An erudite work that shows how one devoted scholar opened up an entire realm of knowledge.
A deeply researched look at the editor and author of one of the “great publishing feats” of the 16th century.
Born in the age of discovery, Venetian scholar Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485-1557) worked in official capacities as a minister, but he also tirelessly organized information that seeped out in the form of journals and letters of new discoveries across the globe. These accounts described Magellan’s circumvention of the world, Cadamosto’s journey along the West Coast of Africa, Jacques Cartier’s travels in Canada, and Pizarro’s conquest of the Incas in Peru. Published in three volumes from 1550 to 1559, Ramusio’s Navigationi et Viaggi introduced much of the heretofore unknown geographical knowledge about three continents, covering Africa and Southeast Asia; then the New World; then Asia and the Muslim lands. In this elegant history, di Robilant, author of Irresistible North and A Venetian Affair, engagingly traces Ramusio’s vast scholarship, which began with his position as an editing assistant to Aldus Manutius, the legendary Venetian publisher of the classics. Working as a clerk in the chancery, then as the secretary to the senate, Ramusio moonlighted as a geographer, helping to publish Strabo’s Geography, and he was highly knowledgeable about classical scholars, who knew little of the layout of the globe. Over decades, Ramusio kept up with dramatic changes in exploration, including works by Antonio Pigafetta, one of the few to return from Magellan’s venture; Muslim convert John Leo, who traveled extensively in Africa; contemporaries Ludovico di Varthema and Cazazionor, who chronicled India and Ceylon; Andrea Navagero, who left a “treasure trove of first-rate material” about the bloody excursions of the Spanish in the New World. Among other richly detailed topics, di Robilant also examines Ramusio’s revisitation of Marco Polo’s journal.
An erudite work that shows how one devoted scholar opened up an entire realm of knowledge.Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9780307597076
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.
Rootin’-tootin’ history of the dry-gulchers, horn-swogglers, and outright killers who populated the Wild West’s wildest city in the late 19th century.
The stories of Wyatt Earp and company, the shootout at the O.K. Corral, and Geronimo and the Apache Wars are all well known. Clavin, who has written books on Dodge City and Wild Bill Hickok, delivers a solid narrative that usefully links significant events—making allies of white enemies, for instance, in facing down the Apache threat, rustling from Mexico, and other ethnically charged circumstances. The author is a touch revisionist, in the modern fashion, in noting that the Earps and Clantons weren’t as bloodthirsty as popular culture has made them out to be. For example, Wyatt and Bat Masterson “took the ‘peace’ in peace officer literally and knew that the way to tame the notorious town was not to outkill the bad guys but to intimidate them, sometimes with the help of a gun barrel to the skull.” Indeed, while some of the Clantons and some of the Earps died violently, most—Wyatt, Bat, Doc Holliday—died of cancer and other ailments, if only a few of old age. Clavin complicates the story by reminding readers that the Earps weren’t really the law in Tombstone and sometimes fell on the other side of the line and that the ordinary citizens of Tombstone and other famed Western venues valued order and peace and weren’t particularly keen on gunfighters and their mischief. Still, updating the old notion that the Earp myth is the American Iliad, the author is at his best when he delineates those fraught spasms of violence. “It is never a good sign for law-abiding citizens,” he writes at one high point, “to see Johnny Ringo rush into town, both him and his horse all in a lather.” Indeed not, even if Ringo wound up killing himself and law-abiding Tombstone faded into obscurity when the silver played out.
Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21458-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
A sharply different deconstruction of the prevailing orthodoxy, worthy of attention.
Leverett (International Affairs/Pennsylvania State Univ.; Inheriting Syria: Bashir's Trial by Fire, 2005) and his wife, Hillary, argue that, unless it changes, “the United States’ Iran policy is locked in a trajectory…that will ultimately lead to war.”
The authors take on what they identify as “a powerful mythology” that continues to influence U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic—primarily, the proposition that because it is unpopular, the regime “is in imminent danger of being overthrown.” They offer an alternative to the prevailing view that Khomeini and his supporters hijacked the liberal revolution that began in 1978 and “betrayed the aspirations of those who actually carried out the campaign that deposed the shah.” The Leveretts take issue with American policymakers who propose that the U.S. should advocate the overthrow of the present regime in favor of liberal democracy. They believe in the possibility of negotiating with the present regime. The authors dispute the view that the mullahs have done nothing for the population and lack support, showing how literacy, health and medical care have been upgraded and the economy developed. They highlight present concerns about the Iranian nuclear program, which they claim are exaggerated. They identify the continuing influence of the neoconservatives, who brought about the second Iraq war, and “liberal internationalists,” who are ready to deploy military force in support of human rights. They believe that the time has come for an initiative like Nixon's visit to Beijing to begin a change in course.
A sharply different deconstruction of the prevailing orthodoxy, worthy of attention.Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9419-0
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
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