A fantastic book that finally assigns Kinsale its rightful place in history.
Journalist Ekin (The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates, 2006, etc.) chronicles the 1601 siege of Kinsale, 100 days that changed history.
The author’s gift for deep, comprehensive historical study and his ability to keep characters fresh in readers’ minds bring this battle between Spain’s best general and Queen Elizabeth’s favorite, Charles Blount, to the awareness it has been denied. Ekin succeeds in uncovering the truth about Irish perfidy, the lack of Spanish support, and the English attempt to control Ireland. King Felipe III (Philip to the English) wanted to control the English accession upon the death of Elizabeth. He hoped to establish the Spanish in Ireland, ready to invade with the help of the Catholic lords. Even with all his wealth from American silver, Felipe was broke, thus leaving his invasion armada poorly equipped. When Juan del Águila landed on the south coast, a result of adverse winds, Kinsale capitulated immediately. He expected insurgent leaders, the Earl of Desmond and Florence MacCarthy, to link up and provide food, men, and horses, followed by the northern lords Hugh O’Neill and Red Hugh O’Donnell. Unfortunately, the first two were prisoners in the Tower of London thanks to a spy in their midst, and the northerners took months to arrive. Del Águila was one of Spain’s finest fighters, and, facing a lack of support from his country, a couple of clerics trying to run the show, and a better-manned enemy, he almost pulled it off. The author explains the terrain, battles, siege construction, and weaponry well enough to please any military historian, but the real prizes here are the author’s discussions of the effect of the battle on Spain as its empire died and England’s colonies grew, the end of Spain’s religious wars, the shift of power in England, and the cataclysm as Gaelic Ireland declined and died.
A fantastic book that finally assigns Kinsale its rightful place in history.Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-60598-944-0
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: Sept. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
HISTORY | MILITARY | WORLD | GENERAL HISTORY
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
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.
A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.
For Bay Area writer Tsui (American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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