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A review by justabean_reads
Culloden And The '45 by Jeremy Black
informative
slow-paced
1.0
This very short book took me a month to read, mostly because I kept putting it down and then being utterly unable to summon the least bit of interest in picking it back up again, and this is from someone who genuinely does want to learn about this period of history. Why did I finish it? you ask. Spite! Spite is the answer.
I'm not sure how Black does it, but he manages to be the least engaging writer I've ever read. He never gives any sketch of the important people involved, or much in the way of context as to way one thing or another matters and is being mentioned. It's names and dates and who invaded whom. He's also very focused on the English and the Hanoverian/Whig government, which is an interesting choice in a book about the Jacobites. I suspect this is because he normally writes about English/Hanoverian history, and has a better command of those sources.
Also, the book is illustrated, and the choice of pictures was probably based more on what the publisher could get the rights to, rather than what's actually relevant to the story. Why is there a full-page portrait of Horace Walpole? He's at the very most a bit player. There's a lot of "this is Charles Edward's special napkin rings given to him in Carlisle" which just isn't that relevant, however the abundance of pictures did mean there was less text to slog through, for which I am grateful. There were a lot of pictures of original documents, at a resolution so low you couldn't possibly read them. Oh, and for some reason the majority of the maps were upside down, with north at the bottom, and south at the top. Choices were made.
There were some interesting details on the international context, as well as some cool quotes from primary documents (entirely by English sources), and a lot of entertainingly defensive commentary about how the Jacobites could totally have won, so many times even, save for a large amount of rotten luck. But oh my God. Read any other book about the Jacobite rebellions.
One good point: It's the ideal size to be a small lap desk if one is filling out holiday cards.
I'm not sure how Black does it, but he manages to be the least engaging writer I've ever read. He never gives any sketch of the important people involved, or much in the way of context as to way one thing or another matters and is being mentioned. It's names and dates and who invaded whom. He's also very focused on the English and the Hanoverian/Whig government, which is an interesting choice in a book about the Jacobites. I suspect this is because he normally writes about English/Hanoverian history, and has a better command of those sources.
Also, the book is illustrated, and the choice of pictures was probably based more on what the publisher could get the rights to, rather than what's actually relevant to the story. Why is there a full-page portrait of Horace Walpole? He's at the very most a bit player. There's a lot of "this is Charles Edward's special napkin rings given to him in Carlisle" which just isn't that relevant, however the abundance of pictures did mean there was less text to slog through, for which I am grateful. There were a lot of pictures of original documents, at a resolution so low you couldn't possibly read them. Oh, and for some reason the majority of the maps were upside down, with north at the bottom, and south at the top. Choices were made.
There were some interesting details on the international context, as well as some cool quotes from primary documents (entirely by English sources), and a lot of entertainingly defensive commentary about how the Jacobites could totally have won, so many times even, save for a large amount of rotten luck. But oh my God. Read any other book about the Jacobite rebellions.
One good point: It's the ideal size to be a small lap desk if one is filling out holiday cards.