How'd you like the Perfectionists? I had a hard time telling from your review. Is it in the upper quartile of non-fiction books you've read? Upper half?
Hmm, good question. I'd say upper half. It's entertainingly written, and it tied together for me an interesting theme - not a mindbending point like "Modernizing a Slave Economy" or "The Domestic Revolution" (which I mentioned in my Boston post), but still something very present in technological development.
Now that you brought it to mind, maybe "ways to think about categorizing history books" could be interesting to write about.
From Majewski's CV on his faculty website at UC Santa Barbara, I see he's been looking at the economic impacts of soil fertility and of transportation for some time. Perhaps "Modernizing a Slave Economy" is extending a thesis more fully stated in his earlier book "A House Dividing: Economic Development in Pennsylvania and Virginia before the Civil War." (I have not read either; I'm just comparing the titles).
Re: H Rider Haggard. How about an essay on insertion of fictional characters into historic events? Some authors keep their character on the periphery or give them a hidden task so the history books stay unchanged, other authors create an alternate universe where their character is important, and still others substitute their character for a real person so history is unchanged except for the names. What are the pros and cons?
Good point about Majewski's other book - I hadn't considered looking at his CV. From the synopsis, it looks like that might complement this nicely by examining the economic effects of slavery?
Haggard keeps his protagonists on the periphery of events in the first half of his book; I love how he has them warn the other knights to be sure to pack lots of water before the Battle of the Horns of Hattin... only to stay on the periphery of history because next to nobody heeds their warning (and they lose the battle for it). But in the second half, they're a lot more major as they publicly convince Saladin to spare the Christians in the city when he captures Jerusalem (as he historically did for other reasons). I prefer the first half.
How'd you like the Perfectionists? I had a hard time telling from your review. Is it in the upper quartile of non-fiction books you've read? Upper half?
Hmm, good question. I'd say upper half. It's entertainingly written, and it tied together for me an interesting theme - not a mindbending point like "Modernizing a Slave Economy" or "The Domestic Revolution" (which I mentioned in my Boston post), but still something very present in technological development.
Now that you brought it to mind, maybe "ways to think about categorizing history books" could be interesting to write about.
From Majewski's CV on his faculty website at UC Santa Barbara, I see he's been looking at the economic impacts of soil fertility and of transportation for some time. Perhaps "Modernizing a Slave Economy" is extending a thesis more fully stated in his earlier book "A House Dividing: Economic Development in Pennsylvania and Virginia before the Civil War." (I have not read either; I'm just comparing the titles).
Re: H Rider Haggard. How about an essay on insertion of fictional characters into historic events? Some authors keep their character on the periphery or give them a hidden task so the history books stay unchanged, other authors create an alternate universe where their character is important, and still others substitute their character for a real person so history is unchanged except for the names. What are the pros and cons?
Good point about Majewski's other book - I hadn't considered looking at his CV. From the synopsis, it looks like that might complement this nicely by examining the economic effects of slavery?
Haggard keeps his protagonists on the periphery of events in the first half of his book; I love how he has them warn the other knights to be sure to pack lots of water before the Battle of the Horns of Hattin... only to stay on the periphery of history because next to nobody heeds their warning (and they lose the battle for it). But in the second half, they're a lot more major as they publicly convince Saladin to spare the Christians in the city when he captures Jerusalem (as he historically did for other reasons). I prefer the first half.