History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World

Average customer rating:

Why immigration is good for America
Budapest as the incubator of Greatness
Hungarians love their salami and their Magyars
OK, but...
Budapest's loss is the world's gain...

The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World
Kati Marton
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Eastern | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Hungary | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

20th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Jewish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0743261151

Book Description

In this ground-breaking book, acclaimed author Kati Marton brings to life an unknown chapter of World War II: the tale of nine men who grew up in Budapest's brief Golden Age, then, driven from Hungary by anti-Semitism, fled to the West, especially to the United States, and changed the world. These nine men, each celebrated for individual achievements, were actually part of a unique group who grew up in a time and place that will never come again. It is Marton's extraordinary achievement to trace what for a few dazzling years was common to all of them -- the magic air of Budapest -- and show how their separate lives and careers were, in fact, all shaped by Budapest's lively café life before the darkness closed in.

Marton follows the astonishing lives of four history-changing scientists, all just one step ahead of Hitler's terror state, who helped usher in the nuclear age and the computer (Edward Teller, John von Neumann, Leo Szilard, and Eugene Wigner); two major movie myth-makers (Michael Curtiz, who directed Casablanca, and Alexander Korda, who produced The Third Man); two immortal photographers (Robert Capa and Andre Kertesz); and one seminal writer (Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon).

Marton follows these brilliant products of Budapest's Golden Age as they flee fascism in the 1920s and 1930s en route to sanctuary -- and immortality. As the scientists labor in the secret city of Los Alamos in the race to build the atom bomb, Koestler, once a communist agent imprisoned by Franco, writes the most important anticommunist novel of the century. Capa, the first photographer to go ashore on D-Day, later romances Ingrid Bergman and is acknowledged as the world's greatest war photographer before his tragic death in Vietnam. Curtiz not only gives us Casablanca, consistently voted the greatest romantic movie ever made, but also discovers Doris Day and directs James Cagney in the quintessential patriotic film, Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Ultimately, The Great Escape is an American story and an important, previously untold chapter of the tumultuous last century. Yet it is also a poignant story -- in the words of the great historian Fritz Stern, "an evocation of genius in exile . . . an instructive, moving delight." An epilogue relates the journey into exile of three members of the next generation of Budapest exiles: financier-philanthropist George Soros, Intel founder Andy Grove, and 2002 Nobel laureate in literature Imre Kertesz.

Customer Reviews:

Why immigration is good for America.......2007-09-06

Most of the nine Hungarian Jews discussed in this book emmigrated to America and made outstanding contributions to science, mathematics, information technology, and films. Hungary, during its short life of freedom, served as an incubator for intellecutual curiosity. The rise of Nazism forced these great minds to flee there native country and eventually wind up in the U.S.A. Their contributions to the U.S.A. resulted in the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs, the computer and a branch of mathematics called game theory. The efforts of these immegrants contributed substantially to our victory over both Germany and Japan,

Budapest as the incubator of Greatness.......2007-05-31

The nine men biographied in this book all were born in pre-WWI Budapest when it was the capital of half the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They were "double" outsiders being both Jews and Hungarians, estranged from most of the rest of Central Europe and from their own homeland. After WWI and (thankfully) before the beginning of WW2, they all managed to escape. But they didn't escape from Hitler, most when they first left Budapest went to either Berlin or Vienna; they truly escaped from Admiral Horthy and his Arrow Cross, the first fascist government in Europe.

Of the nine, seven made their homes in america and two in england. In England would 'settle' Alexander Korda who was considered the 'only' British film mogul (producer of "The Third Man") who was later knighted. Also Arthur Koestler, ex-communist who would write the Stalin scathing novel "Darkness at Noon" which first brought to light the Gulag and the terror of Communism.

Four of the scientist who came to america ended up the major forces behind the 'Manhattan Project', the H-Bomb (and later design the 'Strategic Defense Initiative') and the first true computer "Eniac". Two others are responsible for many of the most famous photographs ever published (Robert Capa was known as 'the World's Greater War Photo- journalist') in Look, Life and Home & Gardens. The last man, Michael Curtiz, created the look and feel of three of the most famous american movies, "Mildred Pierce" "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and what many consider the greatest (romantic) movie ever made "Casablanca". It was Curtiz who fought with Jack Warner (and won) the battle to use Bogart and Bergman, instead of George Raft and Bette Davis.

At the end, Kati Marton (whose own family escaped from Hungary in 1956 following the abortive revolution), does a phenomenal job of bringing these nine mens lives to life. Her ending snippets about Andrew Grove (of Intel) and George Soros (who gives new meaning to the word Philanthropist) are worth the price of the book alone.

Hungarians love their salami and their Magyars.......2007-03-26

Every anti-semitic Hungarian needs to read this book.

OK, but..........2007-03-20

I found this book quite interesting although not very well written. I am also less than happy with some of choices made by the author - why these nine are featured when some of them (A. Korda, for example) are not in the same league of significance as others. Why were others ignored?
But that was all well until I read that E. Wigner never returned to Hungary late in his life and was never honored there officially. I met Wigner in Budapest in the late seventies on one of his several trips to Hungary and I know that he received numerous acknowledgments there. Among others, he was elected an Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. So I wonder, what else is inaccurate in the book?

Budapest's loss is the world's gain..........2007-03-12

Ms Marton is a wonderful writer and her subject matter is close to her heart as she is a transplanted Hungarian, like the subjects of her fascinating tale: "The Great Escape". Marton has focused on nine Hungarians,scientists, film makers and photographers, who fled their homeland because of the country's intolerance to their religion. To a man they went on to make their mark in their respective fields the common thread besides their birthplace, was their everlasting affection for Budapest as one of the subjects stated "Everything I am is because of my experience growing up in Budapest". A very fine read, as a result of the book, I have been looking into travelling to this fabled city .

Holy Brotherhood: Romani Music in a Hungarian Pentecostal Church

Average customer rating:

Ethnomusicology is an Art and not a Seance

Holy Brotherhood: Romani Music in a Hungarian Pentecostal Church
Barbara Rose Lange
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

European | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Holy Brotherhood: Romani Music in a Hungarian Pentecostal Church is a musical ethnography of a religious community. After the end of socialism, different ethnic groups in Hungary harbored antagonism toward one another. In one Pentecostal church in Pecs, Hungary, however, both Hungarians and Roma (Gypsies) worshipped and made music together. Three musical repertoires coexisted, each with a separate historical background and complex social meanings: Romani religious song; nineteenth-century gospel hymns originally from the United States; and contemporary Christian pop from the United States. Church members accommodated cultural and musical differences by developing several distinct performance styles.

Customer Reviews:

Ethnomusicology is an Art and not a Seance.......2003-07-16

Combining in-depth musical analysis with personal experience and scholarly ethnography, Barbara Rose Lange's _Holy Brotherhood: Romani Music in a Hungarian Pentecostal Church_ explores Romani or Gypsy music with an ear towards sprirtual meaning and music's profound social context in such a way that the general reader will be satisfied, and the specialist overjoyed. Forsaking jargon for direct reportage of interviews and musical experiences, Lange focuses on actual performance, providing precise translation of songs, practices, rituals--this is a book for the living. The result not only adds insight to outsider interpretations of Gypsy culture, but explicates music's relationship to religion, and Romani or Gypsy culture to the world at large. Delightful.

Average customer rating:

World of the Trapp Family
Very Nice book
The real Sound of Music
This book is great....
Great book

The World of the Trapp Family
William Anderson
Manufacturer: Anderson Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Entertainers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Austria | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Hungary | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Central Europe | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | Family Relationships | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1890757004

Customer Reviews:

World of the Trapp Family.......2007-05-08

This is one book I will keep in my private library. Very good book with all the pictures. My mother has enjoying looking at it also.

Very Nice book.......2007-03-08

I really enjoyed the beautiful pictures. I first read "The Trapp Family Singers" by Maria which was great but I wanted pictures and more info and this book was greatly enjoyed.I really liked it.

The real Sound of Music.......2006-02-05

I had the opportuntiy to buy this book last fall when I saw the grandchildren of Maria Von Trapp in concert at the Dollywood theme park. Having read the account by Maria in her book "The story of the Trapp Family Singers" as a child I was fully aware that the movie and the real story were not identical, however the liberties of the movie version aside this book is a delight for anyone who loves the story and music of the Von Trapps. It gives you a first hand insight to what the family went through from the Natzi's to the building of their inn in Vermont to the rebuilding of it after it was destory by fire. The photography is superb and the history of this family is one I have enjoyed for years and will for years to come. I can hardly wait til next Christmas to add the Von Trapp Children CD to my holiday music enjoyment.

This book is great...........2003-06-06

....because I find so many information about the Trapp Familiy which I don't know. I saw the two german movies from 1956 und 1958 and the american from 1965, and I like all this films.

The pictures make it easy to read.

But there is something, that I don't like. Martina, who died in 1951. Maria Augusta wrote only one and a half sentences about her stepdaughter. Why had she done that ?

Good, that I've read "Yesterday, Today and Forever", so I know the tragedy of Martina's death.

...

Great book.......2000-08-16

This book is a really great behind-the-scenes type book about the real Von Trapp family. Fans of the movie may not like it as much, because there isn't very much stuff written about the making of the SOM. However, it really gives you a very clear picture of the way the story reall was without detracting from the magic of the movie.

Vienna Prague Budapest (Country & Regional Guides - Cadogan)

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Vienna Prague Budapest
A Useful Guide

Vienna Prague Budapest (Country & Regional Guides - Cadogan)
Mary-Ann Gallagher , Sadakat Kadri , and Matthew Gardner
Manufacturer: Cadogan Guides
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | Travel | Subjects | Books

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

Cadogan | Guidebook Series | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1860111874

Book Description

Forget the usual city breaks to Paris, Rome, and Barcelona and explore these European gems with the help of Cadogan's unique three-city guide.

Customer Reviews:

Vienna Prague Budapest.......2006-11-10

An excellent comprehensive description of major sights in these cities that is still brief enough that one can easily remember the highlights. The book is also light enough that one does not mind carrying it.

A Useful Guide.......2006-11-04

I just returned from the Prague, Vienna, and Budapest experience and do not know what I would have done if it wasn't for this handy guide. This guide contains city maps, metro station maps, descriptions of attractions and transportation. Additionally, the restaurant review list was very complete, including recommendations for vegetarian eating. If you are planning on making the trip, I highly recommend this guide.

The Austro-Prussian War: Austria's War with Prussia and Italy in 1866

Average customer rating:

A gem
Illegible
4 to 1 ratio of firepower; 4 to 1 ratio of casualties!
Tour de Force!!
Good but biased work

The Austro-Prussian War: Austria's War with Prussia and Italy in 1866
Geoffrey Wawro
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Austria | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Hungary | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Strategy | Military | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0521629519

Book Description

This is a new history of the Austro-Prussian-Italian War of 1866, which paved the way for German and Italian unification. Geoffrey Wawro describes Prussia's successful invasion of Habsburg Bohemia, and the wretched collapse of the Austrian army in July 1866. Blending military and social history, he describes the panic that overtook Austria's regiments in each clash with the Prussians. He reveals the blundering of the Austrian commandant who fumbled away key strategic advantages and ultimately lost a war--crucial to the fortunes of the Habsburg Monarchy--that most European pundits had predicted they would win.

Customer Reviews:

A gem.......2007-06-26

Taking a little-known topic like the Austro-Prussian (and Italian) War could have been just a futile academic exercise. Wawro turns this little book into a real treasure. Within just the first few pages he does a succinct and brilliant job of analyzing Clausewitz and Jomini and explaining the rise of Prussia to dominate Germany and Europe. The cover art doesn't do the book justice, but I'll be looking forward to Wawro's future work.

Illegible.......2006-11-21

I have no wish to criticise the writer- I moved on to this book after being very impressed by his work on the Franco-Prussian War, but I bought the paperback over the Internet and was shocked when it arrived- the print is very small and I had to struggle to read it with a magnifying glass. Cambridge should be ashamed of producing such a volume.

4 to 1 ratio of firepower; 4 to 1 ratio of casualties!.......2006-02-22

This is an outstanding book that is very well written. Although definitely Austro-Centric, it has superb use of sources and secondary works. Why the Austrians lost the war was due to many factors; not the least of which was firepower. The needle gun could deliver four times as many shots per minute as the Rifled muskets that the Austrians used. This was perhaps the deciding factor, as reflected in the casualty ratio of four to one in favor of the Prussians in every battle!

Although the Austrians had superior artillery, they could not quite use it decisively; perhaps because of their over-reliance on a combination of "strategic defense, tactical offense". The book has a vast number of examples of Austrian shortcomings; a better Austrian general or one of at least average competency would have made far better use of their "central position" when the clunky Prussian War Machine gave them openings.

The pathetic non-use of cavalry by both sides is surprising, considering how the role of cavalry had changed during the American Civil War. Each side should have made use of deep cavalry raids to attack their opponents lines of communication.
Think of what a competent Austrian general could have done with their superb cavalry if it had been properly employed in raids against the Prussian communications as they withdrew along their own railroads!
The only negative in this book is that the maps lack a kilometer scale, which prevents the reader from considering the distances of marches and the size of the battlefield.

Tour de Force!!.......2005-03-02

Geoffrey Wawro writes a fast paced, fact filled account of one of histories most analyzed conflicts. It is a Tour de Force from the very first page. In the ususal military style, the author, a Professor at the US Naval War College, writes a no -holds barred account that is a withering indictment of both the French and German Commanders. Despite Von Moltke's gift of military genius and improvisation his commanders nearly wrecked his best laid plans, and, the French Officers, regrettably, deserted there men and snatched defeat from the jaws of an almost victory. In comparison with Michael Howards book, Geoffrey is more blunt and has a slighly narrower focus on some of the key events that lead to war. In comparison with Michael Howard, his first three chapters are not as comprehensive, but compliment Sir Howards work. Never the less, the strategic and operational analysis that Wawro renders is first class, brutally frank and objective in the first degree. There are only two books that you will ever need on the Franco-Prussian War or to have as a reference on your book shelf; this one, and the one by Sir Michael Howard.

Good but biased work.......2004-12-06

This is overall a good, well written and serviceable book, but the parts devoted to the Austrian-Italian conflict leave much to be desired. Much of what the author writes about the structural flaws, drawbacks and defects of the newly born Italian army certainly hold broadly true. However his account of the 1866 campaign and the battle of Custoza relies heavily on Austrian material - obviously magnifying their troops' achievements as well as the Italian defeat - while Italian sources, albeit mentioned in the bibliography, seem to be discounted or rather neglected in the narration.

The truth about Custoza is that, and no offense meant to the widely acknowledged Austro-Hungarian bravery and toughness, it was an Italian self-defeat rather than an Austrian victory. The conduct of the battle on the part of the Italian army, army corps, and some division commanders was abysmally botched, an outright failure which led the troops on the field (and a few divisional commanders who fought very well) to lose a battle they had already won. In spite of the collapse of two Italian divisions (and another was badly mauled), the Austrians had achieved nothing when the battle reached its climax: on their right flank they had suffered so many casualties they could not move forward any further and were going to be attacked, in the center Italian counterattacks had bloodily pushed them back and their cavalry action on their left had gone nowhere. They were just ripe for destruction. The Italians still had several intact divisions ready for action and had those units been properly used, and had the Italian army had a leadership up to the challenge instead of the panicking or dull blockheads it had, the Austrians would surely have been crushed.

In the first phase of the battle, two Italian divisions with 16,000 fatigued, hungry and thirsty men caught by surprise in march order, held back 32,000 Austrians for hours inflicting heavy casualties. Those units eventually crumbled and some exhausted battalions broke and ran, but elements of the two divisions fought to the last and the Austrians had suffered so badly that they didn't push any further. Stating, as Wawro does, that "whole Italian divisions dissolved upon contact with the enemy" is an absurd exaggeration. During the battle an Austrian regiment, too, was routed, but this piece of news from the battlefield is apparently overlooked in the text.

Much is also made of the 3,500 or so Italian prisoners (a small fraction of the Italian force) taken by the Austrians, and the classic stereotyped portrayal of the "surrendering Italian" is unavoidably dished out to the reader, but out of the 2,800 Austrian MIA, 1,500 were captured by the Italians.

Readers interested in a fairer, less stereotype-fed account of the clash between Italy and Austria-Hungary in 1866 will have to look for less biased works.

Average customer rating:

A great little book but......
Excellent book about Hungarian Cuisine.
OOH IT'S SOOO GOOD
Book about Hungarian soul
Best Hungarian Cookbook available

Hungary (Culinaria)
Aniko Gergely , Ruprecht Stempell , and Christoph Buechel
Manufacturer: Konemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 3829026188

Customer Reviews:

A great little book but.............2007-09-10

this is a terrific book of authentic hungarian cuisine, the book focuses heavily on recipies with sour cream, paprika and sweets. i give it four stars for a reason though, one i found rather annoying at times

not all recipies have quantities required for them!!!!

this is very annoying for instance with goulash soup which requires "a layer" of paprika, took me 3 tries to get the right amount. If only it said 1/4 of a cup like i ended up using it would have been perfect.

so make sure you remember when making those ones to write down the quantity you use in the book once you get it right and you have a 5 star book.

Excellent book about Hungarian Cuisine........2007-02-02

I borrowed this book from the library in my ongoing search for a reliable English version of the recipe for Esterhazy Torte which I first ate in Hungary, a cake to die for - truly. Anyway, I didn't get it in this book but it gave me everything else! This book does have many recipes but I would not really characterize it as a recipe book. Rather, it is about Hungary's traditional agriculture, its resultant tastiest base ingredients for the local cuisines. Basically, it is a book about traditional Hungary, the country, seen through its foods and drinks. You kind of feel like you're being taken on a tour of the country with stops along the way to eat the local specialties (through your eyes until you can get into the kitchen). I wish I had read this book before I went to Hungary because now I see how much a missed. It has lots of colorful pictures and just the whole presentation is A-1, including the quality of the physical book. It doesn't have the most recipes but it has the best ones. I did have trouble understanding what some of the ingredients were here and there but I am sure some research would clear it up for me. I recommend everyone who is interested in Hungarian food buy this book FIRST and then buy additional books afterward. I even recommend it for anyone planning a trip to Hungary. I wouldn't lug it along but it would really help you plan a few key restaurants, cafes and markets to go to and what key dishes and drinks you have to have.

OOH IT'S SOOO GOOD.......2006-03-13

I really like this book. All of the CULINARIA books are huge. They're probably not the most handy to have sitting on your counter while you're trying to cook up something from the pages, but still, they're pretty darn cool. This book has really nice, quality photos with insight about what the picture is showing you. The history packed into these books is crazy. It covers everything related to cuisine in Hungary. And I do mean everything. If you not only have an interest in the food of this country, but also a curiosity about the history behind the food,... GET IT. If you're only interested in some interesting historical tid-bits about Hungary and it's culture, but not really interested in the recipe aspect,... GET IT. It covers both and isn't boring.

Book about Hungarian soul.......2005-08-02

I am coming from the southern Slovakia, which is a region inhibited by Hungarians and recently I do live in Hungary. This book covers everything, what you should know about the Hungarian cusine. As Hungarian I knew plenty about some of the food items described in the book (just because I eat them :) )but i did not know where they come from, how are they made. This book covers it all. Does not shield you from the truth ! We eat meat with meat (and a bit of cabage), lot of sweets and plenty of fat. And we like it with beer, wine and palinka. and if possible then all of them at once! Finally one book which does not try to make pink glasses over your eyes. We are fat, but happy :)))). I love the photos. They are soo real. I love the fact that they are made in the villages. Old granny making strudle or selling pickles. People working with garlic and paprika, cooking halaszle (fish soup). My favorite is a well built man eating sousage with mustard from a street stand with his hands.. I love that... I think I will have that for lunch with some pickles... jo etvagyat (enjoy your meal)

Best Hungarian Cookbook available.......2005-02-26

This is the best Hungarian cookbook available by far. Excellent photos and accurate, easy-to-follow recipes. I've purchased several copies over the last few years and have had to give them up to friends who were equally impressed. Also, it's a great guide to anyone who is about to go to Hunagry and would like to get a feeling of the various regional traditions and culinary specialties.

The Siege of Vienna: The Last Great Trial Between Cross & Crescent

Average customer rating:

Exceedingly Tedious
Meticulous and Tedious
A very readable and informative history of an important event in the struggles between Islam and the West
A superbly presented and accurately detailed account

The Siege of Vienna: The Last Great Trial Between Cross & Crescent
John Stoye
Manufacturer: Pegasus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Austria | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1933648147

Book Description

"John Stoye is the master of every aspect of his subject."- Daily Telegraph

"A fine historical work. . . . Well worth reading."-Otto von Habsburg, The Catholic Herald

"Worthy of the pen of a Herodotus. . . . It is a measure of the fascination of Mr. Stoye's subject that one should think of comparing his treatment of it with the work of the greatest historians."- The Times Literary Supplement

The siege of Vienna in 1683 was one of the turning points in European history. It was the last serious threat to Western Christendom and so great was its impact that countries normally jealous and hostile sank their differences to throw back the armies of Islam and their savage Tartar allies.

The consequences of defeat were momentous: The Ottomans lost half of their European territories and began the long decline that led to the final collapse of their empire, and the Habsburgs turned their attention from France and the Rhine frontier to the rich pickings of the Balkans. That hot September day in 1683 witnessed the last great trial of strength between cross and crescent-and opened an epoch in European history that lasted until the cataclysm of the First World War.

Customer Reviews:

Exceedingly Tedious.......2007-09-25

If you're a generalist, or looking for a book that will help you to appreciate what the defenders of Vienna felt, thought, or endured, this book is not for you. Though undeniably informative, the great bulk of this work is devoted to extremely detailed descriptions of the dozens of political negotiations and troop conscriptions carried on by Hapsburg envoys and the political chess game between the Empire's foes and its myriad lukewarm allies. This is a valuable source for further research, and a great neutral description of the political climate and negotiations that led to Vienna's redemption, but of the siege itself, it will provide you with little insight as to what it was like to be in Vienna in 1683, and will not impart any of the stories, legends, or heroic deeds of the City's defenders - to which the author occasionally and tantalizingly alludes.

Meticulous and Tedious.......2007-07-29

The failure of the Turkish army to take Vienna in 1683 marks the beginning of the long decline of the Ottoman state but it was a close-run affair. Kara Mustafa's janissaries laid siege to the Austrian imperial capital while allied horsemen ravaged the surrounding countryside. Leopold III and his court had fled leaving the rescue of Vienna to Charles, Duke of Lorraine and John Sobieski of Poland. Had Mustafa been a little less reckless in failing to fortify his positions the outcome of the battle (and the history of Europe) might have been different.

Stoye has done an excellent job in painstakingly recounting each detail of the negotiations among the Christian princes and charting the march of the various armies. Where his sources have been unclear or lacking he is honest in not speculating too freely. However, if any battle cried out for a historian with a sense of colour and drama this was it. Massacres of prisoners, hand-to-hand fighting in trenches and tunnels, banners with crosses and crescents waving over blood-drenched salients, wild Tartars from the steppes duelling with hussars clad in armour and angel wings, vizirs strangled with bow-strings: the siege of Vienna had all this and more but Stoye is the not the man who can breathe life into such a story. Nor are the maps and illustrations much help.

This book is a noble effort and will certainly serve readers interested in the minutiae of central-European politics but the siege still awaits a better story-teller.

A very readable and informative history of an important event in the struggles between Islam and the West.......2007-03-19

What an interesting book! The present War on Terror does have certain overtones of the past struggles between Christianity and Islam. The Jihadists refer to the Western nations as Crusaders and while most in the West make a distinction between Islam per se and the Jihadists, they are not blind to the fact that the Jihadists (or Islamofacists or whatever you want to call them) are almost completely Muslim.

And certainly, the Christianity of Europe is nominal at best and is not a motivating factor in the West's approach to the current situation. There are other more overriding interests. If one went on Sunday to the Cathedrals and traditional Christian denominations and conscripted the congregants into an army, it would consist mostly of older women and some children. And it would be small.

It was not always so. This book recounts the time in the late seventeenth century (mostly in 1683 to be precise) when the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (and ruler of the Muslim world) and his Grand Vizir took a hundred thousand men (or more) into and through the Hungarian territories into Austria on a quest for new lands to tax (more than for converts) and after conquering lesser cities on the way, laid siege to Vienna.

Europe was very much different than the Europe of the past two centuries. There were nations, but not so much nation states as the two great kingdoms of France ruled by Louis XIV and the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire ruled out of Austria and Spain. Both also had relationship with ancillary and related smaller states and territories. The complex web of treaties were often, but not always, related to whether the ruler and the population were primarily Roman Catholic or Protestant.

This was not the first time that the Ottomans came out of Turkey to attack Vienna. In 1529 they came and laid siege to the city until disease forced them back. In 1683, they came and were making progress in undermining the walls of the city until the King of Poland, Jon Sobieski and came from the north and drove the Turks out. This led to a more extended war with the Ottomans that lasted until 1699 and captured Hungary for the Habsburgs.

John Toye has written a very concise telling of the second siege. There are nine chapters in just fewer than two hundred pages. The first chapter provides the origins of the Ottoman attack. Understanding the court politics and the names and titles of all the players is probably the most difficult part of the book. However, once the reader has that under control, all goes smoothly. The author provides a helpful list of key names and titles on pages x and xi. There are also some maps up front and provided within the text as needed.

The second chapter informs the reader about the situation in Austria and Vienna. We learn about the court of Leopold his character, talents, his key advisors, and I. The third chapter gives us a broader picture of the Habsburg Empire and its competitive relations with France and what its true condition was late in the seventeenth century.

The fourth chapter tells us about the move of the Ottomans through Hungary and how Vienna began its preparations. This involved getting some people out (including Leopold I) and other people in. It also involved getting as many supplies as possible (such as money, wood and food). In chapter five we get the description of how the siege began and what the techniques were for the attackers and the defenders.

Chapter six takes us outside of Vienna and what was going on between the city and its allies as well as the maneuvering of the Ottoman camps. In chapter seven the author gives us the movements of Sobieski and the others who would come to the aid of the beleaguered city.

All of this is prelude to the climax of the book in chapter eight when the armies come out of the north and sweep the Ottomans off the walls of Vienna and into a panicked rout. The last chapter ties up what happened in Europe after the battle. Like most victories, it leads to claims by many as the reason for the success. Offenses are taken at real, perceived, or manufactured slights, advantage is taken by those still strong over those weakened by the struggle (read Louis XIV trying to take advantage of the limited resources of the Hapsburgs now fighting in Hungary).

This was a very important event in the history of Europe, of the relations between the West and Islam (at the time the Ottomans were essentially synonymous with the faith - the Sultan held the key to the Kabah and flew what was believed to be Mohammed's banner). It is an event that everyone should understand better. The troubles didn't begin on 9/11 nor were the Crusades of the eleventh century the only armed struggle before that event. It is a long and rather aggressive history, from both sides.

While some claim history to be bunk, it is critical to learn the true history of what has happened in the past and how it has flowed into and created the world we inherited.

A superbly presented and accurately detailed account .......2007-01-06

The siege by the Islamic Turks of the Christian city of Vienna in 1683 was a watershed incident in European history. Had the Turks been successful, there well might have been no Christian Europe to dominate the world stage for the next 500 years. Facing that magnitude of threat, European powers that were normally jealous and hostile to one another suppressed their mutual antagonisms to defeat the armies of Islam and their brutal Tartar Allies. The Ottoman empire lost control of half of their European territories which led to the long, slow, decline and inevitable collapse, even as the Hapbsburgs were able to parley the Viennese victory into control of the Balkans and expand their influence into France and the Rhine country. An enthusiastic recommendation for inclusion into both academic and community library World History collections, "The Siege of Vienna: The Last Great Trial Between Cross & Crescent" by John Stoye (Fellow in Modern History, Magdalen College, Oxford, England) is a superbly presented and accurately detailed account of this pivotal incident between the forces of a militant Islam and the armies of a European Christendom.

Average customer rating:

Can't track a trip on one page.
Lost with a map?
Budapest Map
Budapest map
Good but...

Streetwise Budapest (Streetwise)
Streetwise Maps
Manufacturer: Streetwise Maps
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Map

Maps | Atlases & Maps | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | Travel | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 1886705224

Book Description

STREETWISE(r) BUDAPEST
Revised yearly, STREETWISE(r) is the best-selling map of BUDAPEST, with coverage from Muszaki Egyetem (Technical University) to Vasarely Muzeum. Localities covered are Mattias Templom, Lukacs Baths, and the Olympiai Csarnok. Points of interest such as museums, hotels, parks, and popular sites are highlighted and fully indexed. The Budapest Metro is clearly indicated on a map inset. Laminated for durability, accordion folded to fit in your pocket or purse, STREETWISE(r) gives you BUDAPEST in a clear, concise, and convenient format.

Customer Reviews:

Can't track a trip on one page........2007-06-27

The problem with this map is that in trying to be so small it limits its usefulness. You can't track a whole trip on one page, or easily find a street by name. I should have learned my lesson about these Streetwise maps by now.

Lost with a map?.......2007-06-14

I purchased this map for a friend that was visiting Budapest this summer. I was fairly disapointed to find that it was only the map along the river and missed out of the major atractions in Budapest. Where's the castle, Heros square, Parliment, or the historic bath house spas.
The delivery was fast and efficient. I had very high expectations having just visited Budapest with a Hugarian guide to show the hot spots.

Budapest Map.......2007-02-18

An excellent map - easy to read and to fold. Highly recommended.

Budapest map.......2007-02-07

The map is nice but does not cover the entire city. If you are serious about traveling in Hungary, you probably need to go to Europe to get a good enough map. This isn't it. I wrote them asking if they had a better map and they didn't even answer.

Good but..........2006-12-25

It's a good map but considering that most people will take public transport and see the well marked general tourist atractions, you don't really need it. It gets two stars as it's a good map but not really required for a trip to Budapest.

Average customer rating:

One dark little novel....
Snapshot of Life in Budapest
waste of time
tedious and awful
Tedious and self-indulgent

Prague: A Novel
Arthur Phillips
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0375759778
Release Date: 2003-06-10

Amazon.com

In Prague, Arthur Phillips's sparkling, Kundera-flavored debut, five young Americans converge in Budapest in the early 1990s. Most are there by chance, like businessman Charles Gabor, whose parents were Hungarian. But one of them, John Price, has the more novelistic motivation of lost love. He is following his older brother, Scott, intent on achieving an intimacy that Scott, a language teacher and health enthusiast, is just as intently trying to escape. The romantic hero of this unsentimental novel, John Price lives like an expatriate of the 1920s. He longs for experience (and more or less stumbles into a writing job for an English language paper), but even more so for the great, obliterating love that takes the form of the perky assistant Emily Oliver. Mark Payton, a scholar of nostalgia whose insights are touched with mysticism, seems often to speak for the author, even in his barely repressed desire for John Price. For who would not love the good and unaffected, in the confusion, opportunism, and irony that characterize fin-de-siècle Europe? Phillips's five seekers are like mirrors that reflect Budapest at different angles, and that imperfectly--but wonderfully--point toward the unattainable city: the glittering, distant Prague. --Regina Marler

Book Description

A novel of startling scope and ambition, Prague depicts an intentionally lost Lost Generation as it follows five American expats who come to Budapest in the early 1990s to seek their fortune. They harbor the vague suspicion that their counterparts in Prague have it better, but still they hope to find adventure, inspiration, a gold rush, or history in the making.

Download Description

A first novel of startling scope and ambition, Prague depicts an intentionally lost Lost Generation as it follows five American expats who come to Budapest in the early 1990s to seek their fortune -- financial, romantic, and spiritual -- in an exotic city newly opened to the West. They harbor the vague suspicion that their counterparts in Prague, where the atmospheric decay of post-Cold War Europe is even more cinematically perfect, have it better. Still, they hope to find adventure, inspiration, a gold rush, or history in the making. What they actually find is a deceptively beautiful place that they often fail to understand.

What does it mean to fret about your fledgling career when the man across the table was tortured by two different regimes? How does your short, uneventful life compare to the lives of those who actually resisted, fought, and died? What does your angst mean in a city still pocked with bullet holes from war and crushed rebellion?

Journalist John Price finds these questions impossible to answer yet impossible to avoid, though he tries to forget them in the din of Budapest's nightclubs, in a romance with a secretive young diplomat, at the table of an elderly cocktail pianist, and in the moody company of a young man obsessed with nostalgia. Arriving in Budapest one spring day to pursue his elusive brother, John finds himself pursuing something else entirely, something he can't quite put a name to, something that will draw him into stories much larger than himself.

With humor, intelligence, masterly prose, and profound affection for both Budapest and his own characters, Arthur Phillips not only captures his contemporaries but also brilliantly renders the Hungary of past and present: the generations of failed revolutionaries and lyric poets, opportunists and profiteers, heroes and storytellers.

"Dazzling... brilliant... the most memorable fiction debut of the year."
   PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)

"Arthur Phillips's bold and ambitious novel, Prague, is one of those rare books that help define and identify a whole generation, in the same way that Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises introduced his lost generation."
   PAT CONROY, AUTHOR OF THE PRINCE OF TIDES

"In Prague, Arthur Phillips spins the Jazz Age novel. His expatriate Americans have settled in Budapest rather than Paris, and instead of champagne and ragtime, they outfit themselves with Gauloises, paprika-dusted sandwiches, punk rock, and post-Cold War irony. But their passion -- to know America and to shrug it off -- is timelessly literary. A hip-hop remix of Fitzgerald and Hemingway, a meditation on a generation, a polemic, a love story, a new branch of sociology, Prague tries to do it all and succeeds."
   PAGAN KENNEDY, AUTHOR OF BLACK LIVINGSTONE

"An intricate and wordly-wise novel, with sly and acute perceptions on every page, Prague sets itself the challenge of extending the tradition of brainy Central European fiction from an American perspective, and succeeds handily."
   PHILLIP LOPATE, AUTHOR OF PORTRAIT OF MY BODY

"Phillips's exhilarating exploration of time, memory, and nostalgia brings to mind such giants as Proust and Joyce."
   LIBRARY JOURNAL

Customer Reviews:

One dark little novel...........2007-07-29

I actually enjoyed Prague but I would've liked it a lot more if it hadn't been hyped as a light-hearted romp through expatriate life. You can't blame the author for that but believe me, this is a pretty dark book. Really, from what happens to the characters, you'd have to think that living in Budapest was about as psychologically damaging as serving in Vietnam.

On the other hand, if you're looking for a black comedy, you could do worse. I liked Phillips' writing (I found it leisurely, you might find it glacial) and as a American living abroad, I found his insights spot on. Sometimes, you just can't change yourself by changing the scenery. And really, while the Lost Generation were legendary boozers, isn't there a bit more to expat life than endless drinking games?

Anyway, I thought it was pretty good book. Just be warned it's a bit different from how it's been sold.

Snapshot of Life in Budapest.......2007-07-01

Writing a novel about ex-pat life in a foreign country offers 2 choices: a story that shows the city and lifestyle to outsides (usually written by casual visitors who just need a setting for their story), or a novel about real life with real people and events, for other ex-pats of the country. Despite Arthur Phillips' protestations to the contrary in the afterward (paperback edition), Prague clearly falls into the second category, starting with the title.

"Prague" is an insider joke for residents of Budapest during the time, the city where things were really happening, the place where they all wanted to be, but weren't. But this is only hinted at in the story itself, is generally inconsequential to the plot, and unless you've lived in the area, it will not be obvious, leaving the title incomprehensible and misleading. Had the novel been written for non-expats it would have had a title that encompassed life in Budapest (for example, Coffee at the Gerbeaud, or Chain Link Bridge), or least generalized to Eastern Europe.

What starts in the title flows through the rest of the novel - inside jokes to a small group of expats during a particular period that fail to resonate with non-residents.

The novel also can't quite decide whether it is about a story or a character, and if a character, which one. It jumps around between characters before deciding to focus on John Price. Unfortunately, John is only somewhat sympathetic as a character. He pines for Emily, but has a relationship Nicky, and casually cheats on her. He's a journalist for the local English lanugauage daily, but plants stories to help his friends win business deals for which he gets a kickback.

Nor is there a particular plot that gets followed through the novel, though most of the action revolves around a privitization deal and John's pining for Emily.

So what we end up with is a description of a year or so of life in Budapest during the early 1990s from the point of view of 5 American/Canadian somewhat-friends. The time and place are interesting, and the book does an excellent job conveying what it was like to be there at that special time in history by people who frequently remarked at how special a time in history it was. The prose is decent, but not particularly artful and frequently long-winded. I found myself frequently skimming the text, especially as I grew closer to the end.

Phillips is clearly talented, but inexperienced. It is obvious that the story was made up as he went along, with the only goal of describing what it was like to be at that time and place. It could have used another draft to tighten up the plot, and editing to cut it down by 25%.

So here's my recommendation - if you want to experience life in Budapest in 1990, and don't mind feeling like an outsider and missing all the insider jokes and ironies, this is a very good introduction. Much better than reading a travel guide. As a novel, it's not bad, but not great, either.

waste of time.......2007-05-01

It took me a year to read this book and I am 50 pages shy of finishing it and still not understand why it's called Prague when the action is in Budapest. At times it was the description of the city (Budapest) that kept me turning the pages, especially that I visited Prague and Budapest long time ago and the book brought back nice memories. Other than this and occasional wonderful and witty phrases, the action gets boring, the characters got mixed up in my head (especially after pauses in reading), everything is so lax....

tedious and awful.......2007-01-31

i hated reading this book:

(1) the language is pretentiouly self conscious and awkward, in short it is poorly written.

(2)the characters are unidimensional caricatures and uninteresting.

(3)it really has no insights or anything interesting to say

do not waste your time or money

Tedious and self-indulgent.......2006-09-21

First I should say that this book makes a decent backdrop if you're spending some time in Budapest - the descriptions of the city and its people are sharp, witty and perhaps even accurate. Soon enough, you'll start recognizing not only the famous sights, but will start seeing the book's characters in the inhabitants.

Alas, altough the book gets off to a good start, and you develop a faint interest in its characters, it gets tedious, self-indulgent, and just boring. There's a wonderful page-turner of a history chapter in the middle, but it's all downhill from there. By the end, I lost interest in all of the characters, their endless rondezvous, contrived conversations, silly dealings... I lost my suspension in disbelief and just wanted the book to end. It should have ended about 100 pages sooner. But I persisted until the end, with little reward.

Arthur Phillips is clearly a talented writer, but this book seems somewhat immature, forced, and conceited. And I hope the editing is more aggressive next time around.

And really, I wanted to like the book. I really tried... But I can't really recommend it beyond the first half.

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