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This was the last book I read of the several by Rutherford that were lent to me by a good friend. This book is about the New Forest of England and its history is told throughout generations. Most famously, King William Rufus was shot and killed in this forest in 1100 during one of his deer-hunting trips. Rutherford has played into this episode and added some of his own dramatic flair for storytelling to describe this particular event and its ramifications.
As in his other books, this one is dominated by a variety of interesting characters. The Albion family for example find themselves split down the middle in political affairs. On the death of Bloody Mary, Elizabeth I had come to the throne. The Lady Albion loudly despises the Queen and doesn't believe she should be on a throne. In this she wants the Catholic Spanish to invade in order to return England to the "true faith." Her son, Clement who works for the Queen tries in vain to silence her many times and is forced to choose between the faith he feels for his mother and the honour he feels towards the Queen.
Like all of Rutherford's books, this one is long, but keeps the reader interested with many interesting characters and historical events. The particularly magical part about this book is the the New Forest maintained its beauty and is now a historical reserve. In this way, Rutherford was able to build on what he already knew about the New Forest, one would imagine from visiting it.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, especially if you have an interest in history or have previously enjoyed Rutherford's work.
This is the first in a series of books lent to me by a friend. The subject matter of all these books is a place, rather than a person. Many people come and go throughout centuries and although some of the characters are fairly well-developed, it is the place you get to know, rather than any character in particular.
It is obvious a large amount of research went into this book, which details the history of Dublin up until 1550. In this vein, it is largely inconsistent. Obviously, there are large amounts of research on certain periods of history, while others remain uncertain. Because of this, the beginning of this book in hunter-gatherer periods drifts a fair bit, as there is very little Rutherford can be sure actually happened. For this reason, he uses a lot of fairly descriptive language, which is scant in other parts of the book.
In all respects, this book and all those that follow it is chock-full of interesting historical information and Rutherford provides interesting commentary as to the sureness of this information in history books. Moreover, knowing the setting of these happenings well, as you get to throughout the book, assists the reader in understanding and placing events within context. As someone with an interest in Ireland generally, it made for an incredibly interesting read.
It's difficult to put a rating on this book. A lot of things about it could be improved. That said, it is an amazing book in that it contains such a large amount of information in a fairly interesting and acceptable manner. If you have any sort of interest in history or Ireland, it is an incredible book.
I read this book for a class I am taking on sexuality this trimester. Pretty much the entire course is based around Foucault's conception of sexuality so although it's been a long time since I finished it (I am extremely behind on book reviews), I can remember the essence of his argument. Foucault's take on sexuality is in contrast to the one in vogue at the time - that is the repressive hypothesis, which expounded that 'natural' sexuality had been repressed and ignored by all levels of society, in particular the bourgeoisie. The social movements of the 1970s sprang out of this as an opposition to repression that was seen to be taking place. Foucault argues against this belief, indeed his argument is almost totally a social constructionist one. Rather than a repression of sexuality, Foucault saw quite the opposite; an explosion of discourse surrounding the topic of it, beginning in the Victorian age.
Foucault also puts forward in this volume that concept of bio-power. The juridical model of power assumes a hierarchy with those at the top of hierarchy as oppressing those beneath. Bio-power, by contrast involved a range of techniques aimed at controlling the body and populations. This power exists not just at the top, but rather is enabled at every level of society in what Foucault terms cycles of pleasure and power.
Foucault is the most cited social scientist ever. He has overtaken Marx, Freud and Weber in this accomplishment. He has become the beginning of a much larger move towards focusing on a constructed society and a less obvious model of power. There are many critiques people make of Foucault, many of them are fair critiques. I'm not writing for a journal so I'm not going to delve right into my criticisms of Foucault's novel.
I found this work surprisingly easy to read, after hearing people talk about his writing in the same words they talk about Max Weber's. It was a relief to be honest to be able to get through this book and actually understand what he was on about, which is often difficult with other authors. I would definitely be keen to read more Foucault, I just wish I wasn't so bogged down in assignments!
