“The Story of Civilization. Volume 6: The Reformation”, by Will Durant

 

1025 pages, Simon & Schuster, ISBN-13: 978-0671610500

The Story of Civilization is an 11-volume set of books by the American writer, historian and philosopher Will Durant that focuses on a philosophical understanding of Western history that was intended for the general reader. Written over a period of more than fifty years, Volume 6: The Reformation was originally published in 1957, and covers the history of Europe outside of Italy from around 1300 to 1564, focusing especially on the Protestant Reformation – speaking of which, to illustrate just how comprehensive this volume is, the man who can be said to have launched said Reformation, Martin Luther, doesn’t even make an appearance until several hundred pages in; meanwhile, the world in which he lived and which he changed so emphatically has already been described and introduced.

While I know that Luther is more than just the arch-heretic who nailed his Ninety-five Theses, or Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the doors of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Durant provides a better understanding of the man to those for whom he is nothing more than that. And that is what Durant does, again and again and again; he describes not only what happened but why: why the Church waged war and fattened its treasury to maintain that precarious grip on power; why Germany led the way in the Reformation because of all of the money going from Germany to Rome; why Luther went after Rome so hard and got caught up in trading one infallibility for another; even to why Henry VIII was so desperate to produce a male heir. After reading The Reformation I found that, though I didn’t always like what was being done, I found that I understood better why it was done in the first place. As to what this secular philosopher thought of all of this religious wrangling, I can’t recall a more nuanced and sympathetic defense of the Christian Church as this one:

Through a formative millennium, from Constantine to Dante, the Christian Church offered the gifts of religion to men and states. It molded the figure of Jesus into a divine embodiment of virtues by which rough barbarians might be shamed into civilization. It formulated a creed that made every man’s life a part, however modest, of a sublime cosmic drama; it bound each individual in a momentous relation with a God Who had created him, Who had spoken to him in sacred Scripture, Who had descended from heaven to suffer ignominy and death in atonement for the sins of humanity, and Who had founded the church as the repository of His teaching and the earthly agents of His power. Year by year the magnificent drama grew; saints and martyrs died for the creed, and bequeathed their example and their merits to the faithful. A hundred forms – a hundred thousand works – of art interpreted the drama and made it vivid even for letterless minds.

Mind you, this was written by the same man who said that “I am a theological skeptic, believing in neither the warlike God of the Hebrews, nor the punishing and rewarding God of the Christians. I see many evidences of order in the universe, but also many conditions that seem to be disorderly, as in the reckless whimsies of meteors, or the arrogant deviations of planetary orbits from the paths that our geometry would have required”. Would that all secularists were so thoughtful and understanding of Faith; so…tolerant.

The Reformation, I believe, will be a revelation to readers unacquainted with factual descriptions of life during those hard years. To hold views contrary to those in power was dangerous – deadly, even – while simply living past middle age was unheard of for many people, high and low. The discovery of America occurred during this time, and the clash of cultures that resulted from the same is something we are still living with in the present. Durant’s take on the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and the Incas was ahead of its time (as was his dismissing of both culture’s blood-thirstiness), while his insights into how all of these peoples affected one another is a gem of scholarship. It is because of these many such insights that explain why Durant continues to hold readers’ attention throughout his (lengthy) books.

If you are interested in overall history, or merely interested in this particular era, then you cannot go wrong with The Reformation. Covering the period of time which changed Europe and the world from what was to closer to what we know now, Durant’s engaging style brings home fact after fact in a very readable format and text; his work is almost novelesque in its approach, and as I read one volume of The Story of Civilization after another it became obvious to me why this inclusive work of history has remained so popular for so long. There are many smaller works covering the Reformation, some very good ones also, but this one covers in in more depth than any I am familiar with and is much more readable than most. Like the rest of his work, this volume is well researched and like the rest of this particular series, can be read alone.

“The Dragon and the Unicorn”/“The Eagle and the Sword”/“The Wolf and the Crown”/“The Serpent and the Grail”, by A.A. Attanasio

 

400–539 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0061057793 (1), ISBN-13: 978-0061058394 (2), ISBN-13: 978-0061057762 (3), ISBN-13: 978-0061059735 (4)

The number of contemporary interpretations of the Arthurian myth must, by now, be legion, although most of them must also be categorized as caca. Not these books, however, for Alfred Angelo “A.A.” Attanasio managed over the course of four books to write a seriously awesome yarn that sews several differing threads together to create an all-encompassing tapestry of a tale. The Dragon and the Unicorn, The Eagle and the Sword, The Wolf and the Crown and The Serpent and the Grail retell the tale of King Arthur, Merlin, the Knights of the Round Table and All That, while adding in a serious discussion of Christianity’s displacement of paganism, the Celtic and Nordic myths of old, “gods” and mortals and how they interact with one another, the deprivations by man against the world (and the world’s response), and how everything occurring in the British Isles of the 5^th Century AD could very well lead to nuclear war in our own time. Yeah, there’s a lot going on, but fear not, Dear Reader, for Attanasio proves to be a masterful storyteller who manages to keep it all together and, no foolin’, even make sense.

Take the prose, for instance, something that is sadly lacking in much fantasy literature, past and present. The planet Earth is represented as a dragon – The Dragon, to be exact, a mythical interpretation new to the Arthurian mythos as far as I can tell – and its many dreams subconsciously resonate across the world and even through the galaxy, as the Dragon seems to be in communication with other Dragons – that is, other planets – as well. These dreams have consequences, though, as they move and influence all of the tiny creatures that live, thrive and survive upon it – y’know, US. I mean, really, what a unique and novel interpretation of just what the Dragon is and why it is so powerful and influential. The pagan gods, meanwhile, are in fact electromagnetic lifeforms that live within the Earth’s geomagnetic field, that thing that extends from out from the Earth’s interior out into space where it then interacts with the solar wind from the Sun – another novel reinterpretation of Yggdrasil, the immense mythical worldtree that plays a central role in Norse cosmology.

But wait! There’s more. Attanasio hasn’t forgotten the characters of the original Arthurian mythos, and all of the old, familiar gang is to be found. Uther Pendragon, later known as King Uther, the semi-legendary king of sub-Roman Britain and, with Ygraine, the father of King Arthur. There’s Ygraine, the wife, first, of Gorlois, with whom she gives birth to Elaine, Morgause and Morgan (le Fay), before becoming the wife of Uther Pendragon and the mother, as well, of Arthur. Merlin, the prophet and madman who wandered the Caledonian Forest and who, in Attanasio’s hands, becomes the demon Lailoken in the form of a man. And of course Aquila Regalis Thor – that is, Arthor: King Arthur – the bloodthirsty and violent boy-king who, eventually, becomes all that Lailoken…er, Merlin knew he could become. Adding to this already dense and rich cosmology, Attanasio adds the plethora of Norse, Celtic and Christian tales and mythologies to create a complex, new mythos that tells a tale that is simultaneously dense, complex and fulfilling.

As usual with the Arthurian myths, it is not the hero that is the best, most compelling or fascinating character, but rather the demon Lailoken, or rather Myrddin, or else Merlinus, but best known as Merlin. Oh, Arthur, Morgeu the Fey and The Furor (that would be Odin to you and me) are all well and good, richly drawn and clearly motivated, but it is Merlin and Prince Bright Night (a prince of the daoine sídhe; y’know, faeries) who steal the show. Attanasio’s vision is really amazing, as he has written an all-encompassing work of fiction that engages both the mind and the heart with writing like poetry that entices the reader to read on and on and on. This Arthurian tetralogy transcends the original source material and presents the reader with a dense, multi-layered myth that incorporates the old tales with traditional myths in new interpretations that, somehow, all makes sense. What remains unchanged is that all of these characters must endure countless trials and tribulations to be with one another and sacrifice things dear to them, all to ensure the future.

So often a retelling of Arthurian Mythos fails to honor the old tales while bring anything new to the corpus; but with The Dragon and the Unicorn, The Eagle and the Sword, The Wolf and the Crown and The Serpent and the Grail, A.A. Attanasio succeeds in doing so in brilliant fashion.

“The Beethoven Compendium: A Guide to Beethoven's Life and Music”, edited by Barry Cooper

 

351 pages, Thames & Hudson, ISBN-13: 978-0500015230

I bought The Beethoven Compendium: A Guide to Beethoven’s Life and Music (edited by Barry Cooper) back in the early 90’s from a branch of Dillons Booksellers (back when there was a Dillons) when I took a trip to London, England, through Macomb Community College. This is the first book about Beethoven I ever bought, but not the first I reviewed: first was The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824 by Harvey Sachs (reviewed on April 15^th, 2013), next was Beethoven: The Composer as Hero by Philippe Autexier (reviewed on March 22^nd, 2018), then there was Beethoven: The Music and the Life by Lewis Lockwood (reviewed on November 5^th, 2019) and lately Beethoven: The Universal Composer by Edmund Morris (reviewed on May 11^th, 2020), each of varying quality (as you well remember, having read them all, of course). While these represent the undoubtedly thousands of books that have been written about Beethoven, what sets the Compendium apart is that it offers chapter after exhaustive chapter of information on every aspect of, as the title states, Beethoven’s life and music. Want proof? ‘kay:

• Calendar of Beethoven’s life, works and related events
• Beethoven’s family tree
• Who’s Who of Beethoven’s contemporaries
• Historical background
• Musical background
• Beethoven as an individual
• Beethoven’s beliefs and opinions

Along with several more sections dedicated solely to his music. Every time I pick this book up I find something new and interesting to read about for, as anyone can see, the Compendium offers information on several aspects about Beethoven that many other authors have neglected. Obviously, the music is catalogued and described as well as anyone has before but, beyond that, further details of the great composer’s personality, writing style, health difficulties, as well as his known views on a variety of topics, provide endless hours of fascinating reading. The structure of the Compendium also affords one the opportunity to go directly to an area of interest without having to wade through myriad pages, another way in which I was impressed by the thoroughness of the book. Listings of people who Beethoven knew or interacted with, those who influenced him (as well as those whom he influenced), pictures and descriptions of his handwriting and manuscripts, the historical perspective on the times he lived in…all are clearly described (also included are eight pages of paintings, sculptures and sketches of the maestro). The Beethoven Compendium is an indispensable reference and invaluable source of information for anyone desiring to learn more about the Greatest Composer Ever. I said it again.

“Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories”, by Simon Winchester

 

512 pages, Harper, ISBN-13: 978-0061702587

Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories by Simon Winchester is not really a history book; rather, it is more of a 500+ page rumination on this storm-tossed and treacherous body of water that has served as the great connector of four continents. After having read The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia (reviewed on May 23^rd, 2020), there wasn’t really any need to read another ocean-spanning history but, well, I did. Thus, I didn’t learn anything new, really, but the way in which Winchester presented his thoughts and musings was, nevertheless, interesting and even novel – sometimes even novelesque.

While Winchester focuses on the Atlantic Ocean as an almost living thing, it is humanity and its 164,000 year contact with the Atlantic that is his prime focus, starting in South Africa where humans first lived by the sea, eating shellfish, honing blades and decorating themselves with ocher. From there, our tale follows humanity as it tentatively leaves the relatively benign waters of the Mediterranean into the raucous wave-tossed Atlantic until the modern-day, when the waters of the Atlantic face, perhaps, unprecedented challenges after centuries of plying to-and-fro. Much is made of modern-day theories of global warming and all, although the author doesn’t harp too much on it, I think.

It is this, perhaps more than any other issue, that scuttles Atlantic somewhat, as Winchester seems to try to do too much; many, many ideas are covered, too superficially to really make a point, as Winchester jumps from topic to topic to give as overarching and complete a history as possible. Naturally, much is left out and many subjects glossed over; furthermore, these many subjects are sacrificed for no clear reason, with the Falklands War given a once-over while the peoples of the equatorial zone are given short-shrift. In his end-of-book acknowledgments, the author thanks his editor, but that editor should have done a better job in reigning Winchester in: his prose is never anything short of engaging, but at times it can be convoluted, as if my novelesque allusion from above took over his keyboard.

I suppose that when you write a leisurely accounting of the Atlantic from its creation 195 million years ago – when the supercontinent Pangaea began to break apart – to its eventual demise millions of years in the future – when the continents will have coalesced again – you are bound to get a little long-winded. So long as you take the author’s diversions with a grain of salt, Atlantic makes for an enjoyable read, if not as enlightening as one would wish.

“Red Wings Essential: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Real Fan!” by Nicholas J. Cotsonika

 

192 pages, Triumph Books, ISBN-13: 978-1572437579

This was one of my Dad’s books; my brothers and I bought it for him for Father’s Day (I think) one year. Really, though, there’s not much here, just a lot of anecdotes and trivia spread over 192 pages or so, with a majority of the facts and figures concentrated on the modern-era, or 1997 to 2006, when it was published. This is a shame, as the earlier perspectives on Red Wings teams are rather shallow, those past teams being the very foundations of Hockeytown (as Dad never got tired of telling us). But the book is not an exhaustive history of the team, merely a fan’s introductory volume. Each chapter is sprinkled with random facts and trivia questions, the answers to which I knew more often than not (no, really). I found that, for the most part, I was fairly familiar with a lot of the stories, especially as they were concentrated on the championship teams of ’97, ’98 and ’02, but two tales really stood out for me: Jack Adams’ shenanigans in trying to drum up ticket sales after the crash of ’29; and the life of a modern-day NHL Scout. Not a bad book at all, just a lightweight, easy read.

“The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns”, by Joseph Cummins

 

384 pages, Crestline Books, ISBN-13: 978-0785836650

The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns by Joseph Cummins is part two of a two-part anthology about the history of war (the review for part one was published on April 5^th). What the author does, essentially, is summarize twenty-one influential wars between 1792 and 1988 and how they reshaped human history, focusing each time one or two of the more famous battles from each. Each war gets its own chapter, at roughly 20 pages apiece, give or take. Like the first volume in this two-part study, From Flintlocks to Machine Guns is best suited to beginners in military history or, perhaps, wannabe military historians who would like a quick-reference guide with which to look-up important facts and figures. To better facilitate this ease of use, the table of contents for volume two is also confined to one page, the prose is basic (though fairly clear), the text is supplemented with several relevant illustrations and, at less than 400 pages, is extensive enough to cover its stated timeframe in the full, if succinctly. From Flintlocks to Machine Guns is rather like a textbook in that it is organized, like volume one, into a series of regular features:

• Overview: a two page introduction to the war under discussion which includes a summary, abstract, chronology, vital stat box and often a dramatic painting;
• Chronicle: a two page short history of the war under discussion, a discussion that serves to anticipate much of the still-brief text that is to follow;
• Turning Point: the dramatic recounting of the pivotal battle in the war, each about eight pages long, which is also accompanied by the most dramatic of paintings;
• Commanders: short biographies of the most significant commanders of the war, typically a single one from each of the major antagonists;
• Dossier: a kind of miscellany that summarizes other aspects of the war, such as secondary battles, famous tactics, force composition, hardware, dramatic cultural traits and the like;

But it must be stressed that From Flintlocks to Machine Guns – like its companion work From Chariots to Flintlocks – is but an introductory work to 2+ millennia of warfare. This is more than a coffee table reference book, or would make an excellent reference book for any military history buff; it also would be an outstanding text book for an introductory military history survey course and would be a great addition to any school or community library. The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns, like its companion volume, is an attractive and, for the right audience, useful introduction to military history.

“The War Chronicles: From Chariots to Flintlocks”, by Joseph Cummins

 

400 pages, Crestline Books, ISBN-13: 978-0785836667

The War Chronicles: From Chariots to Flintlocks by Joseph Cummins is part one of a two-part anthology about the history of war (the review for part two will be published on April 7^th). What the author does, essentially, is summarize twenty-two influential wars between 500 BC and 1783 AD and how they reshaped human history, focusing each time one or two of the more famous battles from each. Each war gets its own chapter, at roughly 20 pages apiece, give or take. Like the second volume in this two-part study, From Chariots to Flintlocks is best suited for beginners in military history or, perhaps, wannabe military historians who would like a quick-reference guide with which to look-up important facts and figures. To better facilitate this ease of use, the table of contents for volume one is confined to one page, the prose is clear (though fairly basic), the text is supplemented with many relevant pictures and, at 400 pages, is extensive enough to cover its stated timeframe fully, if briefly. From Chariots to Flintlocks is rather like a textbook in that it is organized, like volume two, into a series of regular features:

• Overview: a two page introduction to the war under discussion which includes a summary, abstract, chronology, vital stat box and often a dramatic painting;
• Chronicle: a two page short history of the war under discussion, a discussion that serves to anticipate much of the still-brief text that is to follow;
• Turning Point: the dramatic recounting of the pivotal battle in the war, each about eight pages long, which is also accompanied by the most dramatic of paintings;
• Commanders: short biographies of the most significant commanders of the war, typically a single one from each of the major antagonists;
• Dossier: a kind of miscellany that summarizes other aspects of the war, such as secondary battles, famous tactics, force composition, hardware, dramatic cultural traits and the like;

But it must be stressed that From Chariots to Flintlocks – like its companion work From Flintlocks to Machine Guns – is but an introductory work to 2+ millennia of warfare. It is wide ranging, clearly written and well-illustrated, primarily with reproductions of paintings and sculptures; each template is a summary of the conflict followed by a series of short articles on notable battles, commanders, tactical developments and other pertinent matters. As an example, the chapter on the Thirty Years’ War opens with four pages on the origins and highlights of the war, followed by discussions of the Battle of Breitenfeld, Albrecht von Wallenstein, Gustavus Adolphus, mercenary armies, advances in weaponry, the Holy Roman Empire, the Defenestration of Prague and the incident that inspired Bertolt Brecht’s play, Mother Courage and Her Children. In all, this most awful war gets some 14 pages of text, enough for a first acquaintance but obviously not a great deal more. The subtitle’s promise of “new perspectives” is largely unmet, though that may be a virtue in an introductory survey. The War Chronicles: From Chariots to Flintlocks, like its companion volume, is an attractive and, for the right audience, useful introduction to military history.

“The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English”, edited by Ian Ousby

 

1067 pages, Cambridge University Press, ISBN-13: 978-0521440868

I can’t remember where or when I bought The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, only that I got it for cheap and that I was pleased to have such an important reference guide to place on my bookshelf. The editor, Ian Ousby, aided by a select group of contributors, has created a magnificent reference guide to the wide ranging literature written in the English language, regardless of nationality. Over a thousand pages of information on a variety of subjects are to be found within the covers of this book; facts on writers, from Gilbert Abbott à Beckett to Fay Zwicky, can be discovered at one’s leisure, and I find myself time and again referencing this book to find other works from authors, famous and obscure, after having been exposed to one or more of their more well-known works.

Plot summaries for a wide range of novels are to be found, as well (if you are a fan of Anthony Trollope then you’re in luck; you’ll find no less than 25 of his books discussed in the Guide); be warned, though: if you’re reading the plot of a book in order to decide whether or not you want to read it – the ending is ALWAYS given away. The Guide also explores many literary terms that one may or may not be familiar with: Meter; The Bloomsbury Group; Positivism; Post-Structuralism; and many others are defined and discussed and, if for this reason alone, the Guide is invaluable as a reference to these, sometimes, unfamiliar terms, but always in clear and uncluttered language (The Cambridge Guide is thankfully free of academic jargon). Well, why not just spell it out, eh?

• Writers: and not just posts, novelists and playwrights, but also theologians, philosophers, economists, naturalists, scientists, essayists, critics and even historians.
• Individual plays, poems, novels, treatises and other works: works that range from established giants to works written by more modern writers.
• Literary groups or schools: works by any number of recognized schools, such as the Lake Poets, the Bloomsbury Group and the Black Mountain School.
• Wider literary movements: works by a variety of recognized movements, such as neoclassicism, Romanticism, modernism and postmodernism.
• Critical schools or movements: works by a variety of special schools, such as New Criticism, structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstruction.
• Literary genres: all of the recognized and familiar genres, such as comedy, tragedy, fable, farce, melodrama and miracle plays.
• Poetic forms and sub-genres of drama and fiction: all sorts of forms, like acrostic, the elegy, the revenge tragedy, the Gothic novel and even something called Bildungsroman.
• Critical concepts: any number of said ideas, like disassociation of sensibility, hamartia, metaphor and symbol, but not exclusively.
• Rhetorical terms: anything from anaphora, bathos, chiasmus, euphuism, litotes, synecdoche and whatever the hell zeugma is.
• Theaters and theater companies: such as the Globe onwards, to the King's Men, the Federal Theater Project, and the Sistren Theater Collective.
• Literary magazines: everything from The Quarterly Review and Punch, The New Masses and Staffrider.

The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English is merely a research tool, but a valuable and useful tool, at any rate.