The Ottoman Centuries (Lord Kinross, 1977)

Trying to get better acquainted with this part of the world, and this book was helpful. And most interesting throughout.

Seljuks were supplanted by Ottomans - around 1300. The Muslim conquering waves - starting from Arabia around 700 and working up into Spain, east into Persia, etc. The Arab wave then slowing and consolidating; Ottoman wave coming on. Mehmed the Conqueror; Suleiman the Magnificent.

The story reminds of the Roman Empire in some ways - hardy military types with tolerant government that works very well in expansion mode. Osman's descendants figured out how to settle down and govern. Strangling rival brothers seemed to add stability. The Janissary corps was quite an idea - rely on highly trained Christian slaves, prevent local nobles from building competing constituencies.

Finally took down Constantinople in 1453. Took control over much of what we refer to as the Middle East, much of the Mediterranean. Seems like the Persians could maintain quite a bit of autonomy, benefitting from distance.

It's interesting to think that the Balkan populations and Eastern Europe were bouncing back and forth - Roman, Eastern Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Muslim. The Ottomans were regularly pushing up through Hungary, fighting folks like Vlad the Impaler (a model for Dracula). Ottomans controlled Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungry, etc. for a long time. Ottomans pushed up to Vienna as late as 1683 (Poland's Jan Sobieski was a hero; and Vienna had coffee shops for the first time as the Ottomans left huge stores behind as they fled).

The downhill slide lasted a long time. The Janissary were like the Streltsky or other palace guards - too much power, too many demands, no Peter the Great to take them out. Sultans spent too much time in harem. An attitude that there was nothing to learn from inferior westerners - an attitude that initially had some basis, but became increasingly inaccurate over time.

Some of the problems sounded so typical - large intractable bureaucracy sucking the producers dry. In later centuries, competing interests from Russia, France, Britain. Interests in maintaining the "sick man of Europe" for balance of power purposes. Armenian genocide. German influence into World War I; Ataturk; some very serious efforts to modernize and reform, one can see the genesis of the secular state (so rare in that part of the world, fragile even now).

The book touched on Lepanto and the cultural progress described in this book.

Rudyard Kipling, A Life (Harry Ricketts, 1999)

This was interesting, a quick read. I didn't really know much about where Kipling fit into things, so it was helpful.

Basically he spent a good chunk of his early life being exposed to India because of his father's job there (along with interludes being educated in England, including an unpleasant stay with what amounted to a foster family). Obvious talent for writing. Took a job with a Brit newspaper in India, and eventually put together a number of stories that brought him celebrity at a young age. Lived in the U.S. for a few years, then back to England.

He never produced a great full-length novel, and apparently it was quite the fashion for the intelligentsia to criticize him after the initial acclaim wore off. Yet he remained very popular with the reading public (which probably explains some of the criticism). Sounds like some of his work was quite good, including a piece that Forster must have had in mind when he wrote A Passage to India.

He became the poet for the (declining) British Empire, though I don't know that he planned for this. His background spanning India and England gave him the right perspective, and he was a true believer. Including the (now in)famous phrase about the "white man's burden." Big admirer of Cecil Rhodes.

His son was killed in WWI, and Kipling devoted lots of energy in support of the war effort. In later years he offered lots of political commentary - much of which sounded quite current as he opposed expansion of the welfare state, emphasized individual reliance, etc. The kind of talk that always decreases one's popularity among the greater portion of the arts community.

So this was an interesting look from a different perspective about the Empire, the Boer War, colonialism, WWI, etc.

I like stories involving intersection between the cultures, and think I shall read some of his works.

Shadows on the Rock (Willa Cather, 1931)

I recently re-read this novel in preparation for our upcoming trip to Montreal and Quebec. It's one of Cather's later works. I just really like her novels.

In this book, Cather describes "the quiet, isolated life of Cecile Auclair and her father, the town apothecary." It is set in the early days of old Quebec. Cecile's father (with wife and young daughter) left France as personal physician (or whatever) to Count Frontenac, the governor of New France. As such, he had special privileges to bring along furniture and what-not; his small house (and attached apothecary shop) felt more like France than most other houses in Quebec. His wife died after a few years, and his daughter (then ~10 years old) took up the task of maintaining the old customs, while building a life, in a new world.

Which she came to love, even though the father had always planned to return to France.

I can't say why I find this story so effective; it's certainly not one of Cather's more famous books. It doesn't have a strong plot line (by design), yet it completely gets my imagination going about what this type of life may have been about. What about the idea of these folks - isolated on a rock in the wilderness - watching the last set of ships head back to France in October - with a wait of eight months for replenishment? The trappers, the old bishop, the townspeople, the missionaries, the feeling of being on the edge of civilization alongside the dark never-ending forest.

I really want to see this area for myself.