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Sto caricando le informazioni... History's People: Personalities and the Past (CBC Massey Lectures)di Margaret MacMillan
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. This book is a printing of a series of essays. The author crafted words to be spoken to a live audience; not to be read by readers. And it shows; for example, there is no pulling together of any themes or conclusions. However, in Margaret MacMillan, we have an author who can really zoom in on people, and she is a great story teller. From reading this book, I realize how much individual people affect history. Perhaps more so than they influence other fields. For example, if one particular scientist hadn't discovered something, chances are greater that another one would have relatively soon, at least in comparison to how history would have unfolded without some of the strong characters described in this book. While I may quibble with some of the author's choices – Lady Simcoe pales in comparison to the other two women portrayed in the “Curiosity” chapter – I really enjoyed this book. A Series of Massey lectures aired on Canada's Public Broadcaster, about prominent historical figures of world history. There are not footnoted but are impressions created by the historian of the Versailles treaty and the build up to the First World War. A pleasant experience for the general reader with some pertinent remarks as to why history is pursued as a study. The sources and further reading appendix is a helpful guide. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Appartiene alle Collane EditorialiCBC Massey Lectures (2015)
In History's People internationally acclaimed historian Margaret MacMillan gives her own personal selection of figures of the past, women and men, some famous and some little-known, who stand out for her. Some have changed the course of history and even directed the currents of their times. Others are memorable for being risk-takers, adventurers, or observers. She looks at the concept of leadership through Bismarck and the unification of Germany; William Lyon MacKenzie King and the preservation of the Canadian Federation; Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the bringing of a unified United States into the Second World War. She also notes how leaders can make huge and often destructive mistakes, as in the cases of Hitler, Stalin, and Thatcher. Richard Nixon and Samuel de Champlain are examples of daring risk-takers who stubbornly went their own ways, often in defiance of their own societies. Then there are the dreamers, explorers, and adventurers, individuals like Fanny Parkes and Elizabeth Simcoe who manage to defy or ignore the constraints of their own societies. Finally, there are the observers, such as Babur, the first Mughal emperor of India, and Victor Klemperer, a Holocaust survivor, who kept the notes and diaries that bring the past to life. History's People is about the important and complex relationship between biography and history, individuals and their times. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Because of the Canadian audience, there is an overemphasis on Canadian history (which, at least in the examples chosen, is just not that interesting), when the author's points would be better served by history that has been more influential in world affairs, such as British, American or European. Because of the lecture format, the tone is breezy and we never get more than an overview of what MacMillan wants to discuss. That can be fine on the lectern, but in a book, I yearned for depth.
A certain formula establishes itself, and not a very promising one: starting from a nebulous theme ('daring', 'curiosity', etc.) MacMillan delivers a series of seemingly arbitrary examples that she believes matches these themes (admitting, at more than one point, that she chose ones she just personally felt were 'interesting'). The examples are not examined critically; there is only a series of cut-and-paste info-dumps followed by brief and workmanlike summaries (usually one or two concluding paragraphs along the lines of 'these all demonstrate curiosity because…'). Anyone who knows anything about history knows this sort of structure wouldn't even pass muster as an undergrad essay.
Even as primer lectures these chapters would be inadequate, as they do not seem to approach their topics with any clear argument or rigour. By the end of this rambling book, the only conclusion reached is that 'history is complicated' (pg. 237). It is – and it becomes even more complicated when academics deliver cookie-cutter content that only sucks the inspiration out of the subject. MacMillan's book doesn't shit the bed, but it is very ordinary and I can't think of any reason to recommend it. ( )