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truebookaddict's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting to read of the competition that went on in regards to proving Atlantis existed. There was a lot of backstabbing to be sure. Olof Rudbeck was definitely an eccentric individual.
imclaugh's review against another edition
5.0
I must admit, I didn't expect this book to be as amazing as it was. I only bought it because it was a bargain book. But the flowing prose and the moving story enthralled me. Though Finding Atlantis is a non-fiction title, it provides no "practical" knowledge. But it reaffirms my fundamental convictions about life on this earth and man's limitless potential. To me, this is art.
ovvlish's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting read about a person I'd genuinely never heard of. The overall impression the book made on me was fairly weak, with some slightly infantile "and wasn't that cool? we should definitely talk more about cool dudes like this in the past" types of statements scattered throughout. I also am biased against noncritical summaries of figures who today would be labeled conspiracy theorists, especially ones that are quite proto-volkisch; there was no conversation about the ways in which thinkers in the early modern and modern periods who searched for proof that their ancestors were secretly the origin of all human civilization. Not every book has to have this, hence a 3 stars rather than a 2.
socraticgadfly's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting book about a Swedish professor in the Age of Enlightenment, and at the time just after Sweden's military and nation-state peak, who claims that Atlantis was in the vicinity of Old Uppsala. Olof Rudbeck claimed that many words from the myth of the Argonauts showed they sailed NORTH after capturing the Golden Fleece and landed in Sweden.
Of course, what Rudbeck had actually done, per King, is discovered Indo-European cognate words in some cases, a century and a quarter or more before William Jones first postulated the Indo-European language family. And, in other cases, he'd connected random similar sounding words.
Of course, there were elements of truth here. The Norse high gods roughly parallel many of the Olympians. But, at the same time, the differences between Norse belief and that of the Greeks were large. The Olympians and Aesir were superimposed on a panoply of "lesser" (and older in belief system) deities that differed greatly between the land of the Geats and the land of Hellas.
King does show how this developed into an obsession for Rudbeck, and also does a nice job of tying this to academic politics at the University of Uppsala, whose thrown elbows were even sharper than those of today in academia. Tied to all of this was also royal politics.
It's a nice story, but not quite five-star. Atlantean beliefs — and attempts to postulate its exact locale — were common at this time. And, as with Rudbeck, with the rise of the nation-state in the wake of the Thirty Years War, they were often tied to nationalist impulses. And, had their crank representatives elsewhere. (That said, if David King wanted a follow-up volume, I'm suggesting one!) Per some three-star reviewers, half a dozen or so pages pointing out Rudbeck's Atlantean-search peers in other countries and the modern nationalism that was their common driver could have helped.
There was one minor irritation that also kept it short of five stars. King reports all monetary payments in Swedish money of the time. Only rarely does he interpret this, as in telling us (or usually not) how much, in terms of purchasing power then, one daler silvermynt might actually be worth. He also doesn't give us the Swedish monetary structure, as in, he doesn't tell us how many daler coppermynt in one daler silvermynt, etc.
One other note. Book titles and subtitles are usually picked by publishing house editors, not authors, though the authors usually get at least a degree of input. That said, per what I note above about Atlanteanism being kind of common at this time, this was NOT "madness" on the part of Rudbeck, contra the subtitle. (THAT then said, as King notes, already at this time, many European intellectuals considered Plato's story just as much a myth as the Homeric epics.)
I don't think this book was as disjointed as some 2- and 3-star reviewers think. Nor do I think it was "shallow"; it had enough about what Rudbeck thought. I didn't miss that King didn't offer 100 pages of exegesis of Rudbeck's book. As for some low-star reviewers with "but real Atlantis" type comments? Can't help you.
Of course, what Rudbeck had actually done, per King, is discovered Indo-European cognate words in some cases, a century and a quarter or more before William Jones first postulated the Indo-European language family. And, in other cases, he'd connected random similar sounding words.
Of course, there were elements of truth here. The Norse high gods roughly parallel many of the Olympians. But, at the same time, the differences between Norse belief and that of the Greeks were large. The Olympians and Aesir were superimposed on a panoply of "lesser" (and older in belief system) deities that differed greatly between the land of the Geats and the land of Hellas.
King does show how this developed into an obsession for Rudbeck, and also does a nice job of tying this to academic politics at the University of Uppsala, whose thrown elbows were even sharper than those of today in academia. Tied to all of this was also royal politics.
It's a nice story, but not quite five-star. Atlantean beliefs — and attempts to postulate its exact locale — were common at this time. And, as with Rudbeck, with the rise of the nation-state in the wake of the Thirty Years War, they were often tied to nationalist impulses. And, had their crank representatives elsewhere. (That said, if David King wanted a follow-up volume, I'm suggesting one!) Per some three-star reviewers, half a dozen or so pages pointing out Rudbeck's Atlantean-search peers in other countries and the modern nationalism that was their common driver could have helped.
There was one minor irritation that also kept it short of five stars. King reports all monetary payments in Swedish money of the time. Only rarely does he interpret this, as in telling us (or usually not) how much, in terms of purchasing power then, one daler silvermynt might actually be worth. He also doesn't give us the Swedish monetary structure, as in, he doesn't tell us how many daler coppermynt in one daler silvermynt, etc.
One other note. Book titles and subtitles are usually picked by publishing house editors, not authors, though the authors usually get at least a degree of input. That said, per what I note above about Atlanteanism being kind of common at this time, this was NOT "madness" on the part of Rudbeck, contra the subtitle. (THAT then said, as King notes, already at this time, many European intellectuals considered Plato's story just as much a myth as the Homeric epics.)
I don't think this book was as disjointed as some 2- and 3-star reviewers think. Nor do I think it was "shallow"; it had enough about what Rudbeck thought. I didn't miss that King didn't offer 100 pages of exegesis of Rudbeck's book. As for some low-star reviewers with "but real Atlantis" type comments? Can't help you.
albatrossonhalfpointe's review
There was just so much petty interpersonal drama, and it was boooooring.
howjessicareads's review
2.0
Not as entertaining as I'd hoped given the title. Also, very speculative about what Olof Rudbeck was thinking--I'd prefer more fact and less speculation. But I did learn more about Swedish culture/society than I knew before...
bobareann's review
3.0
This book gave me such an unsettled feeling. It failed to take a stance on whether Atlantis could have been in Sweden or if this guy was just truly wrong and why he could lead himself so far astray. However, it was enlightening to read about Sweden, a country of which I know almost nothing.
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