A New World Begins -- Jeremy Popkin [Book Review]

[@revenantreads]

Great review!

[@NicholasOfAutrecourt]

I love that you decided to read something for Historathon, Mike! Another good book on the French Revolution (although its length might be daunting at nearly 1,000 pages) is Simon Schama's "Citizens". I haven't read the Popkin so can't really do a comparative analysis of how good they are at spinning an historical narrative, but Schama tends to be a solid, popular historian. It gets bandied about as a good entry-level book on the subject, despite its size.

[@mikegseclecticreads]

Thanks John! It was great to have Historathon as extra encouragement. Hopefully it won't be the last history book I finish this year ... I suspect I'll manage one or even a few more though. I saw someone mentioned "Citizens" on the Discord, so I noted that as one to maybe read eventually. As daunting as these 1,000-page history tomes can be, sometimes by including more context and pacing things slowly, they actually read faster for me than a shorter, densely packed work.

[@stardustmemory000083]

Very droll, but Mike Duncan's enormous season of the Revolutions podcast devoted to the "big" French revolution was enormously educational. Left me with the opinion that Zhou Enlai's "too early to say" remark was correct, even if he was responding to a question about the 1968 protests. His biography of Lafayette held up to the hype. Good on you for owning your blind spots, too. The gotcha nature of social media and rapid response journalism makes it hard for people to admit unfamiliarity with topics, which just creates a culture of surface level cliches and incuriosity.

[@AJxxxxxxxx]

I recommend Dr Bob Monroe’s book if your into spirituality