 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com SOAP::Data=HASH(0xb062398) Average Customer Rating:  
Astounding
| Customer Rating: | | Who cares about 1788-1800? After reading this book you'll see the incredible impact on today's world let alone the exciting events and personalities during this incredibly important era. I teach history and found this book enlightening. Insights into the French Revolution and it's impact on Europe and the infant United States stand out in this book. Easily a 5 star production. It does leave you wanting more but isn't that what history does to a curious person? Great book. |
A Difficult Topis Made Easy To Read
| Customer Rating: | | I totally enjoyed reading Mr. Winik's book "The Great Upheaval". I was some what put off by the length of the book; however, when I opened it and read the first page I was caught. He took a boring topic and made it a page-turner. I could not wait to find out what happened next. I gave this book to three friend as gifts. |
Quickly Becoming a Favorite
| Customer Rating: | The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800 (P.S.)
I stumbled upon this book while waiting for my tire installation at our local Costco and I'm glad I did. If you share a passion for this period Jay Winik brings a complete, world view to the times. He may not have the flair of Steven Ambrose or the captivating wonder of David McCullough yet his insight is keen. Reviewing the history as it played out in Russia, France, and a young United States he's provided an interlocking understanding of the world as it was prior to and through this tumultuous time. Although I've studied each story separately I'm enjoying anew the history while learning finite insights I didn't realize I had missed. |
Falls Short
| Customer Rating: | The Great Upheaval is nothing if not ambitious. In this author's very successful previous book, April 1865, the topic was extremely focused both in timeline and subject matter. Not so in The Great Upheaval. Technically it covers the years 1788-1800 and a majority of the civilized world at that time, attempting to link events globally by what occurred locally. I didn't realize this was a point of contention among historians, i.e. The American and French Revolution. So in breadth, scope and length it dwarfs its predecessor - except in readability. I applaud the effort and I really wanted to like but this book but it was a challenge to finish.
The title is somewhat of a misnomer. The goal may have been to center on the years 1788-1800 but the text/topics slip(s) chronologically back and forth by years, decades and even centuries - including the building of Versailles and Louis XIV, the history of Islam and Peter the Great. Also the United States is not the focus here either - the narrative changes from America to France to Russia - and Turkey, Great Britain, Poland, Vienna - and more. Although this may sound fascinating, it comes across as willy-nilly, confusing and at times exasperating - with a lack of coherency to the transitions and narrative. Major characters' bios are introduced pages and sometimes chapters after they enter the story adding to the reader's confusion/frustration, particularly when the specific characters provide the thread between the geographic narratives. There is also no balance in coverage of historic events. The French Revolution is covered in minute detail as well as Catherine the Great's march to the Crimea. On the other hand America finding its identity as a new independent country is given short shrift.
Compounding the readability issue is the writing - which is ponderous, repetitive, and at times painfully verbose - adjectives and adverbs abound - with nothing succinct. No one simply speaks - they mutter or exclaim or shriek or wail. Eyes flash, banquets are demolished and the blood - all the blood - drenching hills or soaking the ground or running through the streets. There are also a multitude of rhetorical questions throughout the book. Out of the ordinary? Yes. Necessarily bad? No. Frustrating? Well - you get the point.
Again I applaud the effort/attempt in writing an engaging book on a tumultuous period bringing events and historical figures to life for the "lay" reader. Unfortunately the author's attempt here in painting a dramatic picture accomplishes the exact opposite, bogging down in both detail and overwrought descriptions to the exclusion of a coherent narrative.
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too much france
| Customer Rating: | The first and last parts of the book (CD in my case) were quite interesting, and touched on issues seldom viewed. However, this history of the beginning of the US spent too much (4 of the 9 CDs) on the details of the life of Louis XVI. While the travails of Ann Bolyn (hour by hour leading to her death) are interesting, it really did not fit with the title and subject.
The part of the French era that was interesting was a discussion the time spent by the founding fathers (Jefferson in particular) in France. Having said that, their role in US/France diplomacy and how exposed their were in a perilous world was only hinted at.
Finally, the machinations of Catherine the Great has interesting parallels to Putin and the Russia of today. |
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