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Title: A Brief History of Afghanistan (Brief History)
ISBN: 0816063354
Author:
Roger E. Riendeau
Publicate Date: 2007-06-22
Publish: 2007-06-22
List Price: $45.00
Average Customer Rating: 2.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $2.49
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $36.00
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Boring!
I agree with "Painful." I am so disappointed in this book. Facts, figures, and no life. But it wasn't a total loss; I learned about the Metis, a group of people descended from Indians and French trappers who forged a unique culture with French and Aboringinal elements. With their leader, Louis Riel, they rebelled against the Canadian government in the 1880s and set up their own (short-lived) independent country!
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2: Painful
My husband is Canadian and since we have discussed moving there to live in the near future, I decided I should do at least a little preliminary research on Canadian history. Where better to start than with a book entitled, "A Brief History of Canada," right? Ooooh noooo! For the person only interested in the barest facts, and those mostly involving consitutional history, this is the book for you. It's very encyclopedic and heavily focused on how the political structure of Canada got to where it is today. Not the meat and blood and bones of it all, not the blood, sweat, and tears; just the dull legality and "who's who" of it all. If you want to know that the maritime provinces hang together in self defense and that the French and English cultures blend about as well as vinegar and oil, you've got it in Mr. Riendeau's book. Personally I find that aspect of modern history stultifying. Although I'm aware that Canadian history does without a Revolution or a Civil War, I can't believe there is no human drama involved. The book is painfully dull and emotionally sterile.
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3: O CANADA! (To be sung to non-Canadians only.)
Suppose you had to write an entire history of America in fewer than three hundred pages, including maps and photos, and aimed at readers who know nothing about it. Where would you start??@The founding of Jamestown? The centuries before that? How many pages would you devote to the Civil War and its causes? To the changes in everyday life?@brought about by the railroads? To the Depression? What would you leave out? What very complex and controversial issues like the Civil Rights Movement would you have to simply gloss over? Not easy, huh? Yet, this is exactly the task that Riendeau sets out to accomplish for the history of Canada. And for the most part he succeeds!Riendeau begins his tale with a geographic survey of the land and shows that, logically speaking, the different parts that make up present-day Canada could never have joined together to form a country in the first place. Then he proceeds to tell us how that happened anyway. And while he is relating such events as the struggle between the French and British Empires for control of the land, confederation of the provinces, etc., he also gives us accounts of the War of 1812 as seen from Canadian eyes, and the influences of the American Civil War on the framing of Canada?fs own Confederation. Now look, I?fm an American who has earned a B.A. in Modern World History, has traveled extensively to many other countries (though not Canada), and spends several hours a day reading newspapers. Before I read this book, I was sure I already knew Canada. Riendeau quickly annihilated that conceit with a fascinating barrage of facts, events, and social trends I?fd never heard of right down to the very humbling tidbit that Mary Pickford -- Hollywood?fs top star of the early silent movie era?@and proudly known nationwide as ?gAMERICA?fs Sweetheart?h -- was in reality a Canadian! Okay, so this book is strictly Canadian History 101 to be laughed at by Canadians. But if all you've taken so far is Canadian History 000 like me, then this book forms a delightful introduction to the subject. And now Riendeau has got me eager to sign up for Canadian History 102. Not bad for so short and relatively easy a read!
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4: History???-----A doctoring so shameless, it's beneath that
Honestly, I tried to look at the more redeeming qualities of it, like the perversely detailed history of canada???s fur trade, the Bay company and the 1900???s section, but I found a plethora of errors on so many different levels. In actuality, a colleague of mine, a history professor no less, and I got together to discuss the various parts of the book. We hold intellectual debating sessions at times; it???s sort of an acquired taste. Nevertheless, we got to talking, and we found some unforgivably glaring holes in the reasoning.
First, it contests that Americans ???know embarrassingly little??? about Canada. Truthfully, canada???s history is severely uneventful, and, even more importantly, for modern day applications (from the industrial age forward), according to the book itself, Canada is actually the one who has contributed embarrassingly little in terms of advancements, inventions and in economic and infrastructural power. You know, all just the most basic factors that establish the worth, reputation and honor of a land. Certainly, this is displayed in more concise works by other Canadian authors, like Ferguson, where in one of his books he writes that if you ask people of other greater nations what makes their country great, that they would then cite historical contributions and such???yet if you would ask a rural Canadian the same question, they would then ragingly point to another useless UN survey as the false and quaint proof.
Another offensive misrepresentation of mythic proportions is the cover-up that Canada???s history is less bloody. From the massacres of countless Indian people, to british and French wars, this direct lie does nothing but conspire with canadians??? bloodthirsty and needy wish to view themselves as ???less violent??? than the states. If you ask me this hurts the credibility from a book that claims to write a ???history of Canada???, by straightforwardly oppressing more hypocritical myths as the text of this book.
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5: ...So...(WARNING:incoming, relevant joke)....eeehhh?????????
This book is rotted with the most neglectful inattentiveness to detail and looseness, with respect to its different subjects it discusses. That said, the way the author exclusively manipulates the way one should interpret this book is utterly one-sided, as Rog Riendeu is obsessed with single-mindedly and forcibly promoting canada's history as "we're better than USA" (recently witnessed at excessively glaring levels due to the anti-war protests in canada), something typically NOT unexpected from canucks, instead of just level-headedly focusing on cut-and-dry history. If this "book" was written with the angrily focused goal of trying to establish that canada's history is as noteworthy as other, more esteemed countries--like Germany, Poland, Brazil, even the Ivory Coast--then Rindeau has failed miserably. The impression left with the reader is one of pure boredom at events that, for candian standards must appear to be impressive already, are simply the fur trade, canada's pacifist surrender to the english as what avoided a bloody war in that country and the continuing threat of complete american dominance--in the form of canada's "culture" being 90% americanized already. Don't need this valueless attempt at writing to spell out the obvious to me, as nor do you. Another joke is the wildly incoherent tangent that Riendau strays to, which is desperately bragging that canada's cessation from england was peaceful--when canada still enjoys inferior Commonwealth status from england, defeating any pretense of the such. If this is sold to us as "enlightening americans", by the abusively confident author, it is subterfuge, and if one is really interested in canucky history, then just follow current events, OR, BETTER YET, crack open a canadian history book to replace this imitative ersatz of what information is!!!! Thank You
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