Joseph S. Abela

First, This is a one volume ‘set’ totaling 239 pages. Amazon, get it together. Second, I am more convinced than ever that the authors who get published under the BDL label are on some sort of a work study program, an assistantship of some kind, or burning the candle on both ends as they earn some spending money. The writing is dull, convoluted, and frankly, in the case of this book, primarily opinions with only marginal ‘historical’ information. This truly is a brief history. We hear about course Normans, brutal Angevins, and treacherous Aragonese, but do we get solid, in-depth examples? Three chapters, 40 pages, lots of pics. The answer is an easy one to figure out. 45 pages at the end of the book were spent on modern history from WWll and forward. The theme here is do not expect to learn much. I won’t call the author a racist (nor an historian, for that matter), but he is certainly leaning that way in his continuous downgrading of anything Arab, Turk, or Ottoman. Singular parts of Europe are held in the same light. Frankly, I don’t care what his underlying opinions are, or even if he offers them. If he does offer them, however, he needs more substantive reinforcements than he provides. Finally, these BDL books need better editing. Period. Far too many gaffes. I recommend almost anything else....Finished 31.03.2020 in Malta.… (mehr)