Posted November 9, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Fossil Legends of the First Americans
Genres: History,
Non-fiction,
Science Pages: 488
Rating: 
Synopsis: The burnt-red badlands of Montana's Hell Creek are a vast graveyard of the Cretaceous dinosaurs that lived 68 million years ago. Those hills were, much later, also home to the Sioux, the Crows, and the Blackfeet, the first people to encounter the dinosaur fossils exposed by the elements. What did Native Americans make of these stone skeletons, and how did they explain the teeth and claws of gargantuan animals no one had seen alive? Did they speculate about their deaths? Did they collect fossils?
Beginning in the East, with its Ice Age monsters, and ending in the West, where dinosaurs lived and died, this richly illustrated and elegantly written book examines the discoveries of enormous bones and uses of fossils for medicine, hunting magic, and spells. Well before Columbus, Native Americans observed the mysterious petrified remains of extinct creatures and sought to understand their transformation to stone. In perceptive creation stories, they visualized the remains of extinct mammoths, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and marine creatures as Monster Bears, Giant Lizards, Thunder Birds, and Water Monsters. Their insights, some so sophisticated that they anticipate modern scientific theories, were passed down in oral histories over many centuries.
Drawing on historical sources, archaeology, traditional accounts, and extensive personal interviews, Adrienne Mayor takes us from Aztec and Inca fossil tales to the traditions of the Iroquois, Navajos, Apaches, Cheyennes, and Pawnees.
Fossil Legends of the First Americans felt a bit… slower than Mayor’s book on the fossil knowledge of Greek and Roman culture. In part, it’s because there’s just more ground to cover, but also there’s a certain repetitiveness to each chapter in her gradual survey of the whole area.
I do see her point that these indigenous peoples definitely interacted with fossil bones, and definitely came to an understanding of them — seeing them as evidence of deep time, and even perhaps a form of evolution — but sometimes (as with the other book) it feels like grasping at straws. “Perhaps” they thought this or that, but we can’t know that. So much knowledge has been lost, and so much is kept by indigenous communities and not shared with white people (for good reason).
It’s an interesting survey of attitudes toward fossils and stories about fossils in indigenous American cultures, but that’s as far as it can go.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: Adrienne Mayor, book reviews, books, history, non-fiction, science
Posted November 6, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 3 Comments
For the Love of Mars
Genres: History,
Non-fiction,
Science Pages: 247
Rating: Synopsis: Mars and its secrets have fascinated and mystified humans since ancient times. Due to its vivid color and visibility, its geologic kinship with Earth, and its potential as our best hope for settlemen, Mars embodies everything that inspires us about space and exploration. For the Love of Mars journeys through the red planet's place in the human imagination, beginning with ancient astrologers and skywatchers and ending in our present moment of exploration and virtual engagement.
This book isn’t really about the science of Mars — though that comes into it — but is more of a cultural history: an attempt to understand what Mars has meant to people, the framework in which people have understood it in different ages, and how that has shaped how we understand Mars now and the kind of assumptions we hold about it.
I found it a surprisingly slow read for the length, comparatively speaking; it was perhaps a bit drier than I expected for a book about Mars (which just goes to show how we think about Mars, I suppose), and spent rather a long time recounting the stories that people told about Mars, e.g. a detailed explanation of Dante’s Paradiso.
I did expect a cultural history from the blurb (though it seems other people were misled), but I suppose I’d expected something focusing more on the modern part of it. I did really enjoy the chapter that discusses the Mars rovers and people’s intense, surprisingly emotional reactions to them.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, history, Matthew Shindell, non-fiction, science
Posted October 31, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women
Genres: History,
Non-fiction Pages: 336
Rating: 
Synopsis: Here’s how the history of the Roman Empire usually goes… We start with Romulus, go on to Brutus overthrowing Tarquin, bounce through an appallingly tedious list of battles and generals and consuls, before emerging into the political stab-fest of the late Republic. From there, it runs through all the emperors, occasionally mentioning a wife or mother to show how bad things get when women get out of control, until Constantine invents Christianity and then Attila the Hun comes and ruins everything. But the history of Rome and empire is so much more than these Important Things.
In this alternative history, Emma Southon traces the story of the Roman Empire through women: Vestal Virgins and sex workers, business owners and poets, martyrs and saints. Each gives a different perspective on women’s lives and how they changed, across time and across class lines.
Received to review via Netgalley
Emma Southon has a particular style that I imagine some people really hate: conversational, chatty, often even flippant. When she doesn’t know something, because no one knows, she says so. When she’s painting a picture from imagination to fill in the gaps, or choosing one interpretation of many, she says so very frankly. I find it very readable, and I appreciate how clear she is about when she’s using sources, how she’s using sources, and when she’s just having to make things up — or choose one option above others because there’s nothing particular to tell them apart. She’s interested in telling a story here, and it shows.
That said, I can understand why those who are just looking for facts would rather she stop it; for all that she’s clear about sources vs imagination, it’s really not formalised. Don’t let that fool you, though: there’s an extensive bibliography at the back.
I really liked Southon’s plan to discuss events through women: I was kind of surprised Livia wasn’t a choice, for example, or Cleopatra, or Agrippina (who Southon has written a whole biography of!) — but instead Southon makes a harder decision, and often picks less well-known women.
I found it really enjoyable, though I still prefer her book on murder in Ancient Rome.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Emma Southon, history, non-fiction
Posted October 24, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs
Pages: 336
Rating: Synopsis: In November 1519, Hernán Cortés walked along a causeway leading to the capital of the Aztec kingdom and came face to face with Moctezuma. That story -- and the story of what happened afterwards -- has been told many times, but always following the narrative offered by the Spaniards. After all, we have been taught, it was the Europeans who held the pens. But the Native Americans were intrigued by the Roman alphabet and, unbeknownst to the newcomers, they used it to write detailed histories in their own language of Nahuatl. Until recently, these sources remained obscure, only partially translated, and rarely consulted by scholars.
For the first time, in Fifth Sun, the history of the Aztecs is offered in all its complexity based solely on the texts written by the indigenous people themselves. Camilla Townsend presents an accessible and humanized depiction of these native Mexicans, rather than seeing them as the exotic, bloody figures of European stereotypes. The conquest, in this work, is neither an apocalyptic moment, nor an origin story launching Mexicans into existence. The Mexica people had a history of their own long before the Europeans arrived and did not simply capitulate to Spanish culture and colonization. Instead, they realigned their political allegiances, accommodated new obligations, adopted new technologies, and endured.
Fifth Sun is a version of “Aztec” history which attempts to look beyond the traditionally-preferred Spanish sources to the sources written by indigenous people, as close as possible to the time events actually occurred. And it turns out that these sources actually have quite a bit to say, and some light to shed on common myths and beliefs. (Like the persistent belief that Moctezuma believed Cortes to be a god.)
Despite the author’s best efforts, I found the switching back and forth between the translated names and the untranslated names pretty confusing — in part due to unfamiliarity, giving my brain not that much to hang onto. I did appreciate the pronunciation guides though! Overall, partly because of that, I found it a bit slower and harder to follow than I’d hoped.
Nonetheless, it’s worth it; I feel like it’s closer than most popular history works to actually invoking what indigenous people thought and felt at the time. Townsend does a bit of “she must have sympathised with him” and so on where I rather wondered why on earth we should take that for granted given the circumstances, but I always find that irritating and it’s pretty rife in popular history in general.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Camilla Townsend, history, non-fiction
Posted October 22, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths and Myth in Greek and Roman Times
Genres: History,
Non-fiction,
Science Pages: 400
Rating: Synopsis: Griffins, Cyclopes, Monsters, and Giants--these fabulous creatures of classical mythology continue to live in the modern imagination through the vivid accounts that have come down to us from the ancient Greeks and Romans. But what if these beings were more than merely fictions? What if monstrous creatures once roamed the earth in the very places where their legends first arose? This is the arresting and original thesis that Adrienne Mayor explores in The First Fossil Hunters. Through careful research and meticulous documentation, she convincingly shows that many of the giants and monsters of myth did have a basis in fact -- in the enormous bones of long-extinct species that were once abundant in the lands of the Greeks and Romans.
I really enjoyed this exploration and analysis of what the ancient Greeks and Romans thought of ancient fossils that they found and clearly noticed, collected and wondered about; the idea that they were “too big to be noticed” never sat right with me, even though it did seem weird that mostly the major philosophers didn’t comment on the subject (despite that well-known commentary on seashells demonstrating the presence of a long-lost sea in a given location).
I think that sometimes Mayor does go beyond her evidence — we just can’t be that certain, though she lays out some good evidence that tales of the existence of gryphons could’ve been sparked, in Greece, by second-hand travellers’ tales. I found that aspect of her discussion a bit thin, because there’s stuff in Greek mythology that is equally well or better explained by someone making stuff up.
That said, her discussion of “heroes’ bones” makes a lot of sense, and I do think it’s likely that stuff in Greek mythology references aspects of the world the Greeks didn’t understand, or didn’t properly understand anyway.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: Adrienne Mayor, book reviews, books, history, non-fiction, science
Posted September 10, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment
Mother Tongue, Jenni Nuttall
I was worried this would come off rather gender essentialist, and there were a few points that did raise eyebrows — Nuttall is very certain of her “we” when referring to various experiences that she attributes to “being female”, and though she didn’t say anything outright trans/enby-phobic, I was conscious that there was kind of a miasma of scepticism about the increase in gender-neutral language.
There was a lot of interesting stuff in here, but I found her style a bit tedious, and at times she really wasn’t clear. For example, she talked about the Latin version of the Bible and made it sound almost like it was originally written in Latin (it wasn’t). I’m pretty sure that’s because she was talking about a translation being done from Latin to the vernacular, with the translators using the Latin instead of the original, but… mm. It just all felt a little woolly to someone who was noticing what was said. There’s simplifying it for a lay audience, and there’s making it sound like the original version of the New Testament was in Latin.
(This may of course be mostly my own reading, and if I read it again it’d seem perfectly clear. Maybe. But on first read, I raised my eyebrows. That suggests a lack of clarity!)
As far as notes go, they are very, very scanty. A whole chapter has two endnotes, for example. What are the sources for literally everything else? Who knows.
All in all, I’m inclined to suggest steering away from this one, now that I’ve sat down and thought it through. Unearthing the words female-bodied people have used about themselves is a worthy plan, but if a whole chapter has only two notes, then… nah.
Rating: 2/5
Tags: book reviews, books, history, non-fiction
Posted August 25, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Lives of the Ancient Egyptians, Toby Wilkinson
Lives of the Ancient Eygptians is not a particularly surprising book, if you’ve read about ancient Egypt in popular history books for a while, but it does take an interesting perspective: the span of ancient Egyptian history, represented as best as possible through the lives of 100 Egyptians.
That’s not many to do a lot of work, and sometimes they kind of clump together (Hatshepsut, and also people who worked for her, and also her family members), but mostly it manages to pick out — where possible — a range of people, including the poorer people who we have less evidence about.
In the end, it’s quite a simple version of Egyptian history, and there are many fascinating, controversial and enlightening facts and people passed over. Such a choice of format will always disappoint someone. I found it mildly entertaining and fairly readable, though Wilkinson is not (for me personally, at least) the most engaging writer. I don’t know what it is about his writing, but reliably, I find my attention drifting. Oops.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, history, non-fiction, Toby Wilkinson
Posted July 19, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
A History of Reading, Steven Roger Fischer
A History of Reading is an interesting look at reading throughout history. It’s not just the history of books, or stories, but about the place that literacy has generally in society, and a bit of what that meant for society — e.g. how it affects things as reading spreads away from the elite.
Some of the suggestions it has about ereading are very of its time: in reality, our ebooks have been very like our pbooks, without the wild branching of possibilities and jumping around in texts that the author suggests may come next. Likewise, pbooks don’t seem to be going away at the rate people expected back then: we’re all still very fond of our codices.
Still, on the historical stuff it’s fascinating, if a bit slow.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, history, non-fiction, Steven Roger Fischer
Posted July 7, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments
Hidden Heritage: Rediscovering Britain’s Lost Love of the Orient, Fatima Manji
Hidden Heritage attempts to bring some hidden gems to life, along with their history and context. It’s not just a game of spotting bits of ‘Oriental’ architecture and influence in Britain, but digging into what they meant at the time and what they might mean now. Much of it was new to me — not necessarily surprising, because I knew these influences existed, but new to me in the specifics, in someone actually bothering to point them out.
Fatima Manji’s writing is clear and easy to read in and of itself, but I especially enjoyed getting to read some bits of history that we’re usually less aware of.
Note: the book uses the term “Oriental”, even though it conflates a whole bunch of different cultures, because that’s how it was perceived at the time, and those cultures were conflated and viewed as one (or at least, as very, very closely related), and thus must be understood in that context.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Fatima Manji, history, non-fiction
Posted May 29, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment
Pathogenesis, Jonathan Kennedy
Pathogenesis was less absorbing for me than I’d hoped; I love non-fiction about diseases, even though I’m already studying for my MSc in the subject and thus most of it is not new to me. Still, often there are titbits I didn’t know, and that seemed like it was going to prove true here too when I read the introduction: did you know that viral genes are involved in the formation of the mammalian placenta?
But overall, the rest of it was much less scientific, less based on… well… pathogenesis, and much more about history. How diseases affected armies and governments, and how changes like capitalism (of which the author seems to be a huge fan) changed the approach to public health. Which is to say, created a demand for it, since there was no such thing under feudalism.
For someone who is interested in the history of infectious diseases in relation to humanity, this is probably still fascinating. For me, it was just a bit to starboard of my real interests, and I found it far too simplistic in discussing how diseases work. (Plus, there was definitely a lot more room to consider the impacts of the current pandemic and what it means for the future. Consider the impact on the treatment of tuberculosis, for example — deeply negative.)
It was alright, but not what I wanted, ultimately.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, history, Jonathan Kennedy, non-fiction, science
