Publisher Gift (via NetGalley) | Prisoners of War: What Monuments to World War II Tell Us about Our History and Ourselves

 

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. (In this case, the publisher contacted me by email, and directed me to NetGalley if I was interested.)

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The importance of this book cannot be overstated. it is a timely look at our relationship with statues dedicated to history. One only has to look at the arguments made against removing confederate statues from public spaces to see the relevance. (Side note: pull all that bullshit down and stick it in a museum, with context, where it belongs. There are no heroes of the confederacy and not a single one of those men should be honored for their actions. They fought to keep slaves and no amount of supposed 'good' they ever did can make up for that fact. Fuck THAT bullshit narrative.)

Anyway.

Addressing this issue of accepting statues at face-value of being accurate representations of a moment in time in our history of war is done quite well within these pages. The author not only looks at how these monuments are written about, talked about, and viewed in the US, but looks at various monuments to the very same war and how they are viewed in countries around the world. In total he discusses 25 different monuments, from the US, to Italy, to Jerusalem, China, and many in between.

The photographs are stunning and for once I was glad to have received the file for my laptop only instead of my Kindle. Even though I hate sitting at my laptop to read, the photos alone were nearly enough to make it worth it. This truly is a book to have a physical copy of to peruse at your leisure. I don't feel it is a book meant to be read quickly or in just a couple of sittings. It will definitely give anyone pause who has visited these sites, and perhaps grapple with how one originally interpreted the monument, compared to its original and intended purpose.

One of the biggest take-aways from this book is the vast difference in how World War II is memorialized. Here in the US, our statues are to honor the heroes and our triumph over true and despicable evil. Yet around the world, monuments are most often dedicated to the victims - such as Italy's Shrine to the Fallen or The A Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. I think this again confirms the fact that the US often equates winning and patriotism - though it must also be remembered that aside from Pearl Harbor, World War II was not fought here. The monuments to the victims and the fallen are most often literally on the site of the atrocities they represent.

Lowe provides much context for the various events being commemorated by each statue. The research is thorough and he writes in an engaging way. He certainly gives the reader a lot to think about - both regarding those he is writing about, and the specific issue in the US regarding confederate monuments still standing.

When we come upon these monuments, either because we've specifically taken a trip to see them or we stumble upon them by accident, we must not stop asking ourselves to look beyond the scenery as it being another pretty picture for photo ops. We have to consider the original intended purpose of the statue, what aspect of history is being told, and whether or not it is actually accurate in its depiction.

Highly recommended.

Review Bomb: Welcome to Jurassic Park

Dinosaurs are pretty much the coolest and I am forever glad this is one interest that I never grew out of. I have fond memories of burying rocks in the sandbox, then using kitchen utensils to 'dig them up'. Apparently grill brushes are not to be used in the sandbox, who knew?

 ⭐⭐

The focus of this text moves beyond just the fossilized bones that we have left. It discusses in-depth the rare mummified dinosaurs found in just a few locations around the world. Should be amazingly interesting, right?

Yes, except it's not.

While it is very clear that the author is passionate about his field of study, perhaps the specific find he chose to highlight, the project as a whole, should have been completed before the book was actually published. We get tons of background and historical and technical information, but in the end we don't get to find out what was in the big body block because the CT scans were not finished by the time of publication. The ending is super anti-climactic and it seems silly to write a book about a project that's not even completed yet.

Manning went into detail about previous finds related to soft tissue, which ended up being rather helpful given that his own work was not yet complete. At the time I was reading, I thought it was out of place to discuss other finds so thoroughly, but it made sense once I had finished the book with no conclusion to his own.

Even so, this was a tedious read on more than one occasion and for all the effort it took for me to finish reading the book, it would have been nice to know what the CT scan showed. I definitely won't be buying his updated version of the text, once that scan is complete; it will definitely be one from the library again.

 ⭐⭐⭐

I wish I had gobs of money to go gallivanting all over the world, stealing fossils from other countries.

Oh, wait, no I don't, because that is shady as hell and these fossils need to be in the care of scientists to study and preserve them.

I am not against the idea of amateur paleontologists - it is indeed how some of the greatest fossil finds have been discovered. But to steal them from the countries in which they were discovered, and then sell them at auction to the highest bidder, who will then hide them away in their private collection just feels all kinds of wrong to me - mostly because it is wrong. If we now acknowledge that items looted from the Middle East (especially Egypt!) up until not that long ago (and let's be honest, it is STILL happening) should be returned to the country of their origin, why should dinosaur fossils be any different. The argument is made that the fossils will be seen by more people, or be better cared-for, if placed in museums in the West, but that's not fair.

Anyway, this book is about an amateur paleontologist who developed a passion for the field at a young age. He unearthed quite the find in Mongolia, sold it at auction, and it was then displayed in Manhattan. The T. bataar was the find of a lifetime for Prokopi and I do admire the effort and energy he put into finding, securing, preparing, and displaying his finds. But the problem remains that they were not his to do so with. Prokopi is not a terribly likable figure, so I do not have much sympathy for him. I realize this has a major impact on his life, what with the jail time and all, and the strain it put on his family, but he chose to take this hugely important find, purposely mislabeled the crates to return home, and engaged in illegal activity in doing so.

I was kind of surprised by how boring the whole trial came across as. Maybe it really was that boring, as the author does a great job maintaining pacing within the rest of the text. I would have liked more from the trial, transcripts and such, all the arguments for and against, but it was all so matter-of-fact and dry. Perhaps it is because I personally am so passionate about this that I expected more. And as always, I would much rather things be accurate than sensational just for the sake of being sensational.

I have two main issues with the book. First, the book is the heavily detailed account of the history of Mongolia. This served no purpose to move the story along, and only what pertained to the collection of fossils should have been included. It felt like extra padding added to a story that did not need anything of the kind. But, given the fact that the book looks deceptively long when you hold the physical copy in your hands, I see why that information was included. Half the book is actually research. The author has tons heaps and heaps of it, and knows the story well. Even so, the "extra stuff" was distracting from an otherwise engaging text.

Secondly, um, WHERE ARE THE PHOTOGRAPHS??

Overall it was a mostly interesting read, but one I would suggest getting from the library.

 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

A giant book crammed with giant facts about giant dinosaurs. I'm pretty sure this might actually be a text book, because there was so much info, and such tiny print, I can't imagine too many people reading this for fun, unless they're obsessed with dinosaurs. Even I struggled with it a lot, because there was just SO MUCH. Tons of photos, timelines, sidebars, anything and everything. Almost too much.

If you are inclined to pick this one up, only a physical copy will due. There is no way it will translate well to an e-reader.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Where may I place my order for a chickenosaurus, please and thank you?

While the text meanders here and there, I am inclined to follow Horner's meanderings wherever they may lead in regards to this subject.

Dinosaurs never went extinct, and this is not a new concept. This was being presented at least as far back as Jurassic Park (Horner was a consultant on the film), where my knowledge of dinosaurs really began to form. In addition, if you are a regular reader of the blog you might recall my post from a month ago when Dr Lindsay Zanno visited The Durham and gave several lectures on tyrannosaurs and discussed this topic. Eleanor is endlessly delighted by this fact - what six year old wouldn't be? - and tells anyone and everyone that dinosaurs still exist, even if they look a little different now.

In a nutshell, Horner lays the groundwork for what would be necessary to create a dinosaur today, basically reverse-engineering one using chicken embryos. He explains how this could be done by manipulating the genetic code of a chicken (one at a time. No worries, were they to reproduce, they would only create another chicken) and unsuppressing, for lack of a better word, the dinosaur genes that still exist within the chicken's DNA. This would, in theory, produce chickens, but chickens that have teeth, front claws instead of wings, and tails.

Sadly, Horner does not believe this would happen in his lifetime, given the insane amounts of time and money such a project would take. I am only 36, so perhaps in my lifetime? I hope so, because I really want a chickenosaurus.

Marco Polo

Rating: 3 Stars

My main issue that stopped me from rating this book any higher was the appearance that the author was not able to look at Marco Polo's original manuscript for himself and glean information from there. Instead, there are three books listed as sources, and they are all works by writers with the last 60 years or so. It is really important that we writers go back to the original source material as often as possible, otherwise we would all be writing the same book over and over, just stealing from each other and rewording things.

That is really the only concern I had with this one. The text is not long, but it must be remembered that Polo was a merchant, not a writer himself. As such, he gives almost no personal information or private thoughts in any of his work, so we have no idea what he thought of the grand spectacles he witnessed in all his time at the court of Kublai Khan. The book was concise and clear, and does address the doubt cast by Polo's supposed exaggerations of things that he recorded as he witnessed.

I knew very little about Marco Polo prior to this, just that he traveled to China as a young man and stayed for roughly three decades. I knew of Kublai Khan, but only that he was the emperor at the time. I actually found quite a bit of new information here about China at that time, when it was part of the Mongolian Empire. Because of his grandfather, Genghis Khan, I kind of assumed he was cut from the same cloth, a ruthless warrior. While that aspect is true, Kublai Khan also comes across as an open-minded, accepting ruler who wanted to know everything there was to know about the world, and one who allowed people within his borders to worship their gods as they saw, with no interference from the government, and no insistence on only one religion being allowed.

Overall, I probably learned more about the period as a whole, specifically daily life in Venice, and China under the Mongol rulers, but that is actually kind of what I expected. So little is really known about Marco Polo's life that there are some who questioned whether or not he even existed, while others strongly try to refute the fantastical claims Polo wrote in his travel journal. But...what if he wasn't exaggerating? Why couldn't those numbers have been accurate? Or, at least fairly close to the actual numbers he gave? It's obvious that while most of Europe plummeted into at least some decline with the fall of the Roman Empire (let's stop calling it the Dark Ages though, okay? Plenty was still happening), the far East experienced no such turmoil. There was no comparison at that point between China and much of Europe, as the former was far richer and far more advanced (paper money, anyone?), simply because Western Europe had more catching-up to do. Even into the 1200s/1300s in Venice, where Polo was from, life was not easy. "Life in Venice could be very hard, especially for women, the poor, and anyone who was out of favor with the authorities. Slavery was common, and master frequently abused their female slaves. Women were second-class citizens, and social customs underscored their status" (7%).

I really appreciated the specific look at merchants and how they conducted business. Typically I am reading about the royal families of the period, so I have little background knowledge of how various merchants carried on their business, so I found that knowledge helpful. The author looks at Venetian merchants specifically, and notes that, "Of necessity, the merchants had to deal with a variety of currencies...The Polos and their friends often preferred to convert coins into pearls, rubies, and other gems, but the Venetians also developed the most advanced banking system in the Western Europe, along with sophisticated contracts, a precise accounting system, and even insurance" (9%).

We finally meet a couple of the Polos around 12%. I learned that it was actually Marco's father and uncle who traveled to China first and spent several years with Kublai Khan. They were gone so long that within that time, young Marco's mother died and he was sent off to live with an aunt. Though we know almost nothing about his childhood, that would not be an easy situation for any child - especially not knowing if your father was still alive or not, given the amount of time he had been gone. This is the part that weighs down any biography of an important historical figure whom we know almost nothing about. All any author can do in these cases is explain what would have been customary for a person of that rank, in that time, and be done with it. That is exactly what the author does here. "Little is known of his childhood. Because the average Venetian youth barely spent any time in school, Marco probably wandered about the city, and he cam to know it as only a curious boy could" (13%).

By the time Marco's father and uncle returned, Marco was a young man of about 17. One could imagine the shock of family members finally coming home, after fifteen long years away. If possible, even less is known about the brothers than of Marco. "All that is know of their long, arduous journey eastward comes from the few details that Marco Polo included in the introduction to the story of his own later travels. But it is certain that the mountains, deserts, rivers, and gorges that they crossed still remain among the most rugged and perilous in the world" (20%). I also found it really interesting that author's perspective on Marco's fame vs that of his father and uncle. "Marco's father and uncle actually deserve much of the fame that Marco received over the years. After all, it was the two elder Polos who made the first great trek to Kublai Khan's court; Marco went with them on their second journey. But it was his account of their years in the Far East that dazzled the world, and it is his name that endures" (12%).

There are so many interesting quotes I want to share, but I am a bit more cautious in doing so for the rest that I highlighted, simply because again, the author only cites three sources for material for his own book. I have not read any of the three yet listed there, though two have been on my TBR for a while. In addition, the writing is not always great, so while I understand the gist of what the author was conveying, it does sometimes come across as very amateurish. And that might not even be the right word, because I know nothing about this author, aside from the fact he wrote this book.

I appreciate the factual information the author conveys; how China flourished during the Tang dynasty, achieving "new heights in education and the arts and also in industry, commerce, and invention" (22%). I learned that the subsequent Song dynasty saw further achievements, and within those years. "They invented firearms, built libraries, and developed architecture into an art" (22%). If anything, the book also showed me just how little I recall about Asia in this time period, and has piqued my interest enough to find further reading material on that subject. I also found the idea of Kublai Khan as a generous benefactor rather fascinating. I feel like we learn about the Mongols as this terrifying marauding tribe of warriors (which they were), but Kublai Khan went beyond that and wanted prosperity for the lands he controlled, not just himself. We find out quite a bit about the grandson of the fierce Genghis Khan, and I am now anxious to read some of the books on my TBR of the Mongols and Genghis in particular. "Kublai ascended the throne only thirty-three years after the death of Genghis Khan, but during those years there was a profound change in the character of the Mongol rulers. Where the first great Khan had been a barbaric nomad as well as a ruthless conqueror, the new emperor was a highly civilized man who would develop into a shrewd ruler who loved refinement, elegance, and luxury...Kublai Khan also understood that his most potent weapon was not armed conquest but commerce with the outside world. The Mongols had created a new world order; to thrive in it, they needed to exchange goods, technology, and knowledge with the Arabs, Europeans, and Persians. Thus, Kublai enforced his Pax Mongolica along the Silk Road and welcomed not only the goods but the ideas and creeds of Buddhist monks, Christian missionaries, and Arab, Genoese, Jewish, and Venetian merchants who trudged along it" (53%).

The younger Polo recorded so much in his journal, but almost nothing of what he thought of his time so far from home. He wrote of the goings-on at Kublai Khan's court, traveling freely around the empire once he had earned the emperor's trust. Without those opportunities, the curtain between the East and West might have hung far longer. Something Polo completely overlooked, the author points out, is the idea of print. He finds it baffling that while Polo marveled at the paper currency used within the empire, the least interesting aspect of said currency was the fact that it was printed. "The use of this money enchanted Marco so much that he didn't recognize the overwhelming importance of printing itself" (60%). I personally think that is kind of a stretch to say he did not recognize it. Perhaps it was still inconceivable in the West to even think of such a thing. Or perhaps Polo did think of quite a bit, but again chose not to write about his own personal thoughts on it.

Eventually their time in China would come to an end; Marco, his father, and uncle would return home. As one might expect after seventeen years, Kublai Khan did not approve of this idea and it took a long time for the Polos to convince him that it was time for them to go.Kublai Khan had lived a long, full life, and was entering his last years. The younger Polo would remember their benefactor kindly, and do wonders for rehabilitating the rulers of the Mongol empire. "According to Marco, Kublai was a kindhearted ruler, less concerned with principles than with the overall good of the empire. When storms, blights, or locusts ruined farmers' crops, he excused victims from paying taxes and game them grain for sowing as well as for food to keep them healthy and productive. To provide for periods of scarcity, he stored huge quantities of grain in times of plenty. When a family had bad luck, he would insist that the family receive as much food and clothing that it had the year before. He made certain that homeless children received care and education. He also established many hospitals" (62%). Now, we must remember of course that Polo was a quest in the khan's court, so it is no surprise that he has such wonderful things to say about the emperor. On the other hand, Polo did not seek someone to write of his journey until he had been back in Venice some years, and was captured during a battle between Venice and Genoa. It's not as though he wrote his memoir while still at the grand and glittering court that so fascinated him for years. It is hard to know what is fact and what is embellishment, and further reading will be necessary to sift that out.

When Polo returned to Venice, he was 41 years old. He was married at some point in the ensuing years and his wife gave birth to three daughters. Aside from his capture during the war, little else is known about the man who pulled back that curtain between East and West. We know he was modestly successful in his trade, and died in January of 1324. In that time since returning from China, Polo often found himself on the receiving end of ridicule, for what people perceived as grossly exaggerated sites that he recorded. Fellow Venetians were quite skeptical of Polo's reports and it is reported that on his death bed his priest asked Polo if he wanted to take back some of his "far-fetched tales" from his travels. Polo's response is quite respectable, knowing his claims were often doubted (92%):

"I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed."

Extra Special Treasure!

Pretty much any time my pastor mentions ancient references to Jesus from other cultures around the world, I am at rapt attention. Last week he mentioned the Chinese references to the skies darkening during the Crucifixion. I asked if he had any texts about it, and he told me about this one, which is no easy book to find. Not only did he let me look at the book, he let me borrow it - complete with the page already marked as to where the references are. I am terrified I am going to somehow lose it or damage it, and I feel like I should probably wear gloves so the oils on my skin do not hurt it in any way. It's THAT special. I am really loving it, seeing the translations from Chinese to English, and the commentary. I highly recommend it to anyone who, like me, really enjoys seeking out non-Biblical sources on Jesus. Finding Him in other ancient texts is such a cool thing.

Happy Reading!

Sarah