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.

I picked this 1937 edition up while in New Orleans (where they still have real book stores loaded with second hand treasures).  Cellini, soldier, adventurer, sculptor, and murderer, who lived from 1500-1571, wrote an autobiography which reflects the time in which he lived; corrupt Popes, nobles who loved art but who refused to pay for the work, grudges and slights which lead to public duels and back street murders and more. 

This book is built around the fortunes of one family with two branches; the Brunis and Brutis.  It traces their beginnings, rise, fall and fortunes over the course of the 16^th century. I was looking forward to reading this book after a good series of reviews, but, unfortunately, I found the book to be ponderous reading, full of minute information (someone’s mother’s maiden name, or the name of a village, once in Italian, then Albanian and also Turkish) that clogged up the flow of the narrative. It is also a difficult book for anyone who does not have a good overview of the locations and history as some events (which I consider to be key) are reviewed in a very short manner (such as the battle of Lepanto).