As a follow up to The Guns of August, I listened to The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890 – 1914, which Barbara W. Tuchman published as a sequel to The Guns of August, so I feel like I did this in the correct order.
The Proud Tower isn’t so much a cohesive narrative book as much as a series of essays Tuchman published in various periodicals collected in one volume, and each describes a different part of the world in the 25 years prior to the outbreak of the war, focusing on political, cultural, and economic climates in various regions of the world of the time.
This book was informative although extremely disconnected, which I suppose makes sense as the pieces in it were all originally separately published. Each chapter did have a main idea and one difference between this book and The Guns of August was that this book had a chapter devoted to the United States, with Tuchman’s central idea for the chapter that the USA gave up its century plus policy of neutrality and pacifism to embrace the imperialistic attitudes of nineteenth century Europe.
I found this book interesting although the lack of overall message/theme renders it a bit useless as anything but exactly what it is – a collection of essays. That said, as usual I liked Tuchman’s writing, humor, and the way she presented information in an accessible way. It’s a good popular history of supplemental reading. Again, as someone whose knowledge of European history from 1800 – 1914 is spotty at best, any popular history book that can hold interest and provide insight into the world during that time is a valuable resource (presuming of course, it isn’t completely wrong). Tuchman’s book does that.
Final note: the title of the book comes from Edgar Allen Poe’s poem ‘The City in the Sea.’ The passage reads While from a proud tower in the town/ Death looks gigantically down.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
On Robin Williams
I am devastated by the passing of Robin Williams.
Book Riot is celebrating some of his greatest bookish performances here.
This post isn’t strictly literary, but it’s necessary for me. Robin Williams has always been an iconic figure in my life. My best friend and I spent many of our high school Saturdays on the couch, watching his films. He called me Monday so that we could talk about this. We NEVER talk on the phone. We text. That’s how huge this was for us.
My favorite of Williams’ movies that I’ve seen is ‘The Birdcage’ – an underrated gem – and it isn’t just my favorite Robin Williams film, it is my one of my favorite films of all time. Williams stars as part of an ensemble cast that included Nathan Lane, Hank Azaria, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest, Callista Flockhart, Christine Baranski, and Dan Futterman.
In the movie, Williams plays Armand Goldman, a drag club owner and partner of Nathan Lane’s Albert, who stars in the drag show. They live above the club. Armand’s son, who he conceived experimenting with Catherine, is getting married to the daughter of a socially conservative U.S. Senator. The son and his fiance invite her parents to dinner. Hilarity ensues. It’s based on a French play.
And of course, there’s all his other work. Sitcoms, films, voice work, drama, comedy, you name it, he did it. The Genie is still one of my favorite Disney characters.
As sports commentator Mike Greenberg said on Twitter, “I never met the man in my life, and I feel like I’ve lost a very dear friend.” It speaks to how transcendent he was that nobody has said a bad word about him since the news broke yesterday that he’d committed suicide. Colleagues, fans, everyone has wonderful things to say about him. I really haven’t seen any negative comments, and I’ve been looking for them. Well, actually, Rush Limbaugh and that crowd were pretty insensitive, but I don’t really count that group as “people.” I’d say they were more like animals with thumbs, but that’s insulting to animals.
There’s a lot to say about mental illness and the stigma it still has, but I don’t know enough about it to really make any kind of definitive statement. Did his disorder help him seamlessly transition from comedy to drama? Who knows. But going from wildly funny to entirely vulnerable isn’t easy, and yet he did it so well. Marilyn Monroe was able to pull off something similar. And some of his greatest roles were dramatic, rather than comedic.
Still, whenever I need a fail safe comedy, I pull out ‘The Birdcage.’ It still makes me laugh and the first time I saw it was 15 years ago. I’ve seen it a million times.
Robin Williams spent his entire career entertaining us, and I guess the only promise I can make to the legacy of a person I never met but who still managed to give me so much is that I will never stop being entertained. I will never stop laughing, crying, and being inspired by his performances.
Rest in peace, soul companion. I hope you’re happy now.
why you should date an illiterate girl
this really resonated with me, and I think everyone should read it.
My mom sent me this passage yesterday along with the message: I am so happy that you have read so much. Make your own dreams.
The following passage explains why reading is so very important. Why immersing yourself in fictions and biographies is so essential to cultivating a life beyond the ordinary. If you have been to far-off cities and lands in the stories you read, you will expect no less in your own life. You will want to taste the pleasures you have read about, to see the landscapes you have imagined in your mind’s eye and to breathe the freedom in your dreams. Read because it will help you judge a person’s character far better than any lesson you learned on the playground. Read to develop empathy for others and a sense of justice on a planet gone mad. Read because once you start to fully understand how…
View original post 1,162 more words
words in scarlet ink 