“Boiled down to its essentials, finance always does the same thing: it takes monCui Bono? Or The Butler did it?
If I don't do it, somebody else will."
“Boiled down to its essentials, finance always does the same thing: it takes money from people who have it but don’t need it, and gives it to people who need it and don’t have it, and earns a fee for its trouble. Governments try to regulate this process, to direct the funding toward the causes they care about, and financial institutions try to avoid those rules so they can direct the funding toward the causes that will pay the largest fees. That is financial innovation, which is simply an artificial way of exploiting artificial rules governing the artificial thing we call money, and normally involves finding mismatches between regulations in different countries. It’s clever, but it adds nothing to the sum of human achievement.”
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A thoroughly fascinating, sobering and depressing read/listen and I'm awarding it the full 5 stars, even though I'm not sure I'll ever forgive Oliver Bullough for destroying or at least serioysly souring my Jeeves-Bertie image.
I understand why he did it -and oh boy, does it throw a punch!- but I'm very unhappy about it all the same. Drawing a comparison between one of my favourite literary duo and Britain's -or rather "the City of London's- financial shenanigans makes sense, but it hurts all the same (obviously, Bullough wants it to hurt, the more painful the punch, the stronger the underlying message).
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Recommended for those, who'd like a clear picture and a historical overview of the murky waters and shady deals of super rich tax dodgers, cleptocrats, corrupt politicians, financial bigwigs, offshore shell companies and other "valuable" members of our society (not only those in Britain, obviously) who blithely ignore the rest of the world or what's happening to us, mere mortals.
Unsurprisingly, Hungary and the guy we have the extremely, tragically bad luck to call our prime minister, Viktor Orban also feature in the story. While OB simply calls him cleptocrat-adjacent, unfortunately we know better or worse: he's turned into a cleptocrat himself and turned Hungary into a political butler to Russia & China for his own gains to the infinite detriment of our country. (Excuse me while I'll go away to vomit discreetly.)
WARNING for fans of Jeeves! Treat with caution and read at your peril!!
Audiobook very well narrated by the author himself.
(And now I need to find a Wodehouse book to read to balance this all.)...more
Currently this title is included in the Audible Plus catalogue for free and I recommend it to those who -like me- have only a basic knowledVery good.
Currently this title is included in the Audible Plus catalogue for free and I recommend it to those who -like me- have only a basic knowledge about Spanish history, but would like to know more.
The lecturer, Joyce E. Salisbury, took on quite a challenge with these series of lectures: giving an interesting, intriguing & thought-provoking summary of any country's history just in 12 hours (24 lectures, each 30-minutes long) is no easy feat, but I think she managed it very well. I went through them quickly and easily and was always anticipating what was still coming.
As mentioned before, this is an overview (with accompaniment pdf material - very helpful), not a finely detailed narrative, but I felt that all the major events/persons/issues were touched upon and all aspects (historical, social, religious, artistic) were presented analytically, objectively and in context. It can also serve as a solid starting point if you decide to try and find more books on Spanish history.
Recommended.
List of lectures: 1. From Stones to Bronze: Prehistoric Spain 2. Celtic, Phoenician and Greek Colonists 3. Rome Conquers the Iberian Peninsula 4. Christianity Comes to Hispania 5. Barbarian Tribes Divide the Peninsula 6. The Visigoths Unite Spain 7. Islam: The New Religion 8. Conflict with Islam 9. The Moors and the Glory of al-Andalus 10. The Christian Reconquista 11. Medieval Spanish Culture 12. The Sephardim: Iberian Judaism 13. Gypsy Influences on Spain 14. The Growth of the Catholic Religious Passion 15. Columbus and the New World 16. Conquistadors and Missionaries 17. The Spanish Main: Trade Convoys and Piracy 18. The Golden Age of the Spanish Habsburgs 19. Religious Wars on Muslims and Protestants 20. The 18th Century Bourbon Kings of Spain 21. Spain Loses its Empire 22. 20th Century Spanish Modernism 23. The Spanish Civil War and Franco's Reign 24. Modern Spain: still on a Crossroad...more
"The basic idea of this book is simple: to tell the story of the Crusades as they were seen, lived, and recorded on the other side’—in other words, in"The basic idea of this book is simple: to tell the story of the Crusades as they were seen, lived, and recorded on the other side’—in other words, in the Arab camp. Its content is based almost exclusively on the testimony of contemporary Arab historians and chroniclers. These latter spoke not of Crusades, but of Frankish wars, or the Frankish invasions’." - Introduction
A profound, deeply interesting and well-balanced read.
I am so glad for the prompt that made me seek out this book and highly recommend it for those who are interested in the crusades.
More thoughts to come (hopefully I'll find the time to add them)....more
“Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-“Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.” ― Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time
Catastrophe tourism by proxy
An intriguing, sobering, very well-written and narrated book, currently included for free in the Plus Catalogue at audible.com .
Steve Olson combined the right amount of history, reportage and human touch for a tense and interesting docu-drama without judgement or pointing the finger which was quite a feat because what went through my head while reading were lots of Terry Pratchett quotes about human stupidity-irresponsibility, political and corporate meanness-carelessness. Like: “Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.” and more along that line.
At the end of the book Olson raises the very valid point of humanity as a whole being self-complacent while merrily going on about their business to ignore dangers and destroy their own planet. So yes, in way we are all people who are standing on the volcano looking on and taking pictures while it is erupting. SIGH....more
A great read/listen! While on the short side (about 300 pages), so there was not much room to delve into all the nuances of history, religion, politicA great read/listen! While on the short side (about 300 pages), so there was not much room to delve into all the nuances of history, religion, politics and economics, I think Roger Crowley still did a great job, giving us a detailed overview and definitely helping me to put all the events, backdrops, consequences into perspective.
I also found the storytelling nicely balanced, strong points and weaknesses were all listed: the author gave appreciation for both sides when deserved and did not shy away from telling us about the atrocities of all.
The sequence of battles is presented in a very exciting way, with the tactics/strategy and possible mindset of attackers and defenders. There is heroism, cunning, betrayal, determination, fear and petty squabbles. There is cruelty and desperation and awfully high stakes on both sides.
Don't know when I'll be able to write a proper review. Maybe I'll need to 4 stars strictly speaking? ... 4,5??
Ahhh, what the hell... I am giving it 5!
Don't know when I'll be able to write a proper review. Maybe I'll need to read the whole series (or as far as I can get along) to be able to do so.
In the meantime: Dunnett continues to fascinate and transport me in history with her stories in whichever era she choses, even though I still can't say I care too much about her MC, Niccolo.
But, oh boy, this awesome woman just knew how to spin a fantastic yarn even without a hero as compelling as Francis Crawford and THAT takes not only talent, but GENIUS.
You guys, bring out the popcorn and soda of your choice and prepare to be entertained even if you are not classical music aficionados, but you enjoy bYou guys, bring out the popcorn and soda of your choice and prepare to be entertained even if you are not classical music aficionados, but you enjoy biographies of famous people.
Trust Robert Greenberg to divert and intrigue you about the least well-known composer, Johannes Brahms (a surly Bear of the musical woods, with whom women would be safe).
Greenberg puts Brahms' life and times into an easily digestible historical context and presents it all with facts, musical snapshots in his usual style, which may take some time to get used to, but it's worth our while. As always, his materials are extensively and excellently researched and despite Brahms having destroyed many documents (he asked his friends to return his correspondence for example), he cannot elude Greenberg: he gets presented in 3D as completely as possible and IS he a fascinating study! :)
Greenberg's lectures on music and composers in The Great Courses series are worth checking out on Audible and some of them are always included in the Plus Catalogue as free listens.
4 stars with much fascination and some reservations (aka pinches of healthy doses of salt)
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"The new technology, knowledge, and commercial wealth4 stars with much fascination and some reservations (aka pinches of healthy doses of salt)
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"The new technology, knowledge, and commercial wealth created the Renaissance in which Europe rediscovered some of its prior culture, but more importantly, absorbed the technology for printing, firearms, the compass, and the abacus from the East."
"The common principles of the Mongol Empire-such as paper money, primacy of the state over the church, freedom of religion, diplomatic immunity, and international law-were ideas ..."
-Quotes from the book by the author-
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This has been an absolutely compelling, easy-to-follow read (listen) and I would like to thank to Marta, who originally recommended this book to me.
My knowledge about Genghis Khan and his Mongol empire was very scanty to say the least and as a Hungarian, my view was understandably warped by our less than glorious encounters with the Golden Horde back in the days (1241-42).
So, I finally arrived at listening to this book and found it fascinating. Weatherford wrote in a truly engaging and eloquent style and knew how to milk it all to the best of effects and who can blame him? So far, so good.
We are presented with a storyline that starts with Genghis Khan's (Temujin) origins and follows a natural course of his upbringing, personal life, rise as the Great Khan, his conquests and politics, his death and all what followed: children, grandchildren, their struggle for power, the apex and then the eventual disintegration of the Empire he started.
Throughout the book JW quoted a lot from the "secret Mongol histories" as well as from comments of contemporary Muslim, Persian, European sources and the facts and the whole picture he presented were convincing and seemed to be credible.
His pro-Mongol view was also very refreshing. Why would everything need to be presented from a European perspective like it was the alpha and omega of things?!
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I like my books on history or on historiography to feel more balanced and the authors to hold at least a little distance from their subjects. Now it was blindingly obvious from the get-go that Weatherford was super-biased in favour of Genghis and the Mongols and this fact alone made me question some of his "facts" or at least his interpretation of events as well as his conjectures and conclusions. At several points in the book JW seemed to be whitewashing the killing and looting the Mongols did. ((He specifically mentions King Saint Louis to be persecuting Jews and burning sacred Jewish documents while praising the Mongols for their religious tolerance and conveniently sidestepping how many sacred documents and other artefacts may have been destroyed during the Mongol sieges of half the world. I mean, come on, please try a bit harder! Don't misunderstand me: what the European kings, nobles, the Catholic Church had done/did in the "sacred" cause of keeping themselves in power was atrocious, but this does not make the things the Mongols did any less so.))
No matter how many times JW explained, I am not buying that conquests happened in the name of free commerce and because Genghis and the Mongols believed in a divine mission of unifying the whole world. It was because their lifestyle, the huge and efficient war machine and the expanding empire they created, could not sustain itself and needed constant refilling. While Weatherford admitted this, he still tried to persuade us to think about this as something "natural", if not beneficial for everyone.
Also, some other issues were left unaddressed that seemed rather unprofessional. JW was going on at length about how the Mongols invaded the different parts of Asia and Europe, the tactics, equipment they used, how they tried to negotiate with the soon-to-be-attacked, etc, but when we suddenly reached 1260 and the battle of Ayn Jalut in Egypt where the Mamluks defeated the Mongol army, he suddenly went "mumm". No details on the how and why were given and he concluded that the Mongols accepted that they reached the maximum expanse of their territory in the West. End of story. Like, all right, move on guys, nothing to see here.
Anyways, back to basics, I am glad I finally read this book as besides it being very enjoyable and informative (even if only half of the things Weatherford claims were true, the Mongols were awesome ...more
Sorry, that person's shelf is private.
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