Orderly examination of empire, religion and the will of God.
Sociologist Bonn (Painting Life: The Art of Pieter Bruegel, the Elder, 2007) uses the biblical tale of the Tower of Babel as a jumping-off point for exploring the history of empire. Bonn works under the presumption that Babel is a myth, meant to characterize the rise and fall not of a tower but of the Babylonian Empire. Still, he sees in the story an elegant archetype for examining all empires. Further, Bonn points to the history of Christianity (as a faith tradition, not as an organized religion) as pointing the way toward a reversal of the Babel story. Drawing upon a breadth of knowledge, the author also sees history from a unique, overarching perspective. He begins with a brief, yet thorough, overview of ancient history, especially the histories of Babylon and Israel, which flows into a history of the Roman Empire and the advent of Christianity. Through the Christian faith, Bonn says, God and his followers began the process of reversing the effects of the Tower of Babel—the disbursement of peoples began to contract, as followers of Christ found a single reason to come back together. In examples such as the Day of Pentecost, this included a shared language as well. “It was in spreading the message of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire,” the author says, “that the early Christians came to reverse the logic of the myth of the Tower of Babel.” However, following history further, Bonn explains that the established church in Rome began to pervert the faith into yet another empire. As with all empires, as it gained in size and stature, God caused its downfall. Thus, Bonn explains, even the established church itself was broken apart by the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment. Bonn goes on to apply his theory to the modern world, explaining that it is not functional success (personified now by great towers—skyscrapers) which is problematic, but instead pride, avarice and wanton power. A sizable portion of Bonn’s work is concerned with explaining world history, often with facts and figures that, while they could provide background for a novice, largely do not affect his arguments. He follows his thesis through from the dawn of Western history to modern times, but his already slim volume could be pared down further without threatening his ideas.
Imaginative, inventive and erudite.
Pub Date: May 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-0989976008
Page Count: 138
Publisher: Sistina Street Press
Review Posted Online: July 8, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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