April 2009 archive

The Celts by Jean Markale

The author deserves credit for taking on such a difficult and ambitious project…yet it must be said that this book is full of unwarranted assertions and loose interpretations. Most of what we know about the Celts comes either from what their enemies wrote about them or from Celtic mythology, neither of which are very reliable …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2009/04/20/the-celts-by-jean-markale/

Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves

As a self-serving memoir, I am sure this book was more interesting for Graves to write than it was for me to read. Ostensibly it is a personal account of the Great War, but the author is clearly more interested in himself than in the war. Yet the book is not altogether without interest in …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2009/04/12/goodbye-to-all-that-by-robert-graves/

A History of Ethiopia by Harold Marcus

African history usually depresses me, but the history of Ethiopia is encouraging and inspiring. A lot of people in the West don’t know this, but Ethiopia is a mostly Christian country and has been for most of its history. It is, in fact, one of the oldest continuously Christian countries in the world. Furthermore, even …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2009/04/12/a-history-of-ethiopia-by-harold-marcus/