Hittites by Hourly History – Book Review

We have often heard of ancient kingdoms such as Egypt, Greece, Babylon, and etc. but there was a kingdom  which interacted with all these kingdoms and were a mighty kingdom in their own right,  but only a very few of us have even heard of the name. This is a brief compilation of the Hittite history by Hourly History.

The book starts about with the exact location of the Hittite empire, being based in Anatolia and then,  it firsts starts off with the sources of Hittite history which helps us understand as to why there is very little knowledge about them, as the excavation began  very late and the information gathering is still going on. It goes on to talk about the contributions of the British archaeologist, Sir T.E. Lawrence (more famously known as Lawrence of Arabia) towards collection of the artefacts. The book covers all major aspects of the Hittite history, throughout the Bronze and Iron Age, conflict management with neighbours, the royalty, the traditions, the cities and the army. 

I appreciate how the book began by explaining why people know very little about them owing to the lack of sources and also inculcating the interest by bringing in a very well known figure in history, Sir T.E.  Lawrence.  In fact, I have come across the name of this Empire only while reading the history of Egypt and assuming it to be more popular, the book covered all the incidents that I read about Hittites in relation to their interaction with Egypt. The book also brought out the contributions of Hittites in the field of politics and diplomacy, as to how they were perhaps the first kingdom to have documented foreign policies and ceasefire agreements. The society was also covered; as to how it was not a homogenous society and people were of different ethnicities and spoke different languages.

I would have liked it if the book had included the reasons for the eventual decline of the empire, however, I am unsure whether it was a conscious exclusion or whether there is insufficient evidence towards the same.

On the whole, this was a highly informative book about an empire which only a very few of us are aware of.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Dead Famous: Spartacus and his Glorious Gladiators by Toby Brown – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘You have probably heard of Spartacus …

He is dead famous for:

• Being quite a good gladiator
• Giving the Romans the run-around
•  Looking an awful lot like Kirk Douglas.

But have you heard that Spartacus:

• Fought for the Romans as well as against them
• Once camped his army of rebel slaves inside a volcano
• Cut a deal with a bunch of double-crossing pirates?

Yes, even though he is dead, Spartacus is still full of surprises. Now you can read the inside story in Spartacus’s diary, catch up on all the latest battle results in The Daily Gladius, and find out how to keep the mighty Roman  Empire at bay with just a few trusty followers and a cunning plan.’

This is a biography on the young gladiator from Thrace who led a strong revolt against the Mighty Roman Empire around 70 BC. The book is part of the Dead Famous series from Scholastic (now published as Horribly Famous) and is written by Toby Brown and illustrated by Clive Goddard.

Spartacus is bored of herding sheep in Thrace and is looking for some excitement and joins the Roman army to quell his boredom. However, he was handed very mundane tasks and thus, deserts the army, gets married and as a punishment for deserting the army, he is designated as a slave and sold to a gladiator academy, where he performs very well.  However, Spartacus had the ambition of going back home and thus, leads a mutiny along with the fellow gladiators successfully pulling down the gladiator academy, which is the beginning of a mass rebellion by the slaves against the mighty Roman Empire.

The author did a very good job at bringing out the character of Spartacus; thirsty for adventure but not necessarily bloodthirsty, an astute tactician who could look at the bigger picture wherein, he spared the lives of certain Roman captives, so that peasants and other ordinary people are not intimidated by the slave army. The book also brought out the conflicts within the army regarding the way of handling the situation, such as Crixus, who didn’t agree with Spartacus’ rather humane approach. The classes of people in the Roman Empire was also brought out well, as to how slaves and gladiators were supposed to be at the lowest strata, which was an added reason why Romans underestimated them and were also equally embarrassed by such a rebellion.

The best aspect of the book was certainly the illustrations of Clive Goddard; humours, detailed, to the extent that in many cases, it covered both the pages to portray a much clearer picture, an aspect which I have not seen in any of the other books in the same series.

I read the book nearly eight years ago,  when I was perhaps the target audience and I really enjoyed it and found it informative, when I read it again now to refresh my memory, I didn’t enjoy it any less and I would award the book  a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Harriet Tubman: A Life from Beginning to End by Hourly History – Book Review

This is a short biography on  the 19^th Century American activist Harriet Tubman, whose activities included fighting for the abolition of slavery in the United States, transporting slaves from  slave states to the progressive Northern free states, fighting the civil war on  the side of the Union and eventually, fighting for women’s suffrage. 

The book starts with the history of slavery in the United States, then moving on to the family which Harriet served, the brutality that she had to withstand which led her to attempt to escape. The book then focuses on how she used the Underground Railroad to rescue slaves from the Southern states and her eventual role in the Civil War and how her knowledge of the rail roads helped the Union. The book also focused on the role of religion in her life which proved to be a driving factor in her taking up such daring tasks.

The book covered the issue of slavery in the United States very well and it also described the attempts of Tubman’s escape in good detail. The book also did a good job in bringing out the various aspects of her life, personal, religious, the abolitionist and the suffragist.

However, I felt that the book was more on slavery in the United States than it was on an individual. The book started with the attitudes of various Presidents towards slavery and then, going on  to describe a lot of achievements of Frederick Douglass and eventually, even a short note Martin Luther King Jr. towards the conclusion that I felt I was reading a book more on slavery and civil rights than on a particular individual.

The book was certainly informative, but I felt it was under the wrong title and I guess that is the reason why I would have to downgrade the book to a rating of five.

Rating – 5/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Sir Salman Rushdie – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘One day in the near future, a storm strikes New York City – but it is no ordinary storm.  A down-to-earth gardener finds that his feet no longer touch the ground. A graphic novelist awakens in his bedroom to a mysterious entity that resembles his own sub-Stan Lee creation. Abandoned at the mayor’s office, a baby identifies corruption with her mere presence, marking the guilty with blemishes and boils. A seductive gold-digger is soon tapped to combat forces beyond imagining. 

Unbeknownst to them, they are all descended from Dunia, a princess of the jinn, and they will play a role in an epic war between light and dark, spanning a thousand and on nights – or two years, eight months, and twenty-eight nights. It is a time of enormous upheaval, where beliefs are challenged, words act like poison, silence is a disease and a noise may contain a hidden curse.’

This is a novel by Sir Salman Rushdie, a story involving various elements such as the idea of fear and god,  the idea of good and evil, love and lust, tyranny among many other things narrated through the author’s impeccable writing style and engaging elements of magic realism. 

The story begins in Cordoba during the period of the Almoravid Dynasty where a young jinn, meets and falls in love with the philosopher Ibn Rushd, a rationalist, who is in an ideological war against the Persian philosopher, Ghazali. The children of the jinn, Dunia and Ibn Rushd are born with the characteristic of not having earlobes. Centuries later, in modern day New York, a storm begins which lasts for 1001 nights during which; an old gardener’s feet does not touch the ground, a baby ends up in the office of the Mayor of New York which identifies corruption and the logic of the old world no longer seems to apply triggering the War of the Worlds between the world of humans and the jinn. To counter this menace, Dunia, the jinn, gathers all her descendants – the Duniazat – tribe of the world (which include the gardener, Mr. Geronimo and a few others) and the battle goes on for two years, eight months and twenty eight nights. 

I was highly interested in the book owing to the rather interesting title given to it by the author. Post that, I really enjoyed how the author dealt with a lot of timeless topics such as reason versus god, hope against fear, love and of course, he also made a lot of specific allusions, such as his highly indirect references to the Afghanistan and Taliban (as the situation created by the evil jinn under the orders of Ghazali) and also on allusions on the current western political scene.  As always,  I really enjoyed the way in which  he narrated the story, the choice of words, the flow of the story, the sequence in which they were arranged and the way in which he created the new world – Peristan (the world of the jinn) and not for once, gave the reader an impression that he was going beyond the rules of the current world. I really enjoyed the way the characters of Geronimo and Dunia were brought out, the former, a happy go lucky gardener dealing with all sorts of mundane issues with the latter having the task of saving the world from mayhem, dealing with personal tragedy, lost love and the need for love again, dealing with her emotions among other things. I also enjoyed the various diverse mythical references that the author touched upon, being Greek, Indian, Egyptian, a bit of Abrahamic myths and even a brief anecdote on a Yoruba myth. 

However, like it had various good elements of a typical novel of Rushdie, it had the very same issue I have with most of his books, being,  he took  too long to come to the point, that it took nearly a third of the book before the plot actually started taking shape and by then, he had introduced too many characters which became a challenge to the memory and even more disappointing, when most members of the Duniazat were grossly underused, barring Mr. Geronimo.  

I really enjoyed reading the novel, and as always, despite the fact that it took some time, I felt it was worth the time spent. My pencil had a lot of work while reading the novel, marking some of my favourite lines and I shall just state one of them below:

‘The enemy is stupid. That is ground for hope. There is no originality in tyrants, and the learn nothing from the demise of their precursors. They will be brutal and stifling and engender hatred and destroy what men love and that will defeat them. All important battles are, in the end, conflicts between hatred and love, and we must hold to the idea that love is stronger than hate.’

With that, I would conclude my review here that considering all the above stated aspects and also giving weight to the amount of time it took to read and also a bit of redundancy that was involved, I would award the book a rating of eight on  ten. 

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Haitian Revolution by Hourly History – Book Review

This is a short summary of the revolution that shook the world in the 19^th Century, being the one at the then French colony Saint Domingue (Haiti). People are aware of defiant blacks like Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr. but the first successful revolution by the blacks was possibly by the slaves of Haiti.

The book starts with how the French established a colony in the island of Hispaniola which was earlier under the full control of Spain. The book goes on to describe the complex class system that was established to govern the French colony, where whites had full rights whereas the rights of mixed race people was dependent on the extent to which they were white. The book touched upon the two main personalities of the revolution, being Toussaint Louverture who established control during the early stages of revolution till his imprisonment and death followed by that of Jean Dessalines, who founded the new nation of Haiti, a first case of slaves overthrowing their colonial overlords.

The book focused on the events well and also kept the interest by touching upon the acts of well-known personalities in the revolution, such as Napoleon. Additionally, the book also talked about brutalities from both sides, talking about how whites treated the slaves and also how Dessalines ordered the massacre of all the remaining whites in the island post his victory in the revolution. I had very little knowledge of the Haitian revolution barring the fact the flag of Haiti was stitched from the torn pieces of the French flag post their victory but this book managed to touch upon a lot of information in less than an hour, and thus, the book was quite effective. The book also managed to conclude well; giving insight into why Haiti is still poor despite centuries of independence; arising from the economic blockade and tribute imposed by France post their independence.

The only aspect that I found to be lacking was France’s economic interests in Saint Domingue, being the coffee and sugar plantations, which was hardly mentioned.

The book was a good read, considering, I had very little knowledge about the topic prior to reading the book. I would award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,

Andy