Anna Noehre

Intimate insights into Leonardo, a man of his era

Reviewed: 10-02-24

Narrator Alfred Molina was pleasantly engaging. I liked Molina's modern Italian pronunciations of Renaissance names and places, and his delivery overall. Walter Isaacson's style is heavily journalistic, mixing documented facts and informed observations in a quick-paced, palatable flow of data-oriented storytelling. The scene moves often but the narrative rhythm rarely changes. It reads like top caliber magazine writing - which it is. If you liked Isaacson's other celebrated biographies, you'll like this one too. He really investigates the man.

Isaacson covers Leonardo's entire lifespan like a tour guide, delving into personal relationships in context of the high-stakes financial politics of Florence, Milan, and Rome. We learn about the artisan workshop system, Leonardo's influential father, and his amazing - still intact - 7000-plus page notebooks. And naturally about the famous painting for which he is idolized ... but also about many more never-finished works that he perfectionisticly refused to deliver to his patrons. I especially enjoyed Isaacson's deft comparison of near-peers Da Vinci and Michelangelo, who each developed their genius-level art within the same Medici culture, but with acutely different personalities.

Highly recommended for those with an interest in the psychology of polymaths, in Renaissance Italy, and in the role of fine-artists in western society.

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Old Norse, revenge, Sagas, raid-trade, swift boats

Reviewed: 08-17-24

Perfect sequel to Prof. Drout's Anglo-Saxon lectures. Same superb quality, bursts of brilliantly spoken Old Norse, and clear multi-faceted explanations of cultural change. Focus on the sea-faring Norsemen, their Viking raider-trader routes, their social behaviors, and their contribution to English language.

Drout paints a vivid picture of Norse paganism which then dramaticly shifts into Scandinavian Christianity. Due to a maniacal king Harald, most minor chieftains were driven from Norway. Many settled and farmed in places like Shetland, Orkney, Iceland, Greenland, Normandy. Swedish Norse settled in Kiev.

When the Norse put down roots on new coastlands -- their old lands having been inundated by the early Medieval climate warming - they toted along the familiar Scandinavian pagan gods. They continued and enriched an astoundingly sophisticated epic-poetic oratorical tradition -- but developed no writing system beyond rudimentary runes. While at home they built legal traditions, homesteads, and the bardic histories of the Sagas. Yet, most Norse kept raiding-and-trading as a sort of side-hustle.

They also dragged along the baggage of a dysfunctional code of revenge-killing, which threatened to destroy all that they had built. Accepting Christianity about 1000-CE [varies] had the beneficial effect of ending the honor-killings, mass-slaughter river raids, and the slave-markets. A mini-ice-age forced abandonment of longstanding settlements in Greenland [1000-1400]. Already prone to invade, become local elites, and absorb the local language-culture [Normandy, Kiev] the Christianized Norse lost their brutal old Viking ways. Yet they left a powerful stamp on English language, Icelandic nationality, and European genetics.

Prof. Drout overiews the rise and fall of Norse culture in neatly compact, yet scholarly style. It's an invigorating listen! High-value insights for those interested in history of religions, old Scandinavia, European tribal law, English language, post-Roman Britain, old Ireland, medieval economics.

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Lively, rich insights, amazing Old English speech

Reviewed: 08-17-24

Prof. Michael D. C. Drout is not only an enthusiastic and accomplished scholar. He is also a fantastic narrator of his own work. Drout is blessed with a theatrical voicing genius that is never excessive and wonderfully engaging. His style is welcoming and street-friendly. The explanations are pitched to undergraduate learners -- but valuable even for seasoned academics. Whenever there is debate on how to interpret a text, or an archeological find, Drout acknowledges other informed viewpoints. And his passion for Anglo-Saxon studies is exhilarating.

The best part of any Drout lecture on Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, or any of the old-to-middle Germanic languages is his AMAZING delivery of the old tongues. His spoken R's are vivid and transporting. The diction is precise and lilting yet crystal clear. When he starts declaiming Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, or the bible of Alfred the Great -- it's riveting to hear. He obviously loves Anglo-Saxon history, culture, and language.

These lectures divide the post-Roman-pre-Norman period into sections = 500-600, 600-700, 700-800, 800-900, and up to that fateful day in 1066. The story begins with the first migrations of Angles, Jutes, and Saxons, then the Danes, until the Norman Invasion - which Drout nicely unpacks as one among many Viking strikes. This framework imposes a tidy order in a highly un-orderly slice of history. So much change in language, religion, society, and government! Yet Prof. Drout lays it out in a sensible way, punctuated with brilliant poetic oratory, As he cheerfully whisks away the mists of memory, it all starts making sense.

I listened three times because I wanted to capture all the juicy details. Highly recommended for those interested in History of English, post-Roman Britain, study of Religion, Scandinavian culture.

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Brilliant slice of history, delicious listen

Reviewed: 08-10-24

First of all, the narrator Nigel Patterson delivered a superb performance of this text. As would be expected from his long list of elegant narrations, NP glided through the Spanish, Middle-French, Middle-Dutch, Middle-German, and Flemish words with effortless accuracy. It is a joy to listen to him read scholarly works.

And scholarly it is - although very engaging and easy to follow, due to Bart van Loo's fabulous storytelling skills. Showing his marvelously practiced proficiency in this fascinating time period, Van Loo carries the listener from the misty origins of a group of barbarian tribes from Scandinavian Burgundarholmr, migrating into the Rhine Valley, crossing the Roman Frontier into Gaul, and becoming a major political power via the Duchy of Burgundy [CE 843-1477].

Van Loo manages this huge scope very cleverly, by tracing the life-stories of several prominent aristocratic personalities. We meet Philip the Good, John the Fearless, and Philip the Bold, among other high-borns. We follow these flamboyant, arrogant, pious, and often cruel leaders through their entitled warrior-king crusades, their flashy banquets [Burgundians love to entertain] their marriages, children, and their miseries mental-and-physical. Surrounding that divine-right elite, we meet the Flemish merchants who bankrolled them, the over-taxed peasants who fed them, and the kings of England who fought to destroy them.

This book contains an awesome amount of detail. Van Loo supplies 21 hours and eleven centuries of language and literacy, religious beliefs, fine-arts genius, political rights, and the stunning growth of New World global shipping. It's a lot - but it's deftly organized and excellently written. I came away with a greatly enriched understanding of the evolution of modern Belgium and Netherlands, and deeper insight into medieval-through-reformation France. Very highly recommended!

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illuminating tour of the Barbarian peoples

Reviewed: 07-25-24

Prof. Harl never disappoints! This splendid multidisciplinary lecture series weaves together research data from linguistics, archeology, military science, numismatics, economics, social demographics, and the writings of ancient observers. With impeccable clarity and humor, Harl introduces the listeners to a wide world of migrating tribes who challenged and eventually broke the millennia-old Roman Empire.

Emerging from the Northern and Eastern borders of the Empire, they were fierce and fearless. Their impact was devastating. First, the tribes were recruited into the manpower-hungry Roman Frontier Armies. Then they crossed the frontiers and moved boldly into the interior. Then they warred and conquered, settled and redefined a crumbling Europe - initiating the Dark Ages, state Christianity, and population-decimating waves of plague.

Professor Harl shares the results of both ancient and modern inquiry into the identity of these diverse immigrants. The lectures provide fascinating descriptions of Celtic civilizations, Ostrogoths and Visigoths, Vandals, Alans, Suebi, Lombards, Franks, Huns, and many more -- including the emerging Arab conquerors. If you've read Gibbon's monumental Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - written 250 years ago - you'll appreciate how much fabulous new research has been done on the no-longer mysterious Barbarians. Luckily, Professor Harl is here to brilliantly organize, interpret, and explain it!

Accessible vocabulary. Tangible enthusiasm. Consistent chronology. For readers interested in late antiquity Europe-Levant-NorthAfrica-Persia, so-called Dark Ages, early Middle Ages, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire. Unreservedly recommended!

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Richly detailed fast paced Viking cultural history

Reviewed: 07-25-24

As a huge fan of Professor's Harl's style of multidisciplinary histories, I'd say that The Vikings is one of his best. Prof. Harl often mentions his use of scholarly evidence -- what he thinks is reliable, and what may be only conjecture. As he admits, the record of Viking history is sparse. But when combined with corroborating literary sources, such as skaldic poetry and the Icelandic Saga genealogies, along with widespread archeological evidence, the picture gets bigger and clearer.

Religion, economics, agriculture, disease, ship-building technology, climate change, and social evolution are skillfully interwoven in the lecture narrative. Harl notes some rare powers of old nordic women, along with the highly profitable evils of their aggressive slave-trading. He explains how new plowing techniques plus social Christianization [c. 1000-1200-CE] would put an end to the Viking terror. Yet,, for many years, public-facing Christian worship existed alongside private home rituals for Odin-Thor-Freya. Indeed the cult of Valhalla "The Hall" is still known.

In their heyday, Vikings did some terrible damage. Listeners follow their cruel, murderous exploits in rivers and seas. We follow their longboats across the Atlantic to Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland. We learn of their rivermouth-controlling settlements in England, Ireland, and Normandy - including much monastery pillage, intermarriage, and rape.

After an indepth look into the settlement Iceland by land-seeking Vikings [and their livestock and slaves] -- from the late 800's following the Saga records -- we track old kings and customs in Denmark-Norway-Sweden, and Vikings with Slavs in Kiev-Rus. The course ends in the Late Middle Ages-ish. The Vikings have seemingly morphed into pious Scandinavians. The religious wars of the Reformation are coming, the Goths are gone, and Germans now control the Baltic shipping trade...

Thanks Professor Harl! What a learning adventure! Absolutely recommended.

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richly detailed dialog brings 1415 history alive

Reviewed: 03-17-24

Delightfully engaging fast-moving plot, lots of dialog acting, and crisp narration. I got an easy-to-digest but socially intelligent education on the era-and-territory of the Hundred Years War. The story does include the famous 1415 battle at Azincourt, but there is substantial background leading to it.

The scene description is full of pungent detail, yet the action moves quickly through the device of pithy, richly worded conversations. G.A. Henty clearly knows the micro-cultures of early 15th-century Paris and Winchester. He cleverly animates characters who explain and exemplify the dysfunctional culture of aristocratic wars, the entitled chevaliers, the wretched poor, the violent anarchists, the butchers guild of Paris, the dehumanized rabble, and the arrogant gentry.

Some are elder and wizened, some are young and frisky, some are mid-life and ambitious. The lynchpin of the whole intrigue, the knowledgeable astrologer, is a master of human nature and knows everyone high and low.

At Agincourt: A Tale of the White Hoods of Paris is comparable in its history-learning effectiveness to Bernard Cornwell's tales of medieval England. I'll be looking for more by G. A. Henty. Recommended!

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Six vivid centuries of evolving religion - great!

Reviewed: 02-19-24

Superb presentation of the Roman Empire's seismic shift from many varieties of heritage paganism to a single-dogma Christian State. Kenneth Harl commands a prodigious scope of understanding and a passionate, detailed storytelling style. I was riveted for hours, and relistened twice!

Extra-appreciated: when citing a city or region of the Greek, Roman, Parthian-Sassanian, or Gupta Empire, Harl gives also the present-day name. Documentation: mentions the nature of the historical resource - primary or secondary writings, artistic symbolism, reading a building or a statue as a text. He makes it personal: vignettes of St. Paul, Plotinus and Origen, Constantine and Justinian - Prof. Harl make this Big Story come alive!

Every chapter was fascinating and fast-paced. Like a brilliant tourguide, Kenneth Harl walks the listener through six centuries and dozens of far-flung regions. Each of the 23 chapters has a unique disciplinary viewpoint, such as economic systems [including a third of population ever-enslaved], interaction of ethnic groups from Syria to Britain, literary-philosophical education, and social-class elites. Most importantly, Harl defines the unique status and roles of the Jews, whose ethno-religion forms the basis of the new Christian way.

The primary focus of study is always to track the widespread, diverse pagan practices and see how they got pressure-hosed into one mandatory state cult. But to explain this successfully - like any scholar of religion - Harl must use both the wide lens of sociology and the narrow lens of individual psychology. He describes the curtailment of pagan city festivals wrought by barbarian terror, as well as the crazed minds of leaders like Nero or Diocletian. Then he weaves these many strands together in a brilliantly coherent interpretation of How It Happened.

For those who delight in the academic history of religions, and who can tolerate a few lacunae due to as-yet-undiscovered evidence, Harl's remarkable teaching on Paganism's segue into state Christianity is fully recommended.

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Bien parlé et fascinant!

Reviewed: 12-22-23

An established expert on French culture, author Graham Robb decides to do something new. He wants to render a view of French history that combines a richly place-based peasant worldview with outsider historical observations, from Julius Caesar to Charles de Gaulle.

The bicycle goes slowly, sensitive to changes in terrain, staying close to the earth. Lingering in dozens of regional "pays" [from Latin paga, meaning tribe] Robb evokes the ancient cycles of village life. Unlike the scholar's mentalized urban-world, identity here is tribal, xenophobic, and rooted in an earthy bond between humans and animals.

The result of Robb's wide-lens, compare-and-contrast exploration is a lively, insightful taste of the old sub-stratum. I listened several times because it was so engaging. And Robb's mixed-level method succeeds intellectually as well. By weaving in charming anecdotes, private journals, and government statistics, he paints a surprisingly clear picture of how the gens-du-pays - with much mistrust -- eventually became French. Or did they?

Elegantly narrated by Derek Perkins. Highly recommended.

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great narration - even Gibbons pedantry is sweet

Reviewed: 10-22-23

David Timson is the best narrator so far of all the audio editions. Crisp, clear, agile, precise. No dropped syllables at the end of the sentence, and no overly posh inserted rhotics. Timson's excellent delivery is the crucial element that makes this very very long story a fairly easy listen.

Although sometimes ponderous and tedious [especially in recounting the endless military battles] Gibbon's legendary six volumes are essential reading. They have been best-sellers for 250 years. When the first volume was published in 1776, the Decline and Fall was quite expensive [26 guineas!] yet it was quickly sold-out of numerous London printings. Despite some bitter attacks by his critics, each subsequent volume became a must-have for educated households.

Gibbon originally intended to write the history in one volume and in French. He was persuaded by David Hume to use English, in order to reach a wider audience. He did, and Hume was right. However, Gibbon was a colleague of the Philosophes. and his erudite literary style is overburdened by French conceptual philosophical vocabulary. He uses very little household English phrasing. Rather he prefers long chains of Latinate, multi-syllabic academic words - which sound rather pedantic to modern ears. Fortunately, Timson's brisk narration does help to move the story along,

Still, the knowledge gained is of lasting value. For long-view thinkers, it is entirely worth the effort to hear the whole detailed history, covering more than 1000 years. Gibbon's human character analysis of emperors, generals, bishops, and popes is wise -- and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. Along with the public events and legal regimes, the reader will obtain a much enriched understanding of the great repeating cycles of human mass behavior.

Immersion in all six volumes remains the best way to gain the fullest perspective on the administrative structures [both sacred and secular] that kept civilization alive during the Dark and Medieval periods. It is a gigantic spectrum and nobody handles this huge scale better than master Gibbon. In the ensuing 250 years, some of his historical sources have been found to be fraudulent -- but only a few. His overall assessments are still considered to frame the standard integrated viewpoint. Well recommended if you have the time!

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2 people found this helpful