The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin

Just as Johann Sebastian Bach managed to pack entire worlds into his six Cello Suites, author Eric Siblin does the same in his book devoted to Bach's classic work. In Siblin's The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals and the search for a Baroque Masterpiece (787.41858 SIBLIN), Siblin follows in engaging, readable fashion the two men responsible for bringing the suite to the masses: its storied composer and the preeminent performer who brought it to the masses.

Bach wrote the Cello Suites sometime in the early 1700s but it wasn't until the fateful day Catalan cellist Pablo Casals, then only a boy, discovered the sheet music in a 1890 that the piece truly began its foray into popular culture. During the nearly two centuries in between, the suites were regarded as nothing more than a collection of exercises. Casals, who attained rock star status (for a classical musician) as a solo cellist, changed all that.

Siblin weaves history, culture, politics and even a bit of mystery — the original manuscript has never been found — into the story behind the Cello Suites.

It was in the small German town of Cöthen in 1720 that the Cello Suites were said to have been composed and inscribed by Bach's raven-quill pen. But without his original manuscript, how can we be certain? Why was such monumental music written for the cello, a lowly instrument usually relegated to background droning in Bach's time? And given that Bach regularly rewrote his music for different instruments, how can we even be sure that the music was written for the cello?

If every there were such a thing as a classical music adventure, Siblin takes us on one. In his quest to ferret out the secrets of the Cello Suites, the former pop music critic for The Montreal Gazette becomes "a card-carrying member of the American Bach Society." He attends a scholarly conference at Princeton devoted to the Baroque composer. He attempts to learn cello. He journeys to Europe to interview musicians, visit archives, attend performances of the Cello Suites and retrace Bach and Casals' footsteps.

We are left with a much more complete sense of the suites' colorful history and the way it has almost serendipitously found a life of its own in the 21st century.

The Crimean War: A History / by Orlando Figes

Few modern Americans, even those historically inclined toward European history, know much about the Crimean War. A great many people, when asked, won't even be able to locate the region in question on a map (Black Sea/southern Ukraine). It was one of the few large-scale European conflicts--if not quite a global war, then at least a 'hemispheric' one--which the United States had absolutely nothing to do with outside of remote casual interest. So it is indeed a little ironic that recent trends in American foreign policy have involved many of the same issues--political partitioning in the Holy Land, conflict resolution between religious-based nationalities, middle-eastern border disputes, over-reaching dictators, etc.--which instigated the original Crimean, or 'Eastern' War over a century and a half ago. In similar fashion to the world wars that would follow a century later, war in the Crimea was a mult-tiered, multi-faceted affair. In no way was it relegated to one place, nor was it concentrated within a single rivalry. It was the first conflict to be fought on multiple continents with battles raging simultaneously in areas ranging from St. Petersburg to the Caucuses and from eastern Europe to eastern Siberia. It was also the first war to utilize the revolutionary logistical devices of the railroad and the telegraph.

Though a disastrous affair nearly on par with the first World War's futility and ineffectiveness, it wasn't a conflict entered into with haste. As with any military engagement, tensions were high long before the fighting. In prior decades, the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the restructuring of European nation states and the Treaty of Vienna (1815) had essentially established Russia as the "Policemen of Europe" in that portion of the continent, bestowing them with the authority to subdue minor uprisings throughout much of the Balkans, Turkey and Eurasia. Feared at the time of the treaty, notions later expounded upon by none other than Marx and Engels, was that Russia could not resist the urge to expand their own empire. Concern over Russia's already creeping propensity to exert undue influence over their Ottoman counterparts was self-evident. Such a condition also foresaw that the imperial powers of France and Britain, fearing their interests abroad in the same regions, would oppose Russia's ambitions to the point of war. These educated guesses were proven correct when an increasingly impatient and aggressive-minded Russian ruler, Czar Nicholas I, acted toward not only extending his country's own territory but in attempting to implement Christian Orthodox rule in the Holy Land. One thing led to another and before long forces, over 1 million men strong with the allied contingent (France-Britain-Sardinia) and nearly as much on the Russian side, were shipped by rail to the Crimea to wage battle in places such as Sevastopol, Balaklava and Tagenrog.

For a war best remembered for more than a few strategical blunders, Tennyson's tongue-in-cheek poem Charge of the Light Brigade and Florence Nightingale, this is a pretty good chronicle of the conflict, very well-researched and written by an author with an enthralling flair for military history. Birkbeck College, University of London professor and Booker Prize winner Figes does well to remind readers just how implemental of a war it was and just why it was that prior to World War I, Europeans lived very much in the shadow of the Crimean War. It was a particularly flawed and fatal engagement with over 500,000 casualties, men and civilians doomed and deposed as much by disease and sanitation deficiencies as the fighting. As well the conflict was as much a pivotal precursor to modernity as it was a forerunner to more destructive, technologically advanced warfare. Within the new world order we now inhabit, the Crimean War can be seen as a primitive encounter with the contemporary war on terror, having procured itself as the first full conflagration of the industrialized world against the Orient and a symptomatic early warning sign of the West's future relations with Islam. (947.0738 FIGES)

1215: The Year of the Magna Carta / by Danny Danziger & John Gillingham

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In 1215 at Runnymede, a small section of forest west of London, the English nobles and King John (of Robin Hood fame) met peaceably to discuss the king's arbitrary rule of law opposing the canonical law of the land. Over-taxation and costly wars had made the King unpopular with the council of lords and barons who believed that the monarch already wielded too much power. Thus the nobles, rather than raise arms against the monarchy, an event which many felt would only lead to Civil War and increased French influence in the region, resorted to an ultimatum. King John would sign a treaty pledging to limit his sovereign priveleges and relegate authority to the barons or commit to an all out, self-destrucive war. Besides laying down restrictions to the king's authority, the 63 clauses of the charter introduced legislation regarding the right to a fair trial, right to own property and other stipulations involving personal freedoms and liberties. The document, then known as the 'Articles of the Barons' or simply the 'Runnymede Charter', became known as the Magna Carta.
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Though of minimal significance for its time--it was repealed and reconfirmed at intervals over the next few years--the Magna Carta would resonate through the ages as perhaps the most important individual document on civil liberties, including inalienable human rights and 'self-evident truths', that the world has ever seen. More importantly, it was the document which the American Founding Fathers perpetually referenced when drafting the Declaration of Independence and, later on, the U.S. Constitution. Danziger, already well-known for his concise histories which pinpoint a precise year, extrapolates here on the people and lifestyles during the early part of the 13th century in a more conventional historical chronicle rather than go into detail about the political ramifications of the charter itself. The actual Magna Carta isn't really got into until the final chapters with the signing of the document only found in the book's last pages. It's still a fun, informative and entertaining bit of history. (942.033 DANZIGER)

Six Wives: the Queens of Henry VIII / by David Starkey

Perhaps no other monarch in the history of the world has been as scrutinized as King Henry VIII (1491-1547). Above all, it was his six marriages (along with several publicly acknowledged affairs) which have so long carried his legacy. Assuming the throne at 17 following the premature death of his older brother, Henry had little leisure for a normal youth there being the political urgency to wed his brother's widow, Katherine of Aragon (Spain). By all accounts the marriage between Katherine and Henry began happily enough, the pair hitting it off 'royally' for the first few years. But England being a kingdom ruled by monarchy, a proper successor was desired and the fact that Katherine bore 3 healthy children—all girls—availed little good graces from Henry who, along with his advisers, would accept nothing but a legitimate son and heir. On trumped up charges of infidelity Henry divorced Katherine in 1536 and had her abdicated from the royal court, allowing the King (and subsequent "Head of the Church of England") to lawfully wed his--now pregnant--mistress, Anne Boleyn.

More than any partner of a King, Ruler, or Pontiff and certainly among the six wives, Anne Boleyn's tenure as queen has been the most renowned. Meriting appraisal on par with Henry himself, commentary on Anne has widely diverged, herself depicted simultaneously as a vixen, adulteress, homewrecker, heretic, and martyr. Yet it was Anne’s influence beyond all others which prompted Henry’s renunciation of papal authority over Great Britain, a move spearheading the country’s protestant reforms and inciting centuries of religious conflict. But any fanfare for Anne as heroine soon died with her after she too failed to bare Henry a son (her daughter Elizabeth would be queen anyway). Over the next 2 decades Henry would wed four more times with one more wife beheaded, one divorce and one dying in childbirth before his final wife ultimately outlived him. His only son Edward, born to third wife Jane Seymour, would last only 7 years on the throne.

Starkey details everything. Along with the conditions and political climate at the time of each marriage, he comments on the degree of influence advisers--some beheaded with the wives--would have had in relation to Henry's own convictions. While more weight is allotted to the first two marriages, Starkey does well to layer the evolution from Henry's youthful vigor to the aged but still hopeful King wedding his sixth wife, Catherine Parr. For those looking for details behind one of history's most celebrated soap opera's, 'Six Wives' does not disappoint.

The Story of Philosophy / by Will Durant

Philosophy, so far as it's known in the western world, pursues wisdom through abstract principles. Compiled through the centuries by numerous learned individuals, the annals of philosophy (in all contexts) are far-reaching and deeply entrenched. So it's no shock that many fail to grasp its focal point, if merely due to the frustration involved in nailing down the pertinent facts. Will Durant was a man who held this issue on his conscience as he strove throughout his life to make fundamental philosophy (and other liberal arts) accessible to the common man. In his dual-volume epic The Story of Philosophy, he lays down the origins, heritage, and natural evolution of Western thought.


This book essentially details the who, what, and where of Western Philosophy up until the mid-20th century; detailing the main tenants of each concept while illuminating the major players involved. Plato, Augustine, Descartes ... all the way up to John Dewey--one of Durant's own contemporaries--are shown as men contributing to the greater realm of ideas. Unlike 'great men of...' things like chemistry, literature, mathematics, or innovation, the great thinkers show that philosophy at its core undertakes the essence of being--not 'doing' or 'creating'. It's not that grounded concepts aren't employed in the arrangement of said 'ideas'; indeed, it's only too necessary. Ideologically speaking, philosophers deal in the 'theoretical'; appraising and analyzing non-empirical entities (ideas) that man engages through conscious experience. Reading Durant may require some effort, but his ability to make the connection between 'man' and 'principle' on such a wide scale is truly unique.