The Regency Years

The Regency Years: During which Jane Austen Writes, Napoleon Fights, Byron makes love, and Britain Becomes Modern- Robert Morrison
W.W. Norton & Company
Release Date: April 30, 2019

Rating:
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Synopsis:The Victorians are often credited with ushering in our current era, yet the seeds of change were planted in the years before. The Regency (1811–1820) began when the profligate Prince of Wales―the future king George IV―replaced his insane father, George III, as Britain’s ruler.

Around the regent surged a society steeped in contrasts: evangelicalism and hedonism, elegance and brutality, exuberance and despair. The arts flourished at this time with a showcase of extraordinary writers and painters such as Jane Austen, Lord Byron, the Shelleys, John Constable, and J. M. W. Turner. Science burgeoned during this decade, too, giving us the steam locomotive and the blueprint for the modern computer.

Yet the dark side of the era was visible in poverty, slavery, pornography, opium, and the gothic imaginings that birthed the novel Frankenstein. With the British military in foreign lands, fighting the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the War of 1812 in the United States, the desire for empire and an expanding colonial enterprise gained unstoppable momentum. Exploring these crosscurrents, Robert Morrison illuminates the profound ways this period shaped and indelibly marked the modern world.

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Regency England (1811-1820) is one of the time periods most favored for historical fiction and movies.  It is the time of the Duke of Wellington, Napoleon Bonaparte, Byron and Shelley, Austen and Scott.  In The Regency Years, Robert Morrison aims to give the general reader an in-depth look at  this short, but important, time span.  He argues that the Regency period plants the seeds for the modern age we think of being ushered in by the Victorians. 

Morrison does an excellent job of examining both the positive and the negative parts of Regency life. The grandeur and beauty live side by side with the excesses and squalor.  Chapters cover economics, social reforms, political strife, literature, science, colonialism and war, sex and entertainment.  While the majority of The Regency Years does not contain information that is new to Regency history devotees, Morrison presents it in a way that ties together aspects of Regency life in new and interesting ways.  Quotes from letters, diaries, and references to popular literature create a well-rounded and well-researched history.

Fast-paced and written in a lively and engaging style, The Regency Years is an excellent history for readers beginning to study the time period, and a detailed, delightful read for those looking to round out their knowledge of this fascinating time period. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Good Queen Anne

Good Queen Anne: Appraising the Life and Reign of the Last Stuart Monarch- Judith Cromwell
McFarland/Amazon Digital Services
Release Date: February 28, 2019

Rating:
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Synopsis: Queen Anne (1665–1714) was not charismatic, brilliant or beautiful, but under her rule, England rose from the chaos of regicide, civil war and revolution to the cusp of global supremacy. She fought a successful overseas war against Europe’s superpower and her moderation kept the crown independent of party warfare at home. This biography reveals Anne Stuart as resolute, kind and practical—a woman who surmounted personal tragedy and poor health to become a popular and effective ruler.

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Britain's Queen Anne (1665-1714) is not someone I really knew anything about, so I was excited to see a new biography on her come out.  By the time I had finished Good Queen Anne I could only ask myself: why is she not more well known?  She was everything we would want in a world leader today: a strong woman, a fierce moderate, an independent thinker, and a kind human being. Author Judith Cromwell does an excellent job bringing Anne to life as a fully human and relatable royal: a young woman, a princess, a married woman, and a queen.  She united England and Scotland, helped steer England through the long War of Spanish Succession, and held her country together at a time when party politics was leaning to extremes on both sides.  I loved that Anne always insisted on her cabinet being as moderate and free of party politics as she could manage- something today's politics could learn from.  She insisted on putting what was good for the country ahead of what was good for an individual, whether that individual was her or not.  And she tried to keep from being beholden to either party, something not always possible during war. 

The book did have its' flaws, mostly in the writing style in my opinion.  Cromwell has a tendency to begin by describing the weather before entering a new section, which works in small doses but towards the end began to happen so often that it felt contrived.  While I expect the intent was to make the reader feel a part of the events it became something I was so conscious of that it would jolt me from the book to notice instead of flowing seamlessly.  But my real problem with the writing was the overwhelming amount of repetition. While I don't mind a bit of repetition to help keep people and titles straight over the course of a 600 page book, I don't need to be constantly told that Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, was Anne's close friend and confident (until Anne became Queen. It was downhill after that). I don't need to be constantly told that Sarah became threatened and jealous of Anne's maid Abigail and believed (despite no evidence) that Abigail was influencing Anne's politics.  While the relationship between Anne and Sarah was an essential part to Anne's story, there were better ways to emphasize that then the repetition Cromwell used- occasionally almost to the word.

Overall, Good Queen Anne is a wonderful, well-researched book about a strong woman who stood her ground in the face of even stronger personalities, power plays, and outright bullying by family members, "friends", and politicians.  Cromwell reveals a queen I didn't know I wanted to know about- but am incredibly glad I do now.  Three cheers for Good Queen Anne!  

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Cities

Cities: The First 6,000 Years- Monica L. Smith
Viking/Penguin Group
Release Date: April 16, 2019

Rating:
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Synopsis:Six thousand years ago, there were no cities on the planet. Today, more than half of the world's population lives in urban areas, and that number is growing. Weaving together archeology, history, and contemporary observations, Monica Smith explains the rise of the first urban developments and their connection to our own. She takes readers on a journey through the ancient world of Tell Brak in modern-day Syria; Teotihuacan and Tenochtitlan in Mexico; her own digs in India; as well as the more well-known Pompeii, Rome, and Athens. Along the way, she presents the unique properties that made cities singularly responsible for the flowering of humankind: the development of networked infrastructure, the rise of an entrepreneurial middle class, and the culture of consumption that results in everything from take-out food to the tell-tale secrets of trash.

Cities is an impassioned and learned account full of fascinating details of daily life in ancient urban centers, using archaeological perspectives to show that the aspects of cities we find most irresistible (and the most annoying) have been with us since the very beginnings of urbanism itself. She also proves the rise of cities was hardly inevitable, yet it was crucial to the eventual global dominance of our species--and that cities are here to stay.

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In her book Cities: The First 6,000 Years, archaeologist Monica L. Smith gives us the story of cities: how people built them and why, how ancient cities compare to modern cities, and how cities impact the people who live in them.  It is a fascinating look at the urban environments that so many of us take for granted, unquestioningly walking streets everyday without considering why or what went before.

Smith's love of archaeology and discovery shine clearly off of each page- she seems as eager to share her discoveries with us as we are to read about them.  What I found most interesting was that Smith's views on the development of cities were such a seamless flow between the physical and the psychological.  She describes what a city needs: infrastructure of roads, water, food, planning, but also what a city does: it provides humans with exposure to people, ideas, and consumer goods that they would never see in a rural setting.  Much of the book examines how consumer habits are both created by the environment but also create the environment and the people's mindsets in turn.

There is also the inevitable discussion of what comes next.  What about the collapse of cities?  Looking at the question from an archaeologist's point of view, Smith argues that perhaps this isn't as inevitable as we often think.  Cities may grow and change with the times, the environment, and the people in them, but historically very few simply end.  And even if a city ends (like Pompeii), its people may survive, move on, integrate and influence other cities.

Although occasionally repetitive, Cities is a book full of fascinating information and new ways for people to look at the urban environments around them.  An excellent read for history lovers, those interested in archaeology, or even human psychology, as Smith makes the argument that all of those aspects go into what makes a city and how we should look at their history. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

True Story of the Great Escape

The True Story of the Great Escape: Stalag Luft III, March 1944- Jonathan Vance
Greenhill Books
Release Date: March 31, 2019

Rating:
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Synopsis: Between dusk and dawn on the night of March 24th–25th 1944, a small army of Allied soldiers crawled through tunnels in Germany in a covert operation the likes of which the Third Reich had never seen before.The prison break from Stalag Luft III in eastern Germany was the largest of its kind in the Second World War. Seventy-nine Allied soldiers and airmen made it outside the wire – but only three made it outside Nazi Germany. Fifty were executed by the Gestapo.Jonathan Vance tells the incredible story that was made famous by the 1963 film The Great Escape. The escape is a classic tale of prisoner and their wardens in a battle of wits and wills.The brilliantly conceived escape plan is overshadowed only by the colourful, daring (and sometimes very funny) crew who executed it – literally under the noses of German guards.From their first days in Stalag Luft III and the forming of bonds key to such exploits, to the tunnel building, amazing escape and eventual capture, Vance's history is a vivid, compelling look at one of the greatest 'exfiltration' missions of all time.

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In honor of the 75th anniversary of the "Great Escape", Jonathan Vance's book, originally privately published as A Gallant Company, has been updated and reissued by Greenhill Books.  My first reaction on finishing this book was "Wow. Just. Wow."  

The True Story of the Great Escape is a detailed, carefully researched, and finely crafted account of the men of Stalag Luft III and their daring escape attempt on the night of March 24-25, 1944.  Vance gives the reader brief accounts of all of the principal POWs- their pre-war lives, how they came to be pilots, as well as the mission when they were captured- in between describing life at the camp.  What I found the most fascinating were his descriptions of how the prisoners made things.  When the plan for the great escape went underway an entire committee of prisoners made perfectly crafted clothes, forged papers, handheld compasses, maps, and anything else that might be needed- made them from materials they scrounged from the camp or bribed from guards. 

As much as this is a book about perseverance and ingenuity in the face of overwhelming odds, it is also a tribute to the men themselves.  Vance honors them all for their bravery and achievements from Roger "Big X" Bushell who masterminded the scheme down to escapees like Canadian pilot George Wiley (my grandfather's cousin).  Even though there is no surprise about how this escape will end for most of the men, I found myself hoping for the best and near tears reading what would be final goodbyes in the camp, let alone the orders for fifty of the recaptured escapers to be shot.  This is a very human story, from the pilots to the prison guards, Vance refuses to let us imagine any of them as stereotypes from a movie. 

Poignant and powerful, The True Story of the Great Escape is a must read for any history lover.     

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review