The Other Tudors: Henry VIII's Mistresses and Bastards
Philippa Jones
Published by New Holland Publishers (UK), London, 2010
ISBN 978 1 84773 778 6
327 pages, illustrated
The Other Tudors rather caught my eyes a few years back when I purchased it. Patiently sitting on my reading shelf since then along with about 100 other books I have purchased, I finally sat down and read it. My new life has me reading, exercising, watching movies and doing genealogy and at the moment in that order actually. I haven't lost my love of genealogy; I just need to do other things and still to add in my knitting and that will likely begin one of these days as I have one item on needles and lots of wool to work with.
There are 13 chapters to this particular novel and there is a time line. This period of English History I find quite interesting as it marks a change in my Pincombe family. This family appears at North Molton having come with Lord de la Zouche in 1485. Henry VII becomes King of England following the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 which was fought in Leicestershire. Richard III, whose remains were lately exhumed, remains an enigma in British History. Did he kill his two nephews in the Tower? Now it also appears that there may be a break in the yDNA line for the Lancastrian line and does it also affect the Tudor line. Does it really matter who is the King/Queen of England in terms of dynasty? I do not think so actually. The present Queen is duly head of state - is an annointed Monarch coming down through the Royal Line of Scotland. An ideal state really bringing together the largest Island in the British Isles through such a common blood line.
The book itself in its thirteen chapters talks about the many wives and mistresses of Henry VIII and puts forward a reason for Henry VIII's attitude towards women. His own mother was, and history defends this idea, a perfect wife and mother and the thought is perpetuated throughout the book that Henry was seeking this same kind of woman for his wife. Had Catherine of Aragon produced a son/sons then Henry would have remained faithful his entire life to Catherine and there wouldn't have been a separation from the Roman Church. Would the history of England be that different in such a case? I suspect not really remembering my English grandparents and their attitudes.
I will not review the book chapter by chapter because it does not add to my knowledge of the general population in England in this time period. Most of my reading aims to learn more about different time periods in England so that I can appreciate the lives of my ancestors.
In all Henry is listed as having three legitimate children - Mary I, Edward VI and Elizabeth I and five known illegitimate children - Henry Fitzroy Duke of Richmond, Sir Henry Carey, Thomas Stukeley, John Perrot, and Etheldreda Malte. Several other possible children were mentioned.
A few of the things that I really liked about the book were the family trees that led each chapter. I want to get back to working on family trees for the Blake Cornwall family and I liked the layout of these trees and will micmic them somewhat with the work that I have done thus far on the Cornwall Blake family.
I recommend the book for anyone interested in this time period. The research that has gone into the book is extensive with lots of references to add to one's reading pleasure.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Born Royal: The Lives and Loves of the Young Windsors
Born Royal: The Lives and Loves of the Young Windsors
Richard Hough
Published by Bantam Books, New York, in 1988
ISBN 055305323x
317 pages, illustrated
At heart I am a monarchist and so tend to read all the books that I come across on the Royal Family (both ancient and modern). When I was a child I heard the story of Henry Blake and Richard Blake refusing to accept a knighthood from Charles I of England. They were fined and later during the Civil War their manor house at Pinhills was destroyed as it had been used by the parliamentarians as a fortified garrison whereupon Prince Rupert attacked and destroyed it. I can no longer remember where I first heard that story but it rather intrigued me. Consequently I became an avid reader of history. Being a monarchist was a product of having three grandparents born and raised to adulthood in England (as well as my father who was just nine when he and his parents came in 1913) who thought of Canada as part of England so that King George VI was my King in a more personal way than perhaps most Canadians saw him. Everything that was written about him my grandfather in particular would read to us.
Born Royal - The Lives and Loves of the Young Windsors principally looks at King George V and his wife Mary (née Cambridge (was Teck until WWI)) (the first to use the surname Windsor having changed it from Saxe Cobourg Gotha during World War I for obvious reasons) and their six children. All but one of these children lived during my memory (John the youngest died of epilepsy at the age of 13 having been a rather sickly child) and two of them David and Bertie became Kings of England. David was uncrowned Edward VIII and Bertie was crowned George VI. The two younger brothers George and Henry became respectively the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Gloucester. The children of George and Henry were the first cousins of Queen Elizabeth II along with the children of Mary their sister who had married Lord Harewood, Henry Lascelles.
The book is divided into five parts: Childhood, Royal Expectations, Windsors at War, The Windsors Wed and Making us One. The author of the book is British and he has done a wonderful job of relating the story of the six children and how they interacted with their parents, grandparents, great grandmother Queen Victoria and their closest companions. His reference notes are quite thorough. I found it somewhat fascinating reading as I had been incredibly close to my grandfather when I was quite young until he died when I was eight years and I transferred this closeness to my grandmother (she died just eight months after I was married). From what my grandfather told me that was common in English families that you would feel very very close to your grandparents. His grandmother lived next door to him and he adored her. She was a doting grandmother it would appear but his father told him that she was very dictatorial when he was a child. The story didn't surprise me when it described how the parents dealt with their children. Their lives were incredibly busy and always having servants looking after your children likely meant that the closeness that one achieves with young children because of the need to care for them totally didn't happen.
If you are into reading books on the Royal Family this is certainly a very interesting one. The story of the abdication was one that I knew from childhood. Again I was not surprised at the way that it was written as it was almost precisely the story that I heard at a young age. David virtually abandoned his younger brother to his fate. As it turned out he was a marvelous King but the cost to him was great in that his health was poor. I can only sympathize with his family for being so negative towards the Duke and Duchess of Windsor as David and his wife became.
Richard Hough
Published by Bantam Books, New York, in 1988
ISBN 055305323x
317 pages, illustrated
At heart I am a monarchist and so tend to read all the books that I come across on the Royal Family (both ancient and modern). When I was a child I heard the story of Henry Blake and Richard Blake refusing to accept a knighthood from Charles I of England. They were fined and later during the Civil War their manor house at Pinhills was destroyed as it had been used by the parliamentarians as a fortified garrison whereupon Prince Rupert attacked and destroyed it. I can no longer remember where I first heard that story but it rather intrigued me. Consequently I became an avid reader of history. Being a monarchist was a product of having three grandparents born and raised to adulthood in England (as well as my father who was just nine when he and his parents came in 1913) who thought of Canada as part of England so that King George VI was my King in a more personal way than perhaps most Canadians saw him. Everything that was written about him my grandfather in particular would read to us.
Born Royal - The Lives and Loves of the Young Windsors principally looks at King George V and his wife Mary (née Cambridge (was Teck until WWI)) (the first to use the surname Windsor having changed it from Saxe Cobourg Gotha during World War I for obvious reasons) and their six children. All but one of these children lived during my memory (John the youngest died of epilepsy at the age of 13 having been a rather sickly child) and two of them David and Bertie became Kings of England. David was uncrowned Edward VIII and Bertie was crowned George VI. The two younger brothers George and Henry became respectively the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Gloucester. The children of George and Henry were the first cousins of Queen Elizabeth II along with the children of Mary their sister who had married Lord Harewood, Henry Lascelles.
The book is divided into five parts: Childhood, Royal Expectations, Windsors at War, The Windsors Wed and Making us One. The author of the book is British and he has done a wonderful job of relating the story of the six children and how they interacted with their parents, grandparents, great grandmother Queen Victoria and their closest companions. His reference notes are quite thorough. I found it somewhat fascinating reading as I had been incredibly close to my grandfather when I was quite young until he died when I was eight years and I transferred this closeness to my grandmother (she died just eight months after I was married). From what my grandfather told me that was common in English families that you would feel very very close to your grandparents. His grandmother lived next door to him and he adored her. She was a doting grandmother it would appear but his father told him that she was very dictatorial when he was a child. The story didn't surprise me when it described how the parents dealt with their children. Their lives were incredibly busy and always having servants looking after your children likely meant that the closeness that one achieves with young children because of the need to care for them totally didn't happen.
If you are into reading books on the Royal Family this is certainly a very interesting one. The story of the abdication was one that I knew from childhood. Again I was not surprised at the way that it was written as it was almost precisely the story that I heard at a young age. David virtually abandoned his younger brother to his fate. As it turned out he was a marvelous King but the cost to him was great in that his health was poor. I can only sympathize with his family for being so negative towards the Duke and Duchess of Windsor as David and his wife became.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Theirs is the Kingdom: The wealth of the British Royal Family
Theirs is the Kingdom: The wealth of the British Royal Family
Andrew Morton
Published by Summit Books, New York, 1989
ISBN 0671690027
176 pages, illustrated
Not my usual type of reading, but this book caught my eye and I read in one rainy day! I actually thought they owned more than they do in England/Scotland/Wales and Northern Ireland plus other places. This book was published before the public unraveling of the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, Princess of Wales which was to take up much of the press time during the 1990s. They still appear to be a happy family in the book and Diana is talked about as the future Queen. It has that sad tone about it because of what is to come. There is a discussion on Diana's finances and the rather clever way she too was building wealth in her own right and it is this wealth which now belongs to her sons permitting them to take part in the charitable functions that their mother skilfully built up through her time as Princess of Wales.
The book is written in five chapters and basically begins with Queen Victoria who ascends the throne of England but her family line is heavily in debt. Victoria being a frugal person immediately takes her finances in hand and along with her future Prince Consort turns the Royal Families fortunes around and today their wealth is a product of her initial planning. As it turns out other than the two spendthrifts Edward VII and Edward VIII the Royal House has been blessed with heads that are careful with their money and do not waste it frivolously.
The book is well illustrated with charming photographs from the time of Victoria onwards. The establishment of the House of Windsor much discussed and in such detail that you are able to understand the lines that still exist in England to this day and how they came to be through the descents in the House of Windsor coming down from Queen Victoria's very large family.
I highly recommend the book for those interested in a glimpse into the wealth of the Royal Family and into a better understanding of the Royal Family and how it is setting itself into the future with the marriages that are being made.
Andrew Morton
Published by Summit Books, New York, 1989
ISBN 0671690027
176 pages, illustrated
Not my usual type of reading, but this book caught my eye and I read in one rainy day! I actually thought they owned more than they do in England/Scotland/Wales and Northern Ireland plus other places. This book was published before the public unraveling of the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, Princess of Wales which was to take up much of the press time during the 1990s. They still appear to be a happy family in the book and Diana is talked about as the future Queen. It has that sad tone about it because of what is to come. There is a discussion on Diana's finances and the rather clever way she too was building wealth in her own right and it is this wealth which now belongs to her sons permitting them to take part in the charitable functions that their mother skilfully built up through her time as Princess of Wales.
The book is written in five chapters and basically begins with Queen Victoria who ascends the throne of England but her family line is heavily in debt. Victoria being a frugal person immediately takes her finances in hand and along with her future Prince Consort turns the Royal Families fortunes around and today their wealth is a product of her initial planning. As it turns out other than the two spendthrifts Edward VII and Edward VIII the Royal House has been blessed with heads that are careful with their money and do not waste it frivolously.
The book is well illustrated with charming photographs from the time of Victoria onwards. The establishment of the House of Windsor much discussed and in such detail that you are able to understand the lines that still exist in England to this day and how they came to be through the descents in the House of Windsor coming down from Queen Victoria's very large family.
I highly recommend the book for those interested in a glimpse into the wealth of the Royal Family and into a better understanding of the Royal Family and how it is setting itself into the future with the marriages that are being made.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
October Sky
October Sky
Homer Hickam
Published by Dell Publishing, New York, New York in 1998
ISBN 9780440235507
428 pages, illustrated
This book is a far reach to fit into my usual reading of history, genealogy and DNA. I need to go back about 53 years to truly explain why I would have read October Sky. Like the author of the book, I was very intrigued by the Russian-American Space Race and spent hours drawing space ships that could travel hither and yon through the universe. I didn't get into thinking a lot about fuel and actual launches but perhaps it was because there was just one of me interested. It was something I thought about, wrote a bout and drew pictures about all on my own. Few people knew of my interest and they were principally my grandmother, parents and siblings. Well that is a lot of people actually as I had six siblings. My mother actually encouraged me to think about space travel and when I thought I might join the Air Force after High School was quite supportive of the idea. I toyed with the thought but managed to earn enough money in my summers to pay for my university education so didn't have to enter the Air Force in order to follow my dream of being in Science. Once into University then an interest in Medicine came between my thoughts on the Air Force and Space travel and eventually marriage replaced all of those thoughts and I didn't follow through on any of those childhood dreams. Regrets; absolutely none - I have enjoyed my adult life. But back to the book. I watched the film (we bought the VHS years ago) and decided I had to read his book to see what caused him to swing his eyes skyward and dream that wonderful dream of leaving earth and being up in the stars; so much closer to God. For in all of that thinking; I never lost sight of God and the desire to come closer to Him.
I will not write a full book report on October Sky as I am reserving that for my genealogy, history and DNA books in order to show what I have learned that I can utilize in my family studies. The story of Homer Hickam, son of the manager of a coal mine in West virginia, and his pals who worked with him is the most remarkable story coming out of the 50s in the United States. These boys who never really would have had any thoughts but following their fathers into the coal mines of West Virginia all left their towns and went to college/university and became so different from those who had given them birth. They left a footprint that put West Virginia on the map and led thousands of West Virginians out of the coal fields and into the promised land of America. Nothing wrong with being a miner but by the end of the book the coal mine which had been a place of work for generations in Homer's town was slowly closed down although did have a new breathing spell at the end of the book but the future was clearly marked for them. A decline in use would mean a decline in jobs and the sons of these coal miners needed to find something new to do.
Mixed into that overall story are the personal lives of the people that Homer knew so well. The pains and the triumphs of their lives as they moved into adulthood. The story of Homer's parents who did get to live the good life of retirement at Myrtle Beach far from the coal fields of West Virginia. The triumph and sorrow of a young science teacher, a woman, who inspired this young group of boys to be more than what they saw around them and to go on and win the National Science Fair with their rocket and fuel experiments. The books brings us there with them in their "Cape Canaveral" as they set off rocket after rocket each time to incredible new heights that guaranteed them their place in history at a time when America was struggling to win that race to the moon (and they did!).
I highly recommend this book to anyone who shared with me that incredible moment in history when we left our planet and took a picture of it from outer space - when man walked on the moon; when we saw ourselves as more than what we had been for thousands of years - explorers of the universe. It is also for those who have followed us in life and are curious about how we felt about the search for something out there.
Homer Hickam
Published by Dell Publishing, New York, New York in 1998
ISBN 9780440235507
428 pages, illustrated
This book is a far reach to fit into my usual reading of history, genealogy and DNA. I need to go back about 53 years to truly explain why I would have read October Sky. Like the author of the book, I was very intrigued by the Russian-American Space Race and spent hours drawing space ships that could travel hither and yon through the universe. I didn't get into thinking a lot about fuel and actual launches but perhaps it was because there was just one of me interested. It was something I thought about, wrote a bout and drew pictures about all on my own. Few people knew of my interest and they were principally my grandmother, parents and siblings. Well that is a lot of people actually as I had six siblings. My mother actually encouraged me to think about space travel and when I thought I might join the Air Force after High School was quite supportive of the idea. I toyed with the thought but managed to earn enough money in my summers to pay for my university education so didn't have to enter the Air Force in order to follow my dream of being in Science. Once into University then an interest in Medicine came between my thoughts on the Air Force and Space travel and eventually marriage replaced all of those thoughts and I didn't follow through on any of those childhood dreams. Regrets; absolutely none - I have enjoyed my adult life. But back to the book. I watched the film (we bought the VHS years ago) and decided I had to read his book to see what caused him to swing his eyes skyward and dream that wonderful dream of leaving earth and being up in the stars; so much closer to God. For in all of that thinking; I never lost sight of God and the desire to come closer to Him.
I will not write a full book report on October Sky as I am reserving that for my genealogy, history and DNA books in order to show what I have learned that I can utilize in my family studies. The story of Homer Hickam, son of the manager of a coal mine in West virginia, and his pals who worked with him is the most remarkable story coming out of the 50s in the United States. These boys who never really would have had any thoughts but following their fathers into the coal mines of West Virginia all left their towns and went to college/university and became so different from those who had given them birth. They left a footprint that put West Virginia on the map and led thousands of West Virginians out of the coal fields and into the promised land of America. Nothing wrong with being a miner but by the end of the book the coal mine which had been a place of work for generations in Homer's town was slowly closed down although did have a new breathing spell at the end of the book but the future was clearly marked for them. A decline in use would mean a decline in jobs and the sons of these coal miners needed to find something new to do.
Mixed into that overall story are the personal lives of the people that Homer knew so well. The pains and the triumphs of their lives as they moved into adulthood. The story of Homer's parents who did get to live the good life of retirement at Myrtle Beach far from the coal fields of West Virginia. The triumph and sorrow of a young science teacher, a woman, who inspired this young group of boys to be more than what they saw around them and to go on and win the National Science Fair with their rocket and fuel experiments. The books brings us there with them in their "Cape Canaveral" as they set off rocket after rocket each time to incredible new heights that guaranteed them their place in history at a time when America was struggling to win that race to the moon (and they did!).
I highly recommend this book to anyone who shared with me that incredible moment in history when we left our planet and took a picture of it from outer space - when man walked on the moon; when we saw ourselves as more than what we had been for thousands of years - explorers of the universe. It is also for those who have followed us in life and are curious about how we felt about the search for something out there.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Birthday Books and Reading List 2
I received a gift certificate for books for my birthday. I was supposed to buy e-books but my reading tastes haven't reached the e book revolution yet so I instead bought books at 80% off in the history section which is my usual reading habit along with science. This list also includes the four books my husband bought :) which I will also read. I still have 20 books to read from my earlier reading list but next winter will give me lots of time to do that inbetween doing genealogy. I also read eight of John Grisham's books when I needed some light reading as I was away from our normal occupations! I will list them one of these days but will not do a book report. They were certainly interesting books but I didn't read them to glean information for my genealogical studies or for my interest in science (having graduated 44 years ago in science, I have managed through the years to stay fluent to a certain extent in my field although the science reading now tends to be about the "masters" of the New Scientific Age unless it is about DNA in which case I connect that to genealogy anyway.
- Freemasonary: Its History and Myths Revealed, Moran, Giles, published by Indigo Books in 2011, Toronto, ISBN 978-1-5526-7668-4, 192 pages, illustrated.
- The Story of Physics: From natural philosophy to the enigma of dark matter, Rooney, Anne, published by Arcturus Publishing Limited, Bermondsey, London, ISBN 978-1-84837-769-1, 208 pages, illustrated.
- The War Scientists: The brains behind military technologies of destruction and defense, Craughwell, Thomas J, Published by Murdoch Books Printing Limited, in 2010, ISBN 978-1-74266-567-2, 303 pages, illustrated.
- The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Royal Britain: A magnificient study of Britain's Royal Heritage with a Directory of Royalty and over 120 of the most important historic buildings, Phillips, Charles, Published by Hermes House, Leicestershire in 2011, ISBN 978-0-85723-678-4, 512 pages, illustrated.
- My Years as Prime Minister, Chrétien, Jean, Published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada in 2007, ISBN 978-0-676-97900-8, 435 pages, illustrated.
- To Keep the British Isles Afloat: FDR's Men in Churchill's London, 1941, Parrish, Thomas, Published by Harper Collins Publishers in 2009, ISBN 978-0-06-135793-0, 324 pages, illustrated.
- The Illustrous Dead: The terrifying story of how typhus killed Napoleon's greatest army, Talty, Stephan, Published by Crown Publishers, in 2009, ISBN 978-0-307-39404-0, 315 pages.
- Lavoisier in the Year One: The birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution, Bell, Madison Smartt, Published by W.W. Norton & Company Inc, New York, ISBN 0-393-05155-2, 214 pages.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life
Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life
Nick Lane
Published by Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, in 2005
ISBN 9780199205646
354 pages
The title of the book proved to be an eye opener to the deeply intense dissertation on mitochondria and the meaning of life. Nick Lane takes us back to some of the earliest studies on the cell and how it works and along the way back to his present (early 2000s) captures the many seminal papers on the development of the various theories on the origin of life on our planet and the rise of the Eucaryotic cell which includes the powerhouse of the cell the mitochondria. Interestingly it is this mitochondria which lets all of us look at our deep ancestry if we decide to invest some of our genealogical money in DNA testing. For me, I have found such research to be absolutely fascinating and I continue to discover more and more about my deep ancestry as a result. If you are looking to connect yourself by name back thousands of years that just isn't going to happen but you will know how your ancient ancestor left Africa to then follow their own migration path to their resting spot before the great migrations of the last three or four hundred years or in my case just a little less than 200 years when my first ancestor left their resting area to come to Canada in 1818.
The book is written with an Introduction and then seven parts and eighteen chapters spread between these parts and ends with the Epilogue. The use of parts as he has them becomes self explanatory as you read through the book. He refers back to the different parts as he presents the various hypotheses that have emerged with respect to the initial discovery of mtDNA to the possible evolution of the Eucaryotic cell containing mitochondria, through a study of the function of mitochondria within the cell and then into ageing and an excellent summary in the last chapter which he labels Epilogue and it stands alone as it own part (8) and without a chapter number since it is a summation of the main points in the entire book.
The Introduction is the slow part of the book unless you are uptodate on your Biology and all the terms. It is 48 years since I have studied Biology although I worked in Zoology after graduation and have done a fair amount of reading in DNA over the last five or six years. None the less I found that the first section was slow going as I absorbed all of his information in the Introduction. Do not be discouraged if you find that to be the case. It is more than worthwhile to work your way through this section as the rest of the book quite grabs your attention and it becomes very hard to put it down. Fortunately I read most of the book on the train going to London and returning from Western's Homecoming on the train back.
Part one is entitled: Hopeful Monster: The Origin of the Eukaryotic Cell. Taking us far back in time the author brings us up to the present hypotheses. A very interesting read I found.
Part two is entitled The Vital Force: Proton Power and the Origin of Life. Again it does help to have a background in Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics as I am reading alone but not essential. I can remember when Biology was primarily doing excellent drawings and laboratory experiments on frogs and small mammals. The change in Biology is perhaps the greatest in any of the natural sciences in terms of the skills you must bring to this natural science these days. A very interesting chapter once again.
Part three is entitled: Insider Deal: The Foundations of Complexity. As a former Creationist I have moved on a long way from this point of view. But I haven't lost my deep religious attitude towards life. I like the challenge though of reading how life evolved and knowing that my God is still there with me along the journey of life. Again a most revealing chapter.
Part four is entitled: Power Laws: Size and the Ramp of Ascending Complexity. Continuing on with the evolution of the Eucaryotic Cell and the movement towards warm blooded mammals is an interesting chapter and still one would wonder why I, a genealogist, would feel that this book is adding to my genealogical knowledge bank. Perhaps part of that is my being first attracted to yDNA and mtDNA and then to traditional genealogy that answers that question. I still avidly read everything I can find on DNA. This chapter too is revealing and I am starting to relate it to my genealogical meandering in deep ancestry.
Part five is entitled: Murder or Suicide: The Troubled Birth of the Individual. This section brings us closer to ourselves and how we exist as a multi cellular organism with tremendous diversity. His constant references between the many classes of mammals is an excellent way to understand mankind.
Part six is entitled: Battle of the Sexes: Human Pre-History and the Nature of Gender. Now we are into genealogy and deep ancestry. His discussion on the evolution of the sexes is a most interesting one and again a very good read.
Part seven is entitled: Clock of Life: Why Mitochondria Kill us in the End. Perhaps this part more than anything brings the book into genealogy and the story of families. For the story of families is the story of birth, mating and death - a constant and continuous cycle that either brings our line down to the present or ends those of collateral lines leaving us as the sole carrier of the markers that delineated our family line. Again a fascinating read.
The Epilogue is an excellent review of the high points of the book and a summary of what we have learned and where we are moving in terms of more knowledge.
I highly recommend this book to those who wish to read more about the evolution of mankind and in particular the evolution of mitochondria DNA and how it defines the family lines.
Nick Lane
Published by Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, in 2005
ISBN 9780199205646
354 pages
The title of the book proved to be an eye opener to the deeply intense dissertation on mitochondria and the meaning of life. Nick Lane takes us back to some of the earliest studies on the cell and how it works and along the way back to his present (early 2000s) captures the many seminal papers on the development of the various theories on the origin of life on our planet and the rise of the Eucaryotic cell which includes the powerhouse of the cell the mitochondria. Interestingly it is this mitochondria which lets all of us look at our deep ancestry if we decide to invest some of our genealogical money in DNA testing. For me, I have found such research to be absolutely fascinating and I continue to discover more and more about my deep ancestry as a result. If you are looking to connect yourself by name back thousands of years that just isn't going to happen but you will know how your ancient ancestor left Africa to then follow their own migration path to their resting spot before the great migrations of the last three or four hundred years or in my case just a little less than 200 years when my first ancestor left their resting area to come to Canada in 1818.
The book is written with an Introduction and then seven parts and eighteen chapters spread between these parts and ends with the Epilogue. The use of parts as he has them becomes self explanatory as you read through the book. He refers back to the different parts as he presents the various hypotheses that have emerged with respect to the initial discovery of mtDNA to the possible evolution of the Eucaryotic cell containing mitochondria, through a study of the function of mitochondria within the cell and then into ageing and an excellent summary in the last chapter which he labels Epilogue and it stands alone as it own part (8) and without a chapter number since it is a summation of the main points in the entire book.
The Introduction is the slow part of the book unless you are uptodate on your Biology and all the terms. It is 48 years since I have studied Biology although I worked in Zoology after graduation and have done a fair amount of reading in DNA over the last five or six years. None the less I found that the first section was slow going as I absorbed all of his information in the Introduction. Do not be discouraged if you find that to be the case. It is more than worthwhile to work your way through this section as the rest of the book quite grabs your attention and it becomes very hard to put it down. Fortunately I read most of the book on the train going to London and returning from Western's Homecoming on the train back.
Part one is entitled: Hopeful Monster: The Origin of the Eukaryotic Cell. Taking us far back in time the author brings us up to the present hypotheses. A very interesting read I found.
Part two is entitled The Vital Force: Proton Power and the Origin of Life. Again it does help to have a background in Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics as I am reading alone but not essential. I can remember when Biology was primarily doing excellent drawings and laboratory experiments on frogs and small mammals. The change in Biology is perhaps the greatest in any of the natural sciences in terms of the skills you must bring to this natural science these days. A very interesting chapter once again.
Part three is entitled: Insider Deal: The Foundations of Complexity. As a former Creationist I have moved on a long way from this point of view. But I haven't lost my deep religious attitude towards life. I like the challenge though of reading how life evolved and knowing that my God is still there with me along the journey of life. Again a most revealing chapter.
Part four is entitled: Power Laws: Size and the Ramp of Ascending Complexity. Continuing on with the evolution of the Eucaryotic Cell and the movement towards warm blooded mammals is an interesting chapter and still one would wonder why I, a genealogist, would feel that this book is adding to my genealogical knowledge bank. Perhaps part of that is my being first attracted to yDNA and mtDNA and then to traditional genealogy that answers that question. I still avidly read everything I can find on DNA. This chapter too is revealing and I am starting to relate it to my genealogical meandering in deep ancestry.
Part five is entitled: Murder or Suicide: The Troubled Birth of the Individual. This section brings us closer to ourselves and how we exist as a multi cellular organism with tremendous diversity. His constant references between the many classes of mammals is an excellent way to understand mankind.
Part six is entitled: Battle of the Sexes: Human Pre-History and the Nature of Gender. Now we are into genealogy and deep ancestry. His discussion on the evolution of the sexes is a most interesting one and again a very good read.
Part seven is entitled: Clock of Life: Why Mitochondria Kill us in the End. Perhaps this part more than anything brings the book into genealogy and the story of families. For the story of families is the story of birth, mating and death - a constant and continuous cycle that either brings our line down to the present or ends those of collateral lines leaving us as the sole carrier of the markers that delineated our family line. Again a fascinating read.
The Epilogue is an excellent review of the high points of the book and a summary of what we have learned and where we are moving in terms of more knowledge.
I highly recommend this book to those who wish to read more about the evolution of mankind and in particular the evolution of mitochondria DNA and how it defines the family lines.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Springtime in Britain: An 11,000 Mile Journey through the Natural History of Britain from Land's End to John o' Groats
Springtime in Britain: An 11,000 Mile Journey through the Natural History of Britain from Land's End to John o' Groats
Edwin Way Teale
Published by Dodd, Mead & Company, New York in 1970
ISBN 0-396-06209-1
406 pages, illustrated (author's photographs)
My Anniversary book (45th wedding anniversary) quite captured me and I started to read it that very day and completed it today. I have since learned that the author, Edwin Way Teale, is a Publitzer Prize Winner for his books on seasons in North America wherein he basically did the same as the book Springtime in Britain. Traveled the length and breadth of the area describing the flora and ornithology of the area including the geologic disposition. His writing is somewhat breathless; it is very difficult to put the book down between chapters. He draws in the historical context as well which is very apt in Britain with its ancient history.
The book is written as 36 chapters with each chapter representing a particular area of the country upon which they concentrated for an interval of several days or even a week on occasion. The names chosen for the chapter depict the contents of that chapter. He did not visit any record depositories because this was to be a nature book filled with the sights and sounds of Britain.
Why did he choose to write such a book? When I learned that he was a Publitzer Prize winner for his seasons in America, I thought perhaps he was simply carrying on the theme to the British Isles but as we arrive at Cheshire we learn that his son David had been stationed possibly in this general area during the Second World War with the American troops. His son died in France following the Normandy Invasion. Because their son could not say exactly where he was they could not know for sure but the flora and ornithology which he described in his letters most resembled this area. Then further as we reach West Yorkshire, the author reveals that his father had been an emigrant to the United States having been born in this Riding of Yorkshire and so his interest became more personal as he remembered the tales of his father's childhood and searched for momentos of that earlier life. One wonders if he would have undertaken his 11,000 mile journey through Britain were it not for the personal connection. Only the author could clarify that and I suspect such evidence is lost to time. But other than the short personal reflections, the author and his wife keep steadily to the task of revealing Britain to their readers.
The book is dedicated to his wife and one of their deviations from the trip is his wife's illness near the beginning. A bad cold for his wife had turned to pneumonia and they rested at Tunbridge Wells where she regained her strength and so the journey continued on again from this point as her health returned after a week's stay there.
My favourite parts of the book were written about the areas that I had seen whilst on our tour of Britain but he left me quite breathless to see the rest that I had not yet seen. I think this book will be our building block for our own tour of England itself and later Scotland when we attend the Routledge Reunion in 2014. It seems a long way away but the time passes so quickly when one is planning a trip down to the minute details that the time is soon upon you. We have already begun our planning but will keep the book close as we look at the various areas for in 10,000 miles they crossed over many of the areas that we too will visit.
They began their trip at the end of March after an ocean voyage from New York City to Southampton where they rented a car (following a short lesson on driving in Britain) and then drove to Land's End to begin the glorious trek to John o' Groats. Even the history of John o' Groats was explained in the pages and I shall leave that for all the future readers to discover rather than reveal it here.
They did not travel through the Winterbourne Valley to any great extent and missed the road up through the Wallops into Hampshire which has its own secret beauty but overall they visited so many individual areas of England. At Oxford they were very close to this area but always I found that around each bend of the road the landscape changed. The housing was different, the dividers in the fields and even the shape and type of farm animal was variable as one crossed from one side to the other and from bottom to top to bottom once again.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone setting off the travels the highways of Britain. It is an older book now and life has moved on but surprisingly there is so much the same because it is an ancient country which holds dear the traditions of the old blending it with the new so that it is almost seamless and not gauche as one drives from an old area to a new area.
Edwin Way Teale
Published by Dodd, Mead & Company, New York in 1970
ISBN 0-396-06209-1
406 pages, illustrated (author's photographs)
My Anniversary book (45th wedding anniversary) quite captured me and I started to read it that very day and completed it today. I have since learned that the author, Edwin Way Teale, is a Publitzer Prize Winner for his books on seasons in North America wherein he basically did the same as the book Springtime in Britain. Traveled the length and breadth of the area describing the flora and ornithology of the area including the geologic disposition. His writing is somewhat breathless; it is very difficult to put the book down between chapters. He draws in the historical context as well which is very apt in Britain with its ancient history.
The book is written as 36 chapters with each chapter representing a particular area of the country upon which they concentrated for an interval of several days or even a week on occasion. The names chosen for the chapter depict the contents of that chapter. He did not visit any record depositories because this was to be a nature book filled with the sights and sounds of Britain.
Why did he choose to write such a book? When I learned that he was a Publitzer Prize winner for his seasons in America, I thought perhaps he was simply carrying on the theme to the British Isles but as we arrive at Cheshire we learn that his son David had been stationed possibly in this general area during the Second World War with the American troops. His son died in France following the Normandy Invasion. Because their son could not say exactly where he was they could not know for sure but the flora and ornithology which he described in his letters most resembled this area. Then further as we reach West Yorkshire, the author reveals that his father had been an emigrant to the United States having been born in this Riding of Yorkshire and so his interest became more personal as he remembered the tales of his father's childhood and searched for momentos of that earlier life. One wonders if he would have undertaken his 11,000 mile journey through Britain were it not for the personal connection. Only the author could clarify that and I suspect such evidence is lost to time. But other than the short personal reflections, the author and his wife keep steadily to the task of revealing Britain to their readers.
The book is dedicated to his wife and one of their deviations from the trip is his wife's illness near the beginning. A bad cold for his wife had turned to pneumonia and they rested at Tunbridge Wells where she regained her strength and so the journey continued on again from this point as her health returned after a week's stay there.
My favourite parts of the book were written about the areas that I had seen whilst on our tour of Britain but he left me quite breathless to see the rest that I had not yet seen. I think this book will be our building block for our own tour of England itself and later Scotland when we attend the Routledge Reunion in 2014. It seems a long way away but the time passes so quickly when one is planning a trip down to the minute details that the time is soon upon you. We have already begun our planning but will keep the book close as we look at the various areas for in 10,000 miles they crossed over many of the areas that we too will visit.
They began their trip at the end of March after an ocean voyage from New York City to Southampton where they rented a car (following a short lesson on driving in Britain) and then drove to Land's End to begin the glorious trek to John o' Groats. Even the history of John o' Groats was explained in the pages and I shall leave that for all the future readers to discover rather than reveal it here.
They did not travel through the Winterbourne Valley to any great extent and missed the road up through the Wallops into Hampshire which has its own secret beauty but overall they visited so many individual areas of England. At Oxford they were very close to this area but always I found that around each bend of the road the landscape changed. The housing was different, the dividers in the fields and even the shape and type of farm animal was variable as one crossed from one side to the other and from bottom to top to bottom once again.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone setting off the travels the highways of Britain. It is an older book now and life has moved on but surprisingly there is so much the same because it is an ancient country which holds dear the traditions of the old blending it with the new so that it is almost seamless and not gauche as one drives from an old area to a new area.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made
In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the world it made
Norman F Cantor
Published by Simon and Schuster Inc, New York, New York in 2001
ISBN 0060014342
245 pages
Norman Cantor's New York Times Bestseller, In the Wake of the Plague is a very well written, deeply thoughtful and provocative review of the plague in its historical context. When he recites the well known rhyme of young children: Ring around the Rosies, a Pocket full of Posies, Ashes Ashes, we all fall down and relates it to the way in which children come to terms with an event that is so catastrophic it could mean that they were the only survivor in their entire known family. It is a rhyme that I too said as a child when sudden death was still a common event and small children died from kidney disease, leukemia and so many other disorders that are now curable with modern medical science.
But the plague remains with us even now it is so virulent although for the most part people are saved with antibiotics. But what of the story that he tells; why would I feel that this story might add me in understanding my ancestry? For the most part, the books that I read tell me something about my deep past. It is because he writes a good deal about the effect of the plague on England. England suffered the most from the plague of all the countries in the world. As much as 75% of the population of England died during the plagues that wracked England. Whole villages disappeared never to be populated again. Such was the extent of this virulent illness in that country. For England by the 13th century had a population of approximately 5 million and because of the devastation of the plague that population would not again reach five million until the mid 1800s.
As a result of the plague, a different England developed. An England where serfs became freemen and gradually formed the yeoman class and even up into the gentry class by the dint of hard work. They left behind their peers and became the middle class and even up into the upper middle class. They learned to read and write and created a country that was and continues to be unique as noted in the book. It is perhaps this plague that created the outspoken and democratic Englishmen/women who stood so tall and strong in the face of incredible force at the commencement of the Second World War. For they stood alone against the forces of evil that dominated the European Continent.
But I digress from the book. The Book is written in Three parts - Part I Biomedical Context, Part II People and Part III History.
In the first part we learn that the plague may actually have been a combination of plague and anthrax poisoning and the lack of medical expertise at the time probably resulted in poor record keeping that did not differentiate between the two. The speed at which the disease traveled from the rats on the cargo ships to the length and breadth of England simply does not fully explain the extent of the disease to the author's way of thinking. For myself, I have no idea but his story writing is certainly very interesting and perhaps one day there will be proof of his assertion.
In the second part he selects several incidents in history where plague has resulted in a dramatic change to the way things were supposed to happen. The death of Princess Joan on her way to wed the heir to the Spanish throne has enormous impact down through the ages. The desire of England to be at the forefront of the world activities meant that alliances were needed and the best alliances in this time frame were often those forged by marriage. But it was not to be and young Princess Joan died in Bordeaux and because of a fire it was not even possible to bring her body home for the appropriate funeral in her home country. Her restless soul is depicted as without a proper burial but then sudden death was not unknown in this time frame. There were no miracle medicine; no antibiotics; illness and death stalked every home whether rich or poor. The plague did not skip by the rich anymore than the poor - both died. A scapegoat was needed and so the Jewish people were blamed for spreading the plague and they were hounded from one end of Europe to the other and murdered in great numbers. One wonders how they have ever survived this long considering how persecuted they have been through the ages.
The third part relates history of disease and how it is propagated around the world. The "out of Africa" theory for disease emergence and spread is discussed especially with respect to AIDS which first arose in Africa in the 1930s. But then the miracle drugs are controlling even AIDS these days. Then there is the other theory that the diseases come by meteorite from outer space.
But overall the greatest impact of the Plague was in the development of the Middle class. With a shortage of workers caused by the plague individual serfs came to have a value that they had not had before. The possibility was there for them to first of all buy their freedom and that of their family and to become free agents. They could then take up farming the now vacated land because of the death of so many and gradually over time purchase land, build manor home and educate their children. Although the plague was a dreadful way for a more democratic society to emerge; emerge it did and we are the better for it.
I would highly recommend this book if you are interested in the story of man developing through the ages of time particularly from the time of the plague onward. The author has a good grasp of history and shares his thoughts while he writes; a novel way to write actually. He is seeking the reader's thoughts along the way and almost as if he knew your feedback he carries on and constantly develops his ideas on how the world flowed because of the plague.
Norman F Cantor
Published by Simon and Schuster Inc, New York, New York in 2001
ISBN 0060014342
245 pages
Norman Cantor's New York Times Bestseller, In the Wake of the Plague is a very well written, deeply thoughtful and provocative review of the plague in its historical context. When he recites the well known rhyme of young children: Ring around the Rosies, a Pocket full of Posies, Ashes Ashes, we all fall down and relates it to the way in which children come to terms with an event that is so catastrophic it could mean that they were the only survivor in their entire known family. It is a rhyme that I too said as a child when sudden death was still a common event and small children died from kidney disease, leukemia and so many other disorders that are now curable with modern medical science.
But the plague remains with us even now it is so virulent although for the most part people are saved with antibiotics. But what of the story that he tells; why would I feel that this story might add me in understanding my ancestry? For the most part, the books that I read tell me something about my deep past. It is because he writes a good deal about the effect of the plague on England. England suffered the most from the plague of all the countries in the world. As much as 75% of the population of England died during the plagues that wracked England. Whole villages disappeared never to be populated again. Such was the extent of this virulent illness in that country. For England by the 13th century had a population of approximately 5 million and because of the devastation of the plague that population would not again reach five million until the mid 1800s.
As a result of the plague, a different England developed. An England where serfs became freemen and gradually formed the yeoman class and even up into the gentry class by the dint of hard work. They left behind their peers and became the middle class and even up into the upper middle class. They learned to read and write and created a country that was and continues to be unique as noted in the book. It is perhaps this plague that created the outspoken and democratic Englishmen/women who stood so tall and strong in the face of incredible force at the commencement of the Second World War. For they stood alone against the forces of evil that dominated the European Continent.
But I digress from the book. The Book is written in Three parts - Part I Biomedical Context, Part II People and Part III History.
In the first part we learn that the plague may actually have been a combination of plague and anthrax poisoning and the lack of medical expertise at the time probably resulted in poor record keeping that did not differentiate between the two. The speed at which the disease traveled from the rats on the cargo ships to the length and breadth of England simply does not fully explain the extent of the disease to the author's way of thinking. For myself, I have no idea but his story writing is certainly very interesting and perhaps one day there will be proof of his assertion.
In the second part he selects several incidents in history where plague has resulted in a dramatic change to the way things were supposed to happen. The death of Princess Joan on her way to wed the heir to the Spanish throne has enormous impact down through the ages. The desire of England to be at the forefront of the world activities meant that alliances were needed and the best alliances in this time frame were often those forged by marriage. But it was not to be and young Princess Joan died in Bordeaux and because of a fire it was not even possible to bring her body home for the appropriate funeral in her home country. Her restless soul is depicted as without a proper burial but then sudden death was not unknown in this time frame. There were no miracle medicine; no antibiotics; illness and death stalked every home whether rich or poor. The plague did not skip by the rich anymore than the poor - both died. A scapegoat was needed and so the Jewish people were blamed for spreading the plague and they were hounded from one end of Europe to the other and murdered in great numbers. One wonders how they have ever survived this long considering how persecuted they have been through the ages.
The third part relates history of disease and how it is propagated around the world. The "out of Africa" theory for disease emergence and spread is discussed especially with respect to AIDS which first arose in Africa in the 1930s. But then the miracle drugs are controlling even AIDS these days. Then there is the other theory that the diseases come by meteorite from outer space.
But overall the greatest impact of the Plague was in the development of the Middle class. With a shortage of workers caused by the plague individual serfs came to have a value that they had not had before. The possibility was there for them to first of all buy their freedom and that of their family and to become free agents. They could then take up farming the now vacated land because of the death of so many and gradually over time purchase land, build manor home and educate their children. Although the plague was a dreadful way for a more democratic society to emerge; emerge it did and we are the better for it.
I would highly recommend this book if you are interested in the story of man developing through the ages of time particularly from the time of the plague onward. The author has a good grasp of history and shares his thoughts while he writes; a novel way to write actually. He is seeking the reader's thoughts along the way and almost as if he knew your feedback he carries on and constantly develops his ideas on how the world flowed because of the plague.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Cranford
Cranford
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Published by Everyman's Library; Dent: London, Dutton: New York
244 pages
We purchased the BBC series Cranford and I was quite captured by the illustration of life in the 1840s in a small town. Most of my ancestors came from small towns (or farms nearby) and seeing the different episodes was an interesting foray back in time. I borrowed the Cranford book from the library and having now read it I can say that the series was somewhat faithful to the writings but where it made the story fit the series only added to the interest factor.
This is the story of a fictitious place named Cranford and possibly the location would be western England near the Welsh border and in the Midlands area because they are not far from Manchester which is in south east Lancashire right on the border. The writing rather reminds me of the story telling of my grandparents with whom I spent quite a bit of my youth; initially I listened to my grandfather Blake talk for hours but after his death when I was eight years old I then listened to my grandmother Pincombe tell me stories of her England. For my grandfather's stories were about small town/farming England and my grandmother had grown up in Birmingham and so her stories were of a large industrial city where she managed to escape the industrial aspect of it working as a seamstress/dressmaker after completing her apprenticeship.
My grandmother always said that I didn't love her until after my grandfather died and perhaps that is true. I was too young to know the difference and I rather think I was very shy of her as a small child. She was much younger than my grandfather to my eyes (he was born in 1875 and she is 1886) so not really that many years but children see things the way they see them. But I did love my grandmother dearly as I grew to know her and she taught me to knit and sew very cleverly as a child. I also learned to smock, tat, and crochet. Such skills I used throughout my life until the computer age which lured me away from such homemaking tasks and introduced me to the world. Eventually that world centered on genealogy but that was nearly ten years after I became immersed in the Internet.
The story begins by telling us all about Cranford and the people who lived there. Cranford was a retired widows/spinsters haven with a commercial town of Drumble close by on the railroad. Unlike the television series the railroad had come to Cranford. The old fashioned ways that I heard about as a child from both my mother and my grandfather were alive and in force in Cranford and these ways changed little in the small towns right up to the end of the 1800s for the stories in Cranford are reminiscent of how life flowed according to my grandfather. The need to obey the rules of etiquette at every level of society was extremely important and very much manifested in Cranbrook.
The plight of the unmarried daughters of a clergyman now deceased was the centre of the story in many ways with Elizabeth Gaskell being the witness who related the story. This witness was the daughter of a family friend who lived in Manchester and according to the television series her father had remarried and had a second family which was large and growing and the daughter from the first marriage escaped to Cranford as much as possible since her step mother was always trying to marry her off.
Interestingly, the sudden death aspect of life that is apparent in the television series does not play out in the book Cranford and that rather surprised me. I had watched the series first and it was that aspect that most stayed with me from the television series. I feel now that perhaps the idyllic life that my grandfather painted for his small village of Upper Clatford was probably closer to the book and more in line with how I thought life flowed in the 1800s in England in the country/small towns. I had rather attributed to the sudden death aspect of life to the large cities in particular the cities that were most heavily into the industrial revolution which by the 1840s had quite taken root with hundred of people living in "back to back" houses and eeking out a living on small wages from factories.
My grandmother often talked about the poverty in England. Initially I thought perhaps she had experienced such poverty first hand but gradually as I listened to her stories I realized that she too was an observer. Her life had not been absolutely easy but poverty had not touched her life as it did in some areas of England. The sudden death of her mother had forced her to give up school at age 11 but for the most part children were finished at the age of 12 and her father, who does appear to be educated, continued her schooling in the evening but I suspect he was a rather strict taskmaster although she was very articulate and clever with mathematics when I knew her. She did however have to look after her younger siblings (9, 7, 5 and 1) which was a lot for an 11 year old I am sure. The then sudden death of her father from pneumonia as well when she was 14 was devastating for the family although they were quickly swept up and taken off to live in a children's home. It was this good treatment that has led me to wonder about the stories that I learned from her as a child. She was actually offered a home with three of her father's sisters but I suspect she made the wiser choice in learning to be a seamstress/dressmaker at school as her aunts were not desirous of taking in the younger children. Five children is a lot and I can understand their reluctance.
But continuing with the rather interesting book of Mrs. Gaskell, the storyline continues through an entire year and allows us a peek into the homes and lives of the many people in Cranford. The foibles and happy times, the loves and hates, the proper etiquette all come together to paint a rather interesting picture of how life flowed in the 1840s. That her story holds truths seems reasonable given that she has written this for the entertainment of people in this time period and perhaps it was her legacy to time of how life moved in her lifetime. We can only be most grateful to her for writing it all down.
The style of writing I found rather interesting as it rather reminded me of my grandmother's story telling. She being a Midlander of Birmingham and the story being just northwest of there near Manchester. It contrasts with my grandfather's somewhat more wordy story telling which is perhaps reminiscent of southern England and his voice had less of the abruptness that was part of my grandmother's style of speaking and to be found in Cranford as well.
The center of the story is Matilda and second eldest child of the priest of the parish and her siblings. Gently the story of the family is teased out and spread over the 244 pages of text. The trials and tribulations of the family bringing a smile or a tear to the eye in turn. But perhaps what I most enjoyed was the customs that remained in English families of my acquaintance down into the mid 1900s. The necessary language and attitudes changed little up to that time. The glimpse into the past of the families was a welcome gift from both the television series and the book.
I would highly recommend the reading of the book and in advance of watching the television series as it does contain more information on Cranford. The television series has created a few story lines that do not appear as such in the book Cranford but may appear in other of her writings which I shall now pursue.
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Published by Everyman's Library; Dent: London, Dutton: New York
244 pages
We purchased the BBC series Cranford and I was quite captured by the illustration of life in the 1840s in a small town. Most of my ancestors came from small towns (or farms nearby) and seeing the different episodes was an interesting foray back in time. I borrowed the Cranford book from the library and having now read it I can say that the series was somewhat faithful to the writings but where it made the story fit the series only added to the interest factor.
This is the story of a fictitious place named Cranford and possibly the location would be western England near the Welsh border and in the Midlands area because they are not far from Manchester which is in south east Lancashire right on the border. The writing rather reminds me of the story telling of my grandparents with whom I spent quite a bit of my youth; initially I listened to my grandfather Blake talk for hours but after his death when I was eight years old I then listened to my grandmother Pincombe tell me stories of her England. For my grandfather's stories were about small town/farming England and my grandmother had grown up in Birmingham and so her stories were of a large industrial city where she managed to escape the industrial aspect of it working as a seamstress/dressmaker after completing her apprenticeship.
My grandmother always said that I didn't love her until after my grandfather died and perhaps that is true. I was too young to know the difference and I rather think I was very shy of her as a small child. She was much younger than my grandfather to my eyes (he was born in 1875 and she is 1886) so not really that many years but children see things the way they see them. But I did love my grandmother dearly as I grew to know her and she taught me to knit and sew very cleverly as a child. I also learned to smock, tat, and crochet. Such skills I used throughout my life until the computer age which lured me away from such homemaking tasks and introduced me to the world. Eventually that world centered on genealogy but that was nearly ten years after I became immersed in the Internet.
The story begins by telling us all about Cranford and the people who lived there. Cranford was a retired widows/spinsters haven with a commercial town of Drumble close by on the railroad. Unlike the television series the railroad had come to Cranford. The old fashioned ways that I heard about as a child from both my mother and my grandfather were alive and in force in Cranford and these ways changed little in the small towns right up to the end of the 1800s for the stories in Cranford are reminiscent of how life flowed according to my grandfather. The need to obey the rules of etiquette at every level of society was extremely important and very much manifested in Cranbrook.
The plight of the unmarried daughters of a clergyman now deceased was the centre of the story in many ways with Elizabeth Gaskell being the witness who related the story. This witness was the daughter of a family friend who lived in Manchester and according to the television series her father had remarried and had a second family which was large and growing and the daughter from the first marriage escaped to Cranford as much as possible since her step mother was always trying to marry her off.
Interestingly, the sudden death aspect of life that is apparent in the television series does not play out in the book Cranford and that rather surprised me. I had watched the series first and it was that aspect that most stayed with me from the television series. I feel now that perhaps the idyllic life that my grandfather painted for his small village of Upper Clatford was probably closer to the book and more in line with how I thought life flowed in the 1800s in England in the country/small towns. I had rather attributed to the sudden death aspect of life to the large cities in particular the cities that were most heavily into the industrial revolution which by the 1840s had quite taken root with hundred of people living in "back to back" houses and eeking out a living on small wages from factories.
My grandmother often talked about the poverty in England. Initially I thought perhaps she had experienced such poverty first hand but gradually as I listened to her stories I realized that she too was an observer. Her life had not been absolutely easy but poverty had not touched her life as it did in some areas of England. The sudden death of her mother had forced her to give up school at age 11 but for the most part children were finished at the age of 12 and her father, who does appear to be educated, continued her schooling in the evening but I suspect he was a rather strict taskmaster although she was very articulate and clever with mathematics when I knew her. She did however have to look after her younger siblings (9, 7, 5 and 1) which was a lot for an 11 year old I am sure. The then sudden death of her father from pneumonia as well when she was 14 was devastating for the family although they were quickly swept up and taken off to live in a children's home. It was this good treatment that has led me to wonder about the stories that I learned from her as a child. She was actually offered a home with three of her father's sisters but I suspect she made the wiser choice in learning to be a seamstress/dressmaker at school as her aunts were not desirous of taking in the younger children. Five children is a lot and I can understand their reluctance.
But continuing with the rather interesting book of Mrs. Gaskell, the storyline continues through an entire year and allows us a peek into the homes and lives of the many people in Cranford. The foibles and happy times, the loves and hates, the proper etiquette all come together to paint a rather interesting picture of how life flowed in the 1840s. That her story holds truths seems reasonable given that she has written this for the entertainment of people in this time period and perhaps it was her legacy to time of how life moved in her lifetime. We can only be most grateful to her for writing it all down.
The style of writing I found rather interesting as it rather reminded me of my grandmother's story telling. She being a Midlander of Birmingham and the story being just northwest of there near Manchester. It contrasts with my grandfather's somewhat more wordy story telling which is perhaps reminiscent of southern England and his voice had less of the abruptness that was part of my grandmother's style of speaking and to be found in Cranford as well.
The center of the story is Matilda and second eldest child of the priest of the parish and her siblings. Gently the story of the family is teased out and spread over the 244 pages of text. The trials and tribulations of the family bringing a smile or a tear to the eye in turn. But perhaps what I most enjoyed was the customs that remained in English families of my acquaintance down into the mid 1900s. The necessary language and attitudes changed little up to that time. The glimpse into the past of the families was a welcome gift from both the television series and the book.
I would highly recommend the reading of the book and in advance of watching the television series as it does contain more information on Cranford. The television series has created a few story lines that do not appear as such in the book Cranford but may appear in other of her writings which I shall now pursue.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Spoken from the Heart
Spoken from the Heart
Laura Bush
Published by Simon and Schuster Inc., New York, New York in 2010
ISBN 9781439155202
456 pages, illustrated.
First Lady Laura Bush is a very skillful writer. Her autobiography has let us glimpse into her private life drawing both smiles and tears as one reads her story. Perhaps hidden is her own health story although occasionally one does have glimpses of this as well. She is a strong person and a truly great wife totally supporting her husband as he handled for eight years one of the most difficult jobs in the world.
The details contained in the book were an incredible read. Many of the projects undertaken by this remarkable woman were known to me but there were many that I learned from reading the book. It wasn't until I myself had two children eight years apart that I could understand the pain that one might experience when one does not have siblings. I am one of seven all of whom survived childhood and except for my eldest brother are all still living and soon will all be over 60 years of age.
I think what I found most amazing was how much her children were involved in their lives after taking on the presidency. They certainly managed to protect their children's privacy and raised very wonderful children. God grant them much happiness in the years ahead.
I would think this autobiography will stand amongst the best written books in the years to come. She makes one understand George Bush and his style of presidency. I am certainly glad that I purchased the book and would highly recommend this book to others.
Laura Bush
Published by Simon and Schuster Inc., New York, New York in 2010
ISBN 9781439155202
456 pages, illustrated.
First Lady Laura Bush is a very skillful writer. Her autobiography has let us glimpse into her private life drawing both smiles and tears as one reads her story. Perhaps hidden is her own health story although occasionally one does have glimpses of this as well. She is a strong person and a truly great wife totally supporting her husband as he handled for eight years one of the most difficult jobs in the world.
The details contained in the book were an incredible read. Many of the projects undertaken by this remarkable woman were known to me but there were many that I learned from reading the book. It wasn't until I myself had two children eight years apart that I could understand the pain that one might experience when one does not have siblings. I am one of seven all of whom survived childhood and except for my eldest brother are all still living and soon will all be over 60 years of age.
I think what I found most amazing was how much her children were involved in their lives after taking on the presidency. They certainly managed to protect their children's privacy and raised very wonderful children. God grant them much happiness in the years ahead.
I would think this autobiography will stand amongst the best written books in the years to come. She makes one understand George Bush and his style of presidency. I am certainly glad that I purchased the book and would highly recommend this book to others.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Reading List
- Tracing Your Ancestors in Ireland, Published by Republic of Ireland, undated (Pamphlet). 28 pages.
- The Good Regiment: The Carignan-Salières Regiment in Canada 1665-1668, Jack Verney, Published by McGill-Queens University Press, Montreal & Kingston in 1998, ISBN 978-0-7735-1818-6, 222 pages.
- Tracing Your Dublin Ancestors, James G. Ryan and Brian Smith, Published by Flyleaf Press, Dublin, Ireland in 1998, ISBN 0 9508466 9 4, 106 pages.
- Basic Guide to Irish Records for Family History, Brian Mitchell, Published by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, Maryland in 2008, ISBN 978-0-8063-5379-9, 52 pages.
- Irish Passenger lists, 1803-1806: lists of passengers sailing from Ireland to America, Brian Mitchell, Published by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, Maryland in 1995, ISBN 0806314583, 154 pages.
In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the world it made, Norman F Cantor, Published by Simon and Schuster Inc, New York, New York in 2001, ISBN 0060014342, 245 pages.- King's Daughters and Founding Mothers: The Filles du Roi, 1663-1673, Peter J Gagné, Volumes 1 and 2, Published by Quintin Publications, Orange Park, Florida in 2001, ISBN 1582119503, 663 pages.
- The War for all the Oceans: From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo, Roy Adkins and Lesley Adkins, Published by Viking Penquin, New York, New York in 2007, ISBN 9780143113928, 534 pages.
- Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu, Laurence Bergreen, Published by Vintage Books, New York, New York in 2008, ISBN 9781400078806, 415 pages.
October Sky, Homer Hickam, Published by Dell Publishing, New York, New York in 1998, ISBN 9780440235507, 428 pages.- The Chemical History of a Candle, Michael Faraday, Published by Dover Publications, Mineola, New York in 2002, (originally published in 1885-1889), ISBN 13:9780486425429, 228 pages.
Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life, Nick Lane, Published by Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, in 2005, ISBN 9780199205646, 354 pages.- Lucy's Legacy: The quest for human origins, Donald C Johanson, Published by Random House Inc, New, New York in 2009, ISBN 9780307396402, 321 pages.
- The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Published by Curtis Publishing Company, NewYork, New York in 1992, ISBN 9780306804762, 454 pages.
Spoken from the Heart, Laura Bush, Published by Simon and Schuster Inc., New York, New York in 2010, ISBN 9781439155202, 456 pages.- The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe, Robert S Gottfried, Published by MacMillan Publishing Co. Inc., New York, New York in 1983, ISBN 0029126304, 203 pages.
- The Cousins' Wars: Religion, Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America, Kevin Phillips, Published by Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, New York, New York in 1999, ISBN 0465013694, 707 pages.
- The Last Muster: Images of the Revolutionary War Generation, Maureen Taylor, Printed in China in 2010, ISBN 9781606350553, 177 pages.
- The Alchemy of Air, Thomas Hager, Published by Three Rivers Press, New York, New York, in 2008, ISBN 9780307351791, 316 pages.
- Entanglement: The unlikely story of how Scientists, Mathematicians, and Philosophers Proved Einstein's Spookiest Theory, Amir D Aczel, Published by the Penquin Group, New York, New York in 2003, ISBN 1568582323, 284 pages.
- Electric Universe: How Electricity switched on the modern world, David Bodanis, Published by Three Rivers Press, New York, New York in 2005, ISBN 9780307335982, 308 pages.
- Charles Darwin: The story of the amateur naturalist who created a scientific revolution and changed the world, Cyril Aydon, Published by Constable & Robinson Ltd, London, England, in 2003, ISBN 1841198013, 326 pages.
- To light such a candle: chapters in the history of science and technology, Keith J Laidler, Published by Oxford University Press Inc, Oxford, England in 1998, ISBN 0198500564, 384 pages.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
William and Kate: a Royal Love Story
William and Kate: A Royal Love Story
Christopher Andersen
Published by Gallery Books, A division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 2011
ISBN 978-1-4516-2145-7
312 p. Illustrated.
In Canada I would be considered a Monarchist and probably that would be obvious given my 100% British ancestry as far back as I can trace although my mtDNA does say I am likely from Argyllshire, Scotland. Hence my reading books about the Royal Family fits quite neatly into my reading regimen. Reading a book about Prince William and Kate his bride to be is especially not surprising given the ancestry of Prince William's mother Diana, Princess of Wales. Diana's father was the VIIIth Earl Spencer and the son of the 7th Earl Spencer and Lady Cynthia Elinor Beatrix Hamilton. Lady Cynthia was the daughter of the 3rd Duke of Abercorn. The mother of the Duke was Lady Maria Anna Curzon-Howe. Lady Maria was the daughter of Anne Gore. Anne was the daughter of Adm. Sir John Gore. Sir John's father was Colonel John Gore. John's mother was Dorothy Manley and her mother was Mary Newland. Mary's mother was Mary Blake the daughter of Thomas Blake and Dorothy Mayowe.
This Thomas Blake was the son of Thomas Blake and Eleanor Hall who lived at Eastontown near Andover Hampshire. The father of Thomas was John Blake and his mother was Margaret Blake. The Blake Pedigree at the Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office shows that the fathers of both John and Margaret were a William Blake at Eastontown. In one case William Blake married to Avice Ripley and the other not stated on the chart. If indeed Prince William is descendant of the Andover Blake family then he would be my many times cousin which is somewhat fascinating. A relationship I rather think I would share with several thousand people or perhaps tens of thousands. My husband and I share common ancestry with only two sets of people. He is descended from the ancestors of Diana, Princess of Wales through her mother and with Jim Sturgis who is related to him through the Kipp family and to me through the Gray family.
The book itself is an interesting read. One wonders if it is somewhat fiction in that it isn't a biography where he had contact with the two main characters in the story Prince William and Kate Middleton. He also has to rely on the reporting of the paparazzi and I tend to never look at or read anything that is obtained by such methods although gave exception to the book since it does tend to attack their means of obtaining information although did make use of some of it.
I think the saddest image I can remember except for close personal happenings was the televised funeral of Diana Princess of Wales when her two sons joined the funeral cortege following the coffin of their mother. What it cost those children can never really be measured. It has probably created in them a hardness and a tenderness all at the same time which will likely steady them through life but also provide some harrowing remembrances as they proceed forward in time.
I expect their wedding will be viewed by billions around the world and provide an uplift to the spirit of the world now dampened by the many earthquakes, tsunamis and other tragedies that are ongoing.
I would recommend the book although have not summarized it to any great extent perhaps because I do not really agree with opening up their private lives to such scrutiny although when one lives in a fish bowl it is difficult to avoid such reporting.
Christopher Andersen
Published by Gallery Books, A division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 2011
ISBN 978-1-4516-2145-7
312 p. Illustrated.
In Canada I would be considered a Monarchist and probably that would be obvious given my 100% British ancestry as far back as I can trace although my mtDNA does say I am likely from Argyllshire, Scotland. Hence my reading books about the Royal Family fits quite neatly into my reading regimen. Reading a book about Prince William and Kate his bride to be is especially not surprising given the ancestry of Prince William's mother Diana, Princess of Wales. Diana's father was the VIIIth Earl Spencer and the son of the 7th Earl Spencer and Lady Cynthia Elinor Beatrix Hamilton. Lady Cynthia was the daughter of the 3rd Duke of Abercorn. The mother of the Duke was Lady Maria Anna Curzon-Howe. Lady Maria was the daughter of Anne Gore. Anne was the daughter of Adm. Sir John Gore. Sir John's father was Colonel John Gore. John's mother was Dorothy Manley and her mother was Mary Newland. Mary's mother was Mary Blake the daughter of Thomas Blake and Dorothy Mayowe.
This Thomas Blake was the son of Thomas Blake and Eleanor Hall who lived at Eastontown near Andover Hampshire. The father of Thomas was John Blake and his mother was Margaret Blake. The Blake Pedigree at the Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office shows that the fathers of both John and Margaret were a William Blake at Eastontown. In one case William Blake married to Avice Ripley and the other not stated on the chart. If indeed Prince William is descendant of the Andover Blake family then he would be my many times cousin which is somewhat fascinating. A relationship I rather think I would share with several thousand people or perhaps tens of thousands. My husband and I share common ancestry with only two sets of people. He is descended from the ancestors of Diana, Princess of Wales through her mother and with Jim Sturgis who is related to him through the Kipp family and to me through the Gray family.
The book itself is an interesting read. One wonders if it is somewhat fiction in that it isn't a biography where he had contact with the two main characters in the story Prince William and Kate Middleton. He also has to rely on the reporting of the paparazzi and I tend to never look at or read anything that is obtained by such methods although gave exception to the book since it does tend to attack their means of obtaining information although did make use of some of it.
I think the saddest image I can remember except for close personal happenings was the televised funeral of Diana Princess of Wales when her two sons joined the funeral cortege following the coffin of their mother. What it cost those children can never really be measured. It has probably created in them a hardness and a tenderness all at the same time which will likely steady them through life but also provide some harrowing remembrances as they proceed forward in time.
I expect their wedding will be viewed by billions around the world and provide an uplift to the spirit of the world now dampened by the many earthquakes, tsunamis and other tragedies that are ongoing.
I would recommend the book although have not summarized it to any great extent perhaps because I do not really agree with opening up their private lives to such scrutiny although when one lives in a fish bowl it is difficult to avoid such reporting.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Present at the Creation: The story of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider
Present at the Creation: The story of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider
Amir D. Aczel
Published by Crown Publishers, New York in 2010
ISBN 978-0-307-59167-8
272 p. Illustrated
Present at the Creation: The story of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider leads me back to my first course in Quantum Physics -fascinating stuff back in the mid 1960s. Our year of Honours Chemistry was the first year to take Quantum Physics - I have forgotten now what course my husband took (he was one year ahead of me in Chemistry).
Although not a Physics scholar by any means; I enjoyed physics and especially mechanics. I like working through those dreadfully difficult problems. But I found chemistry fascinating and hence that is where I spent my university days - in a chemistry laboratory for the most part when we weren't taking classes or enjoying coffee (I do not actually drink coffee) in the cafeteria. We were a small class (i.e. 16 if I remember correctly). I finished my third of four years of Honours Chemistry but got married and finished off my degree as a pass degree hence B.A. after my name although 98% of my courses were in mathematics and science!
The first chapter of the book takes one directly into the CERN facility which straddles the border between France and Switzerland (mostly underground) and introduces you to all the main players - all PhD physicists primarily. My husband's PhD is in Chemistry but then he mnoved on from the pursuit of science to a professional degree in Librarianship where he spent his working days at the National Research Council in the Canadian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information. A brand new building when we arrived in Ottawa with a brand new daughter thirty five years ago in one month's time.
How does this book fit into genealogy? It doesn't except for the nagging question that is always there in one's mind especially after you do your mtDNA test. Where did we come from? How far back can we trace ourselves looking at our mtDNA? Creating the "Big Bang" that is believed to have started our atoms on their way towards the fulfilled Homo sapiens that we now represent. Will we evolve further? What new traits can we/will we acquire as the line moves forward in time? With five great grand nephews our family genes move forward in time although with a different surname. I find even yet there isn't that strong desire for grandchildren that so many have by my age. Perhaps when I am 75 I will feel that desire but somehow I doubt it. I tend to just live by the day thanking God for each new morning and trying to accomplish as much in His Name as I can each day. For truly I see my pursuit of genealogy as a task for God as I lovingly transcribe the ancient texts of the Church - Parish Records. It is something that I can do as my part in the Great Quest.
Chapters two and three take us inside the CERN facility and discuss the history of Quantum Mechanics starting in the late 1800s and continuing up to the present. The cooperation between members of the team at CERN is wonderful to behold and one can expect great happenings to come from their research. Fear of the "Black Hole" creation when performing tests at CERN seem to have disappeared these days and we all await their scientific discoveries.
I then read the appendices (a, b, and c) which detail the workings of the Large Hadron Collider at ATLAS, give details on the meaning of terms and definitions. Probably a good idea to read this material near the beginning of the book.
Chapters four through seven discuss antimatter and why we still exist (antimatter does not exist in our universe but did exist at the time of the "Big Bang" as hypothesized by quantum physicists) and the development of the theory that positrons, muons and tau particles existed and then the eventual experiments that proved their existence with respect to the science that evolved to show their existence. It is all theoretical and reminds me of the extension of the Periodic Table where new elements (that do not occur presently in nature) are added that decay rapidly to smaller elements plus other particles in tiny measurable time. However, it is fascinating to read and I am now up to the years of study when I took Quantum Physics at University. From now on in the book the discussion is on theoretical physics after my year of Quantum Physics.
I love the references that the author makes to the "God" factor. As one delves deeper and deeper into science and why we are here one can only have a stronger and stronger opinion on the existence of God in all of this. That creating hand directing the symphony of life as it emerges from the primordial soup of creation. Else why does antimatter disappear from our universe permitting us to develop through the eons to where we are now trying to view this act of creation.
This then shows why I whose interest is 100% genealogy these days would stop and read this rather fascinating book - Present at the Creation. Perhaps also our trip through Europe which passed (probably 50 miles distant) near to the CERN facility reminding me once again of the ever persistent desire of man/woman to know the mode of creation and how we arrived at this point in time. All of our science these days is geared to an understanding of evolution and how it transpired from second one of our universe. Genealogy itself has become consumed by DNA research.
Chapter 8 discusses quarks and the quark-gluon primordial soup which is theorized to have existed following the "Big Bang." Quarks (and now we are into the search for the Higgs factor) were then drawn together in a systematic fashion to produce elements gradually over time. From this life emerged in a slow process where man's existence is but a short period of that emergence. Genealogy unfolding in our universe.
Chapter 9 discusses the Higgs Boson and the existence of which would prove the Standard Model conceived for Physics. Not all physicists agree with the existence of the Higgs Boson which was produced by a break in the symmetry of nature. The best explanation I have seen thus far is the idea of walking through a field unimpeded which would be like a walk through the primordial soup immediately following creation - no mass to impede you. Then a snowfall occurs (i.e. a cooling) and then your way is impeded by the snow and clumps appear on your shoes thus giving mass to the primordial soup. The Higgs boson is born. Further testing at CERN will prove or disprove the Higgs boson.
Chapter 10 continues the discussion on the Higgs factor and convergence of energies at the time of the "Big Bang." No solution has yet been found to prove convergence and so the Standard Model conceived may yet undergo further change. A difficult chapter and the rest will also be somewhat difficult. My Quantum mechanics is very old in my mind but I will complete the book to see if I can acquire an understanding of dark matter and dark energy.
Chapters 11 to 14 bring us back to CERN and projects there. The reminder of Occam's Razor that the simplest theory is probably the correct one. Physics' Standard Model evolved in the latter part of the 20th century towards "beauty" in the style of presentation because nature itself tends towards the beautiful with symmetry being the usual style. These chapters lead us through the dance of this time period and we sit waiting for the results of the experiments at CERN. Discovering dark mass and dark energy have become the principal goals because postulations about the convergence of all energies (including gravity) immediately following the "Big Bang" work based on the idea of dark mass and dark energy surpassing even the search for the Higgs boson. All of this work lead to String Theory and the solution of the entropy of black holes. But String Theory is also dependent on the tests at CERN although has justified its existence with the solution of entropy. All of this discussion has led to a fear that the tests at CERN will create tiny black holes that could grow and destroy our universe. Although refuted by many eminent scientists the author leaves us wondering about the tests at CERN and here we are awaiting those results.
The Afterword talks about 30 Mar 2010 when the target level of 7 TeV was reached for the two beams of protons (3.5 TeV for each stream one clockwise and one counterclockwise). They were then collided at 12:58 p.m. European time. The 14 Tev needed to mimic the Big Bang is projected for 2013.
Excellent book although quite heavy in terminology but if you are patient and work your way through the difficult parts you are rewarded at the end of the book with an interesting view of the 2010 test and what is anticipated to be proven. Then the look ahead to the 2013 testing.
Amir D. Aczel
Published by Crown Publishers, New York in 2010
ISBN 978-0-307-59167-8
272 p. Illustrated
Present at the Creation: The story of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider leads me back to my first course in Quantum Physics -fascinating stuff back in the mid 1960s. Our year of Honours Chemistry was the first year to take Quantum Physics - I have forgotten now what course my husband took (he was one year ahead of me in Chemistry).
Although not a Physics scholar by any means; I enjoyed physics and especially mechanics. I like working through those dreadfully difficult problems. But I found chemistry fascinating and hence that is where I spent my university days - in a chemistry laboratory for the most part when we weren't taking classes or enjoying coffee (I do not actually drink coffee) in the cafeteria. We were a small class (i.e. 16 if I remember correctly). I finished my third of four years of Honours Chemistry but got married and finished off my degree as a pass degree hence B.A. after my name although 98% of my courses were in mathematics and science!
The first chapter of the book takes one directly into the CERN facility which straddles the border between France and Switzerland (mostly underground) and introduces you to all the main players - all PhD physicists primarily. My husband's PhD is in Chemistry but then he mnoved on from the pursuit of science to a professional degree in Librarianship where he spent his working days at the National Research Council in the Canadian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information. A brand new building when we arrived in Ottawa with a brand new daughter thirty five years ago in one month's time.
How does this book fit into genealogy? It doesn't except for the nagging question that is always there in one's mind especially after you do your mtDNA test. Where did we come from? How far back can we trace ourselves looking at our mtDNA? Creating the "Big Bang" that is believed to have started our atoms on their way towards the fulfilled Homo sapiens that we now represent. Will we evolve further? What new traits can we/will we acquire as the line moves forward in time? With five great grand nephews our family genes move forward in time although with a different surname. I find even yet there isn't that strong desire for grandchildren that so many have by my age. Perhaps when I am 75 I will feel that desire but somehow I doubt it. I tend to just live by the day thanking God for each new morning and trying to accomplish as much in His Name as I can each day. For truly I see my pursuit of genealogy as a task for God as I lovingly transcribe the ancient texts of the Church - Parish Records. It is something that I can do as my part in the Great Quest.
Chapters two and three take us inside the CERN facility and discuss the history of Quantum Mechanics starting in the late 1800s and continuing up to the present. The cooperation between members of the team at CERN is wonderful to behold and one can expect great happenings to come from their research. Fear of the "Black Hole" creation when performing tests at CERN seem to have disappeared these days and we all await their scientific discoveries.
I then read the appendices (a, b, and c) which detail the workings of the Large Hadron Collider at ATLAS, give details on the meaning of terms and definitions. Probably a good idea to read this material near the beginning of the book.
Chapters four through seven discuss antimatter and why we still exist (antimatter does not exist in our universe but did exist at the time of the "Big Bang" as hypothesized by quantum physicists) and the development of the theory that positrons, muons and tau particles existed and then the eventual experiments that proved their existence with respect to the science that evolved to show their existence. It is all theoretical and reminds me of the extension of the Periodic Table where new elements (that do not occur presently in nature) are added that decay rapidly to smaller elements plus other particles in tiny measurable time. However, it is fascinating to read and I am now up to the years of study when I took Quantum Physics at University. From now on in the book the discussion is on theoretical physics after my year of Quantum Physics.
I love the references that the author makes to the "God" factor. As one delves deeper and deeper into science and why we are here one can only have a stronger and stronger opinion on the existence of God in all of this. That creating hand directing the symphony of life as it emerges from the primordial soup of creation. Else why does antimatter disappear from our universe permitting us to develop through the eons to where we are now trying to view this act of creation.
This then shows why I whose interest is 100% genealogy these days would stop and read this rather fascinating book - Present at the Creation. Perhaps also our trip through Europe which passed (probably 50 miles distant) near to the CERN facility reminding me once again of the ever persistent desire of man/woman to know the mode of creation and how we arrived at this point in time. All of our science these days is geared to an understanding of evolution and how it transpired from second one of our universe. Genealogy itself has become consumed by DNA research.
Chapter 8 discusses quarks and the quark-gluon primordial soup which is theorized to have existed following the "Big Bang." Quarks (and now we are into the search for the Higgs factor) were then drawn together in a systematic fashion to produce elements gradually over time. From this life emerged in a slow process where man's existence is but a short period of that emergence. Genealogy unfolding in our universe.
Chapter 9 discusses the Higgs Boson and the existence of which would prove the Standard Model conceived for Physics. Not all physicists agree with the existence of the Higgs Boson which was produced by a break in the symmetry of nature. The best explanation I have seen thus far is the idea of walking through a field unimpeded which would be like a walk through the primordial soup immediately following creation - no mass to impede you. Then a snowfall occurs (i.e. a cooling) and then your way is impeded by the snow and clumps appear on your shoes thus giving mass to the primordial soup. The Higgs boson is born. Further testing at CERN will prove or disprove the Higgs boson.
Chapter 10 continues the discussion on the Higgs factor and convergence of energies at the time of the "Big Bang." No solution has yet been found to prove convergence and so the Standard Model conceived may yet undergo further change. A difficult chapter and the rest will also be somewhat difficult. My Quantum mechanics is very old in my mind but I will complete the book to see if I can acquire an understanding of dark matter and dark energy.
Chapters 11 to 14 bring us back to CERN and projects there. The reminder of Occam's Razor that the simplest theory is probably the correct one. Physics' Standard Model evolved in the latter part of the 20th century towards "beauty" in the style of presentation because nature itself tends towards the beautiful with symmetry being the usual style. These chapters lead us through the dance of this time period and we sit waiting for the results of the experiments at CERN. Discovering dark mass and dark energy have become the principal goals because postulations about the convergence of all energies (including gravity) immediately following the "Big Bang" work based on the idea of dark mass and dark energy surpassing even the search for the Higgs boson. All of this work lead to String Theory and the solution of the entropy of black holes. But String Theory is also dependent on the tests at CERN although has justified its existence with the solution of entropy. All of this discussion has led to a fear that the tests at CERN will create tiny black holes that could grow and destroy our universe. Although refuted by many eminent scientists the author leaves us wondering about the tests at CERN and here we are awaiting those results.
The Afterword talks about 30 Mar 2010 when the target level of 7 TeV was reached for the two beams of protons (3.5 TeV for each stream one clockwise and one counterclockwise). They were then collided at 12:58 p.m. European time. The 14 Tev needed to mimic the Big Bang is projected for 2013.
Excellent book although quite heavy in terminology but if you are patient and work your way through the difficult parts you are rewarded at the end of the book with an interesting view of the 2010 test and what is anticipated to be proven. Then the look ahead to the 2013 testing.
Monday, March 21, 2011
The Drunkard's Walk How Randomness Rules our Lives
The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives
Leonard Mlodinow
Published by Vintage Books, division of Random House Inc., New York, USA in 2008
ISBN. 978-0-307-27517-2
252 Pages.
This book is from my daughter's collection of books. We have similar reading interests - rather random actually! The book caught my eye because it talks about randomness and how events that are random affect our lives. I love the imagery in the introduction which talks about random events being like molecules moving through time and space and how they may accidentally bump into or otherwise affect each other. I see life events as being like that and these "encounters" affect how our life flows.
The first chapter introduces us to concepts of dealing with randomness and the resultant tendency of success or failure as determined by random events. Mostly he talks about successful films and film studios. The idea that J K Rowling was refused six times for her initial book on Harry Potter is hard to imagine given the eventual success of both her novels and the subsequent films. It is persistent rather than randomness that determines success the author mentions and I need to read the rest of the book now to determine if I agree with his thesis.
My own life events that led me to genealogy are one such set of random events. We, my eldest daughter and I, went to Rome for eight days in November 2001 (yes it was an interesting time to fly to Europe and be there in the days following 9/11). This was an organized visit in that we were to attend a specific religious event the invitation for which I obtained via the Anglican newslist to which I belonged. The time we spent in Rome was absolutely wonderful and I appreciate it even more now that we have had our whirlwind tour of Europe where our time in Rome (2 days) was great but can not compare to spending eight days there even with the organized tours that swept us past long lineups. But it was here that for the first time I had a concrete thought about my ancestors and what they might or might not have done in the past. As I stood in front of St Peter's Basilica for the first time I wondered, aloud, whether any of my ancestors had made this pilgrimage to Rome (for that is how I saw it). Later as we traveled to the second city of our European trip (London) I experienced even more profound thoughts on fammily and front that experience (although it took another two years) was borne the desire to learn more about my ancestors. The randomness by which I reached the project that now occupies most of my waking hours (and sometimes my sleeping ones) has constantly amazed me and so this book has entered into my realm of thoughts. The randomness of life events bounces us one way or another like molecules in nature.
Continuing into Chapters Two, Three and Four the author carries us forward with his thesis on randomness and how it rules our lives. Comments that I found particularly interesting:
Probability wasn't particularly interesting up to the 1500s because one felt that their life was predetermined by the Gods initially (God in the case of the Jews and Gods in the case of Romans and Greeks) so that looking at the probability of a life event was not meaningful since all life events were predetermined.
Then the idea of events in a space that one could then determine the chances of a particular event occurring was first discussed by Gerolamo Cardano in his book "Games of Chance" which from the viewpoint of accuracy fails that test somewhat but does represent the first documentation of probability or the nature of uncertainty. His book was actually published after his death and the discussion of his life is quite interesting and will leave that to other readers to discover.
Enter Pascal in Chapter four and the development of Pascal's triangle which we still use today to look at the number of choices one can have for a particular case study. I found it quite fascinating that the details of Pascal's life story eventually lead him to make a decision on the existence of God and how he should lead his life with respect to God's existence. Again the reader should not have his/her reading spoiled by my book report and so I leave the details to the reader.
Now that I am nearly half way through the book, I look once again at Genealogy and how it occupies my life - basically all my waking hours are mostly directed towards achieving the maximum number of details possible on my ancestors. Not so much that I may solve all the riddles but that I leave the material thus found in such a fashion that another family researcher can pick my material up and run with it. Solving one's past opens one's eyes to the future in a way that I had not realized before in my life. Not that one can avoid the problems of life; that is highly unlikely but one can see that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. An old philosophy always says that when God closes the door He opens a window so that one does escape but the escape may not always be viewed as success by those who view it. It is an interesting conundrum - what one person may view as failure another may see as great success.
Chapters six and seven discuss error and how error was derived. For every measurement there is an error factor whether caused by the machine used to perform the measurement or your own eyes which may not regard the particular measurement line at the same angle. Error exists in all that we do although we constantly strive to minimize that error. Bell curves now enter into the discussion and having written this absolutely difficult physics examination in Grade 13 in Ontario back in 1963 which few could possibly have passed, I can appreciate that a bell curve is the best means by which one might judge the fairness of an examination since you have so many people writing it from so many different areas with so many different teachers. Mind you I prefer the idea of standardized testing across a given area (province sounds reasonable) and that it might count for 100% as it allows for a student to really show their abilities. It may also be the downfall of a student who doesn't test well that is for sure but the alternative in my day was to send the student elsewhere to attend university (not always practical). But I dither once again and return to Bell Curves which should have absolutely nothing to do with genealogy or do they? Well yes they do; as I transcribe fromn these old registers I attempt to be consistent in how I read the letters but there is one difficulty in that people were not always consisent in how they fornmed those letters I am so carefully trying to read and so there is an error term. I attempt to minimize that error term by reviewing the page to see if there are other letters formed like that and by referring to the entire word and the probability it is one item or another - like Smith or Jones (easily told apart) but how about Smith and Spratt when letters are smudged or missing over time. Well it is an interesting time and I find that I quite enjoy it in spite of the propensity for error. I know that once I publish these files that others will go in and have a look and possibly write mne and say I do not agree. I welcome such comments as it can only make the work better.
I am now moving to the last couple of chapters of the book and I can say this has been a most fascinating read. I had forgotten Lavoisier (father of Chemistry) was beheaded by the French revolutionists. What more would he have accomplished in his lifetime - what a loss!
Chaptter 8 amazingly has some application to genealogy in that the statistical measurement of "human events" now enters into the field of randomness ruling our lives. A chart created by John Gaunt looking at the mortality statistics which the English kept for London from the 1600s on has a table on the mortality of 100 people who by the age of 6 would number 74, by the age of 16 would be 40, by the age of 26 would be 25, by the age of 36 would be 16, by the age of 46 would be 10, by the age of 56 would be 6, by the age of 66 would be 3, by the age of 76 would be 1 with no one living after that time. This is of course an average as some lived longer and some shorter. These are the life tables that were then used by insurance companies and the World Health Organization amazingly. In 1667 the French began to keep such information on their citizens - particularly the effect of the plague on their populations.
Chapter 9 discusses personal biais and how it influences how we perceive items in our daily life. It is something that I have been very way of doing genealogy. A lot of information on some of my lines has been published and in many cases the original data was flawed. I wonder, to myself, why do people repeat this flawed data but then initially I too saw the data as published but eventually resolved that I could find no proof or the data was actually incorrect and I have removed it from my tree. Why do other people cling to the published results that have been proven to be erroneous in published literature? Again the author captures this reason. People inherently will follow what has been done and accept it rather than be pessimistic and refute it. It is neater and hence produces a pattern that can then be established. Fortunately people are opposed to this copycat assessment of the past and more and more are questioning earlier writings. However, the author alludes to fraud that follows the acceptance of statistics in our day to day life. Because it has been written thus it is true has become a common statement particularly on the stock market. Enormous failures have perhaps pointed out to the investor that fraud can and does occur.
The last chapter repeats part of the title: The drunkard's walk. What predicts success in life? can one control one's success in life? These are the queries presented in the last chapter and Bill Gates was one of the stars. But the author determines that success is by chance although one can input into those chances to improve the success rate. I think of myself very successfully giving talks on DNA with repeat requests when suddenly I stopped. It wasn't for lack of things to say but rather direction. This wasn't the direction I wanted to move in and so I passed up on success to continue my pursuit of the past and I am happier for it. Had I been younger would I have moved that way? Probably not, I was more interested in success in my business than in my pursuit of ancestry!
I would highly recommend this book. It is a fantastic diversion from genealogy and yet it, like my pursuit of our son in law's ancestry sharpened my skills in genealogy. I must steer away from allowing my preconceived notions to colour how I read results.
Leonard Mlodinow
Published by Vintage Books, division of Random House Inc., New York, USA in 2008
ISBN. 978-0-307-27517-2
252 Pages.
This book is from my daughter's collection of books. We have similar reading interests - rather random actually! The book caught my eye because it talks about randomness and how events that are random affect our lives. I love the imagery in the introduction which talks about random events being like molecules moving through time and space and how they may accidentally bump into or otherwise affect each other. I see life events as being like that and these "encounters" affect how our life flows.
The first chapter introduces us to concepts of dealing with randomness and the resultant tendency of success or failure as determined by random events. Mostly he talks about successful films and film studios. The idea that J K Rowling was refused six times for her initial book on Harry Potter is hard to imagine given the eventual success of both her novels and the subsequent films. It is persistent rather than randomness that determines success the author mentions and I need to read the rest of the book now to determine if I agree with his thesis.
My own life events that led me to genealogy are one such set of random events. We, my eldest daughter and I, went to Rome for eight days in November 2001 (yes it was an interesting time to fly to Europe and be there in the days following 9/11). This was an organized visit in that we were to attend a specific religious event the invitation for which I obtained via the Anglican newslist to which I belonged. The time we spent in Rome was absolutely wonderful and I appreciate it even more now that we have had our whirlwind tour of Europe where our time in Rome (2 days) was great but can not compare to spending eight days there even with the organized tours that swept us past long lineups. But it was here that for the first time I had a concrete thought about my ancestors and what they might or might not have done in the past. As I stood in front of St Peter's Basilica for the first time I wondered, aloud, whether any of my ancestors had made this pilgrimage to Rome (for that is how I saw it). Later as we traveled to the second city of our European trip (London) I experienced even more profound thoughts on fammily and front that experience (although it took another two years) was borne the desire to learn more about my ancestors. The randomness by which I reached the project that now occupies most of my waking hours (and sometimes my sleeping ones) has constantly amazed me and so this book has entered into my realm of thoughts. The randomness of life events bounces us one way or another like molecules in nature.
Continuing into Chapters Two, Three and Four the author carries us forward with his thesis on randomness and how it rules our lives. Comments that I found particularly interesting:
Probability wasn't particularly interesting up to the 1500s because one felt that their life was predetermined by the Gods initially (God in the case of the Jews and Gods in the case of Romans and Greeks) so that looking at the probability of a life event was not meaningful since all life events were predetermined.
Then the idea of events in a space that one could then determine the chances of a particular event occurring was first discussed by Gerolamo Cardano in his book "Games of Chance" which from the viewpoint of accuracy fails that test somewhat but does represent the first documentation of probability or the nature of uncertainty. His book was actually published after his death and the discussion of his life is quite interesting and will leave that to other readers to discover.
Enter Pascal in Chapter four and the development of Pascal's triangle which we still use today to look at the number of choices one can have for a particular case study. I found it quite fascinating that the details of Pascal's life story eventually lead him to make a decision on the existence of God and how he should lead his life with respect to God's existence. Again the reader should not have his/her reading spoiled by my book report and so I leave the details to the reader.
Now that I am nearly half way through the book, I look once again at Genealogy and how it occupies my life - basically all my waking hours are mostly directed towards achieving the maximum number of details possible on my ancestors. Not so much that I may solve all the riddles but that I leave the material thus found in such a fashion that another family researcher can pick my material up and run with it. Solving one's past opens one's eyes to the future in a way that I had not realized before in my life. Not that one can avoid the problems of life; that is highly unlikely but one can see that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. An old philosophy always says that when God closes the door He opens a window so that one does escape but the escape may not always be viewed as success by those who view it. It is an interesting conundrum - what one person may view as failure another may see as great success.
Chapters six and seven discuss error and how error was derived. For every measurement there is an error factor whether caused by the machine used to perform the measurement or your own eyes which may not regard the particular measurement line at the same angle. Error exists in all that we do although we constantly strive to minimize that error. Bell curves now enter into the discussion and having written this absolutely difficult physics examination in Grade 13 in Ontario back in 1963 which few could possibly have passed, I can appreciate that a bell curve is the best means by which one might judge the fairness of an examination since you have so many people writing it from so many different areas with so many different teachers. Mind you I prefer the idea of standardized testing across a given area (province sounds reasonable) and that it might count for 100% as it allows for a student to really show their abilities. It may also be the downfall of a student who doesn't test well that is for sure but the alternative in my day was to send the student elsewhere to attend university (not always practical). But I dither once again and return to Bell Curves which should have absolutely nothing to do with genealogy or do they? Well yes they do; as I transcribe fromn these old registers I attempt to be consistent in how I read the letters but there is one difficulty in that people were not always consisent in how they fornmed those letters I am so carefully trying to read and so there is an error term. I attempt to minimize that error term by reviewing the page to see if there are other letters formed like that and by referring to the entire word and the probability it is one item or another - like Smith or Jones (easily told apart) but how about Smith and Spratt when letters are smudged or missing over time. Well it is an interesting time and I find that I quite enjoy it in spite of the propensity for error. I know that once I publish these files that others will go in and have a look and possibly write mne and say I do not agree. I welcome such comments as it can only make the work better.
I am now moving to the last couple of chapters of the book and I can say this has been a most fascinating read. I had forgotten Lavoisier (father of Chemistry) was beheaded by the French revolutionists. What more would he have accomplished in his lifetime - what a loss!
Chaptter 8 amazingly has some application to genealogy in that the statistical measurement of "human events" now enters into the field of randomness ruling our lives. A chart created by John Gaunt looking at the mortality statistics which the English kept for London from the 1600s on has a table on the mortality of 100 people who by the age of 6 would number 74, by the age of 16 would be 40, by the age of 26 would be 25, by the age of 36 would be 16, by the age of 46 would be 10, by the age of 56 would be 6, by the age of 66 would be 3, by the age of 76 would be 1 with no one living after that time. This is of course an average as some lived longer and some shorter. These are the life tables that were then used by insurance companies and the World Health Organization amazingly. In 1667 the French began to keep such information on their citizens - particularly the effect of the plague on their populations.
Chapter 9 discusses personal biais and how it influences how we perceive items in our daily life. It is something that I have been very way of doing genealogy. A lot of information on some of my lines has been published and in many cases the original data was flawed. I wonder, to myself, why do people repeat this flawed data but then initially I too saw the data as published but eventually resolved that I could find no proof or the data was actually incorrect and I have removed it from my tree. Why do other people cling to the published results that have been proven to be erroneous in published literature? Again the author captures this reason. People inherently will follow what has been done and accept it rather than be pessimistic and refute it. It is neater and hence produces a pattern that can then be established. Fortunately people are opposed to this copycat assessment of the past and more and more are questioning earlier writings. However, the author alludes to fraud that follows the acceptance of statistics in our day to day life. Because it has been written thus it is true has become a common statement particularly on the stock market. Enormous failures have perhaps pointed out to the investor that fraud can and does occur.
The last chapter repeats part of the title: The drunkard's walk. What predicts success in life? can one control one's success in life? These are the queries presented in the last chapter and Bill Gates was one of the stars. But the author determines that success is by chance although one can input into those chances to improve the success rate. I think of myself very successfully giving talks on DNA with repeat requests when suddenly I stopped. It wasn't for lack of things to say but rather direction. This wasn't the direction I wanted to move in and so I passed up on success to continue my pursuit of the past and I am happier for it. Had I been younger would I have moved that way? Probably not, I was more interested in success in my business than in my pursuit of ancestry!
I would highly recommend this book. It is a fantastic diversion from genealogy and yet it, like my pursuit of our son in law's ancestry sharpened my skills in genealogy. I must steer away from allowing my preconceived notions to colour how I read results.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
The King's Speech
The King's Speech: How one man saved the British Monarchy
Mark Logue and Peter Conradi
Published by the Penquin Group (Canada). 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2010
ISBN. 978-0-14-317854-5
242 Pages. Illustrated.
I purchased this book here in Ottawa, Canada after having attended the showing of the Film at Silvercity, Gloucester, ON. I remember the King from my early days at school when our Principal was a British soldier (now teacher) whose admiration for King George VI was extreme. The day of his funeral he wore a black arm band and we all met in the kindergarten for assembly. I can especially remember the last singing of God Save the King when it was known that he was gravely ill as we met also in assembly to pray for him. I was six years old when he died.
The movie was terrific although the actor doesn't look like King George VI but then I think that was most appropriate - he was a great man standing tall over England during the worst days of the Blitz never abandoning his people for even a moment. Although most attribute to Churchill the great victory I think that King George VI stood tall beside him and the combination was unbeatable.
The Table of Contents, Acknowledgement and Introduction clearly show the flow of the book and why it was written and published. One understands from the Introduction that the portion that is being published are notes not available to the film makers and hence do give a slightly different inmpression from the movie. I believe that the book is more reminiscent of King George VI as I would have thought he would have been.
The book itself chapter by chapter draws a picture of royalty which I think was close to the style of life enjoyed by the Royal Family at these time periods. The devotion of the Royal family to England went far beyond what one would expect to see.
The story of Lionel Logue's family life was most interesting and not really captured by the movie but then the movie was about King George VI and his personal battle with a speech stammer. The book though does capture this story and perhaps inadvertently the suffering of the Royal Family exposed constantly to the public limelight.
I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in the life of King George VI. As a young child, I can remember the devotion which my grandfather had to his King as he described the King of England and Canada. But then my grandfather never stopped being a British Subject even after fourty years in Canada. Truly the official naming of people who were citizens of Canada as of 1st January 1947 Canadians was not noticed by this then aging senior who never really lost the thought that Canada was just another part of England. Reading the book does tend to reinforce this notion because that is how one thought of Canada at that time in our history.
Both book and film are highly recommended to give one insight into the role that the United Kingdomn played in our lives in the 1940s and 1950s and continues to play in our lives in 2011.
Mark Logue and Peter Conradi
Published by the Penquin Group (Canada). 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2010
ISBN. 978-0-14-317854-5
242 Pages. Illustrated.
I purchased this book here in Ottawa, Canada after having attended the showing of the Film at Silvercity, Gloucester, ON. I remember the King from my early days at school when our Principal was a British soldier (now teacher) whose admiration for King George VI was extreme. The day of his funeral he wore a black arm band and we all met in the kindergarten for assembly. I can especially remember the last singing of God Save the King when it was known that he was gravely ill as we met also in assembly to pray for him. I was six years old when he died.
The movie was terrific although the actor doesn't look like King George VI but then I think that was most appropriate - he was a great man standing tall over England during the worst days of the Blitz never abandoning his people for even a moment. Although most attribute to Churchill the great victory I think that King George VI stood tall beside him and the combination was unbeatable.
The Table of Contents, Acknowledgement and Introduction clearly show the flow of the book and why it was written and published. One understands from the Introduction that the portion that is being published are notes not available to the film makers and hence do give a slightly different inmpression from the movie. I believe that the book is more reminiscent of King George VI as I would have thought he would have been.
The book itself chapter by chapter draws a picture of royalty which I think was close to the style of life enjoyed by the Royal Family at these time periods. The devotion of the Royal family to England went far beyond what one would expect to see.
The story of Lionel Logue's family life was most interesting and not really captured by the movie but then the movie was about King George VI and his personal battle with a speech stammer. The book though does capture this story and perhaps inadvertently the suffering of the Royal Family exposed constantly to the public limelight.
I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in the life of King George VI. As a young child, I can remember the devotion which my grandfather had to his King as he described the King of England and Canada. But then my grandfather never stopped being a British Subject even after fourty years in Canada. Truly the official naming of people who were citizens of Canada as of 1st January 1947 Canadians was not noticed by this then aging senior who never really lost the thought that Canada was just another part of England. Reading the book does tend to reinforce this notion because that is how one thought of Canada at that time in our history.
Both book and film are highly recommended to give one insight into the role that the United Kingdomn played in our lives in the 1940s and 1950s and continues to play in our lives in 2011.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers
Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers (Late the 23rd Foot)
A.D.L. Cary and Stouppe McCance (Compilers)
Gerald C Hudson (Illustrator)
Volume 1 1689-1815
Published by The Naval & Military Press Ltd. Uckfield, East Sussex UK in 2005
ISBN. 1-845741765
324 Pages. Illustrated.
I purchased this book at the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum at Cardiff Castle, Wales when we visited the Castle on our Trafalgar Tour of England April/May 2008. The Museum is a must see for anyone interested in Military Heritage but for me it was really special because my 3x great grandfather George Lywood (Laywood) was a soldier in the 23rd Regiment of Foot during the Peninsular Wars and also at Waterloo. I have meant to read it for awhile and had glanced at it somewhat. The opportunity arose to read it and I found it most interesting.
There is at the beginning of the book a Chronological Summary of the activities of the regiment from the date of authorization by King William III to raise the regiment 16 Mar 1689 to the Stationing of the 23rd Regiment outside Paris during the autumn and winter following the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815). It is very detailed and includes every stop known by the compilers. There are a number of coloured plates including the regimental dress at various time periods in colour and a number of interesting black and white illustrations.
The Log of the Regiment by year follows and as noted in the Introduction the compilers had to produce this record in the almost entire absence of letters, diaries or journals of officers who served during the time period of this book. The log is a running narrative by date and beginning with the earliest records and moving forward.
The narrative runs by year commencing in 1689 with the founding of the Regiment. This Regiment first served in Ireland (indeed it was the resistance by King James II there that resulted in its creation) and was involved with the Battles fought between King James II and King William III. King James having been forced to abdicate and King William III and Queen Mary II (daughter of King James) having been invited to become King and Queen of England in 1688 during what became known as the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
The running narrative has copy for every year thus far from 1689 on and in 1692 they take ship from Galway to Barnstaple. Marching across country they took ship at Portsmouth to aid King William III in his battles against Louis IV of France and in particular they were at the seige of Namur winning honours there. The Treaty of Ryswick 1697 brought an end to this conflict and the 23rd Regiment of Foot was reduced and returned to England. The remainder of the Regiment was marched to embark from Barnstaple to Ireland where they remained in a housekeeping role until 1700 and the return of hostilities due to the death of the Spanish King and the heir being the grandson of Louis IV of France. Philip V of Spain seized the Dutch forts in the Low Countries (Flemish) and the battle was on. The truly main cause though was the trade concessions which France received in the western hemisphere which blocked English trade.
The 23rd Regiment was brought back up to full strength and returned to the European theatre. They are there at most of the major battles (including Blenheim) between 1701 and 1713 (Treaty of Utrecht).
Continuing through the 1700s the 23rd Welsh Regiment as it was now known served alternately in Europe, in Ireland, in North America and then back to England for in between rest periods. They did real service in England, Scotland and Wales when they were there - rebuilding roads, government buildings and maintaining the peace where ever they were needed. They were often showcased at Hyde Park where they were reviewed by the King or the Prince of Wales.
I was keenly interested in reading about their recruitment practices because I wondered how my 3x great grandfather had ended up in the 23rd Welch Regiment when he lived at West Harnham, Wiltshire. Recruiting parties could be just about anywhere though I soon learned as I continued reading and it is highly likely that he joined up out of a sense of adventure and because he was the second son in the family. Any property that was to be inherited would go to his older brother. Hence he set out to make his fortune.
His papers on Find My Past state that he was discharged due to asthma 26 Oct 1816. He enlisted 16 Feb 1805 having already served for three months elsewhere. Looking at the published records it is impossible to tell if he served with the 1st or the 2nd Battalion. Something I hadn't noticed before, it appears he first served in the 8th Regiment of Foot and was transferred to the 23rd. That could well explain how he ended up in the 23rd. His service with the 8th Regiment of Foot was in India in 1804 and early 1805.
I am now up to 1810 having read through the Battle of Martinique where George Lywood served as he received the clasp.
Continuing through to 1815 and the Battle of Waterloo I am amazed that my George managed to survive all of those battles. It must have been quite gruesome. All in all I may not read the Regimental records of any regiment again but it was interesting reading although it has taken me longer to read than any book in my lifetime. You would need to have a military background I think to really comprehend this book and take in all the nuances but I am glad that I did read it. It brought me closer to my 3x great grandfather George Lywood. I absolutely never knew that my grandmother Blake's grandfather had had such a fascinating life.
He returned to Milston Wiltshire where he married Martha Peck. Their daughter Elizabeth Lywood married William Rawlings and it was their daughter Elizabeth Rawlings that was the mother of my grandmother.
I highly recommend the book. It is very precise giving detailed accounts of the battles in which the 23rd Regiment (Royal Welsh Fusiliers as they are now known) took part throughout their history up to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The images in the book illustrate the uniform that my George would have worn which was also very nice.
A.D.L. Cary and Stouppe McCance (Compilers)
Gerald C Hudson (Illustrator)
Volume 1 1689-1815
Published by The Naval & Military Press Ltd. Uckfield, East Sussex UK in 2005
ISBN. 1-845741765
324 Pages. Illustrated.
I purchased this book at the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum at Cardiff Castle, Wales when we visited the Castle on our Trafalgar Tour of England April/May 2008. The Museum is a must see for anyone interested in Military Heritage but for me it was really special because my 3x great grandfather George Lywood (Laywood) was a soldier in the 23rd Regiment of Foot during the Peninsular Wars and also at Waterloo. I have meant to read it for awhile and had glanced at it somewhat. The opportunity arose to read it and I found it most interesting.
There is at the beginning of the book a Chronological Summary of the activities of the regiment from the date of authorization by King William III to raise the regiment 16 Mar 1689 to the Stationing of the 23rd Regiment outside Paris during the autumn and winter following the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815). It is very detailed and includes every stop known by the compilers. There are a number of coloured plates including the regimental dress at various time periods in colour and a number of interesting black and white illustrations.
The Log of the Regiment by year follows and as noted in the Introduction the compilers had to produce this record in the almost entire absence of letters, diaries or journals of officers who served during the time period of this book. The log is a running narrative by date and beginning with the earliest records and moving forward.
The narrative runs by year commencing in 1689 with the founding of the Regiment. This Regiment first served in Ireland (indeed it was the resistance by King James II there that resulted in its creation) and was involved with the Battles fought between King James II and King William III. King James having been forced to abdicate and King William III and Queen Mary II (daughter of King James) having been invited to become King and Queen of England in 1688 during what became known as the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
The running narrative has copy for every year thus far from 1689 on and in 1692 they take ship from Galway to Barnstaple. Marching across country they took ship at Portsmouth to aid King William III in his battles against Louis IV of France and in particular they were at the seige of Namur winning honours there. The Treaty of Ryswick 1697 brought an end to this conflict and the 23rd Regiment of Foot was reduced and returned to England. The remainder of the Regiment was marched to embark from Barnstaple to Ireland where they remained in a housekeeping role until 1700 and the return of hostilities due to the death of the Spanish King and the heir being the grandson of Louis IV of France. Philip V of Spain seized the Dutch forts in the Low Countries (Flemish) and the battle was on. The truly main cause though was the trade concessions which France received in the western hemisphere which blocked English trade.
The 23rd Regiment was brought back up to full strength and returned to the European theatre. They are there at most of the major battles (including Blenheim) between 1701 and 1713 (Treaty of Utrecht).
Continuing through the 1700s the 23rd Welsh Regiment as it was now known served alternately in Europe, in Ireland, in North America and then back to England for in between rest periods. They did real service in England, Scotland and Wales when they were there - rebuilding roads, government buildings and maintaining the peace where ever they were needed. They were often showcased at Hyde Park where they were reviewed by the King or the Prince of Wales.
I was keenly interested in reading about their recruitment practices because I wondered how my 3x great grandfather had ended up in the 23rd Welch Regiment when he lived at West Harnham, Wiltshire. Recruiting parties could be just about anywhere though I soon learned as I continued reading and it is highly likely that he joined up out of a sense of adventure and because he was the second son in the family. Any property that was to be inherited would go to his older brother. Hence he set out to make his fortune.
His papers on Find My Past state that he was discharged due to asthma 26 Oct 1816. He enlisted 16 Feb 1805 having already served for three months elsewhere. Looking at the published records it is impossible to tell if he served with the 1st or the 2nd Battalion. Something I hadn't noticed before, it appears he first served in the 8th Regiment of Foot and was transferred to the 23rd. That could well explain how he ended up in the 23rd. His service with the 8th Regiment of Foot was in India in 1804 and early 1805.
I am now up to 1810 having read through the Battle of Martinique where George Lywood served as he received the clasp.
Continuing through to 1815 and the Battle of Waterloo I am amazed that my George managed to survive all of those battles. It must have been quite gruesome. All in all I may not read the Regimental records of any regiment again but it was interesting reading although it has taken me longer to read than any book in my lifetime. You would need to have a military background I think to really comprehend this book and take in all the nuances but I am glad that I did read it. It brought me closer to my 3x great grandfather George Lywood. I absolutely never knew that my grandmother Blake's grandfather had had such a fascinating life.
He returned to Milston Wiltshire where he married Martha Peck. Their daughter Elizabeth Lywood married William Rawlings and it was their daughter Elizabeth Rawlings that was the mother of my grandmother.
I highly recommend the book. It is very precise giving detailed accounts of the battles in which the 23rd Regiment (Royal Welsh Fusiliers as they are now known) took part throughout their history up to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The images in the book illustrate the uniform that my George would have worn which was also very nice.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 by Andrew Roberts
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900
Andrew Roberts
Published in Great Britain in 2006 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN 13:9780297850762 The Orion Publishing Group Ltd.
736 pp. 27 illus.
Andrew Roberts is the author of a number of History Books on specific topics. He has chosen this particular topic in order to complete the remarkable four volume work of Winston Churchill "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples - their origins, their quarrels, their misfortunes and their reconciliation" which was written to encompass time up to the end of January 1901.
I choose to read this book because the title just "jumped" out at me and given my personal history (100% English-speaking ancestry albeit likely Gaelic before Old English) the book quite literally intrigued me. I simply had to read it and so I have done so. Certainly I also love to read history and particularly factual history (i.e. documentaries).
The author, Roberts, was the year 2000 Wolfson History Prize winner for his work on the life of Lord Salisbury. He was elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society of Literature in 2001.
Earlier, I explained why he wrote on this particular time period for English speaking people. But also he states on page 597 that "One of the purposes of this book is to explain how English-speaking colonisation, principally of course of the United States but also crucially of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean - though not Ireland, which has a very different identity - has succeeded triumphantly, and that those states represent the last, best hope for Mankind. Far from being 'entirely insignificant', the spread of the English-speaking peoples' political culture has been the most significant historical development since the invention of gunpowder and the printing press."
The main characters in this book are the English-speaking peoples themselves in the twentieth century of this world. He defines this to be all the people who speak English as their mother tongue (no ethnicity is particularly claimed other than English being one's mother tongue).
The book is about the perils and trials of the English-speaking peoples in the twentieth century. His book covers what are the considered to be the four world struggles of the twentieth century namely German Nationalism, Axis Fascism, Soviet Communism and Islamic Terrorism. There is an introduction and seventeen chapters which cover the entire time period including the Boer War at the beginning of the century through World War I, the rise of Fascism, World War II, the Cold War between Soviet Communism and the democratic capitalistic West, the threat of Terrorism in which we currently find ourselves.
The Introduction brought me back to my childhood sitting at my Grandfather's knee listening to the stories of Empire - the British Empire. For he was truly a Brit transplanted from his beloved England to work on the Canadian Railway System and until the death of my grandmother in 1940 always planning to return to England to live like the English did in those days. They would go out to serve in the colonies and then return home to retire and enjoy the country of their birth. To him, England was the greatest country in the world and indeed as the introduction points out England was at the height of her power and judicious in the way that she established her Empire the world over giving back far more than she took in teaching the rule of law, efficiency in commerce and good democratic government. Not all the colonies took advantage of this teaching but those that did are still prospering and her people's are, for the most part, content.
Chapter I - Shouldering the White Man's Burden. Being Canadian, I liked the way the author talks about us. My strong attachment to my Englishness in childhood has gradually replaced itself with my Canadian identity. I acquired my Canadian identity by going to England and discovering that I really wasn't English; I was Canadian but with a lot of English ways simply because my grandparents were totally English and my father by the age of nine had acquired a good deal of Englishness before he came to Canada with his parents.
Chapter II - America Arrives. Being pro-American (and I always have been), I could understand the ideas that the author constantly puts before us chapter by chapter. When he talks about the "Special Relationship" between English-speaking people I can understand that. When he uses this term to refer to the British-American Entente I have to agree that it does exist. English people like New York; they like to go to the United States and they may come here to Canada but mostly it is cold, it is enormous, there is only one main highway and it is just so nice in the United States so they go there in very large numbers to visit, to live. Really now that I have spent some time in England, I have to say that Americans and British have some very strong characteristics in common. This chapter mostly talks about America becoming the world's powerhouse and her ability to convert rapidly from peace to war footing when the need arises.
Chapter III - The First Assault: Prussian Militarism 1914-17. Again I love the way he talks about Canada. I am proud of my country. In the First World War, our people geared up to fight totalitarianism; to help the French people to fight the Germans and we paid an enormous price which stagnated our population growth for a generation. It was this stagnation that made us multilingual. There simply weren't enough British people who wanted to emigrate (and they were needed at home to fill the ranks of those who had fallen there) to Canada and keep us British and so we welcomed with open arms many many Europeans who wanted to escape the horror of war in Europe (they came from all over Europe but especially from Eastern Europe and the names out west reflect the Ukranian, Russian, Georgian and many others who came at that time). But he also talked about English-speaking peoples working together to make peace happen and he does it very well.
Chapter IV - Peace Guilt: 1918-19. As a child, I learned from my grandfather that the cause of the second world war was the fracturing of the League of Nations and allowing Germany to re-arm. Roberts captures this totally in the chapter and again talks about the "Special Relationship" not being there and so the world was cast into War once again.
Chapter V - American Energy: 1920-9. Isolationism was the route that was taken and it is hard to argue which was the best method of dealing with Hitler. America became strong in this time period which the author clearly relates.
Chapter VI - Capitalism at Bay 1929-31. The Fall of the stock market and the Great Depression reflected upon and how America faced this tragedy. The author has missed an opportunity here I think to talk about why the English-speaking democracies (namely in North America) did not get involved in world politics. Canada was in desperate straits - the dust bowl in the Prairies had our farmers starving. Entire families were on the road trying to find work to feed themselves. They were dreadful times in North America and I think we suffered the worst here.
Chapter VII - The Second Assault: Fascist Aggression 1931-9. No one was at this point in time ready to fight the trench warfare of the First World War. Time was needed to prepare to halt the aggression to come. Personally, I think the English-speaking peoples did the best they could do. The author does not agree with me but I am not entirely convinced that there was a better way.
Chapter VIII - Divided and Faltering: 1939-41. Definitely I have to agree with the author that France seeking an armistice was the most disastrous result that could have happened. Did fewer French people die under the heel of Germany than would have died if they had resisted pulling back into the Pyrennes where the Germans could not have won? One will never know the answer to that. I share his feelings about General DeGaulle. After all here in Canada his comments on "Vive la Quebec Libre" in Montreal probably was one of the prime reasons that Pierre Laporte was murdered and James Cross taken prisoner (British Consular official). Oh, he is not a popular man here in Canada not even in Quebec I do not think. They had to carry the shame of the death of Pierre Laporte and the six week captivity of James Cross. Truly Britain and the Commonwealth standing alone against the might of Germany through this time period will go down in history as one of the greatest survivals of a people as he states.
Chapter IX - United and Conquering: 1942-4. The entry of the USA into the war was the Great Entente once again in place and the might of the English-speaking peoples were able to, once again, stem the tide of Nazism and deny them their victory. But he also accounts one of the greatest reasons for this victory also being the Russian people as they fought the Nazis to a standstill at enormous cost to themselves (over 25 million Russians are said to have died in the conflict; the most of any country).
Chapter X - Normandy to Nagasaki: 1944-5. The success of Normandy will always be the greatest happening in terms of conflict between peoples in the story of mankind I think. The death on the beaches for our brave soldiers coupled with the welcome from the people of France to these brave young men as they forced the Germans back. The Great Entente was in full swing and it continued all the way to the final bombing of Japan. We looked at Armageddon as people and we moved back away from it because that is what Nuclear War is. Clearly captured in this chapter.
Chapter XI - The Third Assault: Soviet Communism 1945-9. In the world of human conflict we learned that we can not always be all things to all people and the author laments with us that it was so as the Iron Curtain descended across Europe.
Chapter XII - Cold War Perils: The 1950s. The author carefully paints the picture of the errors of the English-speaking peoples and the successes. The carnage of the Second World War left us scarred but America was now strong. The author clearly sees the role that the United States has played and continues to play so effectively in the world. Why does man only understand threats? Where is that peaceful uplifted plain of Churchill's speeches? I think that I can sense that cry in this chapter as well. Now I am remembering this time period for myself. The depression felt by some as the Cold War was at its height; where there was fear of nuclear war.
Chapter XIII - Civic Americanus Sum: The 1960s. We continue the story of the Cold War and the author is somewhat negative towards his own country. He can see the difficulties that England is suffering but has his own ideas on a solution. The chapter makes fascinating reading.
Chapter XIV - the Long, Dismal, Drawling Tides: The 1970s. This is a period that I was mostly immersed in child rearing and self employment at home proofreading and copyediting. I continued to read about world politics and have my own opinions on much of this time period. The author's views are interesting but did not cause me to change any of my thoughts to be honest.
Chapter XV - Attritional Victory: The 1980s. Again still immersed in child rearing and self employed my time was not spent thinking about history too much. Reading through this chapter I found myself agreeing with much of what he said and he has been careful not to talk too much about Canada. We were heavily involved in Peace Keeping and as a country we have been on more missions than anyone for the United Nations (it was after all the brain child of Lester B Pearson). There was a little doubt in my mind as to why he was avoiding us but he did see this as a great entente time between England and the USA once again. President Reagan has brought an end to the Cold War (other helpers as well) but the author gives him a great deal of the credit.
Chapter XVI - The Wasted Breathing Space: 1990 - 11 September 2001. I am back to work again and meeting Muslims for the first time in the work environment. I was working in the hospital. I liked them; they were like me rather religious and liked to have our prayer times with God. I could understand them at least I thought I could until 9/11. I couldn't understand anti-Americanism - no one deserves to be attacked so cruelly as that day. All those planes trying to land here in Canada at our small airports. It was amazing that there were no tragedies. We did our best. I felt that the book was weak in not acknowledging Canada's part in all of that. But he is in England and quite possibly never thought about that.
Chapter XVII - The Fourth Assault: Islamic Terrorism and its De Facto Allies: 11 September 2001 - 15 December 2005. I did think it was a pity that the book had to end before the meltdown of the New York Stock Exchange, the crashing of the banks world wide and all of that. It would have been interesting to read his thoughts. Perhaps there will be a sequel. The author does capture this time very well. Will Islam be able to control the extremists in the midst? The book leaves us thinking about that but always the author sees the Great Entente of the English-speaking peoples as being powerful enough to withstand these threats.
Conclusion. The Conclusion is interesting as he wonders if there is another crisis in the midst oncoming. He doesn't name it but wonders as China develops where this will lead the world.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about long spans of history. He is a highly accomplished author and the book is very well sourced.
Andrew Roberts
Published in Great Britain in 2006 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN 13:9780297850762 The Orion Publishing Group Ltd.
736 pp. 27 illus.
Andrew Roberts is the author of a number of History Books on specific topics. He has chosen this particular topic in order to complete the remarkable four volume work of Winston Churchill "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples - their origins, their quarrels, their misfortunes and their reconciliation" which was written to encompass time up to the end of January 1901.
I choose to read this book because the title just "jumped" out at me and given my personal history (100% English-speaking ancestry albeit likely Gaelic before Old English) the book quite literally intrigued me. I simply had to read it and so I have done so. Certainly I also love to read history and particularly factual history (i.e. documentaries).
The author, Roberts, was the year 2000 Wolfson History Prize winner for his work on the life of Lord Salisbury. He was elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society of Literature in 2001.
Earlier, I explained why he wrote on this particular time period for English speaking people. But also he states on page 597 that "One of the purposes of this book is to explain how English-speaking colonisation, principally of course of the United States but also crucially of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean - though not Ireland, which has a very different identity - has succeeded triumphantly, and that those states represent the last, best hope for Mankind. Far from being 'entirely insignificant', the spread of the English-speaking peoples' political culture has been the most significant historical development since the invention of gunpowder and the printing press."
The main characters in this book are the English-speaking peoples themselves in the twentieth century of this world. He defines this to be all the people who speak English as their mother tongue (no ethnicity is particularly claimed other than English being one's mother tongue).
The book is about the perils and trials of the English-speaking peoples in the twentieth century. His book covers what are the considered to be the four world struggles of the twentieth century namely German Nationalism, Axis Fascism, Soviet Communism and Islamic Terrorism. There is an introduction and seventeen chapters which cover the entire time period including the Boer War at the beginning of the century through World War I, the rise of Fascism, World War II, the Cold War between Soviet Communism and the democratic capitalistic West, the threat of Terrorism in which we currently find ourselves.
The Introduction brought me back to my childhood sitting at my Grandfather's knee listening to the stories of Empire - the British Empire. For he was truly a Brit transplanted from his beloved England to work on the Canadian Railway System and until the death of my grandmother in 1940 always planning to return to England to live like the English did in those days. They would go out to serve in the colonies and then return home to retire and enjoy the country of their birth. To him, England was the greatest country in the world and indeed as the introduction points out England was at the height of her power and judicious in the way that she established her Empire the world over giving back far more than she took in teaching the rule of law, efficiency in commerce and good democratic government. Not all the colonies took advantage of this teaching but those that did are still prospering and her people's are, for the most part, content.
Chapter I - Shouldering the White Man's Burden. Being Canadian, I liked the way the author talks about us. My strong attachment to my Englishness in childhood has gradually replaced itself with my Canadian identity. I acquired my Canadian identity by going to England and discovering that I really wasn't English; I was Canadian but with a lot of English ways simply because my grandparents were totally English and my father by the age of nine had acquired a good deal of Englishness before he came to Canada with his parents.
Chapter II - America Arrives. Being pro-American (and I always have been), I could understand the ideas that the author constantly puts before us chapter by chapter. When he talks about the "Special Relationship" between English-speaking people I can understand that. When he uses this term to refer to the British-American Entente I have to agree that it does exist. English people like New York; they like to go to the United States and they may come here to Canada but mostly it is cold, it is enormous, there is only one main highway and it is just so nice in the United States so they go there in very large numbers to visit, to live. Really now that I have spent some time in England, I have to say that Americans and British have some very strong characteristics in common. This chapter mostly talks about America becoming the world's powerhouse and her ability to convert rapidly from peace to war footing when the need arises.
Chapter III - The First Assault: Prussian Militarism 1914-17. Again I love the way he talks about Canada. I am proud of my country. In the First World War, our people geared up to fight totalitarianism; to help the French people to fight the Germans and we paid an enormous price which stagnated our population growth for a generation. It was this stagnation that made us multilingual. There simply weren't enough British people who wanted to emigrate (and they were needed at home to fill the ranks of those who had fallen there) to Canada and keep us British and so we welcomed with open arms many many Europeans who wanted to escape the horror of war in Europe (they came from all over Europe but especially from Eastern Europe and the names out west reflect the Ukranian, Russian, Georgian and many others who came at that time). But he also talked about English-speaking peoples working together to make peace happen and he does it very well.
Chapter IV - Peace Guilt: 1918-19. As a child, I learned from my grandfather that the cause of the second world war was the fracturing of the League of Nations and allowing Germany to re-arm. Roberts captures this totally in the chapter and again talks about the "Special Relationship" not being there and so the world was cast into War once again.
Chapter V - American Energy: 1920-9. Isolationism was the route that was taken and it is hard to argue which was the best method of dealing with Hitler. America became strong in this time period which the author clearly relates.
Chapter VI - Capitalism at Bay 1929-31. The Fall of the stock market and the Great Depression reflected upon and how America faced this tragedy. The author has missed an opportunity here I think to talk about why the English-speaking democracies (namely in North America) did not get involved in world politics. Canada was in desperate straits - the dust bowl in the Prairies had our farmers starving. Entire families were on the road trying to find work to feed themselves. They were dreadful times in North America and I think we suffered the worst here.
Chapter VII - The Second Assault: Fascist Aggression 1931-9. No one was at this point in time ready to fight the trench warfare of the First World War. Time was needed to prepare to halt the aggression to come. Personally, I think the English-speaking peoples did the best they could do. The author does not agree with me but I am not entirely convinced that there was a better way.
Chapter VIII - Divided and Faltering: 1939-41. Definitely I have to agree with the author that France seeking an armistice was the most disastrous result that could have happened. Did fewer French people die under the heel of Germany than would have died if they had resisted pulling back into the Pyrennes where the Germans could not have won? One will never know the answer to that. I share his feelings about General DeGaulle. After all here in Canada his comments on "Vive la Quebec Libre" in Montreal probably was one of the prime reasons that Pierre Laporte was murdered and James Cross taken prisoner (British Consular official). Oh, he is not a popular man here in Canada not even in Quebec I do not think. They had to carry the shame of the death of Pierre Laporte and the six week captivity of James Cross. Truly Britain and the Commonwealth standing alone against the might of Germany through this time period will go down in history as one of the greatest survivals of a people as he states.
Chapter IX - United and Conquering: 1942-4. The entry of the USA into the war was the Great Entente once again in place and the might of the English-speaking peoples were able to, once again, stem the tide of Nazism and deny them their victory. But he also accounts one of the greatest reasons for this victory also being the Russian people as they fought the Nazis to a standstill at enormous cost to themselves (over 25 million Russians are said to have died in the conflict; the most of any country).
Chapter X - Normandy to Nagasaki: 1944-5. The success of Normandy will always be the greatest happening in terms of conflict between peoples in the story of mankind I think. The death on the beaches for our brave soldiers coupled with the welcome from the people of France to these brave young men as they forced the Germans back. The Great Entente was in full swing and it continued all the way to the final bombing of Japan. We looked at Armageddon as people and we moved back away from it because that is what Nuclear War is. Clearly captured in this chapter.
Chapter XI - The Third Assault: Soviet Communism 1945-9. In the world of human conflict we learned that we can not always be all things to all people and the author laments with us that it was so as the Iron Curtain descended across Europe.
Chapter XII - Cold War Perils: The 1950s. The author carefully paints the picture of the errors of the English-speaking peoples and the successes. The carnage of the Second World War left us scarred but America was now strong. The author clearly sees the role that the United States has played and continues to play so effectively in the world. Why does man only understand threats? Where is that peaceful uplifted plain of Churchill's speeches? I think that I can sense that cry in this chapter as well. Now I am remembering this time period for myself. The depression felt by some as the Cold War was at its height; where there was fear of nuclear war.
Chapter XIII - Civic Americanus Sum: The 1960s. We continue the story of the Cold War and the author is somewhat negative towards his own country. He can see the difficulties that England is suffering but has his own ideas on a solution. The chapter makes fascinating reading.
Chapter XIV - the Long, Dismal, Drawling Tides: The 1970s. This is a period that I was mostly immersed in child rearing and self employment at home proofreading and copyediting. I continued to read about world politics and have my own opinions on much of this time period. The author's views are interesting but did not cause me to change any of my thoughts to be honest.
Chapter XV - Attritional Victory: The 1980s. Again still immersed in child rearing and self employed my time was not spent thinking about history too much. Reading through this chapter I found myself agreeing with much of what he said and he has been careful not to talk too much about Canada. We were heavily involved in Peace Keeping and as a country we have been on more missions than anyone for the United Nations (it was after all the brain child of Lester B Pearson). There was a little doubt in my mind as to why he was avoiding us but he did see this as a great entente time between England and the USA once again. President Reagan has brought an end to the Cold War (other helpers as well) but the author gives him a great deal of the credit.
Chapter XVI - The Wasted Breathing Space: 1990 - 11 September 2001. I am back to work again and meeting Muslims for the first time in the work environment. I was working in the hospital. I liked them; they were like me rather religious and liked to have our prayer times with God. I could understand them at least I thought I could until 9/11. I couldn't understand anti-Americanism - no one deserves to be attacked so cruelly as that day. All those planes trying to land here in Canada at our small airports. It was amazing that there were no tragedies. We did our best. I felt that the book was weak in not acknowledging Canada's part in all of that. But he is in England and quite possibly never thought about that.
Chapter XVII - The Fourth Assault: Islamic Terrorism and its De Facto Allies: 11 September 2001 - 15 December 2005. I did think it was a pity that the book had to end before the meltdown of the New York Stock Exchange, the crashing of the banks world wide and all of that. It would have been interesting to read his thoughts. Perhaps there will be a sequel. The author does capture this time very well. Will Islam be able to control the extremists in the midst? The book leaves us thinking about that but always the author sees the Great Entente of the English-speaking peoples as being powerful enough to withstand these threats.
Conclusion. The Conclusion is interesting as he wonders if there is another crisis in the midst oncoming. He doesn't name it but wonders as China develops where this will lead the world.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about long spans of history. He is a highly accomplished author and the book is very well sourced.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Reading List Blog - the why and the wherefore
I am creating this blog in order to write book reports of the books that I read commencing 1 January 2011. It is a pity that I did not record all my books read from early childhood as I have read thousands and thousands of books but it is never too late to start and so I begin.
I started reading Andrew Roberts' book (A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900) 28 Dec 2010. The cover itself was a draw with the flags of Australia/New Zealand, Canada, United States and the United Kingdom arranged in that order in two rows. My own history of being totally an "English-speaking" person with all my ancestry coming from a number of English counties which include Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, London, Surrey, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, East Riding of Yorkshire and Cumberland was also part of the interest factor. All of these counties were the birthplace of, location of, marriage place of, burial place of my 8 great great grandparents. All of my 8x great great grandparents were born in England and all but two of them were buried in England. But primarily I love to read history and we are surrounded by the results of all of us loving to read. There are books everywhere on subjects that cover much of the knowledge of mankind - religion, history, geography, science, arts, genealogy, and almost every National Geographic book that has ever been published since the late 1960s. I have entered all of our books on Library Thing and have only done the smaller bookcases thus far - we are already in excess of 2500. We have already given away boxes and boxes of books that we do not expect to read again. I am going to try to mostly borrow books but it is hard to pass books by in the book store and this was one of those times!
The book begins in 1900 and the author has taken it upon himself the task for carrying on the Historical survey by Winston Churchill of the English speaking peoples and since Winston Churchill covered up to 1899 he then began with 1900. The first fifty years of the book are of course what I learned in history classes in my elementary and high school days but when we reach 1950 I can remember all of the historical happenings with a brief glimmer of knowledge about the Berlin Airlift as my brothers pretended to be airplanes flying to the rescue of the Berliners whilst we listened to the news on the radio. Hence the first fifty years were not by personal experience but the author has captured very clearly the history of my country Canada within the English-speaking peoples and has accurately painted the feelings and actions of this country which was so small in numbers but large in heart especially with respect to the rights of people to a democratic government and a legislative system that respected all of them.
Now at page 522 I am well into the time period I remember. As I read through the 1970s I am remembering that time in our history with Pierre Trudeau standing defiant and protective of Canada.
When I finish reading the book which will likely be tomorrow I shall write a book report which will actually be the intent of this blog. I shall write a book report on every book as I read it to remind me of the points that I particularly wanted to remember in the book.
I started reading Andrew Roberts' book (A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900) 28 Dec 2010. The cover itself was a draw with the flags of Australia/New Zealand, Canada, United States and the United Kingdom arranged in that order in two rows. My own history of being totally an "English-speaking" person with all my ancestry coming from a number of English counties which include Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, London, Surrey, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, East Riding of Yorkshire and Cumberland was also part of the interest factor. All of these counties were the birthplace of, location of, marriage place of, burial place of my 8 great great grandparents. All of my 8x great great grandparents were born in England and all but two of them were buried in England. But primarily I love to read history and we are surrounded by the results of all of us loving to read. There are books everywhere on subjects that cover much of the knowledge of mankind - religion, history, geography, science, arts, genealogy, and almost every National Geographic book that has ever been published since the late 1960s. I have entered all of our books on Library Thing and have only done the smaller bookcases thus far - we are already in excess of 2500. We have already given away boxes and boxes of books that we do not expect to read again. I am going to try to mostly borrow books but it is hard to pass books by in the book store and this was one of those times!
The book begins in 1900 and the author has taken it upon himself the task for carrying on the Historical survey by Winston Churchill of the English speaking peoples and since Winston Churchill covered up to 1899 he then began with 1900. The first fifty years of the book are of course what I learned in history classes in my elementary and high school days but when we reach 1950 I can remember all of the historical happenings with a brief glimmer of knowledge about the Berlin Airlift as my brothers pretended to be airplanes flying to the rescue of the Berliners whilst we listened to the news on the radio. Hence the first fifty years were not by personal experience but the author has captured very clearly the history of my country Canada within the English-speaking peoples and has accurately painted the feelings and actions of this country which was so small in numbers but large in heart especially with respect to the rights of people to a democratic government and a legislative system that respected all of them.
Now at page 522 I am well into the time period I remember. As I read through the 1970s I am remembering that time in our history with Pierre Trudeau standing defiant and protective of Canada.
When I finish reading the book which will likely be tomorrow I shall write a book report which will actually be the intent of this blog. I shall write a book report on every book as I read it to remind me of the points that I particularly wanted to remember in the book.
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