A fine history of a people who deserve more attention.
A fresh look at “the Vikings and their Scandinavian offspring,” who have always been considered “among the world’s most powerful and important journey makers.”
Hudson Institute senior fellow Herman makes a convincing case that the peoples of Scandinavia have contributed more to today’s world than they are given credit for. For more than two centuries after 780 C.E., Vikings wreaked havoc over immense areas of Europe and east Eurasia. Then, writes the author, “their role shifted from marauder to trader to settler.” An ex-Norseman ruled much of France and then invaded England in 1066 as William the Conqueror, who won at the Battle of Hastings. Other Normans expelled the Muslims from southern Italy and Sicily, becoming the dominant power on the peninsula and allowing the papacy to vastly expand its influence. Ironically, the lands they left behind became a backwater until the 16th century, when the Reformation returned them to center stage. Unlike persistent resistance in Britain and civil war in France and Germany, the Reformation converted Scandinavia with much less bloodshed. This proved critical when Catholic armies of the Holy Roman Empire were rampaging across Lutheran Germany. Their only opposition were forces led by Sweden’s King Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632), who won spectacular victories that preserved Protestantism in Germany and may have made him Holy Roman Emperor—if he hadn’t died in battle. Herman then fast-forwards to the 19th century, when population and poverty grew and immigration to the U.S. became a major force. In the middle third of the book, the author describes Scandinavia’s contribution to America, which includes a significant chapter on the Civil War and long biographies of famous Scandinavian Americans, including Charles Lindbergh, Thorstein Veblen, Knut Rockne, and Carl Sandburg. In the 20th century, aided by the decision to stay out of World War I and escaping lightly from World War II, Scandinavian nations prospered into some of the world’s wealthiest and most socially progressive.
A fine history of a people who deserve more attention.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-328-59590-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
This is not an easy account to read, but it is important enough not to be forgotten.
A story of ordinary people, both victims and survivors, thrown into extraordinary history.
Pellegrino says his book is “simply the story of what happened to people and objects under the atomic bombs, and it is dedicated to the hope that no one will ever witness this, or die this way, again.” Images of Aug. 6, 1945, as reported by survivors, include the sight of a cart falling from the sky with the hindquarters of the horse pulling it still attached; a young boy who put his hands over his eyes as the bomb hit—and “saw the bones of his fingers shining through shut eyelids, just like an X-ray photograph”; “statue people” flash-fossilized and fixed in place, covered in a light snowfall of ashes; and, of course, the ghosts—people severely flash-burned on one side of their bodies, leaving shadows on a wall, the side of a building, or whatever stood nearby. The carnage continued for days, weeks, and years as victims of burns and those who developed various forms of cancer succumbed to their injuries: “People would continue to die in ways that people never imagined people could die.” Scattered in these survivor stories is another set of stories from those involved in the development and deployment of the only two atomic weapons ever used in warfare. The author also tells of the letter from Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard to Franklin D. Roosevelt that started the ball rolling toward the formation of the Manhattan Project and the crew conversations on the Enola Gay and the Bockscar, the planes that dropped the Little Boy on Hiroshima and the Fat Man on Nagasaki. We have to find a way to get along, one crew member said, “because we now have the wherewithal to destroy everything.”
This is not an easy account to read, but it is important enough not to be forgotten.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9798228309890
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.
A harrowing expedition to Antarctica, recounted by Departures senior features editor Sancton, who has reported from every continent on the planet.
On Aug. 16, 1897, the steam whaler Belgica set off from Belgium with young Adrien de Gerlache as commandant. Thus begins Sancton’s riveting history of exploration, ingenuity, and survival. The commandant’s inexperienced, often unruly crew, half non-Belgian, included scientists, a rookie engineer, and first mate Roald Amundsen, who would later become a celebrated polar explorer. After loading a half ton of explosive tonite, the ship set sail with 23 crew members and two cats. In Rio de Janeiro, they were joined by Dr. Frederick Cook, a young, shameless huckster who had accompanied Robert Peary as a surgeon and ethnologist on an expedition to northern Greenland. In Punta Arenas, four seamen were removed for insubordination, and rats snuck onboard. In Tierra del Fuego, the ship ran aground for a while. Sancton evokes a calm anxiety as he chronicles the ship’s journey south. On Jan. 19, 1898, near the South Shetland Islands, the crew spotted the first icebergs. Rough waves swept someone overboard. Days later, they saw Antarctica in the distance. Glory was “finally within reach.” The author describes the discovery and naming of new lands and the work of the scientists gathering specimens. The ship continued through a perilous, ice-littered sea, as the commandant was anxious to reach a record-setting latitude. On March 6, the Belgica became icebound. The crew did everything they could to prepare for a dark, below-freezing winter, but they were wracked with despair, suffering headaches, insomnia, dizziness, and later, madness—all vividly capture by Sancton. The sun returned on July 22, and by March 1899, they were able to escape the ice. With a cast of intriguing characters and drama galore, this history reads like fiction and will thrill fans of Endurance and In the Kingdom of Ice.
A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984824-33-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
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