There is one great question that courses through this amazing book and that is, “Is there such a thing as Russian Culture?”.  In just under 700 pages, Figes, one of my favorite historians, traces Russia from its roots through the collapse of the Soviet Union, reviewing art, music, literature and culture in general.  To say the least, Russians (let’s exclude the peasant class for now) have been torn between their experience with Asia (Mongols, etc.) and their disillusionment with the West.  They have moved first one way then the other, all the time denying the worse of their history while attempting to create a new world for themselves.

Mary Beard first went to Rome over 40 years ago and immediately fell in love with its history and culture.  Over the decades, she has written nearly a dozen books on various aspects of Rome and in this nearly six hundred page volume covers from the founding of Rome (with its legends and myths), through the first 1000 years of its existence, ending with the rule of Caracalla, son of the “last good Emperor” Septimius Severus.  Caracalla did not, unfortunately follow in his father’s footsteps and has been described as “the enemy of all mankind”.  One must wonder about that title as he is noted for granting citizenship to all free inhabitants of the Roman Empire, some thirty million of them, but then as all citizens were required to pay taxes, one must wonder if his grant was all that valuable.

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.

There are numerous books written mostly by officers of Napoleon’s campaign in Russia, but this one, told by an NCO of the Imperial Guard, is, in my opinion, one of the very best.  Sergeant Bourgogne had campaigned with Napoleon for several years and he describes the retreat from Moscow in terms which are not sensational but rather in terms which brings the reader into the very action of which he writes.  You can feel his hunger and his cold, the pain he feels for comrades left behind and the joy as others long thought of as dead, are found.

Neill Ferguson, one of todays top historians and social observers pulled together several noted historians (John Adamson, J.C.D. Clark, etc.) to create alternative views of history.  Unlike most counterfactuals, each section requires the reader to have a better than average understanding of the period being discussed.  The first time I read this book I knew that I would have to read it three of four times to really grasp some of its arguments. 

At over seven hundred pages, I approached this book with a certain degree of trepidation; am I really that interested in Hamilton and what about his life could hold my interest.  Within a few pages, Chernow snagged me by bringing a man I knew little of into my life and presenting an exciting brilliant personality that fundamentally changed the course of history.

Following decades of Civil War which costs Rome hundreds of thousands of dead, the rise of a 19-year old adopted son of Julius Caesar seemed improbable.  Aligned against him were the murders of Caesar and strongman Mark Anthony, all veterans of the wars, savvy politicians and holders of immense wealth and prestige.  How could a sickly, inexperienced youth hope to compete let alone survive against the forces aligned against him?  The strongest hand he had to play was that Julius Caesar had chosen that boy to inherit his mantle, his wealth, his name.

Meister Frantz Schmidt of Nuremberg was for 45 years a professional executioner and personally put to death 394 individuals and tortured, flogged or disfigured many hundreds more.  But Schmidt was not a cold-hearted sadist but a man whose father was forced to be an executioner (an individual who was so low on the social scale that he could not go to mass and his children could not be educated at any of the schools).

I had great expectations for this book as the role of women in ancient Rome is sadly underrepresented or understood.  Unfortunately, this book did not quite come up to snuff; it was aimed more at the academic in that if you do not have a basic command of Latin, or a good Latin to English dictionary handy, or, if you do not have a basic understanding of Roman history and society, the book will fall short of your expectations.  In fact, it seems to me that the author was trying to burnish his academic credentials by writing this book.

History has hundreds of examples of Kings, Princes, politicians, etc. who have trusted advisors, brothers, sons, etc. who turned against them and created civil wars, havoc, mass murder, etc.  In my reading of history, I cannot think of an example of a loyal and dutiful helper to a ruler who matches Marcus Agrippa.  A friend of a youthful Octavian (before his formal adoption by J. Caesar), Agrippa remained loyal to Augustus all of his life, providing excellent advice and strong administrative skills, being a successful General and Admiral (a rarity among Romans), as well as personally honest and generous.  His building program not only in Rome but across the Empire provided the average man with free baths, libraries and theaters.