When Manchester was diagnosed with the illness that would eventually kill him, he took time off from his work on the third volume of Winston Churchill’s life (the volume was eventually completed by another author after Manchester died but it met with lukewarm reviews). Manchester admits that he started this book based on a fellow authors request for Manchester to write the preface to a history on Magellan, but he found the subject so engrossing that he expanded the preface into this work. He also admits that he started the book with poor knowledge of the subject which led him to write in an entirely different manner, almost as if he were a graduate student working on his thesis. He was especially careful of sources and consulted noted historians who specialized in the time period for their input and feedback.
The result is an excellent little book which covers several subjects and ties them together reminiscent of Victor Hansen’s book on the ripple of history. We might call it the law of unintended consequences, but the result is the same; actions are taken without complete thought, care or knowledge of what consequences may come from the original action.
An excellent example is Martin Luther; we all know of his nailing the 95 theses to the door of the cathedral, but his act was an attempt not to destroy the church but rather to reform it ( he was very devout and had translated both the Old and New Testaments into New High German (Manchester says he virtually created it himself), composed 41 hymns (both words and music) among which is “A Mighty Fortress is Our God. Yet as time rolled on, the revolution that Luther created all but devoured him when he was later viewed as not being radical enough and he was chased from area to area.
I read this book originally in 1992 and as I re-read it, I wondered why I had not picked it up again. It is a wonderful little (about 300 pages) book, written in the best Manchester style, full of bits and pieces of history which will make you laugh and realize that the human condition has changed very little through the ages; the same egos, idiots, wise men, cares and fears plague us and give us joy. Give it a try!
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