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3.24 AVERAGE
3.24 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Het was een heel karwei om door dit boek heen te geraken. De kwaliteit van de bijdragen was erg wisselend, en de paar hoofdstukken die enigszins samenhangend waren en geen overduidelijke ideologische agenda verdedigden, waren vaak te kort om me echt iets bij te leren. Jammer.
On the whole, I found it rather boring. If you're into politics and modern history, this may be a book you'll enjoy. Personally, I prefer older history and I am not so interested in politics which was why I didn't find this book to be so enjoyable.
I think the Poland article was interesting. The Ireland article was the worst.
I think the Poland article was interesting. The Ireland article was the worst.
informative
A really interesting idea, but quite limited / inconsistent on paper. I found this quite useful for brushing up on both general, historiographical developments and occasional "alternative" histories. However, whilst the majority of chapters are well crafted, certain inclusions (such as the chapter on Israel and the Zionist project) are at times self-contradictory or wishy washy in their depiction of history and taste much like wasted opportunities. By including all of these pieces alongside one another, there is also the matter of stemming into a pseudo "egalitarian" placement of history (i.e. not cognizant of colonialism et al) that, as any historian will know, is at best misleading and at worst, intellectually contrived.
Having said that, as long as the above factors were considered I would consider reading something in this style in future. Perhaps something a little more comprehensive, e.g., a volume that covers lesser known histories and or peoples' histories a la the late great Howard Zinn and William A Pelz.
Still, I suppose you could do worse for a mass market "2 for 1" history 'anthology'.
Having said that, as long as the above factors were considered I would consider reading something in this style in future. Perhaps something a little more comprehensive, e.g., a volume that covers lesser known histories and or peoples' histories a la the late great Howard Zinn and William A Pelz.
Still, I suppose you could do worse for a mass market "2 for 1" history 'anthology'.
I liked this book because it gave such a broad overview of some nations that I knew practically nothing about whilst also keeping me interested about topics I wouldn’t have thought I would be. However, I would have liked the ‘essays’ to be longer, often they came across sprawling and all over the place due to the amount of history they were trying to fit in in such a small amount of pages.