Nina BurleighRecensioni

This is a slow burner. The biggest potential surprise in the book: is this a true icon? is answered on the first page and, it is only in the final chapter and the epilogue that one gets the point.

This is a pre-cursor to the Trump years. It is all about people with too much invested in the truth of the icon for fact to get in the way. With a religious icon, this does not simply include the purchaser and the vendor but, all the religious zealots for whom a solid item confirming the god's existence becomes more important than the faith based belief previously extolled.

I admit it. Until I read this book, I thought this girl was guilty. After reading this a an a full supporter of Amanda Knox. For one reason, Italy was set against her and she was arraigned again (and found guilty again) even though her appeal overturned the first ruling. This is about being in the wrong place at the wrong time--namely Italy during a murder case. It is well written, thoroughly researched, and sets the tone of what Amanda Knox is really like--an awkward college girl with social mishaps. She reminds me of myself. At times I felt the author was showing off some of the depths she dug to give us the but I thought it was a good perspective of the facts. Amanda was unjustly accused and found guilty of a crime she obviously didn't commit.

I just don't know how she was found guilty again this case again. I am not sure how she was sentenced AGAIN. I eventually someday she will be free before her max sentence.

ah... 2 Stars......maybe 3 Stars (if you like lots of information & politics)

This reads like a long and boring (as in TMI) novel. The crux is an upper-crust, privileged, gal meets JFK while at Prep-School & on Vassar weekends. They meet up again after she's just gotten married at the opening of a U.N. Convention in San Francisco....and they continue to meet socially & politically on & off through the years. Her husband turns out to be a strong willed, opinionated sod high within the u.s. government (CIA), whom she divorces.....and so on & so forth.

She continues her life in the upper crust social & political circles, where she becomes particularly close friends w/ the President, JFK......

So let's see, one evening she goes for her evening walk, is found murdered on the tow path, and the police see some hapless black man who had been fishing and try to railroad him!

I didn't need to read all the intimate details of her family life, I just wanted to know the juicy bits and I got very fed up trying to skim the pages in order to get to the actual story that the title suggests.

Booooooooooooooring!

Let's get this out of the way first: they still don't have any idea what prompted James Smithson to leave money in his will to found the Smithsonian Institution in America, a country he'd never visited. So don't come to this expecting any answers on that front. But it's still a decent introduction to the 18th century scientific community in Europe, and the story of the actual founding of the Smithsonian (once people stopped bickering over what to do with the money) is quite good. It stops after that, though - no word on the opening of additional museums or the Zoo. Smithson is the primary subject here. Not one I'll read again, and I probably would have passed had I known just how illuminating it wasn't going to be, but I still liked the little nuggets of information I did glean about one of the most amazing museum systems in the world. So there's that.

I enjoyed the writing style as I knew I would as I've enjoyed Burleigh's journalism in the past. She obviously did a lot of research for this book. I think Burleigh made a great case that Knox was innocent and the police were bumblers. How much of this is true I don't know, but it must have been a nightmare for everyone involved.

I suppose the reason I gave the book only 3-stars was because I really disliked Knox, I know I know that has nothing to do with Burleigh's writing, but its my review, I can say what I want.. I'm sure she is innocent, and have no idea what I would have done if I had gone to Italy for college as she did. I'm double the age she was at the time, but I still disliked her. I'm sure she has matured and gained a lot of wisdom. I assume that Burleigh is spot-on, the fact that she was American, young and pretty had everything to do with the way the media reacted to the story.

It is difficult to get past the title of this well-researched take on the story of the infamous American foreign exchange student, Amanda Knox, who went to Italy in her junior year of college in 2007 to study languages and ended up convicted of the murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher. I don't dispute that if Knox had been 100 pounds heavier, eight shades darker, and covered in boils, her murder trial would not have been the media sensation it was. The title is also a quote describing Italy itself. I just don't agree with perpetuating society's prejudices in this manner. It pissed me off that the whole time I was reading the book I kept reevaluating Knox's aesthetics. Her physical appearance is not the point, or at least, certainly not the only one.

I prefer The Fatal Gift of Beauty to Angel Face (I'm comparing the books, not the titles, which seem equally dramatic). The latter is much more biased, and written in a way less enjoyable for the reader. In terms of prurient fun, Knox's own memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, is the best.

I'm pretty Knoxed out at the moment, but eventually I will make my way around to Raffaele Sollecito's (Knox's boyfriend and codefendant) book and see what he has to say.

It is difficult to get past the title of this well-researched take on the story of the infamous American foreign exchange student, Amanda Knox, who went to Italy in her junior year of college in 2007 to study languages and ended up convicted of the murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher. I don't dispute that if Knox had been 100 pounds heavier, eight shades darker, and covered in boils, her murder trial would not have been the media sensation it was. The title is also a quote describing Italy itself. I just don't agree with perpetuating society's prejudices in this manner. It pissed me off that the whole time I was reading the book I kept reevaluating Knox's aesthetics. Her physical appearance is not the point, or at least, certainly not the only one.

I prefer The Fatal Gift of Beauty to Angel Face (I'm comparing the books, not the titles, which seem equally dramatic). The latter is much more biased, and written in a way less enjoyable for the reader. In terms of prurient fun, Knox's own memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, is the best.

I'm pretty Knoxed out at the moment, but eventually I will make my way around to Raffaele Sollecito's (Knox's boyfriend and codefendant) book and see what he has to say.

re the ossuary fraud trial

backgound at http://jamesossuarytrial.blogspot.com/

Interesting non-fiction book about Napoleon's expedition in Egypt. It really lowered my opinion of Napoleon, but I found the lives of the scientists interesting. And to think that I always believed that the Rosetta stone was discovered by the British...

Nina Burleigh’s The Stranger and the Statesman chronicles the life and bequest of James Smithson, the illegitimate son of Hugh Smithson, 1st Duke of Northumberland. His mother, Elizabeth Hungerford Keate, was already a feisty and rich widow when she gave birth to James in France in 1764 or 1765 (nobody knows for sure). At 17 or so, he enrolled at Oxford and earned his M.A. in 1786. He was astutely interested in mineralogy and impressed renowned scientists Henry Cavendish and Charles Greville sufficiently as to warrant their sponsorship for his election to the Royal Society. At 22, he was the youngest member ever elected.

Burleigh’s investigation into the life of Smithson comes against the usual historical boondoggle – documentation. There are a lot of details about his life that are aren’t known, either because no one recorded them or they were destroyed in 1865 by a fire. So, there’s a fair amount of conjecture in the book, but it’s not enough to make you question the entire work. The machinations of aristocratic and scientific England were very pleasant to read, especially when juxtaposed against the political battle in Washington in creating the museum. All in all, I enjoyed it.

http://lifelongdewey.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/069-the-stranger-and-the-statesman...½

This is the story of Mary Meyer - President Kennedy's mistress. I read this and it was very good, if a little over-involved in the writing. I liked this story very much and give it a B+!

The story of Napoleon's mismanaged invasion of Egypt in 1798 as told by the journalist Nina Burleigh. He led over 50,000 soldiers and sailors and 151 French scholars and artists into an adventure for which they were ill-equipped and unprepared. The destruction of their fleet soon after arrival left many of the sailors dead and most of their supplies at the bottom of the bay at Alexandria. A lucky few among the savants had packed their instruments with their personal baggage but most were lost, leaving them scrambling to find tools, even paper and pens, to carry out their investigations. Complicating their work was the contempt, resentment, and even mistreatment by the military. Despite the difficulties, during the years they were stuck in Egypt, the scientists, artists, and engineers explored the land, measuring, drawing, and collecting specimens and artifacts, including the Rosetta Stone. The book (in 24 volumes) written after they returned to France was the first comprehensive view of Egyptian culture, both ancient and contemporary, that had ever appeared in Western Europe.

I enjoyed the book and found it very interesting although, in places, Burleigh seemed to wander around a bit. But, of course, the characters she was following were wandering about as well. She covered, not only their discoveries, but their reactions to an unfamiliar culture and their reactions (from letters and journals) to the military misadventures they witnessed. Jim, however, didn't enjoy it as much as I did since he was hoping for more about the way they carried out their experiments and measurements and their discoveries of the temples, tombs, etc.

For those interested in Napoleon and Egyptian history.

Burleigh's book is a careful, thorough, and insightful examination of the Knox investigation and trials. Her discussion of the history and culture of Italy, and specifically Perugia, is fascinating. She notes that the Italian criminal justice system is different from the U.S. system, but more importantly, her analysis places it in detailed context. She refers to Perugia's long history, its ancient pagan culture, its isolation, its location as an important freemasonry center, and other factors essential in the consideration of just how the crime, the investigation, the media coverage, and the verdict and sentencing happened.

At one point, late in the book, Burleigh says this: "The Perugians didn't know what to make of this unusual, slightly damaged girl with the inappropriate emotional responses, whose overconfident exterior masked a person with a deep aversion to conflict. Needing to solve the high-profile crime, they made a deduction about her and extracted a statement that put her at the scene. Everything in the investigation evolved from that...."

Two things occurred to me as I was reading this book. One is that if I had been in Amanda Knox's place, at age 20, with what I knew and how I acted at that age, I'd have looked pretty damn culpable myself, and I'd have been vulnerable to psychological coercion. It wouldn't have taken much pressure to make me wonder if what I thought was reality was actually completely wrong. And a public discussion of my short, problematic personal history wouldn't have helped at all.

The second thing that occurred to me was the remarkable similarity in process and outcome the Knox trial has with the McMartin Pre-School case and its many related iterations throughout the U.S. This 1980s and 1990s phenomenon of widespread suspicions of systematic, criminal pre-school child abuse, including Satanic ritual and sexual crimes, resulted in a panicky series of charges, arrests, and accusations. A number of people were convicted of heinous crimes, and despite the subsequent debunking, not to mention the alleged victims' recanting when they got older, a few people are still in U.S. prisons because of it. Was it because the American justice system was stupid or archaic? Were all the investigators and prosecutors stone-cold inquisitors? No. But a compelling theory got strong-armed into spurious "fact", and it took years for logical, fair, and fact-based investigation to prevail.

I think Amanda Knox got caught up in a similar civic and judicial storm, one that creates its own logic and is not easily remedied.

I think I am in the minority with my feelings on this book. I did not love this book. I knew next to nothing about Amanda Knox and the horrible crime that she was found guilty of. Normally when you read a true crime book you learn so much more about the crime and the people involved. I did not find that to be the case with this book. I finished it not knowing anymore than I did when I started it.The author did a lot of research and the book is filled with information but for me, it seemed like unnecessary information or redundant information. It told a lot about Italian history and Perugian history but it was too much. I would have liked to have had more detail on the crime and on Meredith and Amanda Knox. I came away feeling lost and confused. I think the author did a good job of trying to show Amanda Knox as innocent and unfairly sentenced. That could be, but I didn't come away from the book feeling one way or the other.If you are a true crime fan and familiar with the case it is worth reading. For one not so familiar with the case I don't know it this is the book to start with. As usual I say, read it yourself and then decide.

Mirage tells the story of the men, scholars (or savants in French), who volunteered to accompany Napoleon on an unknown mission. They weren't paid. They didn't even receive rations as the soldiers and seamen did. They came because of love for France's general and a belief that where ever he was going, it was their duty to expand scientific knowledge. One has to admire them.

They were the best and brightest France had. Mathematicians, chemists, engineers, geologists, zoologists, artists. They ranged in age from their mid-fifties to 15. Many died in Egypt, many were maimed, almost all of them were damaged for life by the experience.
They accomplished miracles in the face of unbelievable hardship, starvation, deprivation and disease. Their own countrymen loathed them. In the end, they were used as bargaining chips in the desperate attempt of the abandoned French army (Napoleon had long since quit Egypt to return to Europe, leaving his army with no way to get home) to negotiate with the British for transport. Did you ever wonder how the Rosetta stone ended up in the BM? The French gave it to them to get home.

What the savants accomplished, and how the accomplished it, in the face of these odds is an extraordinary story. They started a rage for Egyptiana that still continues. From Aida down to The Mummy. Whether that was to Egypt's benefit is still being argued. Zahi Hawass will undoubtedly go to his deathbed clamoring for the return of the vast quantity of lost national treasures. Be that as it may, the book the savants finally produced, "Description de l’Égypte" is a phenomenal work of art.

If you've read Brother of Jesus, this is a good book to follow up with: balance to provide perspective on a hot Judeo Christian topic. Christians are distressingly gullible sometimes, so when we are presented with something that looks convincing we fall headlong into deception. And that is not to say that the James Ossuary is a forgery, though Burleigh, for all her "journalistic objectivity" certainly convinced me that she believes it is. Unholy Business is a call to caution and, through a back door, faith. If our faith can be bolstered by things, it can also be shaken by them. There is nothing wrong with allowing our understanding to be enlightened by objects of associative value, but to give them power over our belief is a major mistake. Burleigh tells how the contraversy over Golan's artifacts became religious battles over religious territory and face saving nightmares.

I love the cautionary quote given by one archaeologist. The science of archeaology has a soft underbelly of subjectivity, and there is no ultimate scientific proof that an object is or is not authentic. In an age where scientific proof and legal proof are already finding their mutual footing, Burleigh brings two other kinds of proof into the mix, investigative, journalistic proof and spiritual truth. It is safe to say that none of the purveyors of these various faces of truth are without prejudice or agenda. Yet, as represented here, their convergence is less satisfying than each has the capacity to be on its own.

I feel safe in saying that there is hope in this kind of interdisciplinary investigation, but only when they are actually pursued in an effort of inquiry rather than defensiveness. Each representative has a tree to plant and is in search of fertilizer. Our goal can be, in the spirit of Stephen Hawkins, to find the unifying theme, the One truth that all can go to for validation. It is only as we shy away from our security blankets that we can reach for security in Him.½

I knew archaeological forgeries were a huge industry and an enormous problem. I think, after reading this book, I understand a little better the scope of things. It's not just people in a back room putting these things together, but well-connected business men who can afford the best workers and the best DEFENSE to cover up what they're doing! Burleigh's book focuses particularly on the James Ossuary and several inscriptions (I think the Jehoash inscription?) that were "found" around the same time, and she even managed to somehow catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a forgery manufacturing studio. Yikes.

The key element under discussion here - whether even the author realized it or not - is the issue of unprovenanced artifacts. Should they be studied and placed on display, or is it too risky? Do these items simply encourage illegal trade, site raiding, and forgeries? Some say yes, some say no. It's a tricky situation. Either way, the book was entertaining and certainly informative. Worth the time if this is an area of interest to you.

While you think an archeologist or a religious historian should have written this book, it wasn't. Burleigh who is a reporter wrote it. And the book reads like a compilation of her notes. The author also seemed too be trying to write two different types of books at the same time. She would have done herself a favor by breaking out the two separate subjects, performed more research and written two.

The books should have been broken into one on the theft and selling of minor antiquities in Israel and the Palestinian areas, which is a thriving business. The street vendors sell them, but you will not know if you are buying a genuine artifact, which is quite possible, or a replica that is almost prefect down to ever detail.

And the second book, the reason most people I am sure will buy it, covers the three recently exposed forgeries of the James Ossuary, the Jehoash Tablet, and an ornamental pomegranate thought to come from that same temple. In each case, the forgery technique was the same. Legitimate but unimportant artifacts from the proper era had inscriptions added that made them historically significant and those inscriptions were then altered to look ancient. These subjects are covered in the last part of the book.

If you are truly interested in the subject of these artifacts, this is not the book for you. But if you are a tourist or plan to be one, and think you will be able to buy an artifact as a souvenir you should read this book; for she has filled this book on tour of ancient artifacts and their black-market fraud. The book at first glance has a good layout and the title does tell you what is covered.

Though I must admit I think she is honest in her writing for she lets us readers know what she has no background what so ever in religion. Yet she has taken it upon her self to assume too understand the complex dynamics that make up a city rich in history, culture and turmoil as Jerusalem.

She is woefully ignorant on the subject she is writing about and contradicts known proven findings archeology with generalized statements. Her writing leads me to the conclusion that she has decided that religion is basically superstition. And all that she is riding is based on the basic fundamental belief.

Another reviewer stated very accurately on Amazon my exact feelings on this book; "My initial annoyance and disappointment with "Unholy Business" was ultimately tempered when I realized that I was not reading a scholarly work on archaeology, history, linguistics or even criminal forensics, but a kind of breezy and highly personalized travelogue." It does not take long to reach this realization and it was a great disappointment to me. For this is a subject and area I am very interested in.

I think the two quotes at the front of her book summarize her feelings on this subject. The first is that we as civilization, civilized people deceive those who are to be deceived in order to make a living. And the other is that there are two kinds of people, "those who want to know and those who want to believe." One good thing, the book is a fast read.½

Unholy Business has a great tale at its heart – the tale of a forgery on an epic scale. The 2002 unveiling of an ossuary (basically a small stone casket) with the inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” caused a sensation in the field of Biblical archaeology – and an even bigger sensation in the religious community that follows the field closely. For them, it was a physical, tangible evidence of the existence of Jesus of Nazareth.
Except it wasn’t. As eventually emerged, the ossuary was a fake – a real ossuary (they’re so common in Jerusalem, they’re commonly used as garden planters, as Burleigh informs us several times), but with a faked inscription to link it to Biblical characters.
The tale, however, probably isn’t enough to sustain an entire book – and the trial of the alleged forger was still ongoing at the book’s close, so there isn’t much by way of resolution.
Burleigh makes up for this by providing a vivid background portrait of the sketchy world of Middle Eastern antiquities – the collectors, dealers, scholars and, yes, forgers, who devote themselves to the largely lost world that emerges in small pieces from the ground. This ground, as everyone knows, is very much contested, most especially in Jerusalem, which is holy ground for three major religions.
This is fascinating stuff; unfortunately it sometimes gets confusing to figure out which or whose trail we are supposed to be following, and why. If the book has a hero it’s Amir Ganor, a detective in charge of the Israel Antiquities Authority Theft-Prevention Unit – but he spends most of the book working on cases other than the James Ossuary, and the discovery of a bunch of forgery tools and altered objects in the suspect’s property feels anticlimactic. If it’s got a villain, I guess it’s that suspect though one never gets a great feel for him, what exactly he did and most importantly, why.
Burleigh’s a good writer with a nice touch; she’s working with very sensitive subject matter and she manages to make her subjects appear as human beings without coming off as patronizing or as a scold. That’s important in an area where so many invest so much faith in the history that is revealed through ancient relics.

Unholy Business deals with some fascinating material, and the author explains clearly the intricacies of the Biblical artifact business. Unfortunately, the organization of the book leaves something to be desired: rather than settling on two or three viewpoints through which to tell her story, the author jumps from person to person, leading not only to some confusion, but to the lack of a compelling narrative. Also, by choosing to write her book while the trial which is its climax is still unfinished, the author has left the book itself feeling unresolved. While Unholy Business is worth reading, the definitive popular book on the matter of the James ossuary and the related forgeries has yet to be written.

Though Unholy Business has the potential to be a riveting read, it falls far short with its disjointed approach to storytelling. The author bounces back and forth through time and introduces a dizzying array of similarly named characters in the process. In the beginning, I found myself flipping back to previous chapters just to track the chain of events and people involved. The complicated story of this massive fraud often seemed to take a back seat to the author's opinion of the reasons behind the fraud which made for a much less compelling narrative.

I was disappointed that this book focused so much on personalities rather than on the facts of the case. I also thought the ending was abrupt and unsatisfying. A more scholarly approach to this interesting case would have made for a much more satisfying read.½

Interesting story of the Smithsonian's beginnings. I found the author's timing tedius, but obviously this book was well researched.

A very interesting portrayal of a man most of us don't know about and wouldn't have ever known about this man if it hadn't been for John Quincy Adams, Alexander Graham Bell, and some members of Congress. It's a good thing Congress persevered because this man led a very interesting life. America has every right to know about this man.