James Reston, Jr.

Defenders of the Faith is a thrilling popular history, focusing on the clash of the two great empires of the 16th century, the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire. For all its "clash of civilizations" overtones, the encounter was more of an up-jumped border skirmish at Vienna. Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, faced problems in his rear in the form of the Protestant Reformation, King Francis I of France, and a bleeding ulcer of a war in Italy. Suleyman the Magnificent was on the show more offensive, but despite the largest and most organized army in the world at the time, he lacked the technology to reliably overcome fortified strongpoints, and the logistics to sustain an army in the field in the European winter.

Reston has a talent for bringing the pageantry of the era to life. This was a period of outsized personalities and lavish gestures. The Great Man approach is a little outmodeled, but in an era when a single man could shift armies, and trials of combat between heads of state were proposed, though never finished, it's appropriate. A great detailed look at a period that tends to get subsumed in European history in general. show less

Galileo proved that the Earth is not the center of the universe. The Catholic Church called this fake news and didn't correct its error until 1992. In Galileo: A Life, Reston crafts a gripping story following Galileo's scientific discoveries, his growing confidence in his heliocentric views, and the inevitable conflict with the Church. The book reads almost like a historical thriller and doesn't get too bogged down in scientific detail, but I did find myself wishing for more detail about his show more family. show less

While I have to agree with some other reviewers who found Reston's account of his daughter's struggle against some pretty awful circumstances to be curiously bloodless at times, it is nevertheless a powerful story, well-told, of a family's fight for their beloved little girl. Reston's struggle against a sometimes incompetent medical world was particularly vivid to me, particularly in how, at every turn, his family was faced with unwavering "expert" diagnostic conclusions, many of which were show more ultimately wrong and occasionally to the extreme detriment of his daughter. This is quite simply a very important book, and one that I'm glad I finally got around to reading.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I read this book specifically because I was curious as to how Reston's narrative would compare to my own in my book, published about two years later. As a result, I suspect that came into this book predisposed to like it.) show less

Fascinating history of 15th century Spain and Portugal with a specific focus on the Spanish Inquisition. Especially interesting for showing how tightly interwoven the Inquistion was with European exploration and religion. Basically, the Spanish King and Queen financed their explorations by confiscating property from those trapped in the web of the Inquisition--many of whom were Jewish. At the same time, exploration was sold in part on the theory that it would open up new souls to be saved. show more Also, interesting for reminding us that while talk of an Islamic Caliphate seems crazy today, talk of a Christian Crusade was no less crazy in the 1400s. show less