history

I first read a book from this series, "the fields of home" when I was 8 or 9, on my fathers recomendation, he said it reminded him of his father and himself. after reading the story, I found that rather than seeing my father and grandfather, I saw my dad and myself. I didnt know any other books from this author existed until a couple of years ago, when I ran accross the entire box set. my whole family has enjoyed them; both as read aloud books for the younger kids but as quiet reading for the older ones as well as my wife and I. I read the entire series at least once a year, and they never fail to bring a warm feeling to my heart, as well as a close feeling of family ties and kinship to the rural way of life. If the kids of today cared half as much for the well being of the family as Ralph Moody did for his, this would be a much better world to live in

I read this book after my 9-year old finished it for school. The lessons and values that Ralph Moody learned growing up are so good and true-even if sometimes they were learned the hard way. Mr. Moody's book teaches wonderful values like responsibility, respect, honesty, hard work, and committment and support of the family. The part I liked best was the relationship that Ralph had with his father. This world would be a much brighter place to live in if every son had a father like Ralph's. I think a dad reading this to his kids would teach lessons they all would remember.

I have read Little Britches and its sequel, Man of the Family to my 6th grade history students and to my 4th grade students for five years now. I have found that the story holds the attention of both girls and boys. My students have been able to make connections with other items we have read in history. The story is full of excellent values without being preachy. Basically, it is a well told first person narrative of life in the American west in the 1910's. A great book to read outloud to children or to read with children.

I'll let emotions guide me as they certainly did by the time I had finished the book... With all the hype surrounding Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit: An American Legend (and a summer movie to boot), I was anxious to get my hands on a copy of this bestseller. Upon perusing one of my tack supply catalogs, I ran across a title about the legendary racing filly, Ruffian, and it became available to me before the Seabiscuit account.

I would recommend this book to any bibliophile, social historian and/or horse-lover because it exemplifies masterful writing, interesting real-life characters/time period and a legendary (and truly outstanding) Thoroughbred racehorse. By the time you finish the book, you will have released more than a few tears based on a tragedy that reads more like fiction.

The account of Ruffian would elicit emotion in the words of any story-teller. And Jane Schwartz proves herself a great story-teller here. Ruffian: Burning From the Start is, hands down, a "bestseller" in the non-fiction genre.

No offense, Laura Hillenbrand, but either you have a wonderful colleague to emulate or some serious literary competition.

Back in 1975, racing fans and non-fans alike were mesmerized by the Great Match Race, the boy vs. girl angle of the Ruffian vs. Foolish Pleasure match race. Here were the champion two-year olds of 1974 matched up together, the filly a black giant of a horse, the colt the Kentucky Derby winner. Tragically, the race didn't end with a clear-cut winner. "Ruffian- Burning from the Start" gives you the background story of the great Ruffian, arguably the finest Thoroughbred filly to ever grace a racetrack. She was never headed on the track, and as the title says, she was burning to run from the time the gates opened. This book gives you a glimpse into the rich world of Thoroughbreds owners and breeders, and a glimpse into the mind of a great trainer, Frank Whitely, who also trained three-time Horse of the Year, Forego. The author not only gives you some insight into racing, she takes you to the racetrack and makes the sights and sounds come alive. She breathes life into the story of Ruffian and the final chapter will have you reaching for your hanky. I heartily recommend this book for any fan of horses, or of horse racing, or Thoroughbreds.

Compared to the Legends book about Ruffian this earns more than 5 stars !! It is personal, touching (prepare lots of kleenex) and written nin a good style. If you love horses and are not afraid to weep like a child: buy it at once.

Gerhard L. Weinberg has brought forth a thoughtful history of World War II, distinguished by its comprehensive scope and coherent organization. The broad sweep of the war is organized around the foreign policies of the combatants, which clarifies the causes of the war and its development within the strategic rationale of the contestants. This approach also reveals the tensions within each of the alliances. For the Allies, the reader sees the particular controversies that were subsumed to the greater goal of defeating the Axis, but which in some ways presaged the antagonisms of the Cold War. For the Axis, it was not so much the tensions, but rather the mutual disregard for each other's aims that was determinative, exemplified by Japan's blunder of attacking Pearl Harbor and Germany's unwillingness to reach an accord with the USSR as German military power waned. A history such as this is especially useful for reacquainting us with the challenges of multilateralism as the anomalous international system of the Cold War recedes. In this regard, I also favor Dean Acheson's memoirs, "Present at the Creation."

Hitler's essential focus on gaining the agricultural and industrial resources of the Ukraine provides rationality to German actions, and explains why the USSR faced such a tremendous burden, with staggering human cost, holding the Eastern Front. Japan's own ambitions are similar in that it hoped to secure natural resources through dominance of the western Pacific. Distinctly irrational for both countries, however, was the systematic savagery that was integral to their operations. In Germany's case, these activities were an extension of its racial purity policies of the 1930s, culminating in the Holocaust, as well as its intent to cleanse ethnically the Soviet territory it occupied in preparation for relocating Germans into these areas.

Weinberg starkly describes the utter darkness that fell across the world at the start of the war: Germany's ejection of British forces from Europe and Greece; the capitulation of France; the encirclement of Soviet forces by the hundreds of thousands; Japan's sweep throughout the western Pacific; and the near-total isolationism of the United States. As the war proceeded, strategic misjudgments by the Axis provided an opportunity for the Allies to rally. Britain passed the trial of the Battle of Britain, the United States was drawn in to the war by Pearl Harbor, and the USSR, if not without tragic waste, developed the highly effective force that was to be the bulwark and eventually the bludgeon against the Wehrmacht. At the same time, the Axis passed its high watermarks of the war with strategic defeats at Midway and Stalingrad. Weinberg's history appreciates these events not only with respect to their diplomatic and military ramifications, but also the technological, economic, and demographic forces at work. While key engagements are dealt with in their strategic and operational context, a history like this will probably not be of tremendous interest to students of particular battles, or of anecdotal combat experiences. Also, despite the current focus on combating terrorism, Weinberg's description of the reordering of global relations in the aftermath of the war remains relevant today.

This book draws on historical source material that became available in the early 1990s. Graduate students in history take note: Weinberg offers numerous ideas for thesis research. Another contemporary history, "A War to be Won" by Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett, would probably also be worth reading in conjunction with Weinberg.

As much as I favor this book, I have to admit that it was a cumbersome read. Not that it was poorly written, but the scope of the subject demands much from the reader. Still, determination yields an edifying read, and this authoritative history, with its absence of axe-grinding and hobby-horsing, is worthy of one's serious attention. Afterwards, one major impression I was left with is that although the international system failed to thwart the ambitions of fascist nations, contributing to the causation of the war, during the war a combination of diverse forces permitted the Allies to rally from profound defeat and eventually renew the international system in victory.

The maps, which are hidden between the bibliographic notes and index, are minimally useful, and I highly recommend "The Times Atlas of the Second World War" (out of print, unfortunately and inexplicably) in order to appreciate Weinberg's descriptions of the campaigns as they unfold.

One can only say "its about time." Weinberg doesn't beat to death all the same tired details on the operational level that all buffs of WWII have read again and again as nauseum. He pulls back his analytical camera with his powerful primary source knowledge and gives us a grand strategic, political and economic view of the war on a global scale just as the sub-title says. As such, much of the reading is not as flashy and "sexy" as some would like--who cares! There are a million sloppy books written about WWII that would satisfy such readers. This is NOT a book for a newcomer to the subject--I would recommend John Keegan's survey as a good introductory analysis for the reader new to the subject. Weinberg's study is for the serious student. His focus on the people behind the scenes guiding the "big picture" course of the war is outstanding and long overdue. Revelations brought from his primary sources amazed and surprised me in many instances. His only weak point is his lack of primary sources from Japan, Italy and the USSR. The latter, especially, has just been available in large amounts in the last decade or so. It would be terrific if he would publish a revised version in the future with such primary sources integrated into the work. Even so, this global, macro-study is indispensible for any serious student of WWII and is a landmark in WWII historiography.

"A World At Arms" is quite frankly one of the best books on WWII I have ever read (I've read few). This is one packed book. Weinberg covers the events leading up to the war, as well as the events themselves. Although 1300ish pages in length it reads like a 250 page books that fills your soul with facts! You'll get the how's, who's, where's, and why's - even if you already know the when's and what's they're there also. Truly a "world" perspective, Weinberg includes it all. It really is hard to now imagine how much this book covered and how easily it does it. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Yet, block some time, even though it's an easy read it is more than half the length of "War and Peace" so it takes time - but time well spent.

I remember watching movies from the 30s on cable tv and thinking to myself, "Wow, that's pretty racy stuff for the time." Little did I know that these gems had such snappy adult dialogue and innuendo because they were what is commonly referred to as "pre-Code". Before Hollywood laid down the restrictive Production Code in 1934, women on-screen showed skin, had babies out of wedlock, had affairs, conned and murdered lovers, were sold into white slavery, had abortions and even had dalliances with members of their own sex...all in movies that the general public loved! Mick LaSalle's book does a very good job of highlighting the power of women in Pre-Code movies and explaining why certain stars embodied the heart and soul of the modern woman. Mr. LaSalle should be commended on his attention to Norma Shearer's contribution to the film industry. She is all but forgotten today, forgotten in the modern fascination with the Garbos and Harlows of early Hollywood...and this is a shame. Mr. LaSalle makes me wonder if there had been no Production Code imposed in 1934, would women have better roles and more clout in modern cinema? It's an interesting concept. The photos in the book are beautiful and highlight some stars that all but forgotten today, except for a few film buffs, such as Ann Dvorak, Constance Bennett, Dorothy Mackaill and Miriam Hopkins.

COMPLICATED WOMEN is a brilliant work, and far from "left-wing propaganda," as the previous reviewer suggests. Interestingly, in that previous reviewer's criticism, he (or she) uses quotations -- but they're not at all quotations from the book. They're paraphrased quotations from the TCM documentary that was made from the book. This suggests that the person didn't even read the book but only saw the TV show, which would, alas, be typical.
One of the great virtues of the book is that it has the courage to nail absolutely and forever Joseph Breen -- the man who administered and forced the code on the public -- as a foaming-at-the-mouth anti-Semite, and for this one doesn't have to trust Mick LaSalle. The evidence comes from Breen himself, in his voluminous correspondence, which is full of anti-Jewish invective. Indeed, LaSalle may go too easy on him. Evidence of Breen's anti-Semitism is even more damning in Geoffrey Black's book, Hollywood Censored.
But then, this is hardly a book about politics. It's a wonderful meld of history, film criticism and culture -- as strong as LaSalle's other brilliant book, DANGEROUS MEN -- and it's true glory is in the way it celebrates and rediscovers some of the most influential, interesting and lovable women of the previous century. It is essential reading.

Mick LaSalle's COMPLICATED WOMEN is a fantastic film history that reads like a page-turner novel. From this era and these marvelous women, he has fashioned a compelling story that makes you long for more -- and more is available -- more being the films themselves -- for which this book is the most extraordinary and helpful introduction. Not just an introduction, because an introduction introduces and then walks away. Make that, a guide. Read it first, and then keep it by the television.

Dunham selects several mathematical theorems and discusses their meaning and their proof. The book is arranged chronologically beginning with Hippocrates (Quadrature of the Lune) and follows with Euclid, Archimedes through Newton, Euler up to modern scientists. If the subject was ONLY mathematics he would have succeeded. But I expected more of a historical perspective and review that the merely cursory one presented here. Still, the book was arranged well with many graphs, formulae, pictures and charts.

Rarely is it properly appreciated that mathematics is one of the arts, and --- like all the other arts --- has created monuments of surpassing beauty through the centuries. Dunham does a wonderful job in this whirlwind tour of the past two thousand years of mathematics. He presents math as a story of triumph after triumph. Each chapter highlights one "great" theorem, and in every chapter he makes clear the context of the theorem by discussing preceding work, the life of the mathematician who proved the theorem, and the applications it opened up. He is masterful at mentioning tidbits in historical context that will be logically necessary to understand a few chapters further. No advanced knowledge of math is necessary, but I will caution: one must be at least reasonably fluent in both geometry and second year algebra in order to get the most out of this book. The more rusty one's algebra skills are, the more burdensome the proofs will be. For someone comfortable with that level of math, the book is breathtaking in the panoply of intellectual vistas it opens up. For anyone doing any kind of work in any technical field, I simply cannot recommend this book highly enough.

William Dunham has brought life to a subject that almost everyone considers dull, boring and dead. Dunham investigates and explains, in easy-to-understand language and simple algebra, some of the most famous theorems of mathematics. But what sets this book apart is his descriptions of the mathemeticians themselves, and their lives. It becomes easier to understand their thinking process, and thus to understand their theorems.
I am a layman with a computer science degree, and a layman's understanding of mathematics, so I am no expert! But I loved this book.
I found Dunham's description of Archimedes' life and his reasoning for finding the area of a circle and volume of a cylinder to be (almost!) riveting.
Dunham's decription of Cantor and his reasoning regarding the cardinality of infinite sets was fascinating to me. But most of all, I loved his chapter on Leonhard Euler. Having in high school been fascinated by Euler's derivation of e^(i*PI) = -1, I was even more amazed at the scope of this man's genius, and Dunham's description of his life.
The chapter on Isaac Newton is an especially good one as well.
Dunham smartly weaves these important theorems of mathematics into the history of mathematics, making this book even more understandable, and, dare I say it, actually entertaining!
This book is a gem, and for anyone interested in mathematics, it is not to be missed.

Diana Muir, the author, read one of my Amazon reviews and sent me an E mail suggesting that I might like her book. Well, I have this to say to Ms Muir... "thank you so much! I love it! " This wonderful story of the economic development of New England is written with a pond near Ms Muir's home (Bullough's Pond) as a backdrop. She tastefully weaves her personal experiences into the story she tells of the growth of New England's economy. We learn about the industriousness of the beaver and its effect on the New England ecosystem. We learn of the Native American's effect. Ms Muir traces settlers' early efforts at living off the land and how Yankee ingenuity led to the development of industry when the population grew to the point in which the New England landscape could no longer support farming. She further illustrates how small industries grew large. This book is a celebration of the average person's ability to thrive and adapt. Of course,there are the environmemntal costs which Ms Muir well illustrates. However, she is not judgmental, rather, she records the environmental consequences without ranting against the ingenious people who made New England prosperous. What is particularly wonderful about this book is that the people she writes about are not the famous families of New England but are normal people who carved out their niches. Of course the cream of this group prospered. I love this book and I have sent copies to others as gifts they will certainly enjoy. This book is serious history written with charm and style. I highly recommend it.

What is reflected in Bullough's pond? In this gracefully written book, the author tells of the oyster and the carpenter. She combines tales about the pond which stands before her home in Newton, Massachusetts; stories of Yankees selling ice in the tropics; clever inventors designing new methods for making wooden patterns for shoes; the growth of the streetcar suburbs around Boston; and reflections on the fate of oysters. The pond (and New England) is a microcosm of ecological change. In many ways, the books is an elegy about industrious Yankees, born into a hardscrabble environment, whose population exceeded the arable. land. As a result, New Englanders invented, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, altering their environment. Muir celebrates Yankee ingenuity. And even the wildlife, when at its best as in the case of the loon or the beaver, seem to emulate the industriousness of human New Englanders. In short, this is environmental history at its best. There are no heroes and villains; human endeavour is at the heart of the tale; and there is a wonderful mix of detailed naturalist observation and stories about people.

Reviews from newspapers, magazines, and academic journals are posted at: www.DianaMuir.com

Tennis Confidential by Paul Fein is a logically organized collection of essays, reports on remarkable matches, and interviews, that I found serendipitously searching the web, and read with the appreciation of the author's ability to get deep into the topic while enjoying plastic description of events, matches, broader impact of events for pro-tennis, and post-game interviews etc. The style of writing was concise and to the point. The author is at his best in the middle of the book conveying the ongoing issues of pro-tennis from the possible rule changes, computer and year to date; to the Prize-Money equality/inequalities. This book wont help to improve your game, but will definitely provide a collection of deep thoughts about the game of tennis, and the paradoxical and complicated psyche of the players that have shaped the Open-Era. In my opinion, the book reaches the quality of B. Collins's My Life with the Pros, and P. Bodo's The Courts of Babylon, while keeping its own unique concept of tennis and style, and selection of topics surviving the tests of time. TC II deserves its consideration

Paul Fein has filled a void in tennis literature with Tennis Confidential. It's the only book in tennis history to contain:

1. Memorable Q & A interviews. With Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, Bobby Riggs and Ted Tinling.

2. In-depth essays on the great issues. Such as topical trends, burning issues, great controversies and twentieth century perspectives.

3. Lots of tennis significa and trivia in a reader friendly form titled Fascinating Facts.

Tennis needs more mainstream coverage especially of this quality. Tennis Confidential is a must both the tennis fan and the general sports fan. You will become much more enthusiastic and knowledgeable about tennis after reading Tennis Confidential. There is something in it for everybody. It doesn¡¦t matter whether you followed men¡¦s tennis through Laver¡¦s era, when Borg ¡VMcEnroe - Connors battled it out or through the Agassi - Sampras rivalry, or women¡¦s tennis during the great Evert - Navratilova rivalry, ¡§supporting¡¨ Anna K through to the family affair between Venus and Serena Williams.

Chapters with broad appeal include portraits of the stars like Venus, Agassi, Kournikova, Serena, Kuerten, Capriati, Borg, Laver, Davenport and Navratilova and reliving the ten greatest matches in tennis history.

Paul Fein¡¦s essays provoke discussion and hopefully will influence the opinions and attitudes of tennis policymakers enough to change flawed policies and make changes for the better. You are invited to stand up and be counted. I, personally am inspired to devote more time to writing about tennis and contributing to the future direction of the game.

Tennis Confidential is an artistic success. If we¡¦re lucky there will be another tennis book written by Paul Fein.

The game of tennis has been in Paul Fein's cloth for many years, not only as
a writer, but as a teaching pro, referee, and television commentator. He has
an insightful way of taking his readers inside the covers of his books to give
them a behind the scenes look at the world of tennis.

Paul's book, "Tennis Confidential" is another excellent example. He provides
you with the inside scoop about Agassi, Serena, Martina, and a host of stars
in full-length stories. The Q&A interviews with Ashe, McEnroe, Connors and
Sampras are real eye-openers.

Paul Fein analyzes, with unusual depth and fairness, the tennis issues and
trends in the game. You'll especially like his authoritative perspectives on
the power crisis, equal prize money and on-court coaching.

History buffs are treated to the ten greatest matches in history with
detailed explanations why they were so thrilling and momentous. I gleaned lots of
new information in Paul's 20th century retrospectives, especially that metal
rackets and open-throat frames first appeared in the 1920s? Sprinkled throughout
the book are amusing trivia and startling significa that you'll really enjoy,
too.

Bottom line, "Tennis Confidential" is a terrific read.

Jim Westhall

Tournament Director and founder of the Volvo International Tennis, voted the
best in the world in 1987.

At the beginning of Manchild, Claude Brown describes how Harlem came to be populated by people of color. He continues by describing how he struggled with and adapted to this enviornment and eventually escaped it. This reads like a story of alienation and exile and the author's struggle to find the place where he fit and was comfortable.

I enjoyed reading this book, but was left wondering if Claude Brown ever found his niche. Where did he land? Did he ever find a place that felt like home? He talks at the very end about how much he loved the street life of Harlem, but that he hadn't lived there for several years at the time of writing.

I'd like an update of where the Manchild is now, what he's doing and how Harlem looks to him 50 years later---a sequel perhaps?

When this book came out in 1965, the NAACP's magazine "The Crisis" and other middle-class blacks criticized this book because it's raw and unsentimental portrait of ghetto life was seen as threatening to the entry of Black Americans into mainstream positions in America at the time. Too bad so many people tuned out it's message. Many of the things Claude Brown spoke of in this book about the Harlem of the mid-20th century came to pass in far more communities than Harlem (massive drug addiction, lunatic Black nationalist cults, massive disrespect of women, mindless violece, etc). Had more people listened to Claude Brown (RIP) at the time, perhaps Black America may have united to rid our communities of these evils instead of irrelevant "issues" like the Confederate Flag so that these things would not have become the plauge that they are today. As George Santayana said, "Those who don't remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

This book for me is the most startling and important autobiography regarding black inner city life even when compared to Malcom X's. When I was a teenager growing up in the inner city in the eighties, the older black middle class generation spoke to us "youngbloods" as if we invented crime. The sickness of self hate, envy, disrespect in our community existed for a long time before it became fashionable to parade these ailments in front of mass media for profit. Manchild details these problems through a teenager growing up in the fourties in an inner city environment who luckily makes a turn for the better at the right time before becoming an adult. This is an American story, not just a black one, and one that details why blind conservative patriotism and easy fix liberal solutions still continue to be difficult to swallow for youth attempting to survive an institutionalized system designed to almost guarantee their failure in life.

Much as I hate to admit it, editors add more value than authors often appreciate. This book is a good example of missed potential for good editing.

The book contains almost 500 Absolut ads, and some of the rejects. What I did not realize until I looked at this book was how much bad Absolut advertising has appeared. Clearly, this volume would have been greatly improved by eliminating about 450 of the images in it. There is also a lot of text about how the ads are created, with a lot of pats on the back for the importers and agency involved. But there is relatively little about the creative process, and what works and what doesn't.

If you want to learn more interesting details about Absolut, I suggest that you acquire the newer book, Absolut, the History of the Bottle, instead.

Absolut advertising is all built around the formula of the word "Absolut" followed by some other word or words intending to say "Absolute X." While the lines are almost always good, the execution of how well the images fit with the text often leaves something or a lot to be desired. In other cases, the visuals are just plain ugly.

As the text suggests here, the idea was that "Absolut would be a product that could laugh at itself." That position is missed when the image is either almost irrelevant or unattractive. It just makes Absolut seem like it is a reflection of bad taste.

The mood for the ads was supposed to be light to " . . . add a dollop of humor so the 'We're the best' claim wouldn't be quite so boring or prententious." Well, you'll have to judge for yourself, but the ads seemed to have badly strayed from that standard.

Just so you won't think I dislike the campaign, here are my favorite ads in the book (I have eliminated "Absolut" from the titles to save space): Perfection, Joy, Peak, 19th, Harmony, L.A., Manhattan, Haring, and Appeal.

The other thought that bothered me was treating expensive vodka advertising as art. What's the social benefit here?

After you have finished considering the book, I suggest that you examine how you can add beauty to the world through your life and your work.

A votre sante!

This is one of those excellent books that you keep out on a table in your house and flip through everytime that you are near it. This book collects about 500 different advertisements that the Absolut Vodka company has used to promote their product in magazines. Most of the ads featured are very creative and all of them very well done. To top that of the book has inside information on the making and history of their advertising campaign. This really is an excellant book for the coffee table.

This is a wonderful, informative, and beautiful book.
This book is about the Absolut Vodka advertising campaign. How it began, and what it is about. There are many beautiful, and breath taking images which makes you see the entire light of the campaign which looks so simple from the outside. Now, you get the inside looks and it isn't simple at all but an amazing experience.
WOW!!

Given that Mr Sienkiewicz won the Nobel literary prize for mainly this work, that alone is a pretty good bet for reading it. Written in the 1890's, this book is seen as one of the world's first "bestseller" novels, and is definitely an epic of, well, epic proportions.

Unfortunately, the book does suffer slightly as a result of the translation, as noted by an earlier reviewer, so if you can read Polish, do get the original version. Nevertheless, although the book starts off a tad slow, think of the beginning as a push off from a cliff, because after that it's as fast paced a thriller as money can buy.

A basic exposure to Roman and Christian history will make the book really come alive. Although certain "facts" are not correct, or have been omitted, remember that the book is meant to be fiction. The historical events are merely a platform for a passionate love story between a pagan Roman and a Christian girl. However, it is the seeming impossibility of this love, together with descriptions of the nearly moronic Roman "royal court", keeps you reading well into the night. The emotional roller-coaster makes you, the reader, feel exhausted.

Definitely recommended, and one of the most enjoyable books I've read.

If you liked this, do check out his other novels - especially the brilliant "Teutonic Knights" which is another epic of a young Polish knight (and of course a lovely maiden or two thrown in for good measure) and the history of middle ages Poland up to the battle of Grunwald where the Teutonic Knights were defeated.

I must confess that I started reading this book only after having enjoyed the film "Gladiator"...the book starts off slow but I promise, once you settle into the story,this novel will draw you in with it's vivid descriptions of the melting pot that was Rome...the heart of the story is romantic, the love of a Roman for a Christian girl...the main character goes through a touching transformation, which made me think of the soul alot...and the porttait of early christianity is very moving...I've since drifted from this faith, but the book reminded me that Christianity also had it's past full of sufferings-a fact I overlook from the comforts of my home...it shows early christianity, persecuted, hidden and striving-even with men of different temperaments-there is a hell fire preacher who annoys, another like Peter who speaks of Love...i found the modern translation very appealing- I once tried this novel in it's more archaic language and found myself quickly bored....this modern translation drew me in and has some beautiful expressions found throughout...my favorite character was Petronius, an endearing pagan Roman who delights only in the beautiful but has a heart enough to risk his own life for those he loves...he is sarcastic and witty and his influence over Nero borders on the humorous....great historical novel, perhpas one of the best I've ever read..if any customers out there don't seem to get enough of the film "Gladiator", please read this book...you will not be disapointed!!!

The Christian v. lion's story has been around so long that it has pretty much become a kind of myth. It is a phrase one brings up in order to illustrate some point or other, but is hardly ever thought about in historical terms. In fact, Christianity itself sometimes seems as if it is becoming a kind of myth. The left doesn't take it seriously, and bashes Christians for being intolerant and condescending. But Christians, in their haste to retaliate, often act intolerant and can be arrogantly condescending. The sense of what it means to be Christian seems to get lost in all of this.

Quo Vadis takes us back to the days when Christianity was fresh and new and shows us just what kind of world it was then that caused such a movement to flourish. This alone would make it an excellent novel, but it works wonderfully on all levels. The characters are superbly drawn, the setting is realistic, the plot crackles along, and, perhaps most importantly in a novel with this subject matter, it never becomes preachy or didactic, instead maintaining an objective perspective throughout.

Rome was the greatest of the ancient empires, yet despite all of its glorious achievements, it was truly a barbaric place. The concept of human rights was non-existent. Slaves--of all races--were property, and could be used in any way one saw fit, including the most vicious or depraved. The rule of law, while discussed in philosophical terms, was only sporadically and occasionally applied. The law instead came and went at the whim of the powerful, and if the powerful happened to be someone like Nero--the ruler of Rome during the course of this novel--then the law was sadistic, cruel, wicked and unpredictable.

We see the effect that living this kind of society has on the two main characters of the novel, both of whom are members of the upper crust: Petronius, a courtier; and Vinicius, a military officer. Petronius, as Nero's confidant, can never let his guard down. He must flatter, cajole, deceive and manipulate Nero every minute of the day, for his very life depends on it. It is a life, "drained and listless and detached," as we are told in the first sentence of the novel. Vinicius falls in love with a captive Christian female, and through his love we see how Christianity changes his life. But it is an unbelievably difficult and dangerous undertaking--with the demented presence of Nero and his sycophants looming over everything--to form an attachment with a person and then a cause such as this.

It gradually dawns on us how the Christian movement began in the first place, and why attempts were made so mercilessly to stamp it out. Instead of dishonesty and cruelty, it called for honesty and kindness. Instead of privilege for the elite, its promises were made to all. Instead of arrogance, it preached submissiveness. Perhaps most importantly, it simplified one's life, and allowed one to live without fear.

Rome is burned, possibly at Nero's orders, incredibly, so that he can experience suffering as he believes a true artist must. To divert the anger of the Romans, he blames Christians. Thousands of men, women, and children are rounded up, put in dungeons for months, then on successive festival days were crucified, burned alive, mauled by gladiators, and, as we know, attacked by wild animals. Their fate is so hideous that in time even the jaded Romans became sickened by it.

These historical events, and the actions of the characters during them, are what make up the bulk of the novel. To say the least, it makes for very compelling reading; indeed, some parts are difficult to bear. And as mentioned, it is presented in a very objective way. Not all of the Christians are presented sympathetically--one, in fact, is a fiery, all-will-be-damned type--and not all the Romans are presented harshly. The noblest character in the novel may very well be Petronius, who uses his influence as much as he can to alleviate the suffering he sees around him. And although he recognizes to some degree the power and decency of the movement, he himself does not wish to become a Christian. He can not abide the idea of being required to love his fellow man, most of whom--the unwashed, ignorant mob--he detests. He is a magnificent creation.

The book is a real eye-opener, a good reminder of what the world was like before the birth of Christ, and a sobering reflection on what being a Christian truly means. At the same time it is also a superbly researched and entertaining piece of historical fiction, and the kind of thing for which historical fiction buffs are constantly on the alert. Great stuff.

(I should mention that this review is of the Kunizak translation.)