Christopher Lascelles
Autor von A Short History of the World
Über den Autor
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Wissenswertes
- Geburtstag
- 1971
- Geschlecht
- male
- Nationalität
- UK
- Wohnorte
- London, England, UK
- Ausbildung
- University of St Andrews
- Kurzbiographie
- Born in 1971, Christopher Lascelles studied modern languages and history at St Andrews University in Scotland. After graduating, he spent four years living in Russia, working for a publishing house in a period of unrest during which he saw Moscow surrounded by army tanks. Leaving Russia just before the new millennium, he studied business at INSEAD Business School in France before returning to England where he became involved in the world of climate change and start up businesses. A keen storyteller from an early age, Lascelles has always had an interest in the history of revolutions and how these have affected the world in which we live.
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Diese Rezension wurde für LibraryThing Early Reviewers geschrieben.A great reference of the major historical events. I had 'won' this book from an early reviewers giveaway but didn't receive it. I finally purchased it myself and read it. As a lover of history, I found this book to be well written and quite interesting. The author was able to connect the dots of history. I like his style, history is not dull and he is able to relay this to the reader. True is indeed stranger than fiction, and Mr. Lascelles easily shows us this with his book.
Diese Rezension wurde für LibraryThing Early Reviewers geschrieben.This is exactly what it claims to be - a short, very readable, history of the world, which I quite enjoyed and can imagine myself continuing to use as a basic reference work for general information. The frequent maps are a much welcome inclusion. I was less enamored with the idea of footnotes in an e-book and would personally have preferred that they were either incorporated into the text or omitted altogether. Obviously, readers looking for more than broad brushstrokes will need to consult other sources. The final chapter asking 'what's next?' was an interesting inclusion, whether you agree or disagree, it's interesting trying to look at the contemporary world through a historical gaze ...… (mehr)
Diese Rezension wurde für LibraryThing Early Reviewers geschrieben.As someone who loves history, I thought this would be a great book. I was disappointed.
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Two girls, my best students, were aghast. ‘But the Pope must live in Rome,’ they said. I knew that these students were Roman Catholics, so I suggested they should check the story out with the nuns that visited the school. Next lesson, they returned with an ‘official’ list of Popes, and were intrigued that this list did show that Clement V, Innocent VI, John XXII and Urban V, all ‘proper’ Popes established their Curia in Avignon.
Rome has good reason to police papal history. The papacy has been a fallible institution, and Rome would prefer an official list that presents the story that God was working through sinful men.
Christopher Lascelles’ new book, Pontifex Maximus, is not the story that Rome prefers. Lascelles is the author of A Short History of the World, and in both books, he gives evidence-based history. The style is journalistic and accessible, but it is not flattering to the papacy.
Popes are shown to be quarrelsome, ambitious and self-serving. Some rode at the head of papal armies. Some sponsored their children and nephews into rich positions as Cardinals or Archbishop. Some, like Pius XI (1922-1939), supported Mussolini and was even implicated in the rounding up of Jews. Lascelles shows how Pius XI naively believed Mussolini was a good Catholic and promised favourable treatment for the Church. Once trapped into the deal, he continued to believe that the advantages to the Church outweighed the evils of Italian Fascism.
Lascelles rightly makes the Gospel of Jesus the standard by which he judges Popes. He identifies three only that lived the Gospel and had the opportunity to reform the Church – Gregory I the Great being the prime example. Gregory refused to accept the title of Universal Bishop, and exemplified Christian values as he saved Rome from a series of disasters.
He believes that the new Pope Francis may also serve the Gospel well.
There were times when I felt that Lascelles was unduly critical. For example, he criticises the political power that Innocent III (1198-1216) amassed for himself, without showing the good for the Gospel that he also achieved.
Overall, this is an entertaining and informative run-through of the history of the papacy. I considered myself reasonably well-informed and learned many new things in the reading. Above all, Lascelles makes the story of the papacy interesting.
It is clearly written for a general audience, for readers who would rather not be fobbed off by pious propaganda. I doubt there would be teachers brave enough to set it as a text in Catholic schools or tertiary institutions, but it would be a rich resource for senior students.
In all, to cram so much history into such an accessible book is a praiseworthy achievement.… (mehr)