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Amazingly informative book

Reviewed: 03-20-24

This book does a great job balancing the reality of human pollution and climate change with the facts and realities of the planets own natural systems to cope with such changes. We need more Michael Schellenbergs in the world. That said, the performer of this book was very dry. Listen on 1.25 to 1.3x speed for it to sound half normal.

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One of the best books I've ever read

Reviewed: 02-01-24

A must read for any leader or aspiring leader in any situation, industry or focus.

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Another Dan Jones Classic

Reviewed: 08-19-23

A well composed and paced breakdown of the history of the war of the roses from the perspective of the kings, Queen's and scheming nobles that perpetuated the crisis.

Dan Jones has a way of making early English history far more interesting than it would otherwise be perceived by a kid who grew up in the commonwealth and considered the stories boring and played out when compared to the wild stories from the continent.

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This book is great

Reviewed: 07-17-23

I got this on sale and wasn't particularly excited to listen to it.

However, I was pleasantly surprised. A much more interesting and entertaining topic than I had thought.

Learned a bit and some of the people discussed overlapped with recent books I've read which was an added bonus.

Certainly a fun book and something both history and trucrime folks can get into.

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More of an academic journal than a book.

Reviewed: 07-05-23

In terms of information the book is great. I always wanted to know a little more about this kingdom and I'm glad to have listened to this title.

That said, the information is presented in the same style as a 1990s history professor would teach a class. Names, dates, event, next item. It's not very interesting nor does it hold your attention for any length of time. A Dan Carlin Hardcore History mega episode this is not.

If you're just looking for information on Pontus, I give it a recommendation for sure. If you're into books by Dan Jones or history podcasts etc, this book likely isn't for you.

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2 people found this helpful

About vikings or modern gender Ideology?

Reviewed: 06-21-23

Honestly was a little disappointed in the book. The author is clearly knowledgeable and passionate about this topic - and there is much of good substance to be learned reading his book.

However, the author complains about modern cultures appropriating the vikings to fit their own modern narratives... And then goes on to impose his own interpretations of modern gender Ideology theory on the vikings for two whole chapters. This is despite his own admission that we can say with certainty that homosexuality was generally looked down on in these cultures, even to the point of death, and that modern ideas of gender etc would not only have been completely alien and incomprehensible to these people, but likely would have put you at the end of a sword over it. He does exactly what he criticized. There was no need for it in the book. It's all wild speculation without even a shred of substantiation, and it massively distracts from the focus of the book.

Overall this book is a strong meh. I was not excited to read it and generally just pushed through to complete it.

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Important Rejection of Modern Moral Outrage

Reviewed: 05-24-23

This book does a great job of rejecting the modern moral outrage lens that is used to critique history, alter our perception of it, and thereby break down and destroy the foundations of modern democratic and social norms.

Nigel does a great job of empirically exposing the lies about history spread by the woke social and academic activists and mainstream media. He goes through various assertions one by one and corrects the record of the history of the British Empire.

That said, as a Caucasian of British-European descent myself, I do find at times that Nigel is trying too hard to excuse the abuses of Empire in his effort to correct the modern narrative. I don't think we need to completely exonerate the British from doing what any Empire in the past has done, in order to celebrate it today. We know that Empires can use force, exploitation and economic might to get it's way. We don't need to come up with a myriad of excuses for these situations in my opinion. Might does in many ways make might, and I think in other chapters Nigel comes closer to making this argument effectively. We can and do celebrate the British Empire, like any other, for both it's great contributions to modern society - as well as it's exploits of military and economic mastery that it used so effectively to conquer the world. Those who try to tear the history of the British Empire apart are often want to clarify how their vision of the world in the absence of this power would have been better or less conflict ridden than the Pax Britannia.

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Fascinating Inquiry into Human Conciousness

Reviewed: 05-24-23

This book was really interesting.

I think Hancock is a philosopher more than he's an academic. His reputation is tarnished because academics do not like his questions, the questions they often do not have answers for.

I think his character and supposed failings are often inflated by those who wear their ego on the sleeves of their credentials.
We live in a time where the supposed truth tellers - the people meant to investigate and pass only the results of tested theories - are instead bought, sold or openly dishonest purely on ideological lines. Science is now infected with an Ideology which overrules its main tenants.

In a time when science no longer strives to provide answers to life's mysteries, and instead seeks to reaffirm its preconceived notions... I think philosophers like Hancock become very important again. They stimulate our minds and ask the questions that help us find our way back to the path of investigation.

All that said, I have yet to hear Hancock claim that he is right - his thesis is simply that the accepted narrative is wrong. In this... I think he is likely more correct than his critics.

I think this book - which is an update to his previous work - only shows this plainly. His argument on altered states and human pre-history are not even his arguments alone - and they stand the test of time in comparison to the academics who challenge him on this topic. It's intriguing and I think worthy of further exploration.

Towards the end of this book he definitely raises some more radical questions about the nature of life itself - they could leave a bad taste in the mouth of any material literalist - but the questions he asks have not been answered by science today... So what's the harm in asking?

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Latin American Das Capital

Reviewed: 05-24-23

This book was really interesting to listen to as it was written in 1971, and provides a very communist leaning analysis of the history of Latin America and it's woes.

The author raises plenty of completely valid points about the cruelty and exploitation of Latin America by Capitalist World Empires over history, while at the same time making plenty of communist idealistic statements about how the author thinks Latin America may be able to improve - that in hindsight are clearly made in the absence of knowledge about communisms own failures.

I certainly did learn a lot and you would be hard pressed not to feel some kind of sympathy for many Latin American countries, especially Paraguay, Bolivia or Peru. That said, with hindsight we cannot support the authors contention that more socialized communist societies would thrive better in the long term, as these systems are as susceptible to corruption and exploitation of the workers as the capitalist systems they were striving to replace.

This book really focuses on resource exploitation and is a little light on the wider history of Latin America that I was hoping to get from listening.

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Should be required reading for students

Reviewed: 05-24-23

This book offers compelling theories that seem well thought out and based on clear historical lines.

I think the authors probably over committed to their concept of prophets, heroes, nomads etc - but that particular point aside I believe they have accurately identified some of the human nature behind the concept of hard times create hard men, hard men create soft times, soft times create soft men, soft men create hard times. This book breaks that cliché down and provides a window into the actual mechanism of human nature that allows this cycle to repeat over and over generationally.

This book should really be required reading for students as it helps give a longer term perception to our place in society in the past, present and future.

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