An engaging work that will no doubt prompt enthusiastic visits to castles around Britain.
Enchanting journey through feudal England in the wake of Norman castle building.
Before William the Conquerer arrived in 1066, why did the English lack castles while the French had them in abundance? A historian specializing in the Middle Ages, Morris (King John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta, 2015, etc.) imparts some fascinating information in this accessible study for readers, leading us from one noted English castle to the next without an overabundance of technical construction detail. As the author defines them, castles were fortresses as well as residences. Indeed, in England, after the Viking invasions of the ninth century, the king did not permit private fortifications; rather, he was in favor of the communal burh, or borough, where everyone lived within a walled community. On the other hand, after the Viking invasions in France, specifically in Normandy, the French experienced political fragmentation, and powerful men took “the matter of defense into their own hands.” The Normans brought their motte-and-bailey style to England; before the use of stone, castles were constructed with high earthen walls, ditches, and wooden buildings, as illustrated in the Bayeux Tapestry. Soon the countryside was dotted by such motte-and-bailey castles, built by William’s supporters; the author estimates that around 500 castles were built by the Normans in England during his reign. William’s Tower of London was the prototypical “keep,” made of stone and more expensive to build but able to expand bigger, stronger, and taller. Other fine examples of keeps are the Rochester, Harlech, and Bodiam castles, appearing here in helpful photos. Edward I’s invasion of Wales in the late 13th century prompted the construction of some massive, showy buildings, “tools of conquest,” such as the castles of Caernarfon and Beaumaris. Morris also depicts the “castle’s last stand” during the English civil war, when the doomed King Charles took refuge in the stately Raglan Castle in Wales.
An engaging work that will no doubt prompt enthusiastic visits to castles around Britain.Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68177-359-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
HISTORY | MILITARY | WORLD | GENERAL HISTORY
A unique, inspiring story by a member of the Greatest Generation.
A firsthand account of how the Navajo language was used to help defeat the Japanese in World War II.
At the age of 17, Nez (an English name assigned to him in kindergarten) volunteered for the Marines just months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Growing up in a traditional Navajo community, he became fluent in English, his second language, in government-run boarding schools. The author writes that he wanted to serve his country and explore “the possibilities and opportunities offered out there in the larger world.” Because he was bilingual, he was one of the original 29 “code talkers” selected to develop a secret, unbreakable code based on the Navajo language, which was to be used for battlefield military communications on the Pacific front. Because the Navajo language is tonal and unwritten, it is extremely difficult for a non-native speaker to learn. The code created an alphabet based on English words such as ant for “A,” which were then translated into its Navajo equivalent. On the battlefield, Navajo code talkers would use voice transmissions over the radio, spoken in Navajo to convey secret information. Nez writes movingly about the hard-fought battles waged by the Marines to recapture Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and others, in which he and his fellow code talkers played a crucial role. He situates his wartime experiences in the context of his life before the war, growing up on a sheep farm, and after when he worked for the VA and raised a family in New Mexico. Although he had hoped to make his family proud of his wartime role, until 1968 the code was classified and he was sworn to silence. He sums up his life “as better than he could ever have expected,” and looks back with pride on the part he played in “a new, triumphant oral and written [Navajo] tradition,” his culture's contribution to victory.
A unique, inspiring story by a member of the Greatest Generation.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-425-24423-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton Caliber
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011
A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.
A revealing biography of the fabled Manhattan hotel, in which generations of artists and writers found a haven.
Turn-of-the century New York did not lack either hotels or apartment buildings, writes Tippins (February House: The Story of W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee, Under One Roof In Wartime America, 2005). But the Chelsea Hotel, from its very inception, was different. Architect Philip Hubert intended the elegantly designed Chelsea Association Building to reflect the utopian ideals of Charles Fourier, offering every amenity conducive to cooperative living: public spaces and gardens, a dining room, artists’ studios, and 80 apartments suitable for an economically diverse population of single workers, young couples, small families and wealthy residents who otherwise might choose to live in a private brownstone. Hubert especially wanted to attract creative types and made sure the building’s walls were extra thick so that each apartment was quiet enough for concentration. William Dean Howells, Edgar Lee Masters and artist John Sloan were early residents. Their friends (Mark Twain, for one) greeted one another in eight-foot-wide hallways intended for conversations. In its early years, the Chelsea quickly became legendary. By the 1930s, though, financial straits resulted in a “down-at-heel, bohemian atmosphere.” Later, with hard-drinking residents like Dylan Thomas and Brendan Behan, the ambience could be raucous. Arthur Miller scorned his free-wheeling, drug-taking, boozy neighbors, admitting, though, that the “great advantage” to living there “was that no one gave a damn what anyone else chose to do sexually.” No one passed judgment on creativity, either. But the art was not what made the Chelsea famous; its residents did. Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Robert Mapplethorpe, Phil Ochs and Sid Vicious are only a few of the figures populating this entertaining book.
A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-618-72634-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
© 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.
