Sometimes likened to a Chinese Odyssey, the story is epic in a literal sense, at some eight hundred thousand words over one hundred twenty chapters, and its structure has more in common with modern storytelling than you might expect.
Atlas of Medieval Europe Review
Organized by both timeframe and subject, the collection presents the clearest maps I’ve ever found in a history book, which usually attempt to cram far too much information into a single, static map. With Atlas of Medieval Europe, you can instead experience a kind of stop-motion animation as you watch Europe evolve over the course of a few centuries.
Optimal Illusions Review
As the saying goes, “when you have a hammer, everything’s a nail.” In Krumme’s Optimal Illusions, we contemplate what happens when the hammer decides it is no longer content being a hammer, and would prefer to be a rock, instead.
Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini Review
With many caveats, this is said to be the first autobiography, which is the reason it ended up on my reading list. To be more specific, it is the earliest surviving autobiographical text written with the intent of being autobiographical in nature, as opposed to serving some other didactic purpose while being incidentally autobiographical.
The Bookseller of Florence Review
To what extent do the books that come down to us from long ago do so because they are exceptional and there have been deliberate efforts to preserve them throughout the ages, and to what extent are they books that, by accident or happenstance, have happened to survive into the present?
History of the Peloponnesian War Review
The Peloponnesian War was a world war, drawing in all the Greek polities through a network of alliances, and, over twenty-seven years, involving diverse foreign powers, from Persia, to Egypt, to Italy, and even parts of Europe. To the Greeks, that was the world, and for twenty-seven years the world warred.
Philip and Alexander Review
I could have read about Alexander the Great from one of the many historical sources who wrote about him, either contemporaneous with his campaigns, or within a few centuries, but such ancient works tend not to capture what I hoped to find in Philip and Alexander: an exploration of both kings’ reigns, and how the one informed the other.
The US Constitution and Other Writings Review
This is a review for the collection of American writings assembled by Canterbury Classics, and not a review of the US Constitution.
Wisdom Sits in Places Review
I was left pondering this idea of perception and the environment, too nebulous as yet for me to fully express it myself. Wisdom Sits in Places is the answer for which I did not realize I was looking.
Material World Review
Material World’s strength is in examining the many permutations of these substances, and following them from their initial extraction as raw resources through their conversion into recognizable products, although do not expect too great of technical depth.
IGC Publishing 