History – Everything Is Better With Dragons

TBR Pile Review: A (Brief) History of Vice, by Robert Evans

Format: 260 pages, Paperback
Published: August 9, 2016 by Plume
ISBN: 9780147517609 (ISBN10: 0147517605)
Language: English

Description

From a former editor at the popular humour site Cracked.com and one of the writers of the bestselling You Might Be a Zombie and The De-Textbook, a rollicking look at vice throughout history, complete with instructions for re-creating debauchery at home.

Part history lesson, part how-to guide, A Brief History of Vice includes interviews with experts and original experimentation to bring readers a history of some of humanity’s most prominent vices, along with explanations for how each of them helped humans rise to the top of the food chain. Evans connects the dots between coffee and its Islamic origins, the drug ephedra and Mormons, music and Stonehenge, and much more. Chapters also include step-by-step guides for re-creating prehistoric debauchery in your modern life based on Evans’s first-hand fieldwork. Readers won’t just learn about the beer that destroyed South America’s first empire; they’ll learn how to make it.

My Review

I really enjoy Robert Evans’ podcast ‘Behind The Bastards’ and thought I’d give this book a read, just for amusement. Apparently he spent the money he was paid for this book on living in a ridiculously big house for a year and almost became homeless. Dafty.

Doing daft things for education and entertainment seems to be Evans’ motivation for a lot of things in life, although he is also a decent conflict zone reporter. This book was written while he was still at Cracked.com, and before he started his podcast. It is a mixture of science, history, anthropology and self-experimentation with a variety of historical intoxicants, from Sumerian early beer, hallucinogens from ancient Greece, nose pipes from Mesoamerica, and the ways tobacco has been used for healing, including as a purgative. I’m surprised only one person ended up in hospital.

The book was entertainingly written and honest about the effects of the various substances tried. I’m not sure the thesis, that ‘bad behaviour’ made civilisation, is substantiated, but it’s an interesting trip through the ancient world, from a very different perspective.

TBL List Review: The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being, written and read by Alice Roberts

Format: 392 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 2014 by Heron Books
ISBN: 9781848664791 (ISBN10: 1848664796)
Language: English

Alice Roberts takes you on the most incredible journey, revealing your path from a single cell to a complex embryo to a living, breathing, thinking person. It’s a story that connects us with our distant ancestors and an extraordinary, unlikely chain of events that shaped human development and left a mark on all of us. Alice Roberts uses the latest research to uncover the evolutionary history hidden in all of us, from the secrets found only in our embryos and genes – including why as embroyos we have what look like gills – to those visible in your anatomy. This is a tale of discovery, exploring why and how we have developed as we have. This is your story, told as never before.

My Review

The book takes the foetal development from before ovum and sperm meet to birth, and going from head to toe, to discuss both foetal development and evolution. The author is uniquely place to write this sort of book, having spent years as both a scientist and a science communicator. I enjoyed Alice Roberts’ documentaries that I’ve seen, and this book from ten years ago holds up well, although the science continues to move on.

I found this book really interesting. I have some background in biology, but not a huge amount, I only did a year of university chemistry, mostly biochemistry and molecular biology. I suspect if you didn’t manage to pass GCSE biology and don’t watch documentaries, you might struggle with this book, but for the reasonably educated, it’s a good book. It’s a foundation at least, for university study. It’s not a textbook however, it is written with a general audience on mind. If you enjoy Dr Roberts’ documentary series’ you’ll be fine with this book.

I giggled at the occasional digs at creationists, because they deserve it for their wilful ignorance. If you’re sensitive about that, you probably need a slightly less advanced book before you get to this one. And you need to escape whatever cult you’re in that’s stopping you from getting an education…

I’m listening to Ancestors, by Alice Roberts next.

Pen & Sword TBR Pile Review: Hitler’s Housewives, by Tim Heath

Format: 232 pages, Hardcover
Published: May 19, 2020 by Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 9781526748072 (ISBN10: 152674807X)

Blurb

The meteoric rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party cowed the masses into a sense of false utopia. During Hitler’s 1932 election campaign over half those who voted for Hitler were women. Germany’s women had witnessed the anarchy of the post-First World War years, and the chaos brought about by the rival political gangs brawling on their streets. When Hitler came to power there was at last a ray of hope that this man of the people would restore not only political stability to Germany but prosperity to its people.

As reforms were set in place, Hitler encouraged women to step aside from their jobs and allow men to take their place. As the guardian of the home, the women of Hitler’s Germany were pinned as the very foundation for a future thousand-year Reich. Not every female in Nazi Germany readily embraced the principle of living in a society where two distinct worlds existed, however with the outbreak of the Second World War, Germany’s women would soon find themselves on the frontline.

Ultimately Hitler’s housewives experienced mixed fortunes throughout the years of the Second World War. Those whose loved ones went off to war never to return; those who lost children not only to the influences of the Hitler Youth but the Allied bombing; those who sought comfort in the arms of other young men and those who would serve above and beyond of exemplary on the German home front. Their stories form intimate and intricately woven tales of life, love, joy, fear and death. Hitler’s Housewives: German Women on the Home Front is not only an essential document towards better understanding one of the twentieth century’s greatest tragedies where the women became an inextricable link, but also the role played by Germany’s women on the home front which ultimately became blurred within the horrors of total war.

This is their story, in their own words, told for the first time.

Audiobook Review: Butcher, Biter, Spy, by Ryan Green, narrated by Steve White

Length: 4 hrs and 1 min
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 13-01-23
Language: English
Publisher: Ryan Green Publishing

Summary

On the bloodstained floor lay an array of butcher’s tools and a body without a throat, torn out by Fritz’s “love bite”…

Deemed psychologically unfit to stand trial for child abuse, Fritz Haarmann was locked up in a mental asylum until a new diagnosis as “morally inferior” allowed him to walk free. His insights into the criminal underworld convinced the police to overlook his “activities” and trust him as an informant.

What harm could it do?

When the dismembered and ravaged remains of young men began to wash up on the banks of the river, a war-torn nation cowered under the threat of the man known as the Butcher, Vampire, and Wolf Man.

The hunt for the killer was on, and he was hiding in plain sight.

Butcher, Biter, Spy is a chilling retelling of one of the most brutal killing sprees in German history. Ryan Green’s riveting narrative draws the listener into the real-live horror experienced by the victims and has all the elements of a classic thriller.

Pen & Sword Review: Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Rome, by LJ Trafford

Imprint: Pen & Sword History
Series: Sex and Sexuality
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781526786876
Published: 23rd September 2021

Blurb

From Emperors and empresses, poets and prostitutes, slaves and plebs, Ancient Rome was a wealth of different experiences and expectations. None more so than around the subject of sex and sexuality. The image of Ancient Rome that has come down to us is one of sexual excess: emperors gripped by perversion partaking in pleasure with whomever and whatever they fancied during week long orgies. But how true are these tales of depravity? Was it really a sexual free for all? What were the laws surrounding sexual engagement? How did these vary according to gender and class? And what happened to those who transgressed the rules?

We invite you to climb into bed with the Romans to discover some very odd contraceptive devices, gather top tips on how to attract a partner and learn why you should avoid poets as lovers at all costs. Along the way we’ll stumble across potions and spells, emperors and their favourites and some truly eye-popping interior décor choices.

Review: The Fall of Roman Britain – and why we speak English, by John Lambshead

By John Lambshead, Foreword by Dr Simon Elliott
Imprint: Pen & Sword History
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9781399075565
Published: 11th May 2022

Blurb

The end of empire in the island of Great Britain was both more abrupt and more complete than in any of the other European Roman provinces. When the fog clears and Britain re-enters the historical record, it is, unlike other former European provinces of the Western Empire, dominated by a new culture that speaks a language that is neither Roman nor indigenous British Brythonic and with a pagan religion that owes nothing to Romanitas or native British practices.

Other ex-Roman provinces of the Western Empire in Europe showed two consistent features conspicuously absent from the lowlands of Britain: the dominant language was derived from the local Vulgar Latin and the dominant religion was a Christianity that looked towards Rome. This leads naturally to the question: ‘what was different about Britannia?’ A further anomaly in our understanding lies in the significant dating mismatch between historical and archaeological data of the Germanic migrations, and the latest genetic evidence. The answer to England’s unique early history may lie in resolving this paradox.

John Lambshead summarizes the latest data gathered by historians, archaeologists, climatologists and biologists and synthesizes it all into a fresh new explanation.

Pen & Sword TBR Pile Review: Victorian Fashions For Women, by Neil R Storey & Fiona Kay

Hardcover, 248 pages
Published June 30th 2022 by Pen & Sword History
ISBN:1399004166 (ISBN13: 9781399004169)

Blurb

Victorian Fashions for Women explores the British styles and clothing throughout the long reign of Queen Victoria, from the late 1830s to the first years of the 20th century. Within are a superb overview of the dresses, hats, hair styles, corsetry, undergarments shoes and boots that combined to present the prevailing styles for each decade. From those who had enough money to have day and evening wear and clothes for sports and outdoor activities, to those with limited income and wardrobes or labouring folk with little more than the clothes they stood up in.

All decades are illustrated with original photographs, adverts and contemporary magazine features from the authors’ own remarkable collections, accompanied by a knowledgeable and informative text that describes the fashions, their social history context and influences reflected in the clothes of the time. Laid out in a clear and easy-to-follow chronological order, the key features of styles, decoration and accoutrements will help family historians to date family photographs and will provide a useful resource for students and costume historians or for anyone with a love of fashion and style to enjoy.

My Review

Review number five of the day. Don’t collapse everyone; I know I’ve posted a lot of reviews today, but I stack them up until I find a day to do all the reviews. Today is the day. I woke up early and I’ve had to stay up to wait for my post to be delivered. It was parcels, of meds and sweets. I needed more inhalers. This hot weather is screwing with my asthma so badly that I’m having to use them a lot more than usual. Since I’m awake and haven’t gone back to bed yet, I need to get these reviews done.

As you may know, I enjoy studying history and every area of life has something to tell us about history and society in different time periods, whether it’s food or military actions. Clothes are quite important facets of society and dress history is a growing area. I have visited the V&A museum in the past and was fascinated by the work that went into historical clothing. I also enjoy watching videos on YouTube by dress historians and reenactors, like Morgan Donner, Nicole Rudolph, Abby Cox and Bernadette Banner. It’s an unexpected turn for my interests, I know, because generally I don’t have much interest in clothes, beyond my swimming costumes and fancy underwear. It’s all about comfort for me.

Honestly, upper- and middle-class Victorian clothes look really uncomfortable! Heavy, fussy, and over-decorated. The figure was changed by adding padding and frames, rather than changing the body. Over seventy years fashions and figure changed in a variety of ways, from materials used to the type underwear worn. It really is quite interesting. This book is definitely focused on the dress of middle and upper-class women, because it is those women who could afford the clothes in fashion plates and fashion magazines. The development of fashion magazines and the production of paper patterns in magazines is also mentioned; I have quite a few modern patterns from magazines so the early history of these useful items is interesting to me. It shows that women were making their own fashionable clothes and using the new mechanical sewing machines that were starting to become available to the home sewer. It shows that high fashion was available to everyone if they had the money for material and time to sew.

I would have liked more information on working class clothing and fashions, which were covered only briefly, but I understand the limitations given the information available and the remaining material culture. The writing got a little sludgy at times but wasn’t bad.

TBR Pile Review: Madness in Civilization, by Andrew Scull

Paperback, 448 pages
Published September 1st 2016 by Thames and Hudson Ltd (first published March 23rd 2015)
ISBN: 050029254X (ISBN13: 9780500292549)

Blurb

This ambitious volume, worldwide in scope and ranging from antiquity to the present, examines the human encounter with Unreason in all its manifestations, the challenges it poses to society and our responses to it. In twelve chapters organized chronologically from the Bible to Freud, from exorcism to mesmerism, from Bedlam to Victorian asylums, from the theory of humours to modern pharmacology, Andrew Scull writes compellingly about madness, its meanings, its consequences and our attempts to understand and treat it.

My Review

I was recommended this book for some reason and I’ve been reading it for months as part of my research for the neurodivergent history project for work. I finished it the other day and I’m just getting around to reviewing it.

This book is very densely written covering several thousand years. I wouldn’t agree with the blurb that it is global in scope, it is much more focused on Europe and North America, with occasional excursions to other places colonised by European countries and even fewer discussions of places outside of those areas. Africa, most of Asia and all of South America are ignored. It’s very Anglo-centric. Most of the book really only covers the history of psychiatry in England, France and Germany, with some reference to the U.S. later in the book. It’s going to be helpful for my heritage project, but I would have liked to read more about the rest of the world.

I found the sections on madness in the arts fascinating. I had read something about it in Those They Called Idiots, by Simon Jarrett. This book doesn’t cover learning disability, but madness was often conflated with idiocy in the past. If you were too much hard work for your family to care for, you could quite possibly end up in an asylum or workhouse. The presentation of madness in art and literature, as with disability, changed and influenced how people saw madness and disability.

Problems with the book: Scull clearly knows nothing about Autism or being Autistic, and repeats the lie that there’s an epidemic of Autism. He treats other highly heritable neurodivergencies, such as schizophrenia, equally badly and with limited understanding.

Scull clearly doesn’t like psychiatry as a profession, which is fair enough. A lot of people have been harmed by psychiatry and the narrow ideas of psychiatrists using diagnostic manuals as check lists rather than understanding individual patients. His cynicism gets a bit much at times though.

Generally, not a bad book but approach with caution.

Pen & Sword Review: Not So Virtuous Victorians, by Michelle Rosenberg & Sonia D. Picker

38508163. sy475 — Paperback, 80 pages
Published July 30th 2018 by Pen & Sword Books
ISBN:1526700913 (ISBN13: 9781526700919)

Blurb

What springs to mind when you think of British Victorian men and women? Manners, manners and more manners. Behaviour that was as rigid and constricted as the corsets women wore. From iron-knicker sexual prudery to men so uptight they furtively released their pent up emotions in opium dens and prostitute hot spots. All, of course, exaggerated clichés worthy of a Victorian melodrama. Each generation loves to think it is better than the last and loves to look aghast at the horrifying trends of their ancestors. But are we really any different?

This glimpse at life for Victorian men and women might make millennials think again. Men and women were expected to live very differently from one another with clearly defined roles regardless of class. However, lift the skirts a little and not only will you see that they didn’t wear knickers but they were far less repressed than the persistent stereotypes would have us believe. The Victorians were as weird and wonderful as we are today. From fatal beauty tips to truly hysterical cures for hysteria to grave robbers playing skittles with human bones, we have cherry picked some of the more entertaining glimpses into the lives led by our Victorian brothers and sisters.

Pen & Sword Pile Reviews

I’ve got four for you this evening; I’ve been saving them up. Pen & Sword send me a lot of books, ones I’ve agreed to review, but you know how it is, my eyes are bigger than my belly when it comes to books, so I generally have to read a few at a time then review them all in groups. Sometimes there’s even a theme.

Today there is a theme. Daily life in various historical periods. I’ve just finished reading ‘How to survive in Ancient Egypt’, which I had been waiting on to do this set of reviews.