formed their own schools. Francisco Ferrer founded the Escuela Moderna, with "a curriculum based on the natural sciences and moral rationalism, freed of all religious dogma and political bias ... [there was to be] no atmosphere of competition, coercion, or humiliation. The classes were, in Ferrer's words, to be guided by the "principle of solidarity and equality ... Instruction was to rely exclusively on the spontaneous desire of students to acquire knowledge and permit them to learn at their own pace. The purpose of the school was ... to create solid minds, capable of forming their own rational convictions on every subject." (p. 117) This system was so successful that within a decade over 50 such schools existed in Spain. Eventually, however, Ferrer paid for his "radical" educational ideas with his life; the government executed him on October 13, 1909.

Bookchin traces the encounters between socialists and anarchists. He takes the time to establish the difference between the two groups (To oversimplify: socialists depended on central organization, while anarchists looked to the local "grupos de affinidad" (affinity groups) for decision making). These differences became crucial during the Spanish Civil War, when communists fought anarchists in the streets, rather than working with them to defeat Franco and his Fascist minions.

The book does a great job of explaining the world into which the Spanish Civil War burst in 1936. Bookchin, however, does not enter that conflict. He leaves that to other writers, and perhaps with good reason. The Civil War led to the total repression of Spanish Anarchism. Having the book stop while the Anarchism was still in the ascendancy and not yet being systematically destroyed, first by its "revolutionary" allies, and then by Fascism.

In his concluding remarks, Bookchin makes a bold claim: "Although Spanish Anarchism was virtually unknown to radicals abroad during the "heroic years" of its development, it could be argued in all earnestness that it marked the most magnificent flowering and , in the curious dialectic of such processes, the definitive end of the century-long history of proletarian Socialism." (p. 278)

"The genius of Spanish Anarchism stems from its ability to fuse the concerns of traditional proletarian socialism with broader, more contemporary aspirations." (p. 286) Bookchin concludes by showing how "The larger problems of abolishing hierarchy and domination, of achieving a spiritually nourishing daily life, of replacing mindless toil by meaningful work, of attaining the free time for the self-management of a truly solidarizing human community ... [all this can be sensed in] sectors of society that were never accorded serious consideration as forces for revolution within the economic framework of proletarian socialism."

This book is required reading for anybody who wishes to understand the causes of the Spanish Civil War. It also presents some of the greatest Anarchist accomplishments in recent history. Bookchin related the history well and held my attention. I strongly recommend this book to anybody interested in Anarchism, in the Spanish Civil War, or who has ever read Garcia y Vega's REVOLT OF THE MASSES. It also makes understanding Orwell's HOMAGE TO CATALONIA much easier.

Five stars for scholarship, five stars for making history accessible, five stars for explaining difficult situations and concepts.

(If you'd like to dialogue about this book or review, please click on the "about me" link above and drop me an email. Thanks!)

Bookchin does an excillent job of presenting the often chaotic history of pre-Civil War Spain in a clear and organized manner. Possessing a clear writing style and an excillent grasp of the movement in general, Bookchin's book is an asset to anyone interested in Spanish history or Anarchism in general.

I just want to add a note to the review I wrote earlier. De Jonge's "Stalin" was written before glasnost opened some new materials from the Soviet Union for scholars to access. Thus, it is limited from that standpoint. However, this is in no way a serious hindrance to the book. Having also read Conquest's biography of Stalin, which WAS written after glasnost, there is very little that Conquest added to de Jonge and certainly no major re-interpretation. Both books are excellent, de Jonge's a little easier read.

Joseph Stalin is a fascinating subject. Alex de Jonge is an outstanding writer. They combine for a great book. There are other biographies of Stalin; Deutscher is a bit dry, Conquest is excellent, but perhaps a bit short. De Jonge covers his subject thoroughly, but not with so much detail as to overwhelm or lose the reader. De Jonge is an excellent writer, and he combines his talent with useful information and a plethora of fascinating, sometimes hilarious, anecdotes. He doesn't get bogged down in Marxist theory, but he does give a brief synopsis which will benefit the average reader; a scholar might wish for more. Perhaps the most outstanding and useful part of the book are those sections dealing with foreign affairs, especially in the aftermath of World War II. Brilliant analysis....

As the author states,"Stalin successfully imposed his vision upon one sixth of Earth's landmass." Whereas Hitler's charisma was instrumental in his rise to power, Stalin's success was due to his self control and his extraordinary ability in successfully interacting with others, even his enemies. De Jonge's detailed account of Stalin's life helps us understand the man who greatly influenced the course of Russia's recent history.

I was born in Carlisle, England. The second big town of the border area other than Berwick. My father is from Longtown, Cumbria which is right next to the debateable land and I have the last name of Crozier. This book was like reading about my own history and explained a whole lot of things about my home town and the people I grew up with. Just in my neighborhood, there were Armstrongs, Taylors, Littles, Nixons, Grahams and many other Reiver names.
This is a very scholarly book and exceptionally well written. The author must have done an incredible amount of research to put this together. I read it twice, the second time noting how many references to Croziers(Crosers) there were. My father's family name is in there 26 times. Along with the Armstrongs, Nixons and Eliots, we were considered the worst of the worst of the reivers. Maybe not something to be proud of, but interesting. According to my mother(God rest her soul)her paternal grandfather was the illegitmate son of the Duke of Buccleugh(you'll hear a lot about the Scotts of Buccleugh, many of whom had the same name of Walter, including the famous one), so I have Reiver blood from there too. Fascinating book especially if you have a surname that might go back to that part of the world and those times.
What I have written here is just a taste of the whole book. A little heavy going at times, but so good that I have read it twice already and now use it as a research tool.

MacDonald Fraser brings to the history of the Anglo-Scots border reivers all the exuberance and attention to detail that made his name in the Flashman novels. Readers looking for more gloriously politically-incorrect adventures from the Victorian age won't find them here, but this book does repay the extra effort needed from the reader. The Steel Bonnets is the most entertaining yet informative serious works of history I have read.
The story of the Anglo-Scots border is a complex and a bloody one. MacDonald Fraser manages to understand, without condoning, the hard men who fought and died, rode and raided across the border between the kingdoms of England and Scotland. He untangles the knotted threads of their family ties and feuds and reveals their part in the wider relations between England and Scotland prior to the union of the Crowns in 1603. He dives into the dusty depths of the written records and brings them back to us red in tooth and claw.
At a time when the border between England and Scotland looks as though it may become an international, rather than a domestic border once more, this book should be of relevence to all with an interest in and love of these two nations.

As a newcomer to Scottish Border history I found the many forces and families influencing events very confusing. George MacDonald Fraser has written a remarkable book in which he creates order and logic from a very complicated period and at the same time has written a book which is etremely readble.

It essential reading for anybody interested in border history and will no doubt be quoted extensively by writers who follow.

Sunflowers In The Sand: Stories From Children Of War is the story of war in present day Europe and its poignant and heart-wrenching effects and influences on children caught in the horror of conflict. Illustrated by the artwork of Croatian children, Leah Curtin's informative, engaging, powerful text is a vivid expression of the experience of children in the Balkan conflict telling with a compelling candor what it is like for a child to be trapped in an incomprehensible world of adult hatred, conflict, and horror. Ultimately, Sunflowers In The Sand is a testament to the endurance and resilience of these children who survived the loss of home, family, and their own childhood -- all sacrificed on the altar of war created by political and military leaders in the name philosophies, ideologies, and ethnic hatreds. Highly recommended.

In her heart breaking account of the impact of the Balkan war on children, author Leah Curtin quotes Darija - a thirteen year old survivor living outside the town of Biograd:

"War is nothing like I thought it would be...Tell the children of America that I hope for them, they never learn what war is. It is to be so afraid that you cannot sleep even when there are no bombs. It is to see everything, everything destroyed. I cannot speak of those who are dead ...my heart is still in bandages."

Ms. Curtin - with the help of Patricija Padelin, child psychologist at the hospital in Zadar - chronicles the almost unspeakable violence the children suffered during the course of the war, along with their fears, hopes, dreams and enormous capacity for survival.

In the face of complicated mourning - in one of the stories a boy recounts how he had to choose between betraying his father or grandfather - the children are encouraged to speak about their experiences and to draw and paint images based on how they feel. Some of the illustrations were drawn in refugee camps during and after the war; others during interviews with the children to help them express their experiences.

The result is a moving and illuminating chronicle of the inner lives of children who have been victims of war.

Just as war is the enemy of art, so art is the antidote for war. As the poet Jane Kenyon has said, "We cannot afford to ignore our inner lives, our imaginations, for when we do, we become capable of extreme cruelty and destruction. Tenderness toward existence is what we lose when we lose art."

Ms. Curtin, with the assistance of Ms. Padelin, has taken us into the inferno of war and found, miraculously, war's primary victims taking off the bandages and making narrative and visual art. Ms. Curtin's narrative is interwoven with the children's voices and with their remarkable drawings. Upon being asked to tell his story, a boy named Davor declares "I am as normal as anyone else. It's the world that's crazy, not me." What artist has not felt a similar need to declare him or herself sane!

The most haunting images are perhaps the ones of hearts. In one heart colored orange, there are teeth within the heart and a world outside it where a child is raising her arms to a sky without bombs. In another picture, there is a mouth with a twisted smile that appears to have stitches for lips. Under two dancing hearts the caption reads: "Usually when a child draws hearts, the larger the heart, the more he is in need of love."

My favorite painting is reproduced on the cover of the book: a beautiful blue dove, its wings outstretched, an olive branch in its beak. The bird is flying through the war torn countryside where there are still sunflowers lifting their yellow heads to the sky. But if the viewer looks closely, there is a skull with an open mouth, and just above that image of death there are the instruments of war. This painting was a large mural made collaboratively by fifteen Croatian children who wrote peace messages on the back.

I thought of Picasso's GUERNICA, of course, and along with it the temptation to despair, which any honest depiction of the madness of modern war brings us.

The final and most important achievement of SUNFLOWERS IN THE SAND is Leah Curtin's refusal to embrace hopelessness. By letting the children speak, by empowering them to show through art their own inner lives and resilient spirits, she has in her own unforgettable words instructed us to follow them "and there will be hope for the world."

In her heart breaking account of the impact of the Balkan war on children, author Leah Curtin quotes Darija - a thirteen year old survivor living outside the town of Biograd:

"War is nothing like I thought it would be...Tell the children of America that I hope for them, they never learn what war is. It is to be so afraid that you cannot sleep even when there are no bombs. It is to see everything, everything destroyed. I cannot speak of those who are dead...my heart is still in bandages."

Ms. Curtin - with the help of Patricija Padelin, child psychologist at the hospital in Zadar - chronicles the almost unspeakable violence the children suffered during the course of the war, along with their fears, hopes, dreams and enormous capacity for survival.

In the face of complicated mourning - in one of the stories a boy recounts how he had to choose between betraying his father or grandfather - the children are encouraged to speak about their experiences and to draw and paint images based on how they feel. Some of the illustrations were drawn in refugee camps during and after the war; others during interviews with the children to help them express their experiences.

The result is a moving and illuminating chronicle of the inner lives of children who have been victims of war.

The atrocities inflicted upon civilians - the most vulnerable targets of modern warfare - are nearly unspeakable. The rape of women in Croatia during the course of the conflict has been extensively documented and made public.

Less well known is the sexual savagery directed toward infants, and the brutal torture to which the old were subjected. I hesitate to repeat one child's account of what he witnessed in a church: elderly people tied to pews, begging to be killed, while soldiers cut out their eyes and forced these innocent people to swallow them.

How does one ever forgive such atrocities? Ms. Curtin - a nurse and widely published health ethicist - offers no simple, unrealistic answer. It may not be possible, at least not in these children's lifetimes.

How do children heal then? How do they overcome the impulse to hate not only the soldiers who did these things, but their own neighbors who may carry the burden of the enemy's ethnic identity?

One of the many virtues of Ms. Curtin's book is her insistent answer: the inner, creative life of the children and the need for adults to honor it, to learn from it, to be changed by it.

Just as war is the enemy of art, so art is the antidote for war. As the poet Jane Kenyon has said, "We cannot afford to ignore our inner lives, our imaginations, for when we do, we become capable of extreme cruelty and destruction. Tenderness toward existence is what we lose when we lose art."

Ms. Curtin, with the assistance of Ms. Padelin, has taken us into the inferno of war and found, miraculously, war's primary victims taking off the bandages and making narrative and visual art. Ms. Curtin's narrative is interwoven with the children's voices and with their remarkable drawings. Upon being asked to tell his story, a boy named Davor declares "I am as normal as anyone else. It's the world that's crazy, not me." What artist has not felt a similar need to declare him or herself sane!

In one revealing example painted by a child refugee from Zagreb, a boy's face is surrounded by an exploding city. Drawn in the form of a pastiche, it is impossible to separate the head in the drawing from the bombed landscape surrounding it. The boy's eyes are not the eyes of a child, but of one who has been forced to grow up too fast.

A boy named Hrovje, whose skull had been badly damaged by a grenade while he was rocked to sleep by his grandmother, has had his story juxtaposed with another child's portrait of a woman holding an infant. The anguished face of the woman is reminiscent of the haunted faces painted by the Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch.

Some of the stories and illustrations leave a lighter, almost whimsical impression. Kristina dreams of being a dancer in Hawaii and hopes that one day she will appear on the American TV program Hawaii Five O. She seems to be perfectly represented in a drawing made by another child recuperating in intensive care at the hospital in Zadar. A hula dancer with a bright red dress and bouffant hairdo seems a long way from these children's scarred childhoods.

The most haunting images are perhaps the ones of hearts. In one heart colored orange, there are teeth within the heart and a world outside it where a child is raising her arms to a sky without bombs. In another picture, there is a mouth with a twisted smile that appears to have stitches for lips. Under two dancing hearts the caption reads: "Usually when a child draws hearts, the larger the heart, the more he is in need of love."

My favorite painting is reproduced on the cover of the book: a beautiful blue dove, its wings outstretched, an olive branch in its beak. The bird is flying through the war torn countryside where there are still sunflowers lifting their yellow heads to the sky. But if the viewer looks closely, there is a skull with an open mouth, and just above that image of death there are the instruments of war. This painting was a large mural made collaboratively by fifteen Croatian children who wrote peace messages on the back.

I thought of Picasso's GUERNICA, of course, and along with it the temptation to despair, which any honest depiction of the madness of modern war brings us.

The final and most important achievement of SUNFLOWERS IN THE SAND is Leah Curtin's refusal to embrace hopelessness. By letting the children speak, by empowering them to show through art their own inner lives and resilient spirits, she has in her own unforgettable words instructed us to follow them "and there will be hope for the world."

Nancy Rexin Evans did a wonderful job in this telling story of her Mother's courage. How brave Cecelia was in saving lives at the risk of losing her own, her strength was amazing, to face death every day and evil , an evil we all wish and hope to never see again, is her testament OF courage. I am of German heritage and it makes me sad to think how horrible all of these people were treated. If not for the love and courage of this brave woman, an entire generation and culture would have disappeared from the face of the earth forever. God Bless you Cecelia, up in Heaven and God Bless your daughter, Nancy, for having the courage to re-live this story so we all may learn a valuable lesson.

My name is Lacey and I am sixteen years old. I just finished reading "Testament to Courage" by Cecelia Rexin, translated by her daughter, Nancy Rexin Evans. Being partially of German descent, I felt a kinship with Cecelia and her strength as with my grandmother, but at the same time ashamed of how people could act like that, being of the same heritage, that could be so evil incarnate and have no regard for human life.       As I was reading this I tried to compare my world with Cecelia's, but nothing could compare. We live in a world today where we can go run to the store for soap, milk, bread, anything your money can buy, go to sleep whenever we want, have decent shoes, socks, clothing, toiletry items and much more. All the while Cecelia worked her hands to the bone, with no food, water and hardly any clothing to save not only her life, but others too. As she described what they wore, where and how they slept, what they didn't eat , it made me feel selfish of what I have and all the petty things I fight amoungest my siblings and others about.               As I was reading one night, I had just gotten home from a friends house and I had gotten something to eat, it was towards the end of the book where things got real bad and 2,000 people are crammed in a box with nothing to eat, drink, and no way to bathe and barely had a restroom ( actually it was a bucket ). I got so sick to my stomach. I stopped eating and started crying, as I felt so bad for these people. I felt as if this was partially my fault being from their descent, but it is not. We take life for granted when "Life" is all that some of these people wanted.

I found the memoirs of Cecilia Rexin to be incredibly moving and inspirational. It is heartwarming to read of the depth of soul, conscience and human dignity that can prevail even in the face of unspeakable evil and horror. It is a must for good people of all faiths and creeds.

The pictures are elegant even if the subject isn't. Very beautiful book. Know that the book is not intended to show you all aspects of life in Soviet Russia. It focuses more on the downside of life.

Having traveled in Russia during the Soviet era, I believe that Sherbell, in words and images, has captured the essence of the latter stages of the Empire. The picures and text show a deep understanding and appreciation of the problems of the Soviet system. More importantly, the beauty, humanity and resiience of the Russian people come shining through. It is a terrific photo book.

Whether or not you ever visited the Soviet Union in its dying days, Shepard Sherbell's photographs will grab you. His images of that moribund nation reveal the darkest secrets of the U.S.S.R. Those of us who lived through those final moments will recognize the chilling faces of a great power in demise. The crumbling buildings, cracking monuments and crushed spirits of a once-mighty state are beautifully portrayed in this book. It's an eyewitness to a land of infinite impossibilities.

Make no mistake: THE SOVIETS is not another collection of snapshots from Red Square and the Bolshoi Theater. Instead, its pages are populated with glimpses into the real life of that now-extinct country. Unless you'd lived there, this is a side of the Soviet Union you probably never saw.

Brace yourself.

Aran's observations of a favored mentor and his romance with a beautiful woman color his life, but violence intervenes and turns a mute boy into a potential sideshow oddity in this story of early France. Spider's Voice, is a fictional account which recreates the story of Abelard and Heloise, 12th century French lovers, and adds many historical insights in a complex plot recommended for mature teens.

I am an 11 year old who simply loves to read and spends hours a day doing so. I read this book and since I enjoy reading books from and about the past, particularly the Middle Ages, you can see how I liked this. I applaud the author of the novel.

I'm a thirteen-year-old that loves to read. I haven't enjoyed twelfth-century books in the past, but this one caught my eye. The reason I enjoyed this book so much was because of it's amazing turn of events. I couldn't anticipate what would happen in this one, as I usually could. If you are looking at this book, I'd say to at least read a couple paragraphs. I'm sure you won't be dissapointed.

What A. J. P. Taylor's The Struggle for Mastery in Europe suffers from in being nearly fifty years old, it more than makes up for in style. It is a riveting book that is smattered with wit and an author's thorough knowledge of his subject. Alternate titles might have been The Struggle to Prevent the Mastery of Europe, or the Decline and Fall of the Balance of Power.

Taylor's unyielding faith in diplomacy reflects a Cold War notion that any political problem can be solved by maintaining a diplomatic balance. He deftly navigates the Byzantine web of diplomatic intrigue to show how negotiations, not war, ultimately resolves crises. His whig interpretations are at times blatant. Conservative Russia and Prussia are often "humiliated" and "old fashioned" while liberal France fell victim to its own "ingenuity" or suffered "shattered prestige."

Not all events are treated equal. The 1867 Anschloss or the 1894 Dreyfus Affair receive practically no attention, while obscure diplomatic conventions receive detailed analysis. Great leaders like Napoleon III or Bismarck receive Taylor's praise while British statesmen of lesser stature receive criticism. Taylor is also anti-imperial, stating that colonies are a sign of weakness (though he later seems to suggest the opposite). His treatment of the coming of World War One is perhaps his greatest weakness, or perhaps this is where the book is most dated. He seems to be somewhat surprised that war erupted in the face of diplomatic failure. He fails to see that many at the time lost faith in diplomacy and allowed the war to happen.

In the end, though, this is a fine work. Taylor interjects personal philosophies throughout the book. "Men learn from their mistakes how to make new ones (p. 111);" "Once men imagine a danger they soon turn it into a reality (p. 450); and "A historian should never deal in speculations about what did not happen" (p. 513) are but a few examples. (This last is a personal favorite as it flies in the face of alternative history.) Clever recto page headings and use of dates keep the reader aware of what is happening, and Taylor is a master of the semi colon. All in all this remains a very informative work.

I think what made me start loving Alan Taylor is the passage from "Struggle" about Louis Napoleon's government being "run by gangsters". After a lifetime of school histories unwilling to venture a judgement, scrupulous in their aridness, this was a revelation.

Taylor suffered ostracism for his outspoken views, especially from Oxford, where his trampling of sacred cows prevented him from gaining a professorship. On the other hand, his rival, Hugh Trevor-Roper, played the Tory historian and prospered. (It was, of course, Trevor-Roper who staked his reputation as an historian on the authenticity of the fraudulent Hitler diaries of 1983, hopefully giving Taylor the last laugh. But being an establishment historian, Sir Hugh was immunized from serious career consequences.)

If you want to understand the century past, you must begin in the century previous, in about 1848. When Taylor deposits you in 1918, you will be on secure footing while reading his, "Origins of the Second World War" or Ian Brendon's "Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s," leading you in turn to WWII, which brings the nineteenth century to a close in 1945. It is said that Alan Taylor liked paradox. I wonder how he liked this one.

This is A.J.P. Taylor's masterpiece of history. Taylor is an exquisite writer, with a unique style that cannot resist the irony and contradictions inherent in the actual fabric of European diplomacy. This sprawling tale of folly and pretension is informed by Taylor's exhaustive reading of the official foreign affairs correspondence of the respective nations involved, as well as his own mastery of modern European history. His prose is consistently edged with wit on the verge of sarcasm, always keen to the absurd roots of tragedy. For Taylor there are no sacred cows: every class, every institution, every political party, even cynicism itself, fumbles in the dark, toiling under the weight of its illusions and contradictions. One does not emerge from this book with an enhanced respect for statesmen, generals or revolutionaries. This is one of the few history books I plan on reading at least twice.