Christy Campbell (1)Recensioni

This book concerned the life of Duleep Singh, the last Maharajah of the Sikh Empire. It all started out so fascinating. A secret bank box in Switzerland, the princess who kept it, the Koh-I-Noor diamond, and the race to get back a lost Sikh throne. No question, the first few chapters held my interest and had me wanting more. However, the more I read, the more bored I became. Lots of back and forth, lots of things that had nothing to do with the bank box in question, lots of complaining by Duleep Singh. Without a doubt, he was ill-treated by the British government. Tricked into signing away his kingdom and giving up his most prized possession, he had every right to be angry. I just got tired of reading about it for 300-plus pages. Oh, and the ending was a complete let down.

This book could've been so much more. Of worthy note are the parts that deal with Singh and his family life.

Honestly: I Was Bored

I love wine, and I have a geeky love of science, so this book seemed perfect for me. When I found myself gritting my teeth at the thought of finishing it (about 3/4 through) – I just skipped to the last chapter to be done with it.

This tale of vineyard woe follows the worldwide incursion of the maddeningly mysterious Phylloxera vavtatrix mite (try saying that five times fast). Campbell’s blow-by-blow account of the ecological disaster is very well-written and is cleverly divided into sections named after the stages of death (On Death and Dying). The different methods employed to banish the mites read like a dossier for Homer Simpson, however, it is about as interesting as a book about insects can be to a layperson (not very much).

I think this subject matter is very interesting, but I would have been satisfied with a Mental Floss article.

This book is the sort of book that makes me glad I'm a reader. Campbell takes you into a fascinating period of British history, the time of the Raj, when Queen Victoria was the Empress of India. Britain doesn't come out looking to good in this account, which is appropriate. Taking advantage of political upheaval in the Punjab, the queen's government manipulates the kingdom away from its eleven-year-old king, Maharajah Duleep Singh, including the Koh-i-noor diamond. But that's okay because the young king grows up to become a real thorn in Britain's flesh. As an adult, he is a sad figure, trying to get a public hearing on the wrong's done him as a child-king and allowing himself to become a pawn in the complex play for power that was Europe in the late 19th century. Who knew? I certainly didn't! In history, compelling stories abound, and this is one of them.

The subtitle - "The first men in tanks" is a fair representation of the content of the book. It covers the men who conceived the need for tanks, who campaigned for their creation, and who designed, manufactured, commanded and fought the tanks, and all of the infighting and backbiting that went on. But don't expect a lot of information about the technology and tactics of WW1 tanks - that definitely takes second place.

A little disappointing. I had no idea of the extent of the Irish nationalist terrorist activities in the 19th century, nor the massive support given to terrorists in the US (for example some convicted terrorists - bombers who had killed with their explosions - were released by the British government on condition that they would never enter the UK again, and went to the USA, where the President gave them a reception). The British government set up a relatively effective counter-terrorist organisation, but then proceeded to muddy the waters by setting up too many such departments, each of which seem to have been headed by self-righteous maniacs, convinced that the other departments were headed by fools (what's changed?).

The ins and outs of all of this bureaucratic infighting, and the extensive use of agents provocateurs, form the basis for this book. Immaculately researched, there is no doubt. There is use made of documents that have not seen the light of day before (and there are still some locked away - it wasn't known as the Secret Service for nothing). But the presentation, though the style verges on the chatty at times, still remains turgid to my mind. The subject matter is complex, and can’t be skated over, but at the same time, I am not quite sure why this didn't appeal. I've read books on equally complex subjects that have held my interest.

This is a fun book. It doesn't really address anything important, but it's an examination of one of the odd sidelights of history.

To begin with, the Maharajah of the title is Duleep Singh. I first met him as the young ruler of the Punjab in George Macdonald Frasier's book, "Flashman and the Mountain of Light." (Incidentally, Frasier's books are proof that truth is always stranger than fiction. Every time I have gone digging into the background for his novels, I have found that the really amazing, unbelievable stuff was true, and that sometimes, in fact, he made it less bizarre than it was, just for narrative versimilitude.) So, anyway, Duleep Singh.

This book basically looks at what happened to him after the British invaded his country and took him and the Koh i Noor to England. He was fine, if a bit wild, until middle age, when in a mid-life crisis to serve as a model to others, he ran off to Russia disguised as an Irish terrorist (a man who used the then-new invention of dynamite to blow up English targets) and tried to re-establish his old kingdom, accompanied by a pair of Spaniels and a Cockney dancing girl. Really.

We weekend in Sonoma so it's fun to know how modern wine making got started in the US.

Dette er en bok om idealistene som trodde på stridsvognen i kamp og hvordan de ble motarbeidet ev the establishment i lengre perioder. Det er også et kapittel om utviklingen fram til 2. verdenskrig. Boken er litt lang og inneholder lit for mange personlige beretninger fra dem som var med under 1. verdenskrig.

Written by a former journalist, this book is neither a classic military history nor a typical oral history. The author traces the conception, development, doctrine and usage of "tanks" during the First World War. Technical challenges, political in-fighting and doctrinal viewpoints are key, as all stakeholders (from Churchill to Haig, and including the young and frustrated Liddell-Hart and Fuller) vy for their vision to be realised. The book is dominated by British accounts, but does touch on the German, French and American experiences.
These accounts comprise first-hand reports from those in the tanks, through to commanders (infantry and tank) deploying them and all the way back to political masters and interested theorists in England. Official histories and post-war documentation are dipped into frequently to try to get the best picture of what happend and why.
The war of words over the proper usage of tanks continued all the way to the Second World War, with the British keeping to their preferred role of 'infantry tanks'. The author avoids controversy (but does explore the issues) in debating Haig's legacy and the originator of Blitzkrieg.
Some things really surprised me though - the very early stages that some kind of armoured trench-spanning vehicle was sought (by Churchill, who else!?) - the sheer vulnerability and unsuitability to extended operations the early tanks were.
One shortcoming (though this may just be me) is the style of end-notes. Endnotes are primarily a publishing decision (I prefer footnotes, but I don't really mind). However the lack of an superscript numbering to show where endnotes exist damages the usefullness.
That said, a worthy and interesting history, and not just one for those interested in the First World War.½