Noel Mostert

Good piece of journalism about the super tankers that now move most of the world's fuel supply. The prose is surprisingly clear and active.

I find myself fascinated by naval history and this one definitely scratched an itch that introduced me to a section of history I knew almost nothing about, spending probably too much time on WW2 Naval history. This book's whole focus is on the dichotomy between land and sea during the Napoleonic Wars, personified by Napoleon and Nelson. If you're looking for a blow by blow of every naval engagement of the war, this will do it. However... it focuses a bit *too* much on Napoleon and Nelson, show more the author clearly believes in the Great Man theory of history. Every section is about how Nelson and Napoleon reacted, or are supposed to reacted, to each other.

It's a good read, but probably not a definitive work on the matter show less

A fascinating account of a family that produced two geniuses in the artistic and literary world; Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti. Children of an Italian political refugee, they lived a bohemian lifestyle that included many intriguing and unusual episodes. Stanley Weintraub tells the story of these lives with style and wit yielding an enjoyable and readable biography of several unusual Victorian lives.

A very detailed account of the period between the 1790's and the 1860's. It deals with life in the eastern part of the Cape province, the tension between the British administration and the boers, and then between the british settlers, the missionairies and the xhosa peoples.Balancing all these entities, and sparing some space for the khoikhoi people as well, leads to a very long book. Mr. Mostert, who is a South African, has handled all of these tasks quite well. The prose is of a high show more quality and the pacing is good. I can't think of a better pair of books to examine the problems of the country than this book and Thomas Pakenham on the later Boer War. "Frontiers" is worthy of inclusion of every students' library. show less