I was going to start off by saying it's been a while since I read an academic history, but it hasn't, really. I read Tombstone last year and Bloodlands the year before that. Speaking of which, those are pretty grim titles for extremely grim subjects. Comparing the Ukrainian and Chinese famines might be interesting for someone smarter and with more free time than me. But I digress.
Through the Eye of a Needle I read because Garry Wills said in his review something to the effect of, "It's a privilege to be alive when a book like this is published." It's hard to imagine higher praise than that. And indeed, TEN is an amazingly erudite, subtle, and fascinating book. The style is quite professory and even a little pedantic at times -- lots of, "Now let us see why this was so," and, "Let us examine this further" -- but it actually grew on me as the book went on. It's only 500-something pages but it felt much longer simply because it's so densely constructed. And boy do I ever know more about late Roman Christianity than I did before.
Long story short, kind of a hard book to recommend to someone unless that person is looking to challenge themself* more strongly than the average lay book reader. But it was very rewarding to finish, even though it may make me come up short on my 30 book target for the year. Now I've moved on to Discipline and Punish, which, though shorter, isn't going to help me reach that goal, either if the first 40 pages are any indication.
*Yes, "that person...themself" is an acceptable construction. Deal with it.
Through the Eye of a Needle I read because Garry Wills said in his review something to the effect of, "It's a privilege to be alive when a book like this is published." It's hard to imagine higher praise than that. And indeed, TEN is an amazingly erudite, subtle, and fascinating book. The style is quite professory and even a little pedantic at times -- lots of, "Now let us see why this was so," and, "Let us examine this further" -- but it actually grew on me as the book went on. It's only 500-something pages but it felt much longer simply because it's so densely constructed. And boy do I ever know more about late Roman Christianity than I did before.
Long story short, kind of a hard book to recommend to someone unless that person is looking to challenge themself* more strongly than the average lay book reader. But it was very rewarding to finish, even though it may make me come up short on my 30 book target for the year. Now I've moved on to Discipline and Punish, which, though shorter, isn't going to help me reach that goal, either if the first 40 pages are any indication.
*Yes, "that person...themself" is an acceptable construction. Deal with it.
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