I liked this book, though it did have it's limits. Short histories by their nature mean there is less there to fully back up claims, and there was a lot I would have liked to seen more evidence for. The book touches on a lot on the region, but doesn't go before the Ottoman empire. Mazower describes ...
It's incredibly admirable that the author states he was first inspired to learn about the city after a visit with the military years ago. It's incredibly strange that I've spent so much time in today's version of the city based on this book. The city does seem to have a history thick with possibilit...
”A man’s features, the bone structure and the tissue which covers it, are the product of a biological process; but his face he creates for himself. It is a statement of his habitual emotional attitude; the attitude which his desires need for their fulfilment and which his fears demand for their prot...
A Frenchman named Chamfort, who should have known better, once said that chance was a nickname for Providence.Well ... what can I say apart from that this didn't gel for me. -----------------------------17/5/2013 - Re-visit via radio: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01shstw
This is an absolutely excellent book - engaging and clearly written. Fascinating study of the relationship between the three religions Christianity, Islam and Judaism and the people in Thessaloniki, Greece. It covers history of the area from about the 1300s. It IS detailed, very detailed, but not dr...
My least favourite of his so far - but he writes so evocatively of a vanished time and place he's hard to put down
There's a scene in the classic Star Trek episode "Patterns of Force" that always comes to mind when I read Nazi-era histories. In the episode, Enterprise is called to the planets Ekos and Zeon to find out what happened to the Federation's cultural observer, John Gill, who's disappeared. They discove...
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