What history book are you reading or planning to read?/ The history bookreview thread

[Brennus]

Thanks for that suggestion, Brennus!

Glad to be of assistance Shadowwalker!

Holland is a very good story-teller, but as a historian... The more you know about the topic, the more you realize he's blasting past uncertainties and contradicting sources in order to tell an epic tale. His view of events also isn't quite as original as he makes it appear.

But "Rubicon" and "Persian Fire" do make for very good reading. I don't like "Millennium" very much. I think the story's too unfocused: it skips from reign to reign, so the characters don't come to life.

I agree Ludens, there are times when Holland leaps to conclusions which the evidence doesn't support. I wasn't impressed by his depiction of the Gauls in "Rubicon", he seemed to base his description of Gallic shields (Which he describes as being jewel encrusted) a bit too much on the British battersea shield, for the sake of argument it's neither a shield intended for battle nor contemporary with the Gallic wars. But on the whole his ability to bring charactes to life makes up for his occasional assumptions.

I did like "Millenium" alot although like you I think it suffered a bit from being unfocused, if you are unfamiliar, as I was with many of the Papal figures, it becomes difficult to remember who is who and how they relate to each other. I thought Holland's descriptions of the Norse and Anglo-Saxon characters was fantastic though, even if the story of Anglo-Nordic interaction seemed a bit tangential to the overall story of Christendom's evolution. I never knew Harald Hardrada was such an interesting character (in British schools he appears as little more than a supporting character to the drama played out between Harold Godwinson and William of Normandy).