In the midst of Barnes & Noble’s troubles, their editorial team has managed to post a review of The History of the Renaissance World.
Tackling the entire Renaissance has overwhelmed more than one historian, but for Susan Wise Bauer, it’s just another rich project. The woman who gave us The History of the World series, The History of the Ancient World, and The History of the Medieval World has long since mastered the fine art of historical narrative. In The History of the Renaissance World, she begins the story in the final year of the eleventh century, with Christians finally in control of Jerusalem after four hundred years, and proceeds to describe the cultural, political, and military changes, sometimes rapid and often cataclysmic, that affected civilizations from England, mainland Europe and the Middle East to India and China. Nor does she neglect things mostly beyond human control, including the Great Famine, the Black Death, and the Little Ice Age. An adroit retelling of an era of great rebirth.
B&N editor, whoever you are, thanks for reading and understanding the book. (Puts you one up on the Publisher’s Weekly reviewer.)
Yayyy!!! Looking forward to seeing it soon! (We carry the first two at the bookstore where I work.)
🙂
Karen
I’ve just finished reading your first volume, “The history of the Ancient World”. I enjoyed it very much. I’ve always been fascinated by the accomplishments of people who had to walk everywhere. My only bone to pick is on page 685 when you state Caesar was so in debt at the end of his term as Pontifex Maximus. I’m sure you meant his term as Aedile since the Pontifex was a life time post. I’m also not sure the ascension of Constantine constitutes the end of the roman empire but I look forward to seeing that explained in the next volume which I have already purchased. Thank you for your time and keep them coming. Steve Billings
I agree, the B&N review is much nicer than this one: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-393-05976-2
The PW reviewer got up on the wrong side of the bed, huh? “Disappointed,” “rife,” “Bauer ranges far and wide,” “Bauer covers a bewildering amount of territory in her attempt to offer a tantalizing global perspective on a tumultuous epoch,” “unfortunately,” and “sacrifices” — the entire PW review sounds sour to me. Did he/she even read the book, or merely glance at the TOC?
Well, it IS annoying to write a preface explaining that this is not intended to be a history of the Italian Renaissance, but instead a survey of the entire world during the Renaissance period–and then to be criticized for writing a world survey instead of a “deep” history that includes Michaelangelo and da Vinci. Apparently the reviewer doesn’t like the fact that I wrote the book I said I was going to write.
Always maddening to be criticized for the book you didn’t write, rather than the one you did.
Hello, I’ve been trying to find an appropriate place to tell you how much your books have impacted our homeschool. We began teaching our 6 (eventually 10) children at home in 2001 when eldest dear son then 11 read your SoTW, Vol 1, in a weekend. Thus began his passion for the subject! Fast forward, now 22, he graduated with honors in May and left yesterday for a fully-funded fellowship in history at Princeton University. We are so proud of him and like to say that it all began with Susan Wise Bauer’s Story of the World.