Jason Gacek

Factual, but does not flow well at all.

Reviewed: 2023-12-27

The authors choice if how to divide up the subjects provides some interesting new perspectives, looking at the loss and accumulation of centralized authority, taxation and how that connects with conflict and religion were a different approach. That being said, the book reads more like a textbook, and it’s NOT very interesting overall.

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A good but incomplete history of Romania & Biography of Vlad III

Reviewed: 2023-08-30

While I did enjoy learning a great deal of detail I have not heard in broader histories where Romania is a small part, I was disappointed by the ending where he just skipididos right to the end after the fall of Ceausescu. With the briefest of overviews for Romania post 1989, he even there fails to mention one of the most CRITICAL aspects of post communist Romania… The Rise of Organized Crime Groups and their infiltration of many parts of the Romanian economy. This is an egregious oversight that makes the work incomplete. Still worth having, as there is not much else out there reviewing Romanian history in the English language.

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Words are not making sense.

Reviewed: 2023-07-21

I have a lot of audio books. This is the first that clearly has errors. It’s not badly written, it like some bad translator program transcribed this book from another language and nobody proofed it before publishing… astounding! I want my money back or a proper version and there is NO CUSTOMER SERVICE I can find.

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The only Greek independence audio book I can find

Reviewed: 2023-06-15

While I appreciate that I could at least learn what happened, I think it was poorly put together. The story and notable people were not easy to follow. Quite frankly, the book was just not well organized. The preamble to the revolution was too short. A more detailed look at the Ottoman Empire over the preceding century along with the Greeks, and the European powers would have shone more like on why the Greek Fire ignited when it did and why it was successful this time. Officially the story was not bad and in the absence of any other narrative on this subject I’m grateful to at least have this.

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Excellent and Entertaining overview of the Tudor Era

Reviewed: 2023-03-14

Meyer is not afraid to venture his opinion without qualifying or being wishy washy like a lot of historians. Not enough detail or appreciation of Henry VII. Parsimonious or not, it’s worth spending more time on how a nobody who’s grandfather slept with a dead king’s widow maneuvered himself to be king, and then kept it. Henry VIII is likely one of the most evil men in middle age/Renaissance history and that is well portrayed. Definitely one of the least flattering portrayals of Elizabeth I I’ve come across, but he backs up his opinions credibly. I would have liked more of a soft intro do James I/IV and the issues he inherited on becoming king.

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Very good overall book

Reviewed: 2023-02-06

My one bone of contention was ending the book at Richard II. Henry the IV was still a Plantagenet. The story of the Plantagenets natural ending should be at the end of the War of the Roses with the ascension of Henry VII and the beginning of the Tudor Dynasty. There is no ‘Lancaster Dynasty’!. I was sad to miss the telling of the battle of Agincourt. I liked how Jones was not afraid to mince words or make excuses for the lesser kings like John, Edward II, and Richard II.

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2 people found this helpful

Lots of facts, not much story

Reviewed: 2022-11-10

Once again I get a real appreciation for Chinese and European history where written records allow us to actually know people like Confucius, Caesar, and Alexander. Here we are left with pottery shards, and epigraphic information that only paints a very broad picture with very little detail. Super boring, and hard to retain what they did say. Good for scholars maybe, but not the interested lay person.

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A Tragedy that continues to this day.

Reviewed: 2022-09-07

While the narrator does an excellent job of showcasing the tragedy and horror inflicted on these sad people, he fails to look in the sources and causes of evil. The Khmer Rouge killed up to 2 million people. He documents many people who survive the killings, but does does not document interviews or insights in to the soldiers past or present that DID the killing. He does not discuss HOW these people reached a state where they could kill women and children and feel nothing or even take pleasure in the most horrific acts of torture and murder. The book is well done, but without looking more closely in to the face of evil, it feels incomplete.

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Bland, does not cover controversial points at all

Reviewed: 2022-04-06

The book covers facts where it wants while skimming lightly over other big things like the conflict with Russia in 1905. The first big conflict and victory over a European power. The massacres, comfort women in Korea and other places, rampant racism and cruel treatment of other Asian peoples during and after Meiji Restoration. Why and how this evolved in Japan is not address hardly at all. A very incomplete and whitewashed history.

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Excellent overview of Indonesia

Reviewed: 2021-12-15

A well written account of Indonesia. I liked the mini biographies that highlighted key individuals throughout the timeline and their motivations. Could have greater detail and better explanations of why people or the army did what they did, or why events unfolded the way they did on some occasions. Definitely skipped too quickly through the post Suharto era.

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