Samuel

No I don't think so. I learned of him through Graham Hancock's books and also through Coast to Coast AM on the radio at night.

No I don't think so. Too many of his conclusions have been questioned and overturned about specific items of proof in archaeology for his claims of ET contact in the past. Von Daniken was a visionary in his time but too many problems with him including convictions for fraud and some prison time.

Yes narration was fine

NO. Other than read some more modern books on this subject.

Framing device was stolen from Anne Rice's vampire tales. I will say that it is a bit better than his Jane Austen parody about Zombies. It's just a trend and would've been an exciting idea. It's just a by-the-numbers bio of Lincoln but with Vamps thrown in

No more Seth Graham Smith

Sure

Lincoln

very good narration gave meaning to the words

yes as Nathaniel Philbrick is one of my favorite history authors writing style is superb. This topic is probably his least known and that simply shouldn't be given the enormous contributions of the US Ex Ex.

Exploration of Antarctica

I had read the printed version of the book when it was new so this was a really good comparison for me. the audiobook was tougher to follow but that's usually true as compared to having the pages in your hand.

I would've thought that this book would've been written on a far larger scale. For example, I wanted a lot more about the prehistoric settlement of this most important island chain in Polynesia, which was the best environment for human settlement and where Polynesian cultures reached their zenith. Why was that? what were the ecological forces that made that happen? at the other end of the spectrum, Siler failed to place the takeover of Hawaii within the larger context of American imperialism. A reading of her book just makes the royals who guided Hawaii through the viper's nest of relations with the Great Powers look self-centered and thick. And this was at a time when absolute monarchy, although on the wane, still guided some of the largest empires in the world (Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary to name a few, with Britain in the constitutional monarchy camp). Why was the acquisition of Hawaii so important to the US, if not at the time then throughout the coming century? For me, all these very worthwhile questions were unexplored by the author to any great degree. Again Very Disappointing.

Reuniting with the gruff overeducated Morse and his long-suffering, always paying for drinks assistant Lewis was like greeting old friends.

Morse's "love affair" with a young punk prostitute.

he is spot-on

NA

NA

Yes. I also saw the PBS special. Ferguson is good at painting with broad strokes and brings western civilization back to the fore after two decades of cultural relativism and "world history" replacing western civ courses on most university curriculums. per Ferguson the West has been a victim of its own success. If other cultures are so superior to Western, then why did they not come to dominate. The answers are revealing and today these other cultures are literally racing to Westernize.

the descriptions of Cheng He's imperial treasure fleet in the 14th century, more than 100 years before Columbus kicked off the European period of Exploration and conquest.

Scots accent

Can't get any better than "The West and the Rest."

NA

This early offering from a legendary mystery writer is really starting to look a bit frayed around the edges in our post CSI culture. But obviously, James was a pioneer in writing a book in the 70s that focused on the use of scientific evidence, in fact where the whole murder mystery was set in a laboratory that does just that.

dated quality

he's alright but a bit stodgy

no

NA

I am a fan of McCarthy's of several years, however I've read his more recent books starting with All the Pretty Horses and the rest of the trilogy that ended with Cities of the Plain.
I went back to give this early book a listen and was just appalled.
I treasure his elegiac and poetic writing style. However in listening to this book, I realized that he had not learned to perfect and limit is use as he had in later books. At some points, I felt like simile and metaphor had lost their meaning as he piled them one on top of another for pages at a time. His later style is more spare.
Further, the brutality which is always present in his writings is much less controlled, and I found myself truly appalled at this tale of a wandering band of psychopaths. These scalp hunters are the main focus of the book. Brutal men always show up in McCarthy's work but usually these are there as a background for the moral development of the main characters. In this book they are the main characters.
I was very disappointed in Blood Meridian, other than as a way to trace the development of a great writer. Considering that it was written 25 years ago, it shows a writer of promise, but is certainly not up to the standard of his later works.
Lastly, I can never decide if Cormac McCarthy really loves Mexico or really hates Mexico. He depicts such scenes of vile brutality and ignorance in that country that it makes one pause at the border station. I've been to Mexico dozens of times in the border areas he depicts and he is usually on my mind while I'm there.