Neil Kent

A very interesting work, although it seems to me more intended for the academic rather than the general reader. The author, who is fluent in the Nordic languages, has combed through primary source materials and uses them to outline the history of the Sami lands and peoples. As a layperson, I am not qualified to comment on the scholarship, but it would seem to me to be a valuable catalog of information that may not be easily available to those of us who do not speak Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, or any of the various Sami languages. As an introduction to Sami culture and history, however, I frequently found myself getting lost in the level of detail provided.… (mehr)

The language is somewhat crabbed; it feels like the author didn't realise that what is quite natural in a spoken lecture can be quite unnatural in a written treatise. That said (a phrase used 80 times within the text, in addition to 167 'however's and 32 'on the other hand's), it's not unintelligible, and it's informative enough. In other words, if I knew about the topic as much as the author, I believe even I could write the book in a better way, but then I don't know as much as he does, and that is the point, isn't it?… (mehr)

Neil Kent's portrait of Trieste fills a major gap in contemporary writing on Italy, an important task bearing in mind that the city is now one of Western Europe's major gateways to the Balkans. It focuses in particular on the last two centuries: first, on the post-Napoleonic period-its heyday- when Trieste emerged as the otherwise landlocked Habsburg Empire's gateway to the Adriatic, a rich and thriving city of numerous ethnic and religious groups; then on the period of decline after the First World War, when Italian irredentists longing to recover Dalmatia radiated out from the city; and next on the decades of the Cold War, when Trieste became a marginalized border town, with its link to the Balkans virtually blocked off. Finally the book moves into the contemporary period, when the political and economic reorganisation of the Balkans has made Trieste south-eastern Europe's gateway to western Europe. While political, economic and social issues form the primary focus, art, literature and architecture, natural geography and aspects relating to health and hygiene are also examined.… (mehr)