Showing 61 - 70 of 311
Supply and demand
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 22/09/2017
» During the era of the Raj, India was the leading poppy grower. It was sold worldwide as a treatment for hysteria in women and hyperactivity in children. Only China refused to have anything to do with it because it was addictive, but two opium wars taught them how to take it.
A new sleuth
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 15/09/2017
» Society is based on the deal that in return for protection and security, the authorities have permission to define our rights, inalienable and otherwise. Laws and regulations apply. Nothing is more disconcerting than when they overstep their limits.
The Dark Ages
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 08/09/2017
» I was taught that the Roman Empire fell to the barbarians in 476 AD. My next grade teacher was vague. There were the Dark Ages, Medieval times and Middle Ages. I heard the word Byzantine only once, when the Turks captured Constantinople in 1455 AD. The Crusades took place halfway between.
Once upon a time
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 31/08/2017
» It is common knowledge that chroniclers have been around since early human history. Not just historians, but more than a few people who were literate. Either told to or on their own, they wrote down what they saw.
Vatican thriller
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 25/08/2017
» Christianity hasn't been around long, its two millennia shorter than Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism. The God-Mary match captured the public's imagination and Holy Mother Church has been matched with God ever since. It survived its encounters with the Saracens and the Reformation, and now has an estimated following of 1 billion.
The Law is the law
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 18/08/2017
» From being overlooked in fear of retaliation, Isis has sprung to the forefront of favoured subject matter among books.
Three days in May
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 11/08/2017
» Hitler learned a lesson from his unsuccessful Munich putsch of 1924 -- that weapons are legal only in the hands of the government. He spent the next decade getting into the national government. After that Germany built weapons at breakneck speed.
An agent revealed
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 04/08/2017
» The 20th was the century of despots -- Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in Italy, Tojo in Japan, Stalin in Russia, Mao in China. Not to mention Pol Pot in Cambodia, Pilsudski in Poland, Salazar in Portugal, Papa Doc in Haiti. Tens of millions died at their behest. Even the bubonic plague, 600 years earlier, fell short.
Pulling it all together
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 21/07/2017
» What I learned from years of backpacking is that there's no single pattern of development. Every country I've been to has had its unique history, which is why the prospect of globalisation is incongruous and why mother countries couldn't hold on to their colonies.
Renaissance history
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 14/07/2017
» I am so conditioned when I pick up a new book about Italy that I expect it to be a historical novel about Ancient Rome. That period seems to fascinate historians and historical novelists. This reviewer finds it no more than somewhat interesting.