A fresh history that profits from its psychological insights.
A biography of a manic-depressive, but surprisingly successful, king.
Kamen (The Spanish Inquisition, 1998, etc.) presents an absorbing tale of the first Spanish king from the Bourbon line, which rules the country today. He focuses on three aspects of Philip’s reign: his state policies, his family concerns, and his psychological problems. On the domestic front, taking the cue from his grandfather, Louis XIV of France, Philip reformed Spain’s antiquated structure of government, streamlining tax collection and tightening the political bonds between the various Iberian kingdoms and Madrid. Unfortunately, however, the gains from these reforms were squandered by Philip’s belligerent foreign policies, which led to the War of Spanish Succession (a short-lived invasion of Sardinia) and other devastating mishaps. The author paints Philip as a cosmopolitan in an inward-looking court. He eschewed Spanish nobles’ advice, kept French and later Italian counselors, and was often totally dependent on the two wives he had over the course of his 46-year reign. This last point surfaces because, Kamen argues, Philip had bipolar disorder. During low periods he refused to wash and spent months sleeping by day and conducting official business in the middle of the night, sometimes refusing to talk so that his queens had to speak for him. During high periods, on the other hand, especially during wartime, he was the consummate leader. These episodes contributed to Philip’s decision to abdicate, a chapter of the king’s life Kamen could have examined more closely and at more length. Philip’s son died shortly after being installed, however, and the father returned to the throne. Despite the ill fit between king and kingdom, Kamen argues that Philip made Spain’s first moves towards becoming a modern state. The foreign art and architecture he brought into the country revitalized the Spanish court. Even his failed military enterprises had an upside: by committing Spanish troops (successfully or not) to European campaigns, Philip forced the other powers to take his country more seriously.
A fresh history that profits from its psychological insights.Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-300-08718-7
Page Count: 269
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
