Review: Knowing What We Know

Title: Knowing What We Know

Author: Simon Winchester

Publisher: 3rd May 2023 by HarperCollins Australia

Pages: 380 pages

Genre: Non Fiction (Adult) | History | 

Rating: 4 cups

Synopsis:

From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes—here is award-winning writer Simon Winchester’s brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds.

With the advent of the internet, any topic we want to know about is instantly available with the touch of a smartphone button. With so much knowledge at our fingertips, what is there left for our brains to do? At a time when we seem to be stripping all value from the idea of knowing things – no need for maths, no need for map reading, no need for memorisation – are we risking our ability to think? As we empty our minds, will we one day be incapable of thoughtfulness?

Addressing these questions, Simon Winchester explores how humans have attained, stored and disseminated knowledge. Examining such disciplines as education, journalism, encyclopedia creation, museum curation, photography and broadcasting, he looks at a whole range of knowledge diffusion – from the cuneiform writings of Babylon to the machine-made genius of artificial intelligence, by way of Gutenberg, Google and Wikipedia to the huge Victorian assemblage of the Mundaneum, the collection of everything ever known, currently stored in a damp basement in northern Belgium.

Studded with strange and fascinating details, Knowing What We Know is a deep dive into learning and the human mind. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom? Does René Descartes’ ‘Cogito, ergo sum’—'I think, therefore I am’, the foundation for human knowledge widely accepted since the Enlightenment—still hold?

And what will the world be like if no one in it is wise?

My Thoughts

‘What is the likely effect on society of making the acquisition of knowledge generally, so very easy, such that there may well be, eventually, no absolute need to know or retain - retain being the operative word - the knowledge of anything?’

What exactly is the value of knowledge when we live in a society where anything and everything is so easily attained? Does that change its value to society? Think about it ….. with no pressing need to remember things, will this have a long term impact on both our intelligence and thoughtfulness? Our reliance on modern technology - everything from Google, to Maps to phone numbers - has taken away what was previously much of our innate learning and capabilities. When I began to truly consider this, I found this book both informed and raised many valid questions. 

Winchester outlines a lot of research - everything from our surrounding our collective knowledge. From the beginning with civilization's earliest writing on clay tablets to the Internet, and now AI (just think ChatGPT). His writing is informative and entertaining as he brings both his holistic and intimate knowledge to this topic. From small known occurrences or ordinary people to the bigger to bigger events such as the atomic bomb that ended WWII.

Whilst there was much to wade through and consider, the concluding page deemed to throw everything preceding into disarray - hmmmm …. interesting. Do machines diminish our capacity for thought or might the opposite be true? That, in fact, machines might free our mind from the mundane for a higher purpose. I wish more had been dedicated to this line of thinking rather than as an afterthought on the final page. 

Winchester asks readers, “Does an existential intellectual crisis loom?” If machines are taking over more roles and what does that leave the role of humans? In this book Winchester undertakes a thorough investigation of knowledge over history. Everything from its creation to how it has been organised, stored and used. This in depth study looks at how we learn, who we learned from and what we are in danger of losing. 

‘What can and may and will happen next to our mental development if and when we have no further need to know, perhaps no need to think? What if we are then unable to gain true knowledge, enlightenment, or insight-that most precious of human commodities, true wisdom? What then will become of us?’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Emboldened

Title: Emboldened

Author: Belinda Alexandra

Publisher: 26th April 2023 by Affirm Press

Pages: 268 pages

Genre: biography, memoir, history

Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

How do you begin your life again when you've lost everything you've worked for and your dreams have been shattered?

That was the question beloved Australian author Belinda Alexandra faced one freezing winter night when she ran from her home in terror, clutching only her wallet, her phone and her latest manuscript on a USB stick.

To pull herself up from rock bottom, Belinda drew strength from the real life women who had inspired her bestselling historical fiction: her mother, Tatiana Morosoff, a White Russian who had fled a home more than once due to wars and revolutions; Virginia Hall, an American who lost her leg in an accident but went on to become one of the most revered Allied agents in World War II France; Carmen Amaya, who despite being born into abject poverty in Barcelona rose to become the greatest Flamenco dancer of all time; Edna Walling, who lost her own dream home in a freak fire but created garden designs that made her one of Australia's most celebrated landscape designers.

They were women who had faced seemingly insurmountable challenges and found ways to forge ahead on their own terms.

In a compelling and exquisite blend of memoir and history, Belinda shows readers that, no matter what challenge they might be facing, there is always the possibility of building a bold life full of meaning again from the ashes.

My Thoughts

Belinda Alexandra has many fans who follow her wonderful historical fiction stories. Emboldened sees Belinda embolden herself, moving into the field of nonfiction, offering a wonderful discourse on finding strength and courage in the face of adversity. Belinda recounts factual tales inclusive of personal recounts, to drawing inspiration from some key female figures from history. 

‘Goals can help us focus and bring us satisfaction when we achieve them, but they don't embolden us the way a true sense of purpose does.’

Emboldened is therefore part family memoir as Belinda tells the tale from her grandparents and mother and how they came to inspire her. She also includes inspiration from the American spy Virginia Hall, Carmen Amaya a famous flamenco dancer and Edna Walling and Australian landscape artist. Belinda looks at these personal life stories through the sectional themes of Reliance, Purpose, Passion and Connection. Personally, I found the recount of her personal family history incredibly engaging with regards to their migration from Russia to Australia via China and an internment camp. 

Belinda alludes to, without going into detail, her own experiences of trauma and how the above stories provided strength, determination and resilience. She uses the stories as a foundation of how to move forward in overcoming great stress and life changing experiences. Emboldened is an uplifting book drawing inspiration from the past on how some have dealt with adversity. It is beautifully written that is sure to inspire and hopefully embolden its readers. 

‘Life is a bumpy ride. The struggles are real and sometimes relentless. But the journey can ultimately be a beautiful and rich one. And overcoming the struggles are what will make it worthwhile. You already have everything inside you that you need to live life courageously and boldly.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Papyrus

Title: Papyrus

Author: Irene Vallejo

Publisher: 11th October 2022 by Hachette Australia

Pages: 384 pages

Genre: nonfiction, history, books about books

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

An enthralling journey through the history of books and libraries in the ancient world and those who have helped preserve their rich literary traditions 

Long before books were mass-produced, those made of reeds from along the Nile were worth fighting and dying for. Journeying along the battlefields of Alexander the Great, beneath the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, at Cleopatra's palaces and the scene of Hypatia's murder, award-winning author Irene Vallejo chronicles the excitement of literary culture in the ancient world, and the heroic efforts that ensured this extraordinary tradition would continue. 

Weaved throughout are fascinating stories about the spies, scribes, illuminators, librarians, booksellers, authors, and statesmen whose rich and sometimes complicated engagement with the written word bears remarkable similarities to the world today: Aristophanes and the censorship of the humorists, Sappho and the empowerment of women's voices, Seneca and the problem of a post-truth world. 

Vallejo takes us to mountainous landscapes and the roaring sea, to the capitals where culture flourished and the furthest reaches where knowledge found refuge in chaotic times. In this sweeping tour of the history of books, the wonder of the ancient world comes alive and, along the way, we discover the singular power of the written word.

My Thoughts

‘The papyrus scroll represented an extraordinary amount of progress. After centuries of searching for the right format, of humans writing on stone, mud, wood, or metal, language had finally found its home in organic matter. The first book in history was born when words - as ethereal as air - found refuge in the pith of an aquatic plant.’

What’s not to love when you come across a rare and fascinating book about books. Where the love for the written word is poured into every page. Papyrus is such a book that will take readers on a special journey. Author Irene Vallejo’s ode to books/reading and her knowledge of literature, particularly with regards to history of the written word, is wonderfully written. A definite must-read for anyone who loves books.

‘I suspect that as they searched for traces of every book as if they were pieces of scattered treasure, without knowing it, they were laying the foundations of our world.’

Irene has done her research and provides a smorgasbord of goodness. Readers will learn a little of the history of how books started and complemented with facts, philosophy, thoughts and ideas. It is a wonderful reference that will see you coming back time and again. A plethora of anecdotes and personal notes from the author surrounding the emergence of books - precious moments from the history of literature. 

‘This account is an attempt to continue the adventure of those book hunters. I would like somehow, to be their unlikely travel companion, on the scent of lost manuscripts, unknown stories, and voices in danger of being silenced.’

This is neither a complete academic essay or personal reflection but the successful melding of the two. I thoroughly enjoyed Irene’s writing and thought the weaving of both fiction and nonfiction was well done. The history of papyrus and books is reflected on through personal retellings that results in a rich tapestry for book lovers to delight in. 

‘Let's talk about you for a moment, the person reading these lines. Right now, with the book open in your hands, you are engaged in a mysterious, unsettling activity, though habit prevents you from being amazed. Think carefully. You are completely quiet, eyes moving over rows of letters made into meaning, that deliver ideas independent from the world now surrounding you. In other words, you have withdrawn to an inner chamber where absent voices speak; where there are ghosts only you can see ….  and where the pace of time's passage is the measure of your level of interest or boredom. You have created a parallel world …. a world that depends on you alone. At any moment, you can avert your gaze from these lines and return to the action and movement of the outside world. But in the meantime, you remain on the edge, in the place where you've chosen to be. There is an almost magical aura to the act of reading.’

If you delight in books and reading, you are in for a treat. Looking to learn a little more of the evolution of ancient literature, this proves a most accessible read. It does not adopt a linear approach, or have pages filled with high end vocabulary. What it does offer is an entertaining history of books with interesting back stories and reflections. From the first attempts on clay tablets, to papyrus, to paper books, to ebooks, Irene has written a tale of past, present and future that I highly recommend to lovers of literature.

‘I'm so amazed by the true and recorded history I discover that it seeps into my dreams and acquires, without my volition, the shape of a story. I'm tempted to step into the skin of those who traveled the roads of an ancient, violent, tumultuous Europe in pursuit of books.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Atlas of Abandoned Places

Title: Atlas of Abandoned Places

Author: Oliver Smith

Publisher: 11th October 2022 by Hachette Australia

Pages: 220 pages

Genre: nonfiction, travel, world, history

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

Explore the wonders that the world forgot with award-winning travel writer Oliver Smith - from breathtaking buildings with a dark past to decaying reminders of more troubled times.

The globe is littered with forgotten monuments, their beauty matched only by the secrets of their past.

A glorious palace lies abandoned by a fallen dictator. A grand monument to communism sits forgotten atop a mountain. Two never-launched space shuttles slowly crumble, left to rot in the middle of the desert. Explore these and many more of the world's lost wonders in this atlas like no other.

With remarkable stories, bespoke maps and stunning photography of fifty forsaken sites, The Atlas of Abandoned Places travels the world beneath the surface; the sites with stories to tell, the ones you won't find in any guidebook.

Award-winning travel writer Oliver Smith is your guide on a long-lost path, shining a light on the places that the world forgot.

Locations featured in the book include:

Europe: Maunsell Forts, Aldwych Station, Paris Catacombs, La Petite Ceinture, Craco, Teufelsberg, Beelitz-Heilstatten, Red Star Train Graveyard, Pyramiden, Salpa Line, Buzludzha Monument, Pripyat, Wolf's Lair, Project Riese, Sarajevo Bobsleigh Track, Albanian Bunkers, Rummu Quarry

The Americas & the Caribbean: New Bedford Orpheum Theatre, City Hall Station, Bodie, The Boneyards of Western USA, Bannerman Castle, Palace of Sans Souci, Montserrat Exclusion Zone, Ciudad Perdida, Humberstone and Santa Laura, Uyuni Train Cemetery, Fordlandia

The Middle East & the Caucasus: Kayakoy, Burj Al Babas, Varosha, Tskaltubo, Palaces of Saddam

Asia: Ryugyong Hotel, Buran at Baikonur, Mo'ynoq Ship Graveyard, Aniva Lighthouse, Ho' Thuy Tien Waterpark, Fukushima Red Zone, Hashima

Oceania: Wittenoom, Wrecks of Homebush Bay, Port Arthur, MS World Discoverer, Second World Remains of Papua New Guinea

Africa: Shipwrecks of the Skeleton Coast, Kolmanskop, Mobutu's Gbadolite, Mos Espa, Sao Martinho dos Tigres

My Thoughts

‘To step into an abandoned place is to cross a kind of threshold into the past - to time travel from the present day to the instant that people departed.’

This is an absolutely fascinating book! A trip not only through time but around the world with proverbial windows into abandoned places. This book features maps and interesting photography of ghostly places - some lost to nature, others to supposed progress. Each location has a compelling tale about the people and society it reflects.

Atlas of Abandoned Places details a range of abandoned locales throughout the world -  ‘some are fallen monuments to impossible dreams. Others are ordinary houses and apartments.’ Featured locations include palaces, mines, trains, planes, hotels, theme parks, theatres, stations and military installations. 

‘We emerge … with questions: who lived here, worked here? What were their dreams? And, selfishly, what would our own world look like decades from now, if it too suddenly became frozen in this instant? What would survive of us? What would wither and decay?’

Oliver Smith has spent years travelling the faraway corners of the world. A four-time Travel Writer of the Year award winner, he has appeared in Lonely Planet, National Geographic, the BBC, The Sunday Times and many more. Here, Smith writes beautifully and thoughtfully and I loved it. Each location includes informative descriptions that are both insightful and thought provoking. Also included is map coordinates, summary sentence, two page story, maps (world location and country specific) and multiple impressive photos. A fascinating and thought-provoking read that I highly recommend for not just coffee tables but also the brilliant discussions that are sure to ensue. 

‘They serve as a postscript to cemeteries: a vision of our deaths not as individuals, but as communities, as a species.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Pharaohs of the Sun

Title: Pharaohs of the Sun

Author: Guy de la Bédoyère

Publisher: 12th July 2022  by Hachette Australia

Pages: 382 pages

Genre: non fiction, history, Egypt

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

For more than two centuries Egypt was ruled by the most powerful, successful, and richest dynasty of kings in its long end epic history. They included the female king Hatshepsut, the warrior kings Thutmose III and Amenhotep II, the religious radical Akhenaten and his queen Nefertiti, and most famously of all for the wealth of his tomb the short-lived boy king Tutankhamun. The power and riches of the Pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty came at enormous cost to Egypt's enemies and most of its people. This was an age of ruthless absolutism, exploitation, extravagance, brutality, and oppression in a culture where not only did Egypt plunder its neighbours but Egyptian kings and their people robbed one another.

3,500 years ago ancient Egypt began two centuries in which it became richer and more powerful than any other nation at the time, ruled by the kings of the 18th Dynasty. They presided over a system built on war, oppression, and ruthlessness, pouring Egypt's wealth into grandiose monuments, temples, and extravagant tombs. Tutankhamun was one of the last of the line and one of the most obscure. Among his predecessors were some of the most notorious and enigmatic figures of all of Egypt's history. Pharaohs of the Sun is their story, showing how the glamour and gold was tainted by selfishness, ostentation, and the systematic exploitation of Egypt's people and enemies.

My Thoughts

‘Their legacy was their history, temples, tombs, and works of art of the 18th Dynasty which the world has looked upon in awe ever since, all the while sobered by the wreckage and decay, and the lone and level sands stretching far away. In that. if we are honest, we can also see the relics of our own time and our hubris in some far distant future.’

Ever since I was at school and first introduced to Egypt and its history I have been fascinated. So much so that I had to fulfill a childhood dream by sitting beside the Sphinx and visiting Tutankhamen’s tomb. I have read both fiction and nonfiction tales from this time as I just can't get enough of it. For anyone like me, Guy de la Bédoyère 's latest book is sure to make you happy. 

Guy has written many historical books over three decades. His latest, Pharaohs of the Sun, details ancient Egypt in the 18th Dynasty, a time when this civilisation was at its peak. Under this particular group of Pharaohs, Egypt became the richest and most powerful Bronze Age state that would prove to intrigue and captiviate people for thousands of years to come. This book covers it all and is very readable for the non-academic. I enjoyed the parallels Guy brought from other Empires to try and explain and correlate. 

‘Egypt’s glory days of the 18th Dynasty were built on a hierarchy with gold-bedecked kings at the top and the broken bodies of labourers, including children and prisoners of war, at the bottom. These kings presided over a population most of whom died before their thirties from disease or other hazards.’

Guy does an amazing job across the depth and breadth of this dynasty. With the big names such as Tutankhamen, Hatshepsut, Akhenaten and Nefertiti to lesser known ones, he writes of their stories inclusive of the cost to those they ruled. It was certainly a time of great riches with complete and utter ruthlessness. There is also a most impressive index, glossary, timeline colour photos and more included in some of the 100+ pages of reference materials and extras. 

The 18th Dynasty was an incredible era for the ancient Egyptians - well up there with some of the world's best. For me, and for many others, it continues to be such a source of fascination. We see it all from the grandeur to the enormous cost to all involved.  This is a book I highly recommend to lovers of all things ancient Egyptian.

‘My imagination runs riot wondering what the common people who see my monument in the years to come will say. Beware of saying I know not, I know not why this was made and a mountain fashioned entirely from gold like an everyday event I swear as Re loves me, as my father Amun favours me shall be eternal like the star that never sets.’

~ Hatshepsut, on her obelisks at Karnak ~

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Man Through the Ages: A Global History

 

Title: Man Through the Ages: A Global History

Author: John Bowle

Publisher: 5th June 2022 by Sapere Books

Pages: 429 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre:  nonfiction, history

My Rating: 3 cups

Synopsis:

How have societies, cultures and traditions from across the globe shaped our conception of who we are as human beings in the modern world?

Many who love history become fascinated with certain aspects of the past, be that Tudor England, Renaissance Italy or the American Civil War. John Bowle encourages us to look beyond our own interests and to examine the entirety of world history, from Ming China to pre-Columbian America, medieval Africa to Mughal India. Bowle’s book allows the reader to reassess the past, revealing aspects of humanity’s journey which we might previously have overlooked but which undoubtedly have impacted the world we live in today.

In this study covering over six thousand years of history, from our archaic origins through to the twentieth century, Bowle demonstrates civilizations that have risen and fallen, how religions and scientific ideas have shaped the way we think, how trade and language have allowed disparate communities to work together, and how our overlapping histories continue to form us.

Written in accessible and entertaining language Man Through the Ages should be an essential refresher of the global history of mankind.

My Thoughts

I was intrigued to read this book because as Santayana reputedly said, ‘those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it’. I have a great passion for history.  To consider that this book had originally been published in 1966 (some sections even supposedly four years prior under a different title) it is amazing to appreciate the foresight and understanding exhibited by the author.

John Bowle was born in 1905 in England. He was a history master, lecturer, professor at a range of notable colleges from 1947 onwards. He wrote many historical books on not just history but Western politics and opinions and was editor of the 1971 Encyclopaedia of World History. He knew his stuff! I appreciated how the author opened my eyes to look beyond what was familiar:

‘The debt of our own civilization to Greece, Israel and Rome is widely appreciated, but few Europeans who are not experts understand the debt of Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and Indonesia to southern India, or of the Japanese to China.’

Whilst on the one hand this is a thorough and illuminating citation in so many respects, it is however, purely academic and not truly accessible for all readers. I have a great fascination for history, not only for interest's sake but also as a key to understanding how it has shaped our present world. Unfortunately, however, this book took a great deal of effort to delve through and find the gems I was hoping to discover. 

It is a brave undertaking for any person to try and write a history of the world. Yet it is very clear from the outset that this book - academic in nature-  highlights how even still today, we are in danger of not learning from lessons of the past:

‘The danger is all the more urgent since, although never in history has political change been so fast, it has lagged behind the technological developments that have dragged mankind after them and created so urgently the need for world order as the alternative to catastrophe.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.